Wibble

Do you ever get days where you want to hug your life?

My ride to work includes an extra lap around the lake. This week, the seagulls were standing on the water. Herons stand quietly amongst the reeds, watching for movements at the fringe of little ice floes. Robins flit nervously as I ride by. Critters scurry out of my way in the darkness on my way home.

I get to work and remove fleece leggings, overshoes, woolly socks, waterproof, fleece, hat, scarf and stand in the hot shower, letting it soak into my pores, stinging from the cold.

Sometimes I run at lunchtime. There are only a few people that venture out around the lake with spaniels for company. The spaniels are too interested in sniffing to notice me. A couple are hugging to keep warm and giggle as I run past because they didn’t know I was there.

At the weekend I raced. I concede that I have been poorly Trep but it still disappoints me that I have made only a little progress this year. I know I never make much progress anyway.

TSK bought me some rollers for my birthday. They’re not for my hair. They’re like a treadmill for a bike but the power to spin the rollers comes from me, not a machine. My back wheel drives two rollers that are attached to the front roller by a rubber band. That drives the front wheel of my bike around so that the bike rides in a stationary location in my hall way. Having never used rollers, I had a go for the first time last night. As suggested on the instructions, my first try was in the hall way… with walls at close proximity to each side of me to prevent me from literally riding off the rails and into the cupboard door at the end of the room – or worse, a wall.

I have a friend, Jen, who uses rollers before a race to warm up. She sits on her bike like the proverbial piffy-on-a-rock-bun spinning away, chatting. Should be easy right?

Wrong.

For a while I held on to the door handle on Steph’s room but that kept opening. Over and over I slammed it shut, resulting in me pulling myself dangerously close to the edge of the rollers.

TSK stood by my side with his arms around my waist to give me the confidence to at least hold onto the doorframe. Sadly, that didn’t give me enough mobility to attain a balance and he retreated to the kitchen, only to come running at my occasional werrbling noises.

I had a rest then returned to the task of rediscovering my bike balance. Like learning to ride all over again, I managed 20 seconds with both hands on the handlebars and as I called out to TSK, “I’m doing it!!!” he came to look and everything went pear-shaped. I grabbed onto the wall again.

So, the upshot being, I have to work on relearning to ride a bike. You can’t forget, you know, but it’s awfully hard to learn-better.

It has become apparent to me how some people are so good at what they do, lapping me every week at races and attaining those illusive top 10 finishes in National Events that I have only ever dreamed of.

I probably still need to perfect the art of eating perfectly and work on my speed and strength but TSK has bought me fitness in a box. The next few weeks I will mostly be spending my time holding on to the hall-wall and one day I will be a super-hero. I will!