I rode a bike from when I was a kid in the Bronx. I was not allowed to ride in the street back then so I would spend hours just riding my bike around the block. When I moved out to Long Island in 1969 I was in heaven. I could ride wherever I wanted and for as long as I wanted without being bored. I rode though my teens and early 20's got my girlfriend now wife involved with it and we joined the Massapequa Bike club. On a century ride with them I was having too much of a good time to pay attention to what I should have been doing and I went down and dislocated my shoulder. After that I shelved the bike. We moved out to East Islip and I moved the bike along with everything else. I kept staring at the bike and started thinking that I love biking way too much not to ride. I somehow came across SBRA (It was probably the website that I found) and I found out about Bob and Joise's training rides for beginers. I spoke to my wife and we decided to call them and see what it was all about. In March of 2002 we went on our first century training ride. It was a cold day and we were not really prepared for it. Bike shorts and bike shirt with sweets on over them. Not the way to keep warm on a bike. Over the time of the training rides we learned about how to prepare for riding; how to dress, how to spin, and how to eat so you don't bonk. The funny part about the whole episode is that we knew we couldn't do the century that year due to leaving for Bermuda on the day of the century, Since then I went from riding a B pace and strugling after about 30 or 40 miles to riding a B+/A pace and being able to ride longer distances and not hurting. I have made new friends and enjoyed riding with many different people and seeing many different areas of Long Island that I would not have seen travelling with my car.