Racehorse takes its first outing and then an ice bath.

The new Inflite duly arrived and I've taken a suitably long time to get it saddled up and out of the stable. Partly because I didn't want to set out prematurely with the setup all wrong, partly because I didn't want the inaugural ride to be in the rain and mostly because as with this blog, not much gets done between house-husbanding during the day and working shifts at night.

Since the last post I very deliberately stayed away from the bike to let the bursa settle. I managed 134 lengths of the pool in a couple of sessions but that was it.

Yesterday having finally tweaked the gears and got the saddle height as I wanted it, fitted the mud-guards and taken the pedals off the old faithful Nigel Dean, I took the bike around the block. man, what a difference.

Ironically, I'm thinking that Lance Armstrong might not have been telling the truth, when he titled his book, ' It's not about the bike.' This bike sure makes a heck of difference, even just on porridge oats! Of course I headed out into the now obligatory headwind toward Wymondham, stopping partway down the road to make a minor adjustment to the saddle.

I had suspected and am now sure that the stem is too long and will need to be changed for a shorter one if I am to add any kind of tri-bar setup for the race. This will not be because I think that I'm going to be head down for 18 hours a day, but just to provide as many options as possible, when it comes to riding position.

Anyway, there'll be plenty more time to discuss bikes and geometry as I learn more about both. Suffice to say that I was over the moon with my purchase.

Having not gone far, I then followed this up with another 80 lengths in the pool whilst my youngest daughter tore around the track at the University of East Anglia (UEA,) Sportspark http://sportspark.co.uk/

Today though I managed a decent  25 miles and was again impressed by the ease with which I was covering the ground. I was also mindful of the recent injury and promptly sat in an ice cold bath for 10 minutes when I got back.

For anyone who hasn't tried this, I was listening to Devina McCall recommend drinking a mug of hot chocolate or in my case chai latte to offset the sensation of numbing cold below the waste, and it works too. 10 minutes is all you need. Longer than that and you'll start to languish in hypothermia territory, so don't punish yourself over it. It's painful enough as it is.