Is it ok to post two entries about my bike-on-loan in one day!! 🙂

So today I woke up for the first time in over a week without any muscle soreness. My Olympic training exercises have subsided…till tonight when it will start all over again.

In any event, with my body feeling like new, this morning was a great opportunity to see how far I could ride in one direction and still be able to walk.

I really want to get that shaky leg feeling going. After a good hour ride, I am disappointed. The only thing feeling shaky and fast asleep is my poor derriere!!

This on-road biking this is new to me. I am used to trails where you spend 10% in the saddle and 90% standing up dodging old stumps, overhanging trees and trying to keep ahead of the hungry animals lurking in the woods.

I’ve never needed bike shorts before. You know the kind. The ones that feel like you are wearing an adult diaper.

But here I am, wearing bike shorts, working on the most obscure tan lines (I secretly hope that all the models at the next Paris fashion show are sporting bike-short tan lines, that will make me feel better!), I have a shiny new helmet and full-on bike gloves.

Today’s adventure was to bike west as far as I could and here I am in Port Credit watching boats go in and out of the harbour. Does this count for a harbour?

On the ride here I have made a discovery about biking in general.

The bike bell is something that is disliked when it is ding ding ding DINGED – like a million times and since I’ve been dinged at enough while in-line skating, I decided I would forgo the bike bell. I know the “Olympic sized horn” was a good idea but it has terrible aerodynamics.

So without a bike bell to go ding ding ding, I quietly passed a pair of fellow bikers on a lazy and wide road. I didn’t think it was necessary to make a big spectacle that I would be passing them with 5 feet between me and the closest biker, but I was WRONG!

As soon as the farthest biker realized I was going to pass them he yelled into his friend’s ear, “BIKER ON YOUR LEFT” and then preceded to DING DING DING DING his bike bell.

I raced away not sure if he was expecting me to stop and apologize for my, apparently, bad bike manners.

So the discovery is no matter with or without a bike bell, SOMEONE somewhere is going to have issue with how you play the sport. It is up to me to decide which random group of people I’d rather have yelling at me for my sport induced indiscretions 🙂 Like the lady on the path who was coming towards me yelling “BIKE COMING, BIKE COMING!!” I thought it was pretty obviously, visually, that I was biking towards them 🙂

I don’t think there is any way to please everyone and what they feel is acceptable biking behaviour. Perhaps a solution is to ride around like I have a severe case of turrets yelling at everyone and everything I pass?!

I am thinking a standard one liner like. “BIKE INCOMING, BIKE INCOMING, to your LEFT…umm no I mean your RIGHT!!!”

The last few questions I have yet to answer are:

1. How long till the bones on my buttocks form large callouses (is this even possible)?
2. When will my buttocks stop falling asleep while riding?
3. Do I need to push harder to get my legs to feel the burn on the road or should I just find some long hills…..
4. What is with the broken down lawnmower in front of the tree?