Call My Bluff!

Have you ever been scared. I mean Scared with a Capital S but excited, exhilarated and anymore words a thesaurus can come up with..... 

I'll explain, since Derby Council announced years ago that it was building a velodrome I had been saying I fancied ago around a track. The In-laws for my recent birthday called my bluff and bought me gift vouchers for stage 1 and 2 accreditation.

    

So a I found myself hurtling round a 44 degree wooden banking, whilst on a bike with no brakes and a fixed wheel and I loved every second.

Whilst no one had an off, it was certainly not easy and the track needs to be treated with the respect it deserves, I did feel a bit like 'Fat lad at the back' at times though. There were two reasons for this, firstly I don't think my fitness level was as high as some of the group, some were sporting time trialling and triathlon logos on their shirts and I tend to bimble along on my commute. The other reason was, I haven't done any club riding so I'm not used to riding on the wheel of the rider in front and that felt wrong to me.

If you have a velodrome reasonably near you, then think about having a go, because 'it's cycling (Jim) but not as we know it....' I did pass level 1 and was invited to book level 2, I'm going to get fitter and faster then re-do level 1 to gain more confidence of group riding as they get you even closer on level 2.

Whilst belting around the very top of the banking (yes we did go right up!) I was thinking something along the lines of...'I have a job I have to go to on Monday and a mortgage the size of a house (see what i did there?) so why the flip am I risking injury when I don't need to?

I know the answer though, sometimes life just pootles along at its own pace... and you have do something so far out of your comfort zone you need a taxi to get back in it...