All about me

When I'm not riding and not being mum I like to put on my photographers hat. I hope to merge the two one day....Although I really will need to keep my average over 20kms because otherwise I'll run out of daylight. If you interested in seeing some of my work visit my redbubble site.

I'm a relatively recent 40 something, and decided to take up cycling. It's something I wanted to do in my early 20's and decided to save up and buy a decent road bike. I got an envelope to save money in and wrote "bike" on the front. Now I recently found this envelope in amongst books that had been packed away. It had the grand total of $50.

So this year for my birthday I bought a bike. I had absolutely no idea what sort of bike nor what sort of riding I wanted to do. So I started looking around at everything. Mountain, hybrid, flat bar, road bikes - I had no idea what was good, bad, quality or rubbish. So after much deliberating about things I knew nothing about I chose a Trek WSD 7.5 FX. I love it, I've nothing to compare it against of course, but I do think I made the right choice for me.

I started doing small rides around home and I downloaded a few cycle apps for the iPhone so I could map my route, and was pretty proud when I did my first 10k ride. When I rode about 20kms to Neutral Bay and back I thought it was such a long way (although it was one of those awful heat waves days). I now do that route as part of my regular training, and wish I had the time to go further. However Mums duty's calls and I'm needed elsewhere!

I've regularly ride from home to Sydney Olympic Park and I swear that every time I wont get lost...my handy SOP map looks very well used... maybe next time.
I'm finding my way slowly, and I'm starting to realise what I like is the journey and I like a destination. I'm not interested in doing laps and laps as fast as I can, nor am I doing it to become fit, that's just an added bonus. I enjoy investigating places to go, I like seeing new places, or places I've only driven through.

I've now done a few 100km rides which was a milestone for me...however I've been told that I should now work towards rides that are 160kms as that's about 100miles and that's the 'thing' to do. I'll need to increase my average though otherwise it'll be a 24 hour event!
It's only been four months so far (and that includes six weeks with a broken wrist, yes a bike accident), but overall I'm happy with how far I've come and I really really look forward to how far I'll go.
I'd love to hear from anyone else that has similar feelings and any recommended rides would be appreciated.