Asking for help in unlikely places

Recently, you might know my life has become much less difficult. My beloved had his surgery and continues his recovery in leaps and bounds (without, of course, any actual leaping or bounding). Rehabilitation includes a has-to-do: a couple of months of very gentle exercise followed by a return to the exercise he has done for many years with a group called Tickers. Tickers is for people with heart issues and he was referred to them when he first had problems in 2012.

Occasionally, he also used to go on a bike ride if Sunday mornings happened to be sunny. I always knew that if I went with him he would go more often but therein lies the problem. I hate riding a bike. I do have a bike, which I bought when I did a 35-mile bike ride for charity. The plus of doing that ride was that the roads were closed and cleared. There were no people, small children or small dogs to run over and I had my fabulous avid cycler friend there to cycle with me. The minus? It was 35 miles. Anyway I did it, and then the bike went into the shed and then into its storage box in the garden.

Every so often I would take it out and I would go with beloved on a Sunday morning. I hated it. I wobbled and I worried about scratching someone’s car, that I would run over an old lady, a child or a small dog! I would come back feeling stressed and nervous with a sore throat. The sore throat was because I would spend a lot of time shouting warnings to people who were walking, jogging, walking their dog, taking the cherubic children out to get some air. So I would be shouting for them to give me room always explaining that I was new to this bike riding malarkey. (Yes I do have a bell but I was too nervous to loosen my grip on the handlebars long enough to ring it)

Anyway, while beloved was in hospital I started to wonder how I could solve this problem so I could support my beloved when he wanted to do some exercise and go on a bike ride. So I bought a trike. I think I had one when I was about four but I don’t really remember the actual riding of the trike. Because I had no memories and knew no one who owned one I just bought one. How difficult could it be? Flippin impossible is the answer! I took it outside, got on it and careered into the bins, then into the road, fortunately there was no traffic so I was fine.

So my trike (Trixie the traveller), who is huge, is sat in the garage. Actually she is sat in a three-man tent in the garage to keep her protected from the snails which also live there. What to do? Well I joined an online group and members told me that practice was the thing. They suggested empty car parks to build up confidence, and until I began to know that it is like driving a car not like riding a bike. So the ‘what’ was solved, but not the where. Then I had an idea. My dentist is at the bottom of my road, and he has a car park, which he doesn’t use on Sundays. I rang him and asked if I could use it and he said no problem. So on Sunday I am going to practice cycling figures of eights on his flat cark park. Beloved is coming too, with a chair, so he can shout encouragement, take pictures, give feedback and possibly supply chocolate!

I am sure I will eventually learn to ride Trixie and go out on Sunday rides. But along the way I have had help from complete strangers from across all parts of the UK, from friends who have just said “You’ll do this” and from my dentist. Who’d have thought he’d actively help me in my quest to get exercise, but I had to ask because he is a great dentist but he is not a mind-reader.

If you would like some help from me, then go to:

https://www.glenyschatterley.uk.com/free-steps-to-success/?and download my

7 Stepping Stones to success.

Have fun,

Glenys