fred_mouse

Today was my first attempt at riding to work with the new regime. Remarkably good going – bit of a head wind in a couple of places, but mostly I was able to stick with the goal of going at least 20 klick with no more than 2/5 power. Spent a couple of sections scooting along at 25 klick – turns out that I can’t accelerate physically, but what I can do is use the throttle to accelerate a bit (say +5 km/h) and then pedal to maintain it. Distance travelled almost exactly 20 km; time taken 57 minutes to the bottom of the ramp; 1:03 to having the bike stored. **

Two main sections where I used the throttle. The first, my hip started complaining, and I had to twist it to get rid of the cramp that was threatening to pull it out of alignment; the second I was just getting tired and took the advantage of having a rest.

Pretty happy with it overall – I’m still just about the slowest person on the path (I passed one cyclist going the same way), but that isn’t the point – I can gain speed once I have the stamina thing sorted out. The intent is to work on consistency for a week or two, and then look at either increasing the ‘typical’ speed (not the average, although my little cat eye contraption will track that as well), but just trying to keep the ‘current’ speed at the given level. If I can get it up to about 25 klick, I’ll start spending time with the power at 1/5. Given the weight of the bike, I’m probably not going to end up cycling without the power, but minimising it at least.

And the other thing I’m working on to start with is spin – I’m really struggling with it. I can get it working for a while, and then the front of my thighs start complaining (and my hip gets cranky). I’m better off with the extra power and the slower pedal speed at present – I’ll look at getting up to a more appropriate speed later (I’ve always been a power rather than a speed cyclist – I grew up in hills, and learnt how to really throw my weight into moving the pedals slowly but surely, and I’ve never really learnt the tricks of cycling on the flat).

* I’ve picked 40 as a (hopefully low) goal for the year – this is equivalent to once per school week. Given that the only extra-curricular on Wednesdays is youngest’s choir, and that is late, I’m planning on riding Wednesday, regardless of the weather (I’ll need a raincover for one of the bags, so that I can take a dry set of clothes, or keep dry ones at work). So, in theory, this should be easy to achieve. I’m also hoping that once a week when chaosmanor is being parent-in-charge, I can ride then as well. Will negotiate with youngest about how zie feels about me leaving before zie does – eldest will still be there. But if I leave at 8am, having washed, then I should be at my desk at 9am, so as long as I only take a half hour lunch break (which I have to work out how to do that again – I was really good at it until I made the rule that I don’t eat lunch at my desk), which means I’ll get a full work day if I work until 5pm…

** At the moment, I’m using the lab group store room (which I shared with another bike today), but as soon as I remember to get in touch with campus security, I can put in a request to have access to the bike store room in the next building added to my campus card. Then I just park the bike and head up to my office, rather than the current faffing about with lifts and walking halfway round the atrium.

Today is the third in a row that I've cycled up to Mount Henry Bridge, done a tiny circuit on the open air equipment, and ridden home again. As day 1 I rode behind youngest pretty much all the way, and thus it felt easy and untiring, and yesterday I overdid things on the way home, made my lungs close up and my legs revolt, such that I had to walk up one of the slopes (they are not hills, but sometimes they feel like it), I figure that the times are a bit inaccurate, and won't be paying attention.

And because I'm thinking of going a little further each day (today I did a bog lap of the bridge itself - for those not familiar, it is a two level bridge, with the lower level only being pedestrian/bike paths, one either side of the central concrete 'lump', connected by tunnels at each end), I don't want to track the whole time, or the going there time, because it is going to fluctuate erratically. So instead, I'm going to keep track of the coming home, from just before I get on the bike, to when my feet are on the driveway and the only bit of my on the bike is my hands. Today I managed 21 minutes, which according to google maps (when I could force it to see things my way) is 5.4 km. Respectable, if nothing flash.

As to today's daily plan? 'Tis Saturday, so it is housework day. But as we have a social gathering in the Hills at 1pm, and I'm hoping to do at least one errand on the way, I'm thinking aiming to get 1 hour of housework is at least optimistic and at best do-able. And this might mean that the 'clean bedroom and lounge room' might get ticked off as well (I did a chunk of shopping yesterday, plus some pottering around, and have nearly finished the crochet blanket while waiting for the movie session, which was significantly later than we had been told)
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