Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Training begins

After the first tentative ride we made the decision to proceed with the madness so that meant we had to try a ride slightly longer than the end of the lane and back.

For our next outing, Sarah brought her bike too so she came out with us. Mike had somehow wangled it that he was working so couldn't join us! I have to admit that I was really rather scared about this first proper ride as it is very hilly where we live, no matter which way you go and the idea of struggling up those hills filled me with dread. There was nothing for it but to just head off and I chose a round trip of about 5.5 miles which included some killer hills (both up and down).

As we headed through the village it seemed as if half the population had decided to go for a walk so there were lots of heads doing a "double-take" as we sped by and I waved and shouted "hello" to them! They are used to seeing me running along the lanes but this was an entirely new thing.

The hills were jolly hard work and I huffed and puffed but I found that when we'd reached the top I recovered quickly. The thing that really did scare me was going downhill - oh my goodness the speed of it! I did feel safe with Paul though as he is obviously a very experienced rider. When we got back home I felt as if I could have gone further.

The next outing was a couple of weeks later and Paul came alone. I should have been suspicious immediately. I'd planned a nice little 10 mile route which involved a main road (not too busy though) so I could experience the cars whizzing past. As Mike waved us good-bye we headed off up a steepish hill and when we got to the top Paul revealed his dastardly plan to visit Rye, which is about 12 miles away. I did not have kind thoughts about Paul at that moment!!!

Off we went and for the first few miles I spent all the time looking over Paul's right shoulder so I could watch out for potholes etc. This probably upset the balance of the bike but Paul was very tolerant. The cars really whizzed past us and some of them came far too close which I am used to from running. As we arrived in Rye we caught sight of the wind turbines and it really was a stunning sight (although I suspect that some people might disagree). As we came out of Rye we went up the steepest hill ever and it was jolly hard work. At one point I had to stifle a giggle as we were going so slowly, and must have looked jolly comical, and it reminded me of a scene from the film 'Babe, Pig in the City' where Mrs Hoggett rides a comedy bike in her search for Babe! Then, instead of heading for home we went off to Hastings, up hills, down hills, cars whizzing past, bumping through potholes (ouch).

By the time we got back home and Paul checked the mileage we had travelled 32 miles. I was pleased that I felt OK afterwards with only a slight stiffness on my quads and more importantly I've overcome my terror of riding in traffic (well, almost).

No comments:

Post a Comment