With having left writing my blog for a few days I have lots to catch up on, so in my customary style I shall try to be brief. :) Actually I'm going to break this down into separate posts so you don't fall asleep before the end.
As it had been more than a couple of days since I had last seen a movie I decided to pop out on Thursday afternoon and catch Date Night with Steve Carell and Tina Fey. Trailers had looked good and the movie was fair but I felt that it fell in a comedy gap. It seemed to be aiming it self at adults then it would switch to kid style humour the next and just felt it couldn't decide which it was. It was a little like Adventures in Babysitting if anyone remembers that classic but didn't quite make it. Good but not great.
With my purchase of my bike the night before, it was time to give it a go. Sukhi volunteered to cycle down to running club with me to show me the safest way downtown during rush hour traffic. It should be mentioned that apart from a cycle ride around Stanley Park shortly after I got here I don't think I have sat on a bike in about 16 years. Luckily the old adage proved true, it was just like riding a bike, and I set off in hot pursuit of Sukhi. I'm glad I was recording the route on my Garmin as I would never be able to repeat the route on my own. I was so busy alternating been gasping for air, dodging traffic and trying to remember correct hand signals that where we were going ranked very low on my lists of concerns.
There was one other concern that was bothering me and was progressively becoming more of an issue as the journey continued. To be delicate about it, let's just say it was in the saddle area that the problem was presenting. The seat I have on the bike is I think as bike seats go pretty comfortable but even still after 20 minutes I had noticed my level of discomfort rising dramatically. I kept finding excuses to stand up on the pedals and surreptitiously jiggle 'things' around a bit. And to add to this was the fact that even though we were peddling into a pretty strong headwind I was sweating so much that my clothes were rapidly becoming nothing but damp rags.
We did arrive without any major issues and the relief to step off the bike was only matched by my concern about having to make it home later, which would also be going up hill. I did walk around for the next 10 minutes looking like I had just stepped out of a western and I do have a huge new found respect for Sarah, Sukhi, Bill, Jess and all the others members who cycle down to the club before running, because as for me, the last thing I felt like doing was heading out for a run.
One big plus was that Ellie was back in town for a race (more to follow in next post about that) and had come out to have a gentle run with us and to say hello. It is always good to have Ellie back running with us and due to the fact that Susan, Terry and Karen were also tapering for the Vancouver Half Marathon on Sunday we all took a slightly slower paced run out to Second beach, which the slower pace worked just fine for me as I was growing more and more concerned that I may have had extensive bruising of the old man fruit.
While it was still a little windy it was a great night for a run along the sea wall through English Bay. The beach volley ball people have started to come out already and there was a good group of people enjoying the sun and sand.
And as always, when we have any kind of excuse, as soon as the run was over we headed for a drink. With Ellie visiting and everyone wanting to catch up it was a good sized crowd and we even got some friends from the Vancouver Falcons (running club for the serious/good people) to come have some drinks too.
In retrospect it probably wasn't the best idea to pair up the first night of cycling to the night I drink the most beer I have drunk this year but hey at the time it seemed to be the thing to do. Luckily for me, Barry, Sarah and Victoria had also decided to join in the new drink/bike program as well, so I was in good company as we set off amid slight concern that none of us would actually see another dawn.
This concerns proved completely unfounded, for the first 100 yards anyway. Just as I had gained some momentum and balance there was a small strangled sound of surprise from behind me and when I looked around I found a car bearing down on one of our group who was sitting in the middle of road with a bike wrapped round them. Whilst I won't name names, Barry (oops) had got his wheel 'stuck' in the rail tracks that line the island and had gracefully gone over the handlebars. Roadkill was averted and after some small running repairs and brushing off we all got underway again pretty quickly.
It actually was a fairly pleasant ride home, going along the creek with city reflecting in the water and dodging the odd small dog on the stupid extendable leashes I could see the benefits of cycling and I as for near misses of me hitting the side and going into the water, well lets not dwell on minor details. The uphill journey home wasn't to bad either, although I have a suspicion that this may have been due to the beer scooter effect. I do recall after having left Barry and then Sarah to finish my ride home, coming up next to another cyclist at some traffic lights. I'm not sure he realised we would be drag racing off of the green light but suffices to say I took him with ease, style and grace.
Overall a good first attempt of the journey in all. Saved me money and time waiting for buses and trains and also got to see some nice views of the city. One slightly perturbing thought though is the fact that on the way down to club it was a journey of 10k on the way back it was nearly 12k, might need to work on that return route.
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