How to Combine Bikes and Babies #2 May 22, 2011

While pregnant with Cadence, we purchased a second-hand Chariot Cheetah bike trailer on Trade Me. It was our intention to take her out on rides – out and about in town, on sealed cycle ways, and when she gets a bit older, on gravel and more bumpier terrain.

The past month has been an exciting time for us – we’ve discovered that our 100 sq. metre house, while compact and easy to heat, was rapidly getting cluttered up with baby-related stuff. So much in fact, that if Cadence was lying on the floor in the lounge surrounded by a few toys, it was almost impossible to lie down next to her. So we started house-hunting with the intention of buying something towards the end of the year. That was until we found “our dream home”. 3 bedrooms plus an office, a big lounge, deck with views overlooking the city, large kitchen, internal access garage, and located in a suburb that we’ve always aspired towards. Within a month, we had bought this place and sold our current place. As people kept commenting, no, we did not muck around!

So how do the two above paragraphs link together? Well, when I pictured us using the trailer, it was with us living in our old place on a valley floor with nice flat access into town. Our new place however, is up Signal Hill (yes – location of awesome downhill, and some lesser-ridden XC, tracks). This however, means a big climb to get home. It appeared that the use of the trailer was now going to be somewhat limited.

As Cadence now has good head control and is 6 months old, we thought it was time to try her out in the trailer. We attached the trailer to my Superlight, strapped her in, and rolled gently along to Chingford Park, conveniently located practically next door to our current place. (As an aside, we’re really going to miss the park, as Scotty’s Ode to Chingford attests.) As Scotty rode alongside keeping an eye on her, it seemed that she was quite comfortable in there (or as Scotty put it: “yeahnah, she’s chilled as”). As we headed home, it looked like she was about to fall asleep in there. So I thought  ”hmmm, well while it’s a nice day, I may as well carry on and ride as she sleeps”.

Scotty waved us off as Cadence and I headed down the road. The original plan was to head along the flat following the cycling routes towards the city and back, but as we approached the intersection that leads up the hill to our new house, I changed my plan and headed up the hill.

A quick glance over my shoulder and I saw that Cadence was now fast asleep. So the aim was to keep steadily moving so that she didn’t wake up from sudden changes in velocity. Up, up, up. Spinny, spinny, spin. A few steep pinches where I was on the nose of the saddle and really feeling the extra 7.5kg of baby + the weight of the trailer. A few (OK, a LOT of) strange glances from passers by who looked at me like I was insane for riding a bike with a bike trailer in tow up the hill. A few moments where I wish I had brought a drink bottle along as the heat of the sun got to me. But finally, we made it outside our new house. I stopped and paused to enjoy the view of the city, to catch my breath, and to look back to check on Cadence (who had just awoken). I felt a real sense of achievement that I had made it up the hill in my current unfit state, towing a baby at that!

Slowly back down the hill we went, with me making sure that I was taking the smoothest lines possible, and Cadence happily playing with her toys in the back. As we approached home, I reflected upon the fact that I had just climbed the exact same hill that I had struggled to climb on my first group ride with the R&R Sport Monday night womens group, led by Sara Macdonald (now Richardson). Although I hadn’t done much riding over the past 6 months, I must have some residual fitness left over from the years of riding beforehand. It gave me hope that maybe with some more riding, I can one day get back to where I was before riding-wise. Sure, I won’t have the time to train as intensively as I once did, and to be honest, my priorities are family first bikes second now, but  it made me think that perhaps I won’t have to give up racing after all.

In any case, at least I now know that living up a hill is no longer an excuse for not using the bike trailer..

Looking knackered after arriving home from my ride.

Cadence chilling in her trailer

Altitude graph of today’s ride (courtesy of http://nz.mapometer.com/en/) for those who are interested!

One Trial Learning July 7, 2010

In Psychology, we sometimes talk about one-trial learning – where it only takes one experience for an organism to learn an association between stimulus and response, or between behaviour and it’s consequences. This is particularly true for aversive events – you only have to stick your hand in fire once to learn that it’s hot and you shouldn’t do that again (well, hopefully!).

Last year, I headed out on a ride on the Pineapple track, where I practically froze to death, and wrote a blog post entitled “lessons learnt“. These lessons being:

1. Check the weather forecast, track conditions, and pack a windproof jacket. Especially when heading up to where there’s frost/ice on the tracks at almost 700m above sea-level and the strong, gusty north-easterlies are super-chilly..

2. Don’t ride to the meeting point when it involves an hour of uphill.. especially after racing the day before.

3. Don’t offer to tail-end charlie when you’re only wearing a merino singlet and a “warm-up” jacket.. Brrrrrrrrrrr!! No chance to warm up and no chance to stop and put something warmer on.

4. Louis Garneau windtex gloves are NOT as good as one would think in such conditions. My fingers were thoroughly frozen..

5. Living in a valley called North East Valley is an absolute b*tch to ride home in when the northeasterly is blowing right through. I was riding home in my small chain-ring on the flat.

I’m happy to report that, in addition to all the rats, birds, gorillas, invertebrates (and various other animals) that have demonstrated one-trial learning in various psychology experiments, I too can learn successfully following just one trial!

Tonight’s Pineapple track ride was in stark contrast to last winter’s one. It  helped the the weather conditions were calm (albeit cold). But I’m happy to say that I remembered all the points above:

1. I wore a windproof, waterproof jacket, paired with a merino Hot Toddy and a riding top.

2. I was kindly dropped off at the meeting point so I didn’t have to ride there.

3. I didn’t tail-end charlie (although hung around at the back and got plenty warm on the uphill with my lack of fitness!)

4. I wore two pairs of gloves – standard Fox ones paired with some Marmot windproof gloves over the top.

5. Thank goodness for the calm conditions – the ride home was a LOT more pleasant this time!

So all up, a far more enjoyable experience tonight! We had fantastic views of Mosgiel and Dunedin, had an interesting encounter with a possum, and a great time swooping through the singletrack in the trees. Cheers Sara for booking the track, and cheers to all the girls for their company on a great ride