My recent
crash and the thread that developed got me thinking about how I ride through London.
I came to the conclusion that whilst I am safer than most riders out there, most of the time, I am pushy, and probably overconfident of my handling abilities - often pushing myself and Gen right to the limits of grip / lung capacity / braking distance. Whilst I am dead calm, in race mode, I have a couple of scares per day. Little things like having to flick the bike through a tight gap, or a rear wheel in the air e-stop.
I had a dream last night, I was flying along a line of traffic in full sprint, aiming for a gap behind a big truck. I was in a hurry because I was on the wrong side of a narrow stretch of road and traffic had started coming towards me.
So far, so real - this happened to me last week. But instead of what I did last week - flick Gen through the gap behind the truck and pull off shooting the gap between the truck and the pavement (I couldn't have stopped, I had to make the corner). Instead I slammed into the back of the truck, hearing my skull fracture and feeling my teeth explode out of my cheeks.
I woke up at that point, with a monster nose bleed on the go. After cleaning myself up I had to watch TV for a while, I was too shaken to go back to sleep.
I am taking it to be a sign that I am riding faster than my spirit guide can fly.
So today when I left the house, I made an effort to make sure I was riding within my limits. The objective was to get to work (18miles) without having to make any emergency moves that could have been prevented by having more time to react.
It was a complete sucess
I had a lovely ride in, and was so much smoother than normal. I also had a really nice chat with a woman on a decent hybrid as we patiently queued through a section where last week I would have raced round the outside. I was predicting traffic flows better and using my brakes less. I arrived at work 6minutes slower than a full on powerfest.
Thinking about how much I want to keep cycling, and the future with Emily I want to make, house, kids etc I am hereby slowing down a notch. I won't be slow, but I will be paced. From now on, my path is Zen.
