Happy Birthday!

So what do you do for your other half for her birthday when she's now the wrong side of 50? Well, obviously take her for a day off road training!

Which is exactly what Carl did for me today and what an awesome day it was.

He booked it with Freestyle Bikes in Mark Cross, East Sussex and it was just the two of us and our instructor, Steve. A lovely guy and very patient (quite important when dealing with me and my unique way of thinking...).

We got kitted up and started with just riding round the field and doing little tracks between the trees. Then we learnt all the things we were doing wrong! I did an off road day about seven years ago and although I thought I remembered some of it, unless you do it regularly you forget and revert to automatic reactions for riding on the road.

The great thing about doing it on someone else's bike though is that you're not afraid to give things a go because it doesn't matter if you drop it! These bikes are also designed to be dropped and you'd have to go some to actually do damage. So with less inhibitions, you give it your best.

I think we both did pretty well today. We rode over a small tree which, having come across one on a by-way on our T7s we refused to ride over. So we're hoping that we can revisit that by-way and not let our heads stop us from doing it. We practised locking up the back wheel to make it skid so that we learnt how to recover it and skills that we now need to practice so that they become more second nature.

What I realised is that since my last day years ago, I am now seven years older. I have also had an accident breaking my collar bone and had breast cancer. Even though I sometimes don't realise it, these things have a huge psychological effect that I didn't have to deal with before.

Very many aching muscles and one bruised knee later...a fantastic day.

New skills learnt and another step towards our round the world trip.