The sting
If any of you have ever felt the sting of nettles you know how uncomfortable it can be. So if you were out on a training ride, you probably wouldn’t ride into a thicket of nettles - right? Well I didn’t intend to, but…
As I approached a very short steep hill in the wrong gear, I really didn’t think that was where I would end up. Wrong gear meant my legs wouldn’t take me up - so I rolled back to try again. You can do that on a trike. Then suddenly “ouch” - I had rolled off the path backwards - into the nettles.
The good news is that I didn’t sit in them (like the ant hill) and the sting went away before I finished the 94 km training ride .
It was a great ride with Mary and Louise (who are riding to Conquer Cancer in a few weeks time). I cycled for 6 hrs 11 minutes and averaged15.15 kmph. I think that I have proven to myself that I can manage about 100 km a day in average terrain. Feeling confident that I can have some reasonable days on the cross-Canada tour.
Stopped on my way home to buy a new blue rack bag and new red panniers to match my red & blue trike. That should be all of the shopping for now. Both me and the trike will ‘look good’. Even if we don’t go FAST!
So I think I will be ready to go at the end of the week (May 30th).
This entry was posted on Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Blind-Guy Biking, Just life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Hi Len and Judy
One of the (few) advantages of a ‘non recumbent’ bike (I hesitate to use the term ‘normal’ to recumbent tragics like you two), is that you rarely roll backwards, but of course if you do you get into more trouble than merely ending up sitting in a patch of nettles.
Shirley and I have just returned from a week of cycling in Tuscany. I can recommend it for training purposes as it consists of allmost entirely riding up and down impossibly steep hills. We never located any flat roads there, but the compensations included fabulous views and the joys of riding through 14th century hill towns, drinking Chianti and eating Panforte.
Riding across Canada will doubtless be a different experience and we salute your ‘courageous’ decision to take on the windswept Canadian outback. We look forward to following your adventure on your blog.
good luck and best wishes from Paul and Shirley