A year or so before I took up running, my other health obsession to go with the gym was cycling. I’d bought a bike on the government’s Ride To Work scheme were due to tax breaks you only end up paying about half price for it and I would cycle daily to and from work – about seven miles each way.
My Cannondale Bad Boy: dumb name, great commuting bike
Of course, then came the redundancy package and the irregular work and the 1095mile challenge and so the bike has pretty much been mothballed for the last nine months, save for one sojourn some of you may remember back in February where myself and some of the boys went to the Peak District for an activity weekend.
With me now achieving some regularity of doing two days a week shifting at The Daily Express with the odd shift here and there at The Sun and The Times, plus my own writing and projects at home, I decided this week that it was time to get the bike out of the garden shed and start riding into work. Great idea, especially now the weather is warmer.
You may also remember that earlier this week I said I was going to sort out my diet and cut out the booze… well I’ve started doing the latter but England’s World Cup game yesterday kind of put the kibosh on that. A PR agency called Gosh had a World Cup party in the city, where I met up with two old colleagues the former and current travel editors of The Daily Mirror, Iain Mayhew and Nigel Thompson.
Both are seasoned journalists and seasoned drinkers, several hours and seven pints later, I left them to it and headed, somewhat unsteadily, home.
It was hot in the night, our fan is too bloody noisy to sleep with it on and we can’t leave the windows open because Mini and Uma, the two cats, would be performing Houdini heroics in seconds. I know cats have nine lives but I don’t fancy them falling out of a first floor window.
The result was I woke up this morning, dehydrated with a fuzzy head. The last thing I wanted to do was run, never mind ride. But a promise is a promise so I did the three miles on a pretty easy flat route near home and then took the bike out of the shed, washed it down and went through the elaborate routine you need to do to cycle to work. This involves messing around ironing a shirt and trousers, putting them in a back pack where they just get crumpled again and then braving London traffic for 35 minutes.
It was actually better than expected and it was nice to see that in almost a year’s absence, people who shouldn’t cycle do so. One woman in a long flowery maxi dress and flip flops with no helmet in particular was taking her life into other people – namely white van men’s hands.
Coming back was a bigger problem as I decided to try another route to see which was better – and ended up cycling almost two miles more than I did in the morning.
Anyway, I’ll be doing it again tomorrow so here’s hoping it’s better. If you want to see either of the routes – both went over London Bridge, which I love as it reminds me I’m in the capital with Tower Bridge and St Pauls to one side and the London Eye and parliament on the other – here are two linkies. I wore the Garmin to measure the routes.
Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and details of the run
Miles today: 3
Target: 834
Miles to date: 1,090.04
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