Bike to Work for Climate Week Journey #3: Saddle sore

Today was the first proper experiment with the morning school run. Sadly my posterior is starting to feel the effects of the unaccustomed cycling so it was rather gingerly that I settled into the saddle.

We set off down the bus lane on Wokingham Road quite merrily, with Millie chatting nineteen to the dozen and greeting the people at the bus stop as she passed. Unfortunately (for me) she was still chatting at top speed as we tackled the Hamilton Road hill. "Come on darling, pedal" I gasped, or words to that effect, "I AM pedalling mummy, you don't need to keep telling me," came back the suspiciously unbreathless reply. Hmmm. Eventually we had to stop just before the top and walk the last section.

For the rest of the way we kept largely to the pavements, not willing to risk the Reading traffic, and we made it to school before the teachers opened the door to let the girls in. In time terms we lost practically nothing compared with using the car, as traffic is fairly heavy and there are a lot of queues at bottlenecks and traffic lights which didn't affect us on the bike. We didn't set off from home any earlier, and saved time by not having to park five minutes' walk from the school gate.

We also got to show off a bit: Millie was thrilled to show her friends how she had travelled to school, and some of the other parents were interested in the school-run experiment, plus complimentary about the exercise aspect.

I freewheeled down the hill to work, really feeling the difference of not having Millie on the back, and made it to the office on time. I had to take five minutes to get changed and freshened up, however, so was five minutes late to my actual desk.

It's a beautiful morning here in Reading and really great for cycling, but where it's slightly warmer I did break into a gentle sweat, and unfortunately there are no showers at Kyocera Mita, so I've had to do my best with the bathroom and deodorant. I'm certain my colleagues will mention it if there's any offensive odour, however, because that's the kind of colleagues they are!