The new toy, Mathilde, my red entry-level road bike from Decathlon joined my evolving new personal life in January. The last few years have seen me become fascinated with the sport of road and sometimes track cycling. Injury had forced my hand (legs) into cycling and swimming in the autumn and after a few conversations with trusted rider friends and Twitter training mates I made the switch from flip-flops to asics gels (nice running analogy from @halfflashman)
Since then its been a fairly slow curve getting to know how and what I can and can't do on Mathilde. Slow because, well, I don't understand anything with moving parts and have the spatial awareness of a dead twig. I can proudly say I have a multi-tool ,can adjust the seat position and get the wheels on and off but heaven help me the first time I get a puncture. I also now understand gears. Yes its taken me 36 years.
Here are a few 'novice cyclist' musings, I expect they'll make the hardened roadies laugh and cringe at my ineptitude.
- I now look out the window of motor vehicles down into the kerb, assessing the road surface and mentally noting any 'mordor' type areas.
*I even said out loud 'wow look at this well smooth road' to the bewilderment of my running buddy recently
- putting your right foot down for all the red lights gives you a worrying ache. Must work on bilaterality. See also swimming.
- the nasty ache in your undercarriage only lasts a few weeks
- a wrongly adjusted saddle will give you a nasty ache in a very personal place
- I don't care if a car thinks I'm going too slowly/taking the wrong line/ am merging right too soon. I'm following the highway code. As yet have only been beeped twice though. So thank-you kind drivers in south east Manchester, so far we are not at war.
-I am becoming more au fait with the non-commute use of mathilde. To the pub! To the salon! To Morrison's! Yes, I am a mobile, independent lady. In a mini skirt. And gore-tex. Sexy.
- related to the above. It's comfortable and practical to ride a road bike in a short dress and tights. Summer is going to present some challenges. Big pants? However, for the dirty salty rainy commute I sleepily pull on leggings and baselayer, roll up the mini-dress and stash the girlyshoes at work.
- racing is great. You Don't Have To Stop!! Only done a small club Duathlon so far but woooe I enjoyed the chance to learn about mathilde's cornering and handling. Must learn more
Finally. Gotta get proper pedals for racing.
My next job is to increase my road mileage. Anyone up for a ride?
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