On Yer Bike!

Man!  I am feeling so proud of myself right now!  I just came back from a bike-ride and it was awesome!  I rode 9 km in under fourty minutes.  I don't have an accurate time keeper right now other than my watch.  I would say it was possibly 37, maybe 38 minutes.  I'll go 38 just to be safe. 

So obviously, I do not pedal very fast.  But what made this so great for me is the fact that I rode the whole way back (4.5km) without stopping once.  I paused when it came to crossing roads (small town = empty streets) and coasted along once or twice, but I didn't have to stop pedalling once in order to give my legs, or more considerably, my arse, a break.  I'm so excited!  In fact, I even picked up my pace when one of my favourite songs came on the radio.  I cycled 1.2 km in 3.08 min.  If I did my calculations correctly, that was a speed of 22 km/h, as opposed to my average speed being 14.2 km/h.

I decided I would use the trick they tell you when walking and trying to get a good heart-raising pace going.  If it takes effort to carry on a conversation, then you are doing a good pace.  Well, I decided to sing as I rode.  Swallowed one bug, but carried on, and you know what?  It was hard to keep singing.  I kept having to catch my breath.  And I've decided that's a good thing!  It means I'm working on getting better and getting fitter.

Yesterday, I also went for a bike ride.  It had been raining all day, so I sat indoors waiting until it would stop.  It finally did about 4 o'clock.   And I was so excited about it!! I thought "yesssss!!"  Not, "oh it's stopped raining, I should probably go out and exercise".  Not "Hmm… it's overcast and going to be dark soon".  But "Alright! Finally!  I'm going to go out and ride now while it's stopped raining! Yes!"  I didn't make any excuses to hold me back.

So I changed, called into Imogen's house to see if she wanted to come along (she didn't), and get on my bike!  The route I have planned out is 8.99km according to mapmyfitness.  I did it for the first time a few weekends ago.  I discovered parts of my town I never knew existed!  Benefits of riding a bike   If you try to explore new pathways when you are walking, you tend to look suspicious.  I had barely gotten 2km along the road when it started to drizzle again.  And I decided 'stuff it, I'm going to keep on going!'. 

So I did.  I even decided to do the full route even though it had started to drizzle, because I figured, I'm out here, why not make it worthwhile?  So I did the 9 km in 37 min.  This time includes the time I had to stop at the 4km mark to rest and a second stop in order to get a drink from a tap.  Some things I learned though:

• The pedals of a bike get really slippery when wet

• Glasses fog up when you stop and are warmer than the air

• You need to have a dry cloth in order to clean your glasses when it's raining

• Mud splashes up all over your backside

• Cycling the road to the lake is way harder than cycling the exact same distance back

The last one really surprises me.  I had trouble with it on Wednesday, which is why I dug out my FM radio.  Oddly enough, the exact same thing happened.  It was a struggle to keep pedalling to get to the entrance for the lake, and yet, strangely easy to pedal back.  Maybe there's a slight slope I'm not aware of? 

In either case, it's just something I need to keep working on.

-SunnyDuckling