View from a hill

My plan to cycle to work is coming together slowly, I've fixed my bike and have been out testing it and making sure being left in the garden for a year(or three) )hasn't done too much damage and it hasn't. There are two flaws in my cunning plan however which were exposed to me yesterday on a ride out. The first was hills, where the fuck did they come from and why didn't I see them as a problem? The second was the fact I didn't realise how totally unfit I was! I rode up Padfield Main which I always thought was a gentle incline and I was absolutely bolloxed. I was coughing and spluttering and I had that sticky spit which won't leave you mouth no matter how much you heave. I really am unfit, I just didn't realise how bad I had got since I became relatively desk bound.

This has spurred me on though, I need to get fit and the easiest way is to ride the 4 and a half miles to work so this week I shall go out for half an hour a night and get used to cycling again with a target of riding to work after Easter. As a teen I used to ride for miles and miles everywhere but as an adult with more of an idea of my own mortality I am struggling on the road. I am not ashamed to admit it is a little daunting if you've not done it for a while. When a car goes past you get all wobbly and have to resist the urge to fling yourself off. Teenage me would ride down A roads none handed, I took one hand off to scratch my nose and nearly fell off! Saying that I also used to ride down hills stood up on a skateboard I suppose its the fearlessness of youth. I don't think I could even stand a skateboard now.

I caught D with some spanners the other day trying to take the stabilisers off his toddler bike. The fearlessness of youth.



The Hill that beat me.