I'm back! Didya miss me?

I have been horribly busy/lazy (being busy is an excuse for avoiding all forms of exercise don't you know) but I'm finally back on my bike this week - Monday was HARD work, my biking buddies streaked off up the hill and I puffed and panted and collapsed in a sorry sweaty heap, but yesterday was a tad easier, slightly less painful and getting a bit of a buzz from the effort. I have, at last, sketched out a 12 month training plan, starting off gently with a 30 mile ride next weekend.

And, most exciting, Canadian Affair have tickets available for May 2011, so now I just have to make a Very Important Decision - do I whine and flutter my eyelids and persuade my lovely husband to treat me gently and take 3 weeks for the trip, or do I man up and commit to a herculean 2 weeks? I can't resist the challenge - 2 weeks it is. Which means the final route map can be firmed up and little details like how the hell to get a) from Halifax airport to Cape Breton and b) from Cape Sable Island back to fly home.

So, (another) fresh start, celebrated with a nice new design for my blog. Onwards and upwards!

If that young slip of a thing can climb Everest..

Went to an amazingly inspirational lunchtime thing at the Norwegian Church Arts Centre today - Tori James telling a small but rapt audience (well I was pretty rapt I can tell you) about her incredible achievements: she did the North Pole race with 2 other girls and then climbed Everest. And then cycled North to South New Zealand. And next she's planning on cracking the South Pole. I mean seriously, she looks about 16, is petite, pretty and absolutely charming - never in a million years would I have pegged her as an extreme adventurer. The photos where completely breathtaking but what lit up my little world was her frank admission that she never thought she was the type of person who could do these things. I scribbled down a few tips and left feeling inspired all over again and at least willing to nibble some elephant toenails - top tip of the year, thanks Tori!

Back home from home

A divine week of relaxation in Nova Scotia but shamefully no cycling whatsoever - my best friend was starting up her training plan for a run so we did lots of brisk walking and a bit of gentle jogging, the rest of the time I was making the most of my gorgeous godson's company - he's the best. Then reluctantly back home and a post-holiday dip during which I convinced myself that this whole north to south ride idea is totally beyond me. I'm kind of over it but my progression back up the enthusiasm ladder was rudely interrupted by a run in with an unfortunate jogger when cycling in to work last week. She was kindly forgave me for running her down but my punishment for not anticipating her sudden change in course was a black and blue wrist and elbow and a week of feeling fragile. Mind you, what better time to be a one armed invalid than the weekend just gone - glorious sunshine and the perfect excuse to flop into a deckchair with a book. So now its back to planning and training - oh and shopping! Vouchers from Bike To Work have arrived - yay!

Coming home to Nova Scotia

Well at last it's here - the night before we fly to our beautiful Nova Scotian home for a blissful week of total relaxation. Two friends and my gorgeous godson Eddie are coming with us, always a pleasure to watch first timers fall in love with the place like we did three years ago. Today I was showing someone at work where we are on the map and realised how little of the country we have yet seen, or rather (cup half full and all that) how much we still have to look forward to visiting! That said, there's a long list of places in the UK I haven't been to yet - never done Derbyshire, the Lake District only once and just a taste of Scotland and Ireland. Plenty of time for all that though - what I am really looking forward to is seeing Cape Breton to Cape Sable Island on my bike this time next year. Must start seriously thinking about some fund raising - must not forget the real purpose of this trip - must get organised - must go get some sleep now so I make the plane in the morning!

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.