Ooooo I ache...

Well I got out and got on it, fabulous to be back on my bike, but after 2 ride-to-work days this week in the sunshine along the Taff Trail and a little fall from a bouncy horse I ACHE. Whizzed along on the first morning, helped by the journey into Cardiff from Caerphilly being mostly downhill, which of course means uphill on the way home. Shamefaced as my legs turned to jelly on the very short steep bit so had to get off and gather my wits about me, but pleased we did it in reasonable time overall. Last night my lovely friend Karen let me ride her very lovely horse Willow, who is an ex-trotter and consequently has a fascinating gait with back legs completely out of sync with front, which makes for an interesting ride (that's Karen in the pic, I didn't look quite that elegant). I was undone by forgetting to concentrate over a tiny little jump, Willow went one way and I went the other. That's the thing about horse versus bike - horse has a mind and a spirit all of its own. I still fell in love with her and would gladly trade my bike in, if only I could afford it. Meanwhile, I'm loving my bike instead.

Get out and get on it

Despite spring having most definitely sprung, I am deeply ashamed to say that my poor old bike is still sitting in the shed with last autumn's mud stuck resolutely to her pretty frame. Shame on me. Well, its going to be all change next week as my cycle to work buddy has put 3 days in my diary - I was kind of planning to warm up slowly with one day a week but what the hell, in for a penny and all that. Exciting news - I have contact lenses, which means I would be able to read a GPS without first having to fish my reading glasses out of my backpack - yay! Other exciting news - I have signed up to the cycle to work scheme (did I mention that already?), so I feel a shopping spree coming on - the only challenge will be how cheap I can get a relatively decent bike for so I have plenty for accessorising. On another note, I was impressed but a bit downhearted by the news that our friendly local policeman Mr Granville is doing a 450 mile ride for charity - in 48 hours! And here is me planning roughly the same over 3 weeks. Slow and steady, that's me.

Inspiration

I came across an excellent website today: The Adventure Cycling Guide. Tim Barnes, many thanks for the very useful and refreshingly simple tips / info / links. After checking out some tent / sleeping bag / pannier options and mentally packing my bike to the hilt, any worries were put into perspective when I saw this :-)

More inspiration from Family on Bikes, the gobsmackingly impressive tale of a couple and their 11 year old twins cycling from Alaska to Argentina - I love the videos, not least because they take the hills nice and slow, which is encouraging. And if those 11 year olds can get up mountains in Peru, I promise to stop being a wuss and grit my teeth and get on up my lovely Welsh hills.

Speaking of which, we took a drive and a stroll up the Blorenge at the weekend: on driving down t'other side my personal trainer informed me that this is going to be our practice hill. Didn't seem toooo bad at first, then it got considerably steeper and went on for an awful long way and we passed a cyclist on the ascent wobbling and grimacing horribly. I sympathised, my husband said 'give that bloke a knife and fork. He's making a meal of it'. Bring on the main course. And desert. And cheese and biscuits.

Its Easter and its snowing...

So much for my plans to get back on my bike this week - yes, I am a fairweather cyclist and a wimp to boot. Today I rescued battered daffodils from the garden and nearly got blown over by vicious icy winds battering Cardiff Bay, and my plans for some vigorous gardening at the weekend have been replaced by visions of sofa, DVDs and a spot of low impact housework. However I did climb on the exercise bike in the gym and slogged a happy half hour away, visions of Cape Breton unrolling in my head as I thumped away to Fat Boy Slim and Deep Dish.

Yesterday I started searching for campsites on the Nova Scotia route - starting in Cape Breton, it all seems a bit vague - for example the only one near Pleasant Bay, my intended 2nd night stop, has 10 pitches and no reservations, but I'm sure it will all work out on the day. Probably.

I must stop using exclamation marks!!!!!!!

Sorry - but hey, life's good :-)

oooo I got a comment!

Thank you Ken Trenholm for my first blog comment! How delightful - I mean I know how this blogging thing is supposed to work and all that, but its jolly nice to know someone out there is reading along.

Two new developments re the big bike ride - firstly, I have decided to invest in a new bike, thanks to the 'cycle-to-work' scheme I can get a bit of a discount and my personal cycling experts (husband and son) have convinced me it might make the difference between scraping success and dismal failure. More on that when my vouchers come through. It did make me realise that I seem to have inadvertently become rather fond of my mountain bike - it would be sensible to sell it seeing as me and downhilling were not made for each other, but I felt quite sad at the thought - odd.

Secondly, my logic of not wanting to weigh the bike down by carrying a tent has been undone by getting a lighter bike, and having totted up the cost of a comfy bed every night for nearly 3 weeks I would probably need to sell my car to afford it. My son came up with a compromise I think I can live with: the 50ish mile a day route sections up quite nicely into 4 days riding, 1 day off, times 3 to do the whole stretch, so the proposal is camp 3 nights, comfy bed 4th night. Now all I have to do is find a campsite conveniently located just where I need it - although I know my son will laugh and tell me he has slept in a tent in a car park before. In fact I'm pretty sure he did that without bothering to put the tent up...

I ran 10k!!!

Can't quite believe it - there was me struggling to manage 30 minutes on the treadmill - get out in the sunshine with hundreds of people around and I trot along for an hour and ten! Everyone told me it would be easier on the day but I was really dreading it and thought up all sorts of excuses to chicken out, but I jogged gently round the first 3 miles and then kept going to keep my friend company as she had signed up for 6 and was dreading it even more than me.

Saw a Sports Relief appeal last week with the guys of Dragon's Den where they sat with a woman as she waited for her AIDS test results, which turned out to be positive. It was very moving so I ran for her and the team who provide her with medication and support thanks to Sport Relief. A drop in the ocean but a drop nonetheless.

Today EVERYTHING hurts but boy was it worth it!