Cycling lesson

This morning was the second cycling session. I was on a really tight schedule this morning as I had an early work meeting. While I had to make it back home and shower, the real challenge was making sure I had time for breakfast. I realised I'd never fit it in if I did the whole session. I'd have to leave early, which meant I'd be missing out on some valuable information. Breakfast won!

It was a fantastic morning in Canberra. It's really lovely around the lake and the surrounds of Old Parliament House are beautifully kept. I arrived at the session with plenty of time to spare and had time for a chat with Kelly and Krissi before we started. I then headed off with white group.

We started off practising our cornering again. It's easy to do it in the carpark. I got the whole idea today. I left my inside leg up and looked where I was going and the bike just curved its way around the corner.

We had to ride in pairs in a sort of bunch down to the lake. My partner was having trouble with her bike but we soon had it together, except for the part where the people behind us were yelling "car" and I braked and she didn't. Our three instructors must have found the sight of us trying to be a bunch quite amusing. They were really encouraging though.

When we got to the lake we rode along with one hand off the handle bars and behind our backs and then back again with the other hand off the handle bars. Then we were supposed to ride along with one hand on our partner's shoulder. I had real trouble with this. My partner did an excellent job. After that we were asked was anyone really nervous so I put up my hand and admitted it.

There were two of us, and we were pulled aside while the others went on to some more stuff. The other lady had an enormous bike. The instructor helping us thinks her bike is way too big and that mine might be too big. I had to get the seat adjusted again. It looks like my seat came down by itself a few weeks ago because it wasn't tight enough. Anyway, that should be fixed now. My seat is up so high now that I can barely touch the ground when I'm seated.

We did a bit more riding with one hand off the bike and then touching the water bottle. I got more confident about bending forward to touch the bottle. I'll have to practise this riding one handed stuff. I'm finding it much easier to signal turns now though, which has got to be good.

I had to bale then, so I headed off home. I managed to have a healthy breakfast and was ready in plenty of time for my lift. See, you can fit everything in if you're organised!