Today I bought a bike!!!!

Yep you read that right, today, the 24th day of July 2019 I bought a lovely shiny new road bike!!!!

I have never ridden a road bike before (other than maybe having a go on the next door neighbours son's bike when I was about 11) but over the last year I have seen both the physical and mental health benefits cycling can have first hand, through my partner Craig who cycles 3 times a week. It's been a real turning point in his life and made a huge difference to his physical and mental wellbeing and after I tried running for 5 weeks (and giving up after a dodgy hip) I decided I was going to bite the bullet and buy a bike and sample a bit of the wellbeing for myself!

Having stalked Ebay and Facebook marketplace for the last few weeks and also checking out various cycle specialist websites I found my new baby on Ebay and made a trip over to Halifax to have a look!! I think it was probably the fastest purchase made in the history of the shop and within 7 minutes a lovely young man was carrying my new bike to my car!
I conversed with him on the way back to the car about the current Tour de France and impressed him (or so I thought) with my knowledge and enthusiasm for it! I must say I've never so much watched 1km of the TDF until this year, apart from maybe clips on Sports Personality of the Year programmes and such like, and now I'm becoming a fan! 

So here she is bundled up in the back of my car (along with 2 bags of clothes for the charity shop) and me driving home feeling like I was bringing my 3rd born child home from the hospital!!!
She was quickly introduced to the other cycling child of the family and I hot footed it over to Sports Direct (the sporting boutique of the North), which was a big mistake in the first day of the school holidays but I soon left said shop armed with a Lycra top, shorts and a water bottle! I'll spare you the photos of the Lycra for now!!!
 After watching a You Tube video and messaging Craig, Little Miss Impatient had already assembled the pedals onto the bike and added the water bottle and decided to have a little "ride around the block" hoping no one would see me!!!!
 Getting on the bike was a challenge and I had to lean against a wall to get on it but once I was on all was good and I was soon riding round the estate, ahead of the Peloton!!! Just when I thought I was looking good and fairly professional having cycled all of 4 minutes I decided to dismount the bike in a rather unladylike way, unbeknown to me in full view of the lovely man with the dog from next door who commented on my "glamorous dismount!". Hmmmm must try harder on the getting on and off thing!!!!

Anyway in 2 hours time I am off for my first proper go, under the watchful eye of Craig! Apparently we are doing 10km that should take us 35 minutes!!!!! Let's see!!!!

Julie


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