The Queen of Speed

Today was my second day as a cycle commuter.  It was also the first day I had "mechanical issues" with my bike.  Plus I did more physical exercise today than I have done on any other day since I ran the London Marathon two years ago.

Before we set off, I donned my brand new cycle jersey (pics to follow), a present from my husband, partly (I'm sure) because I'm lovely, and partly to stop me from having a gap between my top and my bottoms when I'm cycling.  It has the advantage of being comfortable, light, well-fitting and red.  It has the disadvantage of making me look, to the unsuspecting observer (read: driver), like some kind of professional cyclist, which I am clearly not, so there is a danger that they might expect me to behave in a certain way on the road and I might leave them sorely disappointed.

We managed to shave 10 whole minutes off Thursday's time on the way to James' office.  This was largely due to cycling across junctions that we had walked over on the previous journey.  That included cycling around Newington Green which is, in effect, a large roundabout.  Having had the opportunity to look at it on Thursday, I managed it fairly well.  However, all the way from home to Newington Green I'd been having the feeling that I was falling forwards off the saddle.  James had borrowed my saddle on Sunday (to see what it was like as he was thinking of getting a new one) and had changed the tilt on it to, ahem, accommodate his different physique. He had told me he was going to change it back when he switched the saddles over again, but he hadn't, and we had to stop on the side of the road to change it before I ended up sliding onto the crossbar.  While that was being rectified, James said I needed to think about going a bit faster, perhaps by trying third gear on the front sprocket.  The very thought of this sent me into a quivering madness but, nothing ventured, nothing gained and I was soon whizzing over the canal toward the City (now, thankfully, with my saddle at the right angle).  I even got to the point where I might overtake another cyclist, but it became apparent that she'd actually slowed down to turn left before I could do it.

After dropping James off at his office, I did a recce on foot for a cyclable route from his work to mine that wasn't (a) one way the wrong way, (b) closed for roadworks, (c) closed because of construction work, (d) closed because of the Crossrail development or (e) all, or a combination of some, of the above.  I think I've been successful, but I'll let you know when I try to cycle it next time.

This time, it only took me about 5 minutes to fold my bike and get it into the bag, so I ended up being ridiculously early for work!

The route on the way home from my office is much simpler than the route to work - the one-way system caused by Crossrail is in our favour, and we've sussed out the few other issues now.  We set off and had gone about 20 yards when I shouted to James that I had to stop because there was a strange clicking sound coming from my bike.  Initially, we thought it was my mudguard coming loose, so we carried on, but we hadn't got much further before my gears started changing without me touching the shift and I began to wonder if I really was too old for a poltergeist after all.  Another quick stop ensued and James retensioned my gear cables, which seemed to do the trick, as not long after we got going again, I took my first scalp.  Yes, I overtook another cyclist!  I shouted "Woohoo" as loud as I dared, as I didn't want to make the poor guy feel bad, but I was feeling rather triumphant (even though he was on a Boris).

My gears held up all the way to Finsbury Park, when they decided to give up again, just on the Manor House junction.  I managed a quick exit onto the pavement (and onto my feet at the same time), and once we crossed into the park, James had another go at retensioning and I tested all the gears as we went through the park.  The gears felt fine and my sudden development of speed meant that we were over half an hour early for our British Military Fitness session.  Oh yes, I cycled to work and back and then went to BMF.  A whole hour of running around the park after fit blokes in army gear followed (shame) and then we cycled home again.  I will most definitely sleep well tonight.  I will also most definitely ache in the morning.

We'll have to have a proper look at my gear/chain situation - it could be because of a dirty chain from riding on the river path at the weekend - but it should be relatively simple to fix and I'll be back on the road in no time.