the day after

So I got up on my day off, to head in to the west end to collect my bike from work. To bring her(I'm still deciding if I want to name my bike) home! Taz met me there, to guide me through the streets of London. I twinged a little when I looked upon the plastic bike seat again. I knew I would not love this bike until I got a new comfy seat. So after lowering my bike seat a little, off we headed to Brick Lane Bikes, in the east end.

For some reason I felt less daunted riding than the day before. And cycling through the back streets of Soho I had a big smile on my face. It got a little scarier as we rode on the main roads, and stop starting at traffic lights. But sure enough, whenever I felt I wanted to stop for a breather, there was a cycle path to hop onto.

When we got to Brick Lane I found the sort of seat I was after...lots of padding!

I feel far more comfortable riding now :)

So after a long coffee break, we continued the journey back to my house. There was a hill or two we encoutered. As we approached the first one my face dropped. In my head I was thinking "I'm riding a single speed, I can't do this!" But it was the route we had to take, so screw it. I got some momentum behind me first, but it was fine. Sure I had to catch my breath for a few minutes afterward...but it was fine.

And although I was immensly exhausted (we ended up cycling around for 2 hours in all!) I had this amazing release of energy when I got home, and I couldn't stop smiling.