Fat Lad Rides Again

A friend of my father who drifted out of our lives as quickly as he’d  floated in; was a man of far out ideas and off kilter thinking. Walking the hills, the sun was shining with full beam nostalgia strength. Yomping across dale, short naive teenager flanked by taller years of wisdom, listens intently to conversation flowing naturally around him trying to keep up with the words as well as the pace.

“So, the earth has magnetic fields?”

“Indeed”

“I believe that all the ghoulies, apparitions and unearthly sights are simply strong emotion stored to the earth.A spiritual Match of the Day to Gaia’s betamax played on loop again and again. Ghosts stuck on repeat. Recordings of the soul”

“Right…”

It’s a conversation that in all the years of slowing synapses has stayed lodged firmly in my head. If it’s true what do we leave with every turn of the cranks on the trails? All the bits of trail haunted by my learning over the years, memorys shed all over the paths of the land. Do they play back? In the dead of night do whispy ethereal riders whoop down the runs leaving misty contrails from other wordly tyres?

Tyre tracks fade on . Our souls play in the dirt eternal.

Fat Lad

It’s all about momentum.

Descending your ally. Keep it on side; a little kick of the pedals here. A push of the bars there. So much comes from so little effort.

Ascending momentum a fleeting friend. Pedals turned smoothly carry the relationship for so long. But momentum will flee on all but the briefest of ups.

Sarah’s momentum stopped dead Thursday night. A bad roll of the cosmic dice robbed her all the forward motion gained.

Our current thoughts on the matter come to a slipped front wheel over rough terrain followed by a panic brake gave us the above result.

Watching your everything cartwheel at speed over the bars and ragdoll into the bushes is something I never wish to see again.

A clean break of the collar bone may have slowed Sarah down. So much has been gained. But her’s is a momentum that’s hard to slow yet alone stop.

Fat Lad

This post was originally to be titled Mrs Fat Lad goes all they way. But I thought better of it…

At the worry of harping on about it Sarah really has got the bug. “What have *you* done to me?” is  a question I get a lot now.

I’ve been riding cycles in one way shape or another now for *mumble mumble* years and with the best will in the world there is only so much enthusiasm for riding yet again in the wet.

But Sarah’s joy de velo is certainly infectious. With a Sunday afternoon suddenly free Gisburn was suggested. Dear Wifey had done the dirt deed there a few times before but only the lower loop. I didn’t suggest doing the full figure of eight, Sarah did.So we went and we did.

Riding with someone new to the game is the best. Go grab a noob.  Go ride your bikes. It might even help to lift the grump.

Fat Lad

Al was right……..

I don’t often say those words but for once Al was right and I was wrong…..

Sometime in the middle of March, Al casually mentioned that he fancied
doing 30 days of riding. Me being the sensible (ish) one in the
marriage immediately gave him plenty of reasons why it wasn’t a good
idea:

1.  We run a busy shop
2.  He has very little time to himself
3.  There was no possible way he could ride for 30 consecutive days
4.  It was a foolish idea

and so on……

A few days later after a conversation with a friend on Twitter I
looked at Al and muttered the words “I fancy doing 30 days of
riding, are you gonna do it with me?”  That’s right I used the age old
womens perogative to change her mind 🙂

I guess it was a momentary lapse of being the sensible one on my
behalf as if i’d thought about it I would never have commited to it. I
mean I’d never ridden more than twice in a week before. I’d never
ridden for two consecutive days in a row before. I didn’t have enough
riding clothes. I work long hours all over the UK with Job 1 and when
I’m not there I can be found preventing chaos at Garage Bikes.

However I am stubborn and once I’ve decided to do something I do it,
so I announced it to everyone I knew. My friends thought I was mad, my
mates on twitter however thought it was a great idea, Al was always up for it
and so it began.

So what did I learn…

I met and rode with some great people that i will ride with again and again
I pedalled in parts of the country i’d never ridden before
I discovered the delights of local trails and how they change daily
I learnt that it is possible to do a 14 hr day in London then go and
enjoy a fantastic night ride
I rode in rain for more than half of the 30 days and still enjoyed it
I found a desire for riding that I thought I had lost as a teenager
I can ride day after day without completely bonking (mainly thanks to
Al’s guidance)
I learnt to ride uphill and achieved many firsts this month

The aftermath
I want to ride my bike all the time and i’ve gone over to the dark
side and bought a road bike (purely to improve my fitness honest!)
I’m already planning my next 30 days of riding in September
and…..

Al is sometimes right