They say you never forget how to ride a bike. That's only true if you learnt in the first place...

Monday, 8 April 2013

The Glitz and Glamour of Cycling

I have two completely unrelated things to talk about today.  OK, so they are connected in that they both have something to do with me and something to do with cycling, but otherwise they are a bit, as the youth (yoof?) would have it, "random".

First up, it transpires that ye olde blog has been nominated for an award.  Now I'm not really one for shouting about these things, and this is the only time I'm going to shout about this one (at least at this stage in the proceedings), but if the blog is to stand any chance of progressing in the London Cycle Campaign's award for Best Cycling Communication, a few more peeps need to nominate it so that it might get onto the shortlist. If (and only if) you think the blog deserves to be recognised, you can nominate it by visiting this page and putting a link to the blog in the relevant box.  You can also nominate other folks for a variety of different awards, including Best Retailer, Best Bike Brand and Best Community Cycling Project, with some of the categories (including Best Cycling Communication) going up for public vote and others being decided by a panel.  The only downside is that if the blog does well, I'll be away when the awards ceremony is held - on the bright side, I would actually, genuinely be able to accept via video-link to LA - more on that trip at a later date!

My second "random" subject is almost as glitzy and glamorous as the first.  Bras.  Yes, you read it right.  Bras.  Sports bras, to be precise, and their use in cycling.  You may remember that when I started cycling last year, one of the issues I had (among the many) was getting severe shoulder pain when cycling long distances.  It even meant I had to stop cycling with a rucksack on, using panniers instead.  Having discussed it with James and my regular massage therapist, the conclusions I came to were: (a) I was probably gripping onto the handlebars for dear life; and (b) I needed to tilt my saddle back so that I wasn't leaning on my hands quite so much.  Implementing (b) helped a bit, and also helped to alleviate (a), but I was still getting shoulder pain after long periods in the saddle.

After my ride to work (and back) on Wednesday last week, I not only had shoulder pain, but I also noticed that I had some nasty scratches on my back.  You can probably see where this is going now, but I had not carried anything on my back and I had not otherwise knowingly caused myself an injury over the course of the day.  I also eliminated the idea that the cat had tried to use me as a scratching post in the night on the basis that I'm quite a light sleeper and I would almost certainly have woken up before too much damage could be done.  I came to the conclusion that the offending object, in terms of the scratches, must be my sports bra (i.e. the catches on it).  When I'm not cycling, most of the exercise I do is pretty high impact - running, British Military Fitness, flamenco dancing - and all my sports bras are built accordingly.  Add to this that, shall we say, God has been good to me, and the intention for most of my sporting activities is to do with fabric what most people would do with gaffer tape (you'll get what I mean if you look at this engineering flowchart).  Needless to say, most of those activities do not require me to sit in one position for hours at a time (even when running a long way I can easily stretch out my shoulders as I go), whereas cycling is a bit different.  Bearing in mind the old saying that a bra is an "over-shoulder boulder holder", I would think being trussed up in pseudo-gaffer tape all the way to Brighton/Waltham Abbey/Hertford (delete as appropriate) could be at least part of the cause of my shoulder problems as well as being responsible for the scratches.

So, yesterday, having performed this extremely technical analysis, I eschewed my old faithful Shock Absorber in favour of a cheap and cheerful (bright green) crop top-type thingy I got from H&M's pop-up sports shop last summer.  Now, this crop top would definitely not be suitable for trampolining, but it does keep everything where it should be when one is sitting down, sufficiently strongly to protect the all-important Cooper's ligaments (look them up if you're interested), it's soft, it doesn't have any catches on it and, most importantly, it doesn't put too much pressure on my shoulders.  I won't say I was completely pain free when I came home from our trip to Waltham Abbey yesterday, but my shoulders felt considerably better than they have after previous excursions.

Armed with this knowledge, I decided today to pop into M&S at lunchtime to see if I could find something similar (to avoid the boring issue of having to wash and dry everything overnight).  M&S have had a bit of a rap on the knuckles lately from The Better Bra Campaign (if you haven't come across these crusaders for better fitting bras, take a look at their blog) about their fitting service and sizing.  Having already been through the process of working out my true size thanks to those crusaders, I was hopeful of finding a nice, subdued crop top or bra to aid my cycling endeavours.  They had exactly what I wanted, except for one small point.  It had a leopard-print trim.  Leopard print.  On a sports bra.  It was one of those moments in life that just makes you think "REALLY?"  My search for a not-so-much-on-the-shoulder-boulder-holder continues.  Watch this space...

1 comment:

  1. Yes riding supported and in style is very important! But I'm really upset today
    I heard and saw several times today on radio/TV that a rider has been killed by a lorry in center London... Awful picture of this bike smashed on the road... a nice straw basket still in place... Interview of Mayor of London. Yes riding is very dangerous (ref to your survey at the end of this page) Careful my belle!

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