Who’d’ve thought it? The huge grin and endorphine rush has re-invigorated me, despite now feeling knackered.
What from?
…cycling.
I’ve been being exceptionally good, the death of my father seems to have finally spurred me into action; attempting to finally kick-start the drive towards fitnewss which I’ve so often attempted and so often failed to achieve.
Aided by my car’s knackered alternator (I’ve got a ‘new’ one from a scrap yard to fit), a bank balance which has spent an awfully long time with the zeros in front of the numbers, and my motorbike’s persistant lack of a frame; I’ve actually being doing things which are likely to make me fit.
So today, after months of inaction on my part (and a couple of weeks of walking); and years of inaction on the part of my bike (the last 7 years have been spent hanging upsidedown from the roof of the garage) I headed to university atop Chrissy, my 90’s era Emmelle Cheetah (or Navigator MaxLite as the stickers proclaim) (It’s yellow, incidentally; and White, and Austin Dishwasher Maestro White in places; and the handgrip on one side is made from duct-tape; the SIS gear lever’s plastic guard on the other side snapped; which is why the gear cable’s fixed with duct-tape) .
Riding is still knackering, it’s only a bit over 3 miles to Uni, especially now I’ve lopped off as many corners as I can.
But I was still laughing hysterically as I flew down the gravel’d path, my off roading / mountain biking skills are *really* limited; like the modern day SUV drivers who’s vehicles have never seen dirt, my bike’s hardly been off road since I got it; indeed, it’s got road and maybe-a-bit-of-well-trimmed-grass tyres on it. They’re sub-optimal for off-roading, to coin a phrase.
So hurtling down a 45 degree gradient, and then along about a 20ish degree gravelled slope at speed was a bit of a shock to it and me. Stood on the pedals as I bounced around and after a few seconds fear gave way to adrenaline and ‘fuck this is fun‘.
I’m becoming one of those disturbing people who really enjoys sporty things (swimming, cycling, walking…).
On the minus side, I’m still finding university quite hard work; the whole socialising thing is hard, I find myself wanting to be quiet and be with friends… :-/
Still. Looking forward to seeing James and Chrissy (person, not bike) this weekend.
