Saddle sore
As planned, Dave came round this morning and we cycled by the riverfront on the Thames Path cycle lanes. It was good of him to come keep me company (apart from anything else it forces me to make the effort and practice if someone else is turning up) and he had some tips on things like the gears, which I'm still getting used to - for the time being I think I'm going to leave the left handle gears on second, and just change the gears on the right handle.
Actually I was pretty pleased with myself - apart from being a bit wobbly at the start I got along pretty well and my leg muscles didn't ache too much. They still don't, although whether that'll change by the morning is anyone's guess. My bum's a different story, I guess that's not like a muscle you can build up, sitting on the saddle all that time hurts a bit - but again, not as much as I thought it might. We'd already cycled further than I've gone before in one go by the time we stopped for a break, and then had to come back the whole way again and I was fine. I'm even getting better when I'm slowing down/stopping. The only impediment to me going on proper roads yet is that I still weave about a bit, so we'll have another couple of trips on cycle lanes before trying the route in to work on a Sunday when there'll be marginally less traffic.
I remembered to give Dave his birthday card - someone else had bought him the same one, as I suspected, but how could I resist getting him a card with a TARDIS on it? He also noticed (and it only took him under 24 hours and a blog post) that I'd called him Doris yesterday. Well, he was telling me the other week that it doesn't matter if you get Albert's name wrong, cats respond not to what you say but how you say it. And now it seems the same is also true of cat owners.
Actually I was pretty pleased with myself - apart from being a bit wobbly at the start I got along pretty well and my leg muscles didn't ache too much. They still don't, although whether that'll change by the morning is anyone's guess. My bum's a different story, I guess that's not like a muscle you can build up, sitting on the saddle all that time hurts a bit - but again, not as much as I thought it might. We'd already cycled further than I've gone before in one go by the time we stopped for a break, and then had to come back the whole way again and I was fine. I'm even getting better when I'm slowing down/stopping. The only impediment to me going on proper roads yet is that I still weave about a bit, so we'll have another couple of trips on cycle lanes before trying the route in to work on a Sunday when there'll be marginally less traffic.
I remembered to give Dave his birthday card - someone else had bought him the same one, as I suspected, but how could I resist getting him a card with a TARDIS on it? He also noticed (and it only took him under 24 hours and a blog post) that I'd called him Doris yesterday. Well, he was telling me the other week that it doesn't matter if you get Albert's name wrong, cats respond not to what you say but how you say it. And now it seems the same is also true of cat owners.