June 13th, 2015 Cycling: TheTug and Recoil for Chris and Marcia

Fear and Longing in Passage

Marcia Writes:

So, this is National Bike Week ( www.bikeweek.ie ). Thanks to the goodwill of my sporty friend, I have a bike. She gave it to me last year when she upgraded. 

The only Irish made bike: http://www.highnelly.ie/

Her old bike was a massive upgrade for me too. Before that, I used to puddle along the Passage West - Blackrock line occasionally during the summer on my aunt's 100-year old High Nelly, small dog in Wiser bottle box on the backer and bigger dog on a lead running alongside. Several of the kids usually in tow on various sizes of bikes, generally rescued from the civic amenity site in Raffeen. Travelling Wilburys!

But my bike has been growing rustier and rustier as I spend more and more time rushing between work, being mom's taxi, cooking dinners and preparing tomorrow's school lunches. To the extent that I am now positively scared to get up on it. Even worse is the ghastly hill up to our house that seems to go on forever. Embarrassingly, I always have to get off and walk.

Marcia is not alone
in her uphill struggles
as this blogger in Austin acknowledges:
 http://www.treegrowsinaustin.com/2010/04/

On the other hand, Chris is 13. He can cycle anything. Nothing can kill him, stop him or slow him. He wants to road cycle from Passage West to Crosshaven. Thinking of my lovely son negotiating the narrow roads around Raffeen and the fast cars clipping hedges, I baulk.

So Chris and I have both taken on a challenge. Cork City Council is running Operation Transportation for the week. We've signed up to cycle at least 10 minutes every day, keeping a diary of what we do, where we go and how we feel. He's champing at the bit. I'm dreading it. He will need to try road cycling. I will just need to try!

We started this morning with 3 hours of an "introduction" to our bikes outside the main gates of UCC:

• How they work, 
• How to recognise when they need attention and 
• The basics of road cycling safety.

I felt like a total cheat for driving with the bikes to the UCC car park! I had visions of my two-wheeled rust bucket being pitted against Lycra and carbon wheels. Thankfully, no. My chariot was perfectly adequate. And I even had company in walking rather than cycling up Donovan's Road. A thoroughly enjoyable session and a very gentle confidence builder for both Chris and for me, albeit in different ways.

So how I'm going to fit 10 minutes of cycling in to my already overstretched daily routine, I don't know. It'll take me 10 minutes alone to make it back up the estate home! But I've got to start somewhere, so here goes ... 

http://www.inspireux.com/2014/06/21/methods-to-achieve-user-delight/