Back on a bike

It's been a tiring week, the first week back at work, and it was only four days instead of the usual five. It's the getting up early that does it - I've been falling asleep on the train in the morning; the first day back I fell asleep going home, which I never do. I also fell asleep on the floor under my desk at work (I do my reading on the floor - it's more comfortable than a chair). I was just resting my chin on my hands. I was just resting my eyes....next thing I knew, a small, distant voice was asking, "Helen, are you awake?" I couldn't exactly hide that I'd been asleep, because when my eyes creaked open I couldn't focus, and it must have been pretty obvious that although the lights were on, no-one was home. Now my team think it's a great joke to put their heads around the corner of my bookcase and ask if I'm awake!

I didn't ride my bike seriously last week because all my energy was going into working on the house. I made a few quick trips down to the shops and the public library, but that was it. I didn't bike this week because I was so tired that I just wanted to go to bed when I got home. The one night that I planned to go out on my bike, Tranz Metro stuffed us around and we were an hour late home. Most of the hour waiting for the late train to arrive was spent in the pub at the railway station, which was completely the opposite of my fitness-enhancing plans for the evening. So it's been a bike-free couple of weeks, while the emails from ActiveSmart kept arriving with reminders of my current training plan, making me painfully aware that I was getting seriously behind.

Yesterday, in the course of catching up with the variety of environmentally-friendly, carbon neutral and sustainability issues that are part of my job, I realised that Bike Week is bearing down on us like a runaway train. Last year it was a mad scramble to Bike Week. I was a non-cyclist then, but publicised the event to the cyclists at work, who embraced it with enthusiasm, formed a BUG (Bicycle User Group) and got things happening for Bike To Work Day. My contribution was to upgrade the facilities for cyclists in some of our buildings, and generally make encouraging noises to all those participating. At some point during the post-Bike Week celebrations (our organisation won a prize or two), our Chief Executive and I shook hands on a "next year, I'll do it if you do it" kind of arrangement. Hence my purchase of a second-hand road bike at the beginning of summer, and my rather unexpected falling in love with recreational cycling after 30 years of not riding a bike.

So - I've registered the organisation for the Bike Wise Business battle, and put my name down as an entrant. Bike To Work Day won't be a happening thing for me - I'm not quite up to a 90-odd kilometre trip that includes a mountain range and a major state highway! The Bike Wise Business battle, however, runs for just over a week, and all kilometres on the bike get counted for each entrant's total. So I need to start gearing up to do as much mileage as I can during that period. I don't have a chance of winning the individual prize - last year it was some nut-case who can't have spent much time at work because he was so busy clocking up about 700km - but if I can add 50 or 70kms to my organisation's total, it will help our overall score. And more to the point, Bike Wise Week is about encouraging people to choose cycling - as a way of getting to work or school, as a way of getting around town, for fitness and leisure - and it seems to have succeeded with me.

This morning I got woken up early, so I went out and rode for half an hour out into the countryside. I could feel the difference that two weeks of not cycling had made - it felt like hard going in places that are usually a cruise. The first hill felt like Mt Everest, and now that I'm back home, my legs and butt are definitely feeling it! But it was great to be riding again. I taught myself to ride a bike when I was 7 or 8 - it was Mum's bike, so it was far too big for me, but great was my triumph when I made that first wobbly circuit of the house! We used to cycle to school back in those care-free days when it was safe enough for kids to do that kind of thing. My bike was my only form of transport when I was in high school. So it's funny, but when I'm out riding now, some of that childish joy about being able to ride around by myself comes back. Especially going down hill - the 8-year old part of me is thinking, wheeeeeeeeeeee, while the adult part of me is worrying about how long I'm going to spend in hospital if I fall off! So far, I've managed to stay on, but the road bike's size and skinny tires make me feel way more unstable than my old Raleigh-20 clone. I've been looking longingly at the mountain bikes with their fatter tires on my new favourite website, Torpedo7. A mountain bike would also mean my cycling routes would become more interesting, as I wouldn't have to turn back when the roads change from tarseal to gravel like I do now - out here in the boonies, the tarseal doesn't extend very far into the countryside. But until I can afford a new toy, I'll just keep pedalling on the old one and just enjoy being back on a bike.