National ride to Work Day

I made sure that I was riding to work today. My sister headed off to work after telling me how good I looked in my cycling gear. It's great to hear what other people think. When I look at myself I see all the lumps and bumps so I think I look ridiculous. Janet sees the transformation from the old me who wouldn't have been able to ride a bike to the new me who looks forward to the challenge.

It was a bit chilly today. I was wearing one of my tops but it was covered up under a couple of layers of warmer clothes. I'm clearly feeling more confident as I rode on the street instead of the footpath from my place to Limestone Avenue. Once I was near serious traffic I went back to the safety of the footpath until I was behind the War Memorial.

I was puffing and panting my way up the hills. I discovered from my Garmin that I start out at an elevation of 582 m and that I go up to 629 m in 3.4 km before descending to 596 m in another 1.5 km. The fastest I went on the way to work was 26 km/h and I reached 30 km/h on the way home. Clearly they were downhill. Most of the time I'm riding at about 10 km/h. Now that I know all that I can work on going a bit faster. When I'm warmed up (legs and confidence) I ride at about 19 km/h. Oh, and I was wearing my Garmin in the lift. I rock in the lift!

I enjoyed the ride in both directions. I like the feeling of achievement when I manage to tough it out up the hills. I also like not being tied to the bus timetable. I'm glad there aren't other people around as I certainly am puffing my way up the hills. I'm looking forward to the time that I can do the hills comfortably.

It's funny - I don't really enjoy cycle class in the gym, but put me outside with a destination and it's a whole different ball game.

Tomorrow I have my bike booked in for maintenance. I have no idea what to do about oiling the chain or checking the gears etc etc so I am entrusting my baby to the local bike shop. I'm going to take my running gear to work with me tomorrow and see what the weather's like when it's time to head home. I was riding along today thinking about running those hills so i figure I may as well try them out.

I still have no idea what to call my Garmin. For that matter, I don't have a name for the bike either. I guess as the bike was loungeroom art for so long I should probably call it Art.