Road cycling ahoy!

Gold Olympic medal holder Kristin Armstrong (Women's Time Trial)

Today I made the impromptu decision to cycle to my Grandparents' house, after what is likely to be an entire year's abstinance from any vehicle with less than four wheels. My boyfriend kindly gifted me his road bike because quite frankly, the poor old thing wouldn't stand a chance under the strain of his almost-100kg mass.

Having only ever ridden my childhood bicycle, this provided quite a different cycling experience. As with a standard road bike, the handles are lower down, the gears are not by the handles (I actually cycled in first gear the entire way to my Grandparents' house for sheer fear of handling the metal levers that resembled gears - and quite rightly were, as my Dad informed me upon my arrival), and the general positioning makes for quite an uncomfortable ride - for a woman, at least. Perhaps I needed more adequate seat padding.

Even so, I enjoyed reexperiencing the whipping of this late summer's air around my face (minus the odd and inevitable fly-in-mouth/eye situation). It lifted my mood immensely, and made a great change to my usual stuck-in-a-rut exercise routine. I think it's a great idea to mix up your exercise routine every so often; I know I'm a 'repetitive exerciser' as I choose to partake in the same cardio activities and ab exercises, but it's invigorating to mix things up a bit and challenge different muscle groups more intensely. My quads are definitely feeling the mix up!