Getting back on my bike

At the start of July this year, I decided something needed to be done. I was really putting on weight and taking no exercise. The reason was obvious -- I was working from home. It was then I decided to get back on my bike and rekindle my love of cycling.

At the start of 2009 we moved our design studio into our house. Firstly into the garage, then in May into a brand new studio at the bottom of the garden. Gone was my small commute from home, into the centre of Reading. I often cycled or walked the 1.5 miles from home to the old studio. Even when I took the bus, I still took a walk at lunchtime. Since working from home my exercise consists of 20 meters down the end of the garden and back again. Not good.

I wondered what to do about it all. I had joined the gym about 10 months previously, but never really went. I find going to the gym and sweating over some equipment in a room really artificial. I didn't stick at it and lost interest. I have never liked running as a sport for some reason. The simplicity is wonderful but it has never appealed to me.

Getting back on my bike was staring me in the face. So obvious, yet for some reason it had not occurred to me.

I have always loved cycling. Like so many people, as a child cycling gave me freedom and an opportunity to explore. From there I got more serious about it, read the right cycling magazines, worked in a bike shop as a teenager, and did some racing. After University there came a career, commuting to work, getting married and then children. Cycling disappeared off my activity list.

So I decided. I would start riding 'properly' again to get fit, enjoy being on a bike and try and acheive some long held cycling goals (more on those in another post). This blog is a record of how I get on and what I find out on the way.