Practising as Promised!

We didn't go out cycling at all at the weekend. We had thought we might do a short ride on Sunday afternoon, but some friends invited us to join them in the pub for a gig...so we went and drank cider instead! Dan is a fab singer songwriter and I've not seen him ages, so didn't want to miss it! He's just moved to Exeter, so do check him out if you get chance - www.sonofagun.com

So, enough of me talking about what I did while I wasn't cycling! I did go out last week and practice some basic bike skills as promised. We went to a big empty car park and cycled round and round in circles! It was pretty cold and I felt a bit silly and was quite keen to go back home again after 10 minutes - but Ant patiently persisted with me and finally got me hopping on my bike without having to sit on the saddle first. I've still not quite perfected this skill, but it's definitely an improvement on the Sidmouth ride!

I had a go at stopping more sensibly too. This I found much harder and still haven't quite grasped properly - I'm still very much of the school of needing to put my feet on the ground to stop! I kind of got better at standing off the saddle, slowing down and then hopping off the pedals, but it usually resulted in dramatic breaking, hurting my wrist and jumping off the pedals quickly whilst trying not to bash into my handlebars! Not very elegant, nor very practical really - but I did improve a bit and hopefully with lots more practice I'll get better.

The other thing I need to do better is cycle more comfortably with one hand - so I can do important things like signalling and drinking water. I'm ok with signalling if I'm going along the flat and there's nothing scary around (like traffic - which there tends to be when you need to signal!) As for drinking from my water bottle, I think I'm a long way off that trick! I can reach my water bottle and could even get it of the cage - but then I'd be stuck, wouldn't be able to get it back in again, or use my hand to steady the bike again. Not sure how I'm ever going to get the confidence to try such a long manoeuvre all in one go - but guess I just need to keep practising.

I've been trying to kit myself out for this weekend too, but that's not been as easy as I thought either. As it's been such gorgeous weather whilst we've been training I've been cycling in my shorts quite comfortably - but it's definitely got much colder this week, so I thought some longer trousers might be a good idea. Unfortunately having whizzed to three different shops in town yesterday, none of them had any. Then we drove up to Halfords to see if they had any and no luck there either and Wiggle was out of stock in my sizes (unless I wanted to pay over £100 for what are no doubt a very nice, but still very expensive pair!). In the end I settled for some 3/4 lengths - they don't claim to be water resistant or particularly warm, but hopefully they'll be better than just my shorts. I've got some bike lights on the way too, so as long as they turn up I think I'm just about there....phew!

Now only four days until we set off. I'm not looking forward to camping in such cold wet weather (lots of rain forecast for Friday night!) - but it does look like it will clear up and stay dry for our ride on Saturday and actually be sunny for the finish on Sunday, so fingers crossed that bit of the forecast will be right!