Life, the Universe and cycling...

Howdy all.

Well, it's been two days of taking the scenic route :) In previous posts I told of the buying of the bike, the setting up of the bike ( for a techie/geek like myself, half the fun in doing that and figuring out new uses for cable ties). Today will be a bit more about how to get lost in London :)

In all fairness, I should have listened to Kieran ( Irish Business Analyst, yip.. like Paul says... fear the combination), that is part of the team in which I am functioning, and just stuck to the river. But does Zodan ever really listen to anyone but his own little inner voices ? I tend to think that the wet socks in the washing basket says a big no for that one... snigger away...

And so, on the faithful morning of May the 8th (ag mei .. hehe) I decided that today will be the day that I take on the daunting task of conquering London... not by siege machine though ( which would have been a lot more of a better idea mind you), but by bicycle.

Got up nice and early ( as Grieks was getting up early to go to work as well) kind of semi packed everything on the morning of the trial, bad idea, I know.. I should pack in advance.. bla bla.. and then I was out into the big world with my instructions to myself about which roads to take ( taken from the beauty that roads in London are actually mapped and displayed in Google Earth [ unlike Cape Town] in my hand and the bicycle comp nicely ticking over the km[s])

I had my mask and helmet on and was ready ( I thought) for the scary traffic I had heard of that this place curses on all who wish to use roads to central London in the morn.

Things started out well cause I was following a route that I folllowed back to home on Sunday after riding next to Fanus after we watched the GP at our place this wkend.

Then I got into the A13 and things were still fairly shweet. I had mapped the route to be close on about 8 - 9 kms from home to work, roughly. About 5 kms in I was doing ok.. I was going down a long road that was clear to me and my breathing had settled into a nice rhythum so that I wasn't gasping for air. I was still somewhat "panicky" because of the volume of traffic around me, but that wasn't that bad...and then it happened..

What is England famed for ? Other than trying to conquer the world and being anal about how high and mighty it is ? Yup, it's fairly bad weather. The clouds saw me, and that was the end of that.. after about 7 kms in I was soaked, completely.. including the instruction set that I had for myself on how to go where... and just about when I needed it to. So here I am, can't see the work building ( cause I'm not next to the river as should have been.. London television is a fairly huge building as well)... and I have no idea where to go and the streets that I thought went one way were going the other way. All fun and games...

So stopped at a traffic light, and just plainly asked one of the courier motorcycle dudes next to me.. "Blackfriars bridge ? Which way ? "... to which he told me straight down the road I was going.. about 3 bridges later.. and there it was.. London television building, work and the likes.. bliss was to be had.. wasn't there yet, but it was the last oh 300 metres or so... after which the odo on the comp measured a nice 10.9 kms... in about 36 minutes or so... not bad, for a completely unfit guy like myself I thought it was fairly good.

Took a completely different route home yesterday as well.. and found the Thames path. Life is now hunkey dorry. This path was made for cyclists and pedestrians.. and the city planner of London, God Bless that man/woman's soul.. the sidewalks in London are about 2.5 metres wide.. can you say cycling heaven.. and the time of the morning when I'm out of bed and onto the road there aint nobody on the sidewalks... so this morning I was on the sidewalk and enjoying the trip.

Legs hurt like someone has decided they need to be chopped off, but I'm enjoying though.. think my saddle is a little low though.. not extending my leg all the way down.. which I heard is what you are suppose to be doing while cycling ( with the correct setup).. took the distance down to 9.32 kms, and took my time down to 33 minutes today (both ways,each).. the irony in all this.. it takes me about 10 minutes quicker to get to work with cycling than it does with the tube and walking. The bike will most likely only pay itself off in 2 months time, although half of it is already paid by this month's travel not having to be paid, but we'll see.. all in all.. I'm on the road to fitness..or something closer to that then I had been in the last 3 - 5 years... it's been that long...

Hope you all have a great week further.. tomorrow (today) is a day of thought.

Greets
Z