Woo Hoo, I'm a Cyclist!

Rob bought me a bike today; it's fab. I took it out for a 6-mile spin with him and Ben this afternoon, and I like it a lot. I haven't done vast amounts of cycling since I hit my teens - 4 days at Center Parcs earlier this year, one day cycling round London with Sarah last October, and about an hour in St Lucia in 2006 - but I'm excited to get started again. Particularly because Andy told me he lost a load of weight through cycling...

Weather permitting, I'm going to ride to the office and back a couple of days this week. This will greatly increase the amount of exercise I do - I currently do about half an hour a day, whereas the ride to work will take me the best part of an hour, then I'll have to ride home as well. I bought myself a load of kit to go with the bike - helmet (of course), panier rack (am going to borrow Rob's spare panier), little bag to go underneath my saddle for my keys, a spare inner tube and tyre lever, a pump and a bottle cage, plus a couple of cycling jerseys and some gloves. The extras came to half the cost of the bike itself!

Here I am after we got back from our ride this evening. In hindsight I should have had Rob take the picture before I got red-faced and sweaty...