Pedalling Passion

Since stopping running whilst the niggle in my knee clears up, I've really embraced cycling in all it's forms. In fact, I've gone bonkers, I just can't stop turning my legs in circles!

Mountain-biking, road-biking, attacking the hills, spinning and even time on the turbo trainer - it's all just fantastically enjoyable and I can't get enough.

I started my new job today and the idea is to commute by bike. It's about 10 miles, a nice distance to boost the metabolism in the morning and before I feast on dinner in the evening. I didn't cycle in today though as I needed to recce the bicycle storage situation and more importantly, the showers. There would be nothing worse than rocking upon my first day like a sweaty, bike-grease-tattooed wreck. 

The bus journey home was painfully slow. I found myself daydreaming about cycling, eyeing up each gradient the bus trundled over and imagining how much better it would be to do this journey sat in a saddle. I reckon it could even be possible (with the odd shortcut) to beat the bus into town, and that could well be a game I play when I'm more familiar with the route.

The other reason I didn't cycle in today though, was that I have had a serious pedalling overload in the last few days. From Wednesday to Saturday I cycled and span every single day, culminating in a 62 mile New Forest bonanza with Nicky on Sunday in the glorious sunshine. It was a brilliant ride with the occasional(!) hill thrown in. One in particular sticks in my mind: Ornamental Drive. It is very likely that this hill is so called because people should really only look at it in all it's ornamental loveliness rather than trying to pedal up it's relentless 14 degree kicker!

After a jolly good stretch and a cuppa, I decided that Monday should be a cycling-free day, just to give the legs a bit of a rest. So I had a very leisurely day and decided I would hit the gym after work. As I walked through at 18.58 I glanced into the spinning room at the 7pm class, all lycrad-up and ready to go. There was one bike left, sad and alone. I nearly kept walking but I just couldn't resist that big chrome wheel. I must say though that this is probably a better failure of willpower than my usual cake-fest..

So the commuting commences tomorrow. I am very excited about fitting in lots of extra bike time and imagine that by the time the deep, dark winter arrives I shall be a mighty pedalling machine, ploughing through the rain and snow like a tank. Let's just hope my legs don't become the size of one!