Thank You

I just wanted to take a sec to say a big "THANK YOU" to all of you who have sponsored me so far. I'm genuinely touched and while I shouldn't be surprised at your generosity, I am, so thank you again.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd better update you on the bike ride yesterday. Obviously I didn't die, so that's a plus (for me anyway). It went OK. I rode about 7 miles (according to the little computer on the front) and it felt weird, but OK. Only one minor incident....

I know I've mentioned before that the gears take a little getting used to, paddles by the brake levers. I thought I had it sussed, so I decided to tackle a bit of a hill. Head down, peddling hard, hit the bottom of the hill and started to climb. Immediately it was really hard going. Started shifting through the gears, but it wasn't helping. Stood up out of the saddle to give it some real effort, but it just got slower. Bloody hell, I was thinking, I'm really not as fit as I thought. I was grinding to a halt, starting to wobble, feet stuck in toe clips about to do a comedy slow-motion fall sideways into the hedge - when it struck me - I'd been going up through the gears instead of down (or vice-versa) and just as my momentum was about to be finally turned from forward to downward, I managed somehow in a desperate manoeuvre to shift through half a dozen gears and make it to the top of the hill! Felt good!

This moring was easy after that, just 1km in the pool, no space invader in the shower, just a nice gentle morning.

Laters!!