So Near! And Yet So Far

We got up in the middle of the night again yesterday (6.45 am - is that a real time, or was I dreaming?) for my third training session in a week. As usual, it was raining.

Yesterday, I managed to sort out my wobble-weave. That's not to say there was no wobbling and no weaving (more on that later), but I had figured out from a few cycling forums that my wobble-weave was almost certainly down to the fact that I was looking down at the pedals when pushing off. I made a point of not looking down and I didn't wobble or weave, but I then couldn't find the second pedal with my foot. Hmmm. This needs some work. Eventually, I got started and set off on my first lap.

Now, you will probably recall that I have some difficulties in turning right, so you will be interested to hear that at present I am only circumnavigating the park in an anti-clockwise direction, meaning I only have to turn left. However, that's not the reason I'm going anti-clockwise; I'm going anti-clockwise because there is a massive hill in the park that my husband deems far too steep and scary for me to go down at present, so I have to go up it instead (hurrah!). Going down it might be tomorrow's challenge.

Yesterday, I managed to conquer the bollards, too. Oh, I've just realised that I have forgotten to mention the most important thing from yesterday's session - I completed two whole laps of the park!! This meant I had to deal with bollards four times, and I went through them all without incident. About a third of the way round the park there is what looks like to a novice cyclist a hairpin bend at the bottom of a hill (it probably looks like a gentle curve to someone more expert than I, or perhaps even like "fun"). This means that when you get to the bottom of the hill at speed (having forgotten you've got brakes and not being sure how much you need to slow down for the bend in any case), you have to turn sharp left and then start pedalling like mad to get up the hill when you come off the bend. This is hard. Very hard. I managed it both times round, but James said he thought I was going to hit the kerb the first time.

I also had a near miss (in terms of falling off) when going down hill. I was having huge problems with my feet slipping off the pedals because of the wet weather, and I went over an enormous (2 inch) hump in the road that caused my foot to slip - again, James thought I was headed for disaster - oh he of little faith! I stayed on and came to a quite civilised standstill.

The second time around was much less eventful, apart from one thing. I was determined to go round a whole lap without stopping. I made it through both sets of bollards without incident, and went past the enormous hump in the road without having to avoid falling off (though I have to say my heart was in my mouth on that part). I motored up the final, steep hill - and then disaster struck! My foot came off the pedal again, for no apparent reason other than the wet weather, and I was headed for a parked car. There wasn't time to do anything other than stop. I was about 50 metres from the end of the lap. So near! And yet so far.

Never mind, at least I have a goal for tomorrow!

Most excitingly, I can reveal the results of last week's poll on Lycra! I was slightly disturbed that the total of the answers on the poll added up to 125%, but then I realised that I'd allowed people to vote more than once - it counts each person once, so if there are 5 votes from 4 people, you end up with more than 100% votes. Anyway, there were joint winners: "You're going out dressed like that? In public?" and "There's no such thing as too much Lycra". I think this means that people are happy to wear Lycra in the privacy of their own homes...

Finally, don't forget you can sponsor my efforts by clicking the link on the right hand side of the page!