Last week, my knees started really hurting. Luckily for me, my brother has had a pretty good variety of sporting injuries and suggested I adjust the height of my saddle.

I did, and noticed the difference instantly. My knees still have a bit of “residual pain” in them, but they don’t exactly hurt while cycling. I can stretch my legs to their fullest extent and nothing curbs them, nothing holds them shorter or smaller they are meant and wanting to be. There’s the resistance from the pedals, but they give in more quickly than my legs do. If they don’t, then I change gear until they do. I need to figure out what to adjust to get the same effect on my wings ;).

Having a decent wheel is fantastic. Having a good seat height is fantastic. Wearing shoes instead of boots is helpful. Wearing a lightweight windproof jacket with a jumper is better than a thick downy coat.

And after all the moaning I’ve been doing, cycling is now fun.

I went out yesterday, on a ride that wasn’t to work. There was a goal, but the whole thing wasn’t a necessity. And it was very enjoyable, even if it did rain partway through.

There’s something very pleasing about putting effort into something and having an immediate effect. If you play with glass long enough, you might get better one day. If you put a load of washing on, it takes an hour or so to wash, and you still have to hang it out and wait for it to dry. If you ever get to the bottom of the basket, you know it’s going to be full again soon. If you start making a website there are always going to be a million things to do to make it better. If you stick to rowing every morning, you begin to notice muscles building about a month later.

Cycling’s different. If you push more energy into the pedals, you go faster. End of story.

Sometimes I need to get rid of a kind of pent-up energy/aggression I didn’t realise I was holding in. You can pour it out through your feet and leave it like a snail trail behind you. I can rant in my head and pound the words into the pedals instead of my keyboard or my people, and no one has any questions or concerns or advice or suggestions. Much as I love and appreciate those things, sometimes it’s nice to have nothing but the wind bashing my ears.

***
In other, related, news, I cut a good minute off my commute this evening, despite the strong blustery wind, and the horizontal drizzle.

In non-related news, my shelf is finished. We put it up on the wall on Friday and I haven’t stopped admiring it on my way past yet.