Switching Hobbies?

My running career started with a dog at age 13. It was as easy as putting on a pair of shoes, leashing the dog, and taking off. We started with a daily 1.7 mile loop around our neighborhood; my dog's energy level rose in sync with my passion. We ran on the sidewalk, in the street, at the track, throughout vacations, and on the trails. When I got to high school we still squeezed in runs after practices and every weekend. After transferring schools I channeled my stress into a more serious running career, meaning my relationship with my running partner faltered. To fill his need he became a fan of the lunch hour walk with pops.

The relationship faded even more when I took off for college. I picked up treadmill running, for safety reasons during AM runs but often couldn't turn down an afternoon loop-run around campus, a few times a week with a friend. Training for a marathon, I was "sidelined" by a stress-fracture at the end of sophomore year... ignoring the injury forced me to actually sit-out during the fall semester of junior year. A move off campus, an intense class schedule, and increased campus involvement--made breaking from running a good thing for both my academic and social life. With a new running-partner-roommate and the turn of a new year, I was ready to ease back in. My runs were fewer and farther between. Never actually getting back to the level of fitness and enjoyment of running pre-injury; this form of exercise transitioned into a stress reducing activity only. Work myself up. Run it out. And that unhealthy routine pretty much sums up senior year.

A move back home after college allowed me to get back into the swing of running, only to leave for Africa a few months later where my career would be, again, disrupted. First I battled the altitude adjustment. Second was managing my 'fish bowl' situation; as a (very effective) mechanism for getting my attention and curing African curiosity, host country nationals would gently throw rocks at me. They are not evil spirited human beings, it's cultural. Despite the fact they rarely hit me, after a month the speculation did not wear off, if anything, it grew. Stopping every few second is hardly considered exercise. I hung up my running shoes, and long walks interspersed with yoga became my way of life.

Stateside, alternating between my family home and a couple of DC hotel rooms, I ran, ran, ran, ran... away from everything. In Ghana I did exactly the same. A final return home, right before the holidays, I kept up the routine. The drastic switch from hazy, hot, and humid Ghana to the crunch of snow covered dirt roads beneath my feet, crisp air chilling my fingertips and nose, and the scents of evergreens and fires filling the air was welcomed. I do not know what happened next. The runs became longer but more forceful. I have a thousand excuses, not one of them valid.

All those words to say, after a steady 10 year running career with a relatively rocky ending (no pun intended) I'm ready to move on... so I (researched then) bought a road bike... and I am finding shifting my primary form of exercise a bit intimidating. This change is incomparable to the buy shoes, run 500 miles, repeat strategy I have spent the last 10 years practicing. Gear? Components? Flat packs? Upkeep?

It took YouTube videos to show me how to switch gears--clueless as to how different the road and mountain bike set-ups are. It took my first 12 mile ride to (painfully) teach me the importance of proper attire. And I am sure my first flat tire will teach me the consequences of not understanding my bike.

Pedaling, usually insecurely and even more unsteady, I know there is still so much to learn, ergo today I went running...