The unfamiliarity of my bikes has been a little odd this week. Trying not to find it reminiscent of my fairly long departed husband's first symptoms of his brain tumour where he just instinctively felt his spanners were in someway "wrong". It's a disconcerting feeling, a familiar friend turning into something just a little alien, not unfriendly or threatening but different.
This, however, with reference to my bikes is easily explained. The hybrid has new tyres and the ride is not just bumpier due to the fact I have actually got them at a reasonable pressure, but also "twitchy", although I am re-training my brain to think responsive instead of twitchy. It's taken a little adjusting to, and a mile or two before I felt the confident 95% in control feeling I generally have on the hybrid which is a safe old sofa of a thing.
Yesterday I got on the mountain bike. Not to climb any mountains (none of those where I live) but just to do some muddy trails. Getting on that bike after having done more riding on the hybrid is always a surprise. I feel crouched over the bike, like I've somehow overgrown the handlebars, and yes the front end feels very "twitchy" (ok, ok responsive) in comparison to the hybrid. It's just different dimensions and I settle down quite quickly. The worst thing about getting on it is the realisation that I'm now seriously cycling. This is completely due to the change in saddle. The hybrid has an amazing arm chair thing going on. It is wide and it is gel padded and frankly I would challenge anyone to find it uncomfortable. The MTB has a thin hard saddle which is perfectly fine and comfortable and fitting for me provided I get my posture right. I'm sure it's good for me, but nonetheless always comes as a surprise.
Yesterday was a first for me. My bike riding is generally restricted to a) travel from A to B or b) fun, getting out on the hills or challenging myself over whacky terrain. Yesterday I got on the mountain bike for a purpose unheard of before. I got on it for "training". Gasp. What is this training of which you speak? Frankly I felt I hadn't stretched my body for quite some time, and worried I was losing fitness. So, deliberately and knowingly, I got on the bike with the ambition of getting in a minimum of an hour of heavy breathing, preferably with some leg hurting work to accompany it. Nice to find a relatively free traffic ride, but weird trying to find any kind of lung exercise in a very very flat track. Oooh, I think I can find a link to my route ...
Ah yes, here we go: http://www.cycle-route.com/Worsley flat loop. And by the end of it, all was well. Very well indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment