Rain, hail, or shine......but mostly rain

on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
- Genesis 7:11


I woke up today to find the weather not particularly conducive to cycling, however the optomist in me decided to risk it regardless.

Jonathan had been given strict instructions last night, "set your alarm for 9am, go to bed early, be ready when I get back from the refuge". Bicentennial Park beckoned you see.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I walked in the door at 9.53am to find that my husband had only just gotten out of bed. I was greeted with, "ughhh, im not feeling the best hey". My normal sympathetic self was completed out of action after a night shift at Camp Refugee, fortunately this was duly noted by Jonathan's PMS radar, and he quickly showered and got dressed for the day's adventure. I found out later that he was severly hung over and had not gotten to bed until 5am.

Team Dellas experienced a minor setback early in the piece when our overpriced TomTom failed to contain "Sydney Olympic Park". After a series of attempts, it was determined that "Homebush Bay" was our exact destination. 15 minutes and a hired hybrid later, we were navigating our way through the lucious landscape of Bicentennial Park.

To say that riding on relatively flat ground was a relief is an understatement. I finally was able to guage the capabilities of both GiGi and myself in partnership. We took on several mini hills, and I again was able to attempt them both seated and standing, aswell as working around the best gear setting. I'm getting better.

Jonathan and I were going great guns until a slight detour saw us out of the park and onto a series of main roads. It was at this point that the aforementioned heavens opened up. Half an hour later, and severly drenched, we made our way back to the trusty eel mobile.

I thought GiGi handled the wet quite well. Her handlebars did get exceptionally slippery however, and at one stage when I misjudged the track I did get quite wobbly. But apart from that, there were absolutely no issues.

Have to say, I loved loved loved riding today. It was so fantastic. I was expecially pleased that I kept up with Jonathan the whole time, and could have gone for much longer if it hadn't been for the rain.

We wont talk about what happened later at McDonalds. Shameful Cham, shameful.

So close...

God doesnt call the equiped, He equipes the called.

Got up today, GiGi looked ready for a ride so we decided to once again, take on the mountainous terrain that is the Baulkham Hills Shire.

Main aim for today was to try and find "flat" enough road so that i can ride for longer. I semi-achieved that........21 minutes (after adding how the length of all the songs i went through on my ipod).

I drove around in my car prior and tried to scope a few side streets that didnt look so hilly, i rode around them pretty comfortably, i must say - going down hills is ALOT of fun. But i unfortunately came back out at the bottom of Heartbreak Hill which is the only way home.

I felt reasonably confident that once again i would not make it up the hill that has now become the bane of my existence. So i tried my hill riding technique on a few smaller ones and seemed to find standing a bit easier than remaining seated. I figured it was worth a shot, and with the street a buzz with activity from Saturday morning little athletics, i didnt really want to have to get off GiGi and push her to the top in front of my fellow Baulkhamites.

For some reason unknown to me, i chose to try to do this feat riding on the footpath, and not the road. I put the ipod onto Pillar, my pump up band, and appropriately to the tune of "Fireproof" (a metaphor for escaping hell, no light hearted pop for the Cham), i entered my own version of hell.

Things i have learnt from trying to ride up hill on a footpath:

1. Footpaths are not smooth. In fact, every second section was cracked, or upraised, or have tree stumps jutting out of them;

2. people dont care much for bikes when reversing out of their driveway;

3. People like to park their cars across footpaths.

The road is there to share, but apparantly not the footpath.

Needless to say, I ended up pushing my bike up the hill. However, i still consider today a success for this reason: for a brief moment, i believed that i could make it up.