Tuesday 4 June 2013

Rediscovering Cycling

When I was a young adult I was a very keen cyclist. For my 18th birthday I got given a really good touring bicycle and I did a lot of miles on it. My friends and I cycled around the Loire Valley for a fortnight after our A levels as a big adventure! I also took part in a couple of London to Brighton bike rides and one London to Oxford one. Then I got a job and bought a car....

My bicycle then spent quite a lot of time sitting in the garage going nowhere. I married and had children and the bicycle sat in my parents' garage as we had no where to put it! Then we moved up to Kendal and my children started learning to ride bicycles themselves:


My son's first solo ride without stabilisers

Unfortunately one is highly confident and one is quite nervous so going out on an actual bike ride is not all that fun unless 2 adults go along. We don't get very far either... So today after having run back home from school run I realised I had a chance to get the bike out of the shed and cycle to work then to go back to my children's school which is about 6 miles from my work via the quieter back lanes. 

The easy bit was to work only 10 minutes away. Then I had to tackle the narrow country lanes with twists and turns and plenty of ups and downs! There were a couple of close calls with vehicles coming very fast the other way... I had a few issues with my gears not changing and then dropping rapidly so I had to give up trying to get up steepest hills as the bike had to stay in middle gears. I did get a chance to see lots of beautiful countryside along the way:



Now I just have to hope that the weather holds so I can do this again and get better at cycling! This is what the Garmin made of my ride:

5 comments:

  1. Well done, you ! !
    I love cycling - so much easier on the knees and ankles than running ( providing you haven't got your saddle set too low ), and as a photographer its much better for taking pics, as I can cover lots more ground cycling than I can on foot......

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  2. I bought a 2nd hand bike last year and discovered........I have forgotten how to ride!? Lol x

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  3. plasticrosaries7 June 2013 at 22:20

    I used to cycle to work a couple of years ago but then when we moved the bike went too! I'm hoping when the girls are older I may cycle again - would be awkward as they're so young at the mo!

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  4. I love cycling but don't own a bike at the moment, we're looking forward to the children getting bigger then we can go out on bikes as a family.

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  5. TheBrickCastle7 June 2013 at 23:26

    You're very brave! I haven't been on a bike for around 15 years and I'd be terrified to try and start again now! I think I'd have to practice in private for about a month first :D

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