Day 3: I'm Basically Professional

Our first day of cycling! Waking up we grabbed a quick breakfast and jumped into the van to head about 2 hours out of the city, away from the busy Saigon traffic.  Around 9:30, we arrived at a small village where we finally got introduced to our bikes and had adjustments made to get ready for a looong day. Feeling very "cycly" in my outfit and gloves, I didn't really think anything of the people who brought their own pedals and shoes. My thought was it seemed kind of like wearing sweat bands in basketball; adds some style but can't help much, right? I'll continue this thought process later.

Shireen doing some pre-bike shopping

Mr. Tuan, our incredible cycling tour guide had made the very wise decision to have us ride only about 20km before stopping for lunch and to make sure the bikes were adjusted properly and everyone felt comfortable. This allowed the group to make some minor changes including adjusting seats and handlebars before setting our for another 60+ km in the afternoon. Lunch was amazing; we ate at a restaurant overlooking the South China Sea and the whole group had an hour to eat and digest. In order to get all our riding done for the day, we had to cycle through the middle of the day (over 35 degrees!) and it. was. tough! It's one thing to sweat like crazy in spin class and curse the instructor for the continued scream to "challenge yourself! go up one!" thereby implying the resistance you're at where you're legs are hardly moving is just not difficult enough. It's another to be pedaling along for miles with the hot sun in your face and no end in sight. I never thought I'd say this but I missed my "45 minutes and done" spin class!

Lunch overlooking the South China Sea

 I think there were three things that kept our entire group going today: knowing we had the support of family and friends back home, the encouragement from our support crew enthusiastically waving red flags at every intersection we came to with shouts of encouragement and the promise that a pool and wonderful dinner was waiting for us at the end!

The highly anticipated pool!

 To return to my naive and I'll admit, ignorant opinion of personal bike pedals (in my defense, it does sound a bit silly, right? Personal pedals?) here is what I learned (sigh)

- If you choose to bike hundreds of miles, personal bike pedals are great. No, fantastic. So are straps. So are bike shoes. Real ones not sneakers. Would you play a serious soccer/football match without cleats?

- Without something holding your foot securely to the pedal, it would be easy to slip off the pedal and send your foot into the wheel. Not so likely to happen on a trip around the block, but on a longer ride, when you're tired.

- There is actually a correct place to put your foot on the pedal if you want to transfer power correctly. And believe me, 20+ miles in, that is exactly what you want to do.

- As Jen put it after I asked her why she wore real cycling shoes, "I should be 1/3 less tired than you at the end of the day." Greeeeaaaat. 

- You look more serious in bike shoes. And looking more serious sometimes leads to feeling more serious. 

Don't they look serious?

Lesson learned: delayed, but certainly learned. Now I'm ready for day 2!


Caitie Goddard
GVN Foundation
Program Development Coordinator

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