That Sinking Feeling (or not, it seems...)

See the bruise on my middle finger?
See it?  Yes, it HURTS!

Yesterday was supposed to be a cycling day.  It was not.  I managed to hurt my finger playing netball, and it was so painful that I couldn't have squeezed the brake lever on the bike, so I decided it (or, rather, I) would be too dangerous to cycle.  I probably could have done some running instead, but we all know what I think about that, so an extra rest day was just the ticket.  That meant, of course, that (finger-dependent) I would have to double up today.

Thankfully, the finger is a lot better today, so I got up nice and early (oxymoron) to cycle to the swimming pool.  As usual, I forgot to press "start" on my watch until I got to Finsbury Park.  For the last few weeks, I've had a sinking feeling - every time I get on my bike, I think my saddle has sunk down and so I put it up a little bit.  I've cleaned the seat post and otherwise fiddled about with it to stop this sinking from happening.  Today was no exception - by the time I was coming out of Finsbury Park, ready to cross over and head on down Green Lanes, I felt like my knees were going to hit my chin and my heels were kicking my backside.  As I was waiting for the lights to change, I checked the seat height and discovered that it hadn't sunk from the last time I'd ridden.  I quickly put two and two together and miraculously got four - I realised that I needed to put the seat up by quite a bit because, in my metaphorical cycling journey, this was the next progression.  I had previously thought that I was at the highest I would get to, but having put it up about an inch in tiny increments over the last couple of weeks (to counteract the imaginary sinking) and then a whopping two inches this morning, I was able to power down Green Lanes towards the City, and the journey from when I turned the watch on just inside the park to where I have to dismount to cross over a busy road by Old Street roundabout (6km) took marginally over 20 minutes - for the first time ever, I had averaged over 10mph on the journey to work (sorry about the mixed units - my old maths teacher would have a fit).  Levers are wonderful things if you get the angles right!

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I was at the receiving end of some attempted abuse from a sewer-rat.  Oh, how the tables have turned!  This morning I was serenaded by a builder singing R'n'B (very well) near the swimming pool - something about a beautiful lady, followed by a cheeky "Alright, darlin'?" as I went past him.  Much appreciated, thank you, kind sir!

Once I was changed and in the pool, I got very frustrated for two reasons.  One was that it was busy, which is always annoying (can't these people go later, or go to a different pool or something?), and the other was that swimming felt oh so slow compared to cycling.  I started plodding up and down the slow lane doing my warm up of 4 x 60m of breaststroke and then moved on to 4 x 30m of crawl kicks only.  I thought, momentarily, that the numbers were thinning out a bit, but then a few more people arrived.  I went on to my main set of 300m front crawl without stopping - I tried my hardest not to stop, but it was impossible not to stop at the shallow end each time to let more people in or to orchestrate overtaking.  I don't think I stopped for more than five seconds at any turn, though.  Then I was on to 300m of front crawl arms only, with a pullbuoy.  It was at this point that I noticed the Adonis in the next lane.  Terribly sorry, James, but it was worth going swimming this morning just to see this guy.  Finally, I did 60m of breaststroke and then 60m of best stroke front crawl to finish.  My total swim today was 1.08km, taking my total up to 7.35km.

Once I'd changed and hopped back on the bike, it was just a short jaunt down to the office, taking my day's cycle (so far - I have to get home yet) to 8.79km and my overall total to 99.27km.  This means that on the way home tonight I will be going over the 100km mark for cycling - that's got to be worth a few quid for Marie Curie Cancer Care, so please put your hand in your pocket and click the Justgiving button on the right hand side of the page to donate!  Thanks!