Bikey Hokey-Pokey

You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out;
You put your right foot in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

That pretty much sums up my first try at riding my bike with the new pedals and clip-in cleat-shoe combination. I had always thought locking into these pedals was easy, while getting out was hard. Turns out, it's the other way around. The right shoe clipped in easily enough but the left was very difficult. In the end I discovered I had to stand up to snap in the left shoe. There's probably some kind of tension adjustment I can play with to make it easier. I've heard it can improve your pedal efficiency 25% but I wouldn't surprised if it wasn't a higher number like 30% just because it feels like you can take advantage of the upward third of your stroke.

So now I'm determined to bike farther and faster than ever before. Especially after a chance encounter with an old friend at the local swimmin' hole (Trinity-Bellwoods Community Centre Pool) who told me he was training for a swim in San Francisco. Apparently, you swim 1.5 miles (about 2.4 KM) from Alcatraz to Presido Park. 2.4 kilometers is about 100+ laps of the pool I swim in. I usually do 40-45 laps (a little more than a kilometer) in about 35 minutes, so doubling that would probably kill me. Still, I'm game to try and do it (indoors). I wonder how far I would go if I swam for the entire two hours? Mike had brought the idea of biking in France and even though I know he's only talking about 60-80km I'd like to find out if I could do that first. Then maybe I'll work on stretching out the swim.