Recently I’ve discovered a whole new world of my mind that I hitherto didn’t know existed. I’ve spent the last 12+ years honing my cycling skills – on learning to be more aerodynamic so as to make the hill descents all the more exhilarating, haring at breakneck speed on my rural commute because I’m late for work again, and swerving to narrowly dodge massive potholes that threaten to usurp me in the near-dark…

Then in December I fell off my bike in a blatant patch of ice in December, on a road I’d been WARNED ABOUT, and now I’m right back to the wobbly square one learner stage where your brain just can’t comprehend the physics behind how you’re staying upright. And it wasn’t even a bad fall.

I’ve started to notice precipitous cambers on roads I hitherto thought were flat. Every glisten of wet road could be black ice lying in wait for me to skate into oblivion. I perceive every bump in the road, every wobble, the slight inequity in weight between my pannier bags. I thought I knew these roads; how had I missed all these hazards? 🤔

I have a new-found respect for any adult learning to ride a bike for the first time.

How do you recover from a fall from a bike, psychologically? Any advice is much appreciated!

On a positive note, even with all the times I’ve bailed on riding to work in near-zero conditions, just in case… I’m still well within my carbon emissions budget for the first three weeks of January! 🤩

21 January, 2020