Set Me Free

I rode my 8 mile paved loop today. I would have really liked to ridden on dirt, BUT I bought a set of "clipless" pedals and shoes yesterday, so I figured something nice and smooth would be a good idea, less likely I'd need to clip out suddenly and take a slow motion tumble to one side. The first mile or so, I was clipping in and out of the shoes quite often to get used to it. It took several minutes to get the hang of clipping in. While standing still, sitting on the seat, leaning against the wall of my stairs. Clipping out was MUCH easier than I expected. Basically move your foot to the side like you would to put it down, and the rotational movement pops the clip out. While riding the pedals have a "Floaty" feel that was initially unpleasant after riding some pretty sticky platform pedals for a while, but once I began to trust that my feet were locked in tightly, I got used to it, and didn't even notice after a while. I'm not sure if it was the clipless pedals letting me use my legs up stroke to put power on the ground or I'm in better shape, or some combination of the two, but that loop seemed much less difficult than it has in the past. When I got back on the flat land towards home I sprinted up to about 25 MPH. I'm rather proud of that. There have been many times riding that stretch where I was so tired it was all I could do to keep up right. But today... I was sprinting.