International training, camels and coming home!

Even on our week in away in the sun coachmaster was still thinking of my training programme...the wily one thought it'd be good to hire a couple of bikes and head for the hills. Which we did and just to prove it I will try and post a photo of us with a passing camel which proves the training continues even in Morocco! The standard of the hire bikes was not the highest. We kept stopping so John could adjust my saddle upwards. Just to realise a few yards further on that it had slipped down again and my knees were level with my ears....not good for the knee joints at all at all. I felt like my 8 year old self when I first got my Chopper bike. Remember the Chopper? Still we covered 16km or so, got to see some of the surrounding countryside and met a nice man and his camel. So it was a worthwhile exercise, if not necessarily the most strenous exercise! Plus it was a treat riding out in the warm sunshine for a change.
Got back very late last night/early this morning (from Morocco, not the bike ride)..After too short a nights sleep I took Finn out for his walk then joined John at the tail end of his training session for today. My first time out on the roads on my race bike....well properly, as I have had it for a few years but usually prefer the trusty mountain bike. But this bike and I need to become new best friends as we are going to be seeing a lot of each other over the course of the next 6 months. After the first five minutes I nearly ditched this fledgling friendship and called the whole thing off!
As I keep saying....it is impossible to leave this hamlet and not go up a hill! So for the first while it was a white knuckle ride as the road bike is soooooo much more skittish than my mountain bike. It felt like going from a carthorse ride to a frisky thoroughbred. Coming downhill was worse as it seemed like we were going at the speed of light. Well, we did get up to about 45km an hour at one stage and I swear I had the brakes on. The whole riding position produces an array of aches and pains very quickly from stiff neck to sore back to aching thumbs. Yes aching thumbs. Alot of which, I must say, were hugely alleviated when John reminded me to relax and I took heed. But how to relax when feeling totally out of control on this mad machine? I need to become a Zen cyclist...and fast.
Anyway the good news is that we covered more distance on the road bike (20km) in an hour and 8 mins. And despite all my misgivings I am going to give this bike another chance!