It has been a few weeks since the last blog post and, I regret to inform, there has not been a great deal of cycling done to blog about. Things have conspired against me you see. Notably the weather, the night shifts and the laziness. I do have some good news to report, and some embarrassing news.
My epic biathlon went off without a hitch. A gruelling 15 mile drive along the M50 to drop the car to a garage in Sandyford, followed by a 12 mile cycle home. Nope, the house didn't move closer in the time it took me. The M50 is a ring road around our fair city, whereas me and my bike cut straight through it. The pace of the ride, 20km in a little over an hour was fairly pedestrian but in a way it was like a time warp. Cycling some of those roads on my skinny little rock hard tyres brought back memories of when I started driving and the road surface in places was so bad you couldn't actually focus on anything in your vibrating rear view mirror. From a motoring point of view, most of the Irish roads have improved immeasurably in the last twenty years. From a cycling POV I don't hold out much hope for the next twenty. If a decent standard wasn't reached while the celtic tiger was roaring, it ain't going to happen while we're doubling our national debt every couple of years to ensure some billionaires don't lose the money they gambled on our bank shares. Back on topic, I was semi-disappointed to arrive home. On the one hand I could have happily cycled another few miles. On the other hand it was starting to rain.
The bike is now a much nicer place to be for a couple of small but significant reasons. The minor adjustments made to the saddle a few weeks ago seem to have positioned it where it was designed to be, instead of where it, by rights, should need lube to be. Seat and bottom are now just good friends, the intimacy is gone. Also gone are the cursed toe clips. Possibly the most rewarding time spent on anything bike related was the 10 minutes it took to remove the toe clips from the pedals. Traffic lights are no longer a game of Russian roulette, first gambling with whether I can stay balanced and upright for the duration of the red, and if not, whether I could get my feet back into the clips without looking at either. More often than not I couldn't, meaning I was looking at my feet instead of where I was going, which was usually either across a lane of traffic or straight towards the kerb. My newfound freedom has probably put the purchase of special shoes and pedals off until next spring at the earliest.
The next (slightly embarrassing) comfort improving revelation involved removing another item. Underwear. It might be glaringly obvious to some/most people but bike shorts work best, ahem, up close and personal. It seems so bloody obvious now that all my jocks were going to do was bunch up and cause discomfort but I initially thought that another layer between notcher and saddle can only be a good thing. Suffice to say it was a revelation, that first "commando" ride. This is the problem when you start an interest on your own, with nobody to guide you along. Reminds me of when I started mixing records. At first just fading one tune into the next, then getting the hang of matching beats and tempos but it still didn't sound right. Then, after I forget how long, I happened to be chatting to a friend of a friend about mixing and he mentioned the four-four structure. "The what now?" said I. He explained that all dance music was constructed with four bars of four beats. Once you keep the four-four flow then everything sounds right. A facepalm moment if ever there was one, just like losing the undies. My defence remains the same though, "nobody told me!"
Unfortunately I can't see the cycling to work lasting too much longer. Twelve hour shifts and shortening days mean before too long it'll be too dark to be cycling unlit roads. I started this to get healthier, not deader. Certainly, once the clocks go back it'll be game over. I'll really need to get motivated to start going out for an hour or two on midweek days off or at weekends. It's a damn shame that HP took so long to implement the bike to work scheme. The summer, such as it was, was practically over before I got my bike. On the bright side, Maeve, Eoin and Ben all got new bikes in the last month or two so we should keep each other motivated to get out on the bikes. A fortnight ago we rented bikes in the Phoenix park and had a lovely afternoon. I would highly recommend it to anybody looking for a healthy family day out. Pretty reasonable too. We brought Eoin's bike in the car and rented a bike for Maeve and a bike for me with a child seat on the back for Ben. Cost for bikes for two and a half hours and a helmet for Eoin was €14. Eoin wants to get a tandem with Maeve or I next time! Just ring and book in advance. http://www.phoenixparkbikehire.com/
I will close by admitting that, for the last few weeks, I've been wearing my gloves on the wrong hands and therefore upside down. I put them on today and they felt different. Less comfortable. Then I looked at them, saw they weren't on the usual way but thought "actually, having the suede and the padded bits on the palm would probably give better grip". Lightbulb and facepalm in equal measure!
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