Bike On Mum 3 - Its February

1st - Rode to work and used my trainers not bike shoes, sort of got gears, feel of bike and positioning all different. The road bike is considerably faster than my mountain bike. My round the bays route to work is circa 5-7mins faster.  This will take some time to get my head around the balancing of everything, need more confidence, Showed off my new bike to everybody at work which was good.

2^nd - Rode home around Miramar Peninsula; getting a better feel of the balance but couldn’t get the gears moved down to smaller cog . . . had to walk up part of Tio Tio Rd - aagghh. I am missing the simplicity of running!!!!!!!!

3^rd - Turns out I had the left hand gears all wrong in my head . . . once Tim showed me it was all good . . . biked to work today with left foot in cleats and right in a sneaker . . . must look odd but its all about getting confidence up at the moment. Still having confidence issues riding down the hills where there are cars and bends etc.  I could probably walk down hills faster than I bike down. Tim reckons that I will wear out the brake pads in about two weeks due to excessive use. Biking home in big wind, nearly got pushed off bike around town and then biking past Cobham Dr. Have to come to grips with the balance of that and went faster and leaned against wind . . . freaked out again. However, got to bike up Otaki St as was raining now by this stage and that was a lot faster/easier than in mountain bike . . . so that was a win and I got my left gears to work J

PS: I don’t like buses and trucks. Someone said “Did you see how close that bus was”? See it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so close I could have licked it.

4^th - Biked to work today with left foot in trainers and right in cleats again; practised getting right foot in and out and did so easily, so think I can go out on Saturday wearing bike shoes on both feet with some confidence. Windy but liveable. An observation - my weight has dropped slightly by about 1.5kg’s however as I haven’t been running/situps/arms if feel more loose in the tummy and arms so once I get more confidence on the bike I will need to get back to running/arms/situps again but for the moment I need to concentrate on the bike.

5^th - Revolve group ride day today. Group meet at 8am and headed off to Eastbourne on the main road. Ashley talked me through the do’s and don’ts of cycling with traffic going at 100km and got to say it was nerve wracking; wind was a normal southerly with light showers. We travelled in single formation. Ashley also gave me great advice on the gears I was in - basically make sure I stay in the lower cog, and move the rear gears up and down. This was important – previously (when staying in the big front cog) it seemed like I would go fast, catch-up to the group, and then slow down and not pedal. Staying in the small front cog means that I have been able to maintain a constant rhythm (or cadence as they say in cycling circles). So I spent time practising my rhythm, which will take time to get used too. I was also encouraged to stay with the bunch and perhaps get in the middle of the group a bit more. Got lots of other tips about riding in a group, i.e. at lights stay with the group, drafting etc, hand signals while pedalling while turning a corner (which is definitely scary), and staying close on the wheel of the rider in front (which is scarier than hand signals). We stopped in at Days Bay for a coffee and then headed back to Wellington. I was telling everybody about my 1 foot in trainers, 1 foot in bike shoes training . . . they must have thought I was mad. On the return trip I followed Ashley’s advice and moved ahead of the back riders to the front thinking that would be the middle, well the front group took off and I followed thinking the others would too and they sort of didn’t, so was left with this main group at the back on the motorway . . . eventually the back group caught up so we mostly all rode into Wellington together. I think I should have done my time at the front of the group but I lacked the confidence to do that. I noted that there was a lot of debris on the road so you have to have your wits about you.  So a great ride and I continue to get more and more useful advice. That was a big thing going on the main roads.  It was a flat ride circa 60km. And even met someone I went to school with which was great. 

It was good to get Saturday's ride in as I am about to start a month-long intensive project at work which will severely  curtail my riding. Will definitely update if I get anything interesting done.