Did it!

I finally got myself together to get out with the bike club again last night. It was about a year since I last rode with them and my health and fitness have been through some serious ups and downs in the meantime. It is almost exactly a year since my back gave out and left us cancelling our holiday and me lying on the floor for 3 weeks.

My back gradually improved though the summer and autumn, but I couldn't really motivate myself to make an effort to get fit again until the first months of 2011 and it has been a fairly long, slow struggle to be fit enough to ride with the guys from the club again. They will give you a bit of slack, but if you're hanging off the back too much, it won't go down well, you either keep up or go home.

The great news is that I kept up. It was a bit of a shock to the system to be hammering along at 35kph in a group instead of riding on my own, but I stayed with them for most of the ride and Hanne was there to keep me company when the faster guys picked up the speed and left us behind during the interval session.

I was happy to be home after nearly 3 hours riding and about 90km, but I survived and I feel like I am a cyclist again rather than a recovering slipped disc patient. That excuse is no longer valid.


For the record, my weight is not 94kg so I have dropped 10kg since the diet started along with the training. There's still plenty of lard around my middle, but my clothes are gratifyingly loose.