Thoughts after riding a bike.

I will admit it: running has made me a snob.  I sometimes get passed by bikes while on my routes only to pass them when we encounter the same hill.  I always think, how hard can that be?  I mean, with running I get places with just the help of my own two feet.  Those bikers have wheels and pedals and gears to help them adjust to terrain and get them where they want to go. 

However, in an attempt to alleviate some of the anxiety I have from taking a week off of running, I went on a bike ride with my boys this morning.  These are my thoughts:

• Bike seats are hard and uncomfortable. No wonder they wear those padded seat bike shorts.
• Jeans are not the right pants to ride a bike in.  I ripped my pant leg on the chain, which is sad because they were my favorite pants.
• Plastic seats and cotton jeans don't mix well.  Just saying.
• The same hill that kicks my butt while running kicked it even harder on the bike.  I had to do one section twice because I got stalled half way up and could not get started again.  My mantra the whole way up from there was this: just get up the hill, just get up the hill. I didn't think I could respect that hill much more, but I do.
• I'm a chicken at riding downhill. I started to smell hot rubber after a while because I could not let myself fly down the hill as fast as the bike wanted to me to.  Had I been running, I probably would have passed myself I was riding so slowly.
• Riding a bike really is, well, like riding a bike.  You never forget how.
• I refused to use clips on the pedals.  The made me scared that if I needed to stop fast I wouldn't be able to take my feet out & I'd tip over.  So I pedaled on the back side of the pedal, which meant that the clip was scraping the ground whenever I leaned to one side. Special.
• My quads are dying.  They burn every time I go up the stairs. 

I'm willing to admit I was wrong about all those bikers.  They are working hard, just not the exact kind of hard that is running.  And while I didn't feel the same kind of high that I do when I run, it doesn't mean that biking doesn't have its merits.

But I might need to invest in some of those padded shorts should I keep riding. 

So have you ever been humbled by something you've misunderstood?  Or ended up enjoying an activity that you thought you wouldn't?