Bicycle rage
After having the hangover of all hangovers on Friday, I have an abstemious weekend without a drop of alcohol passing my lips, only leaving the house to undertake such exciting activities like go to Sainsburys to buy fruit, muesli and soya milk. So when Monday morning arrives, I bounce out of bed the second my fake sunrise comes on full of the joys of spring and skip into work looking forward to a running commute tonight.
Back in the real world however, I spend all day thinking why have I told myself I’m running home tonight? But run home I do and as I get to Essex Road there’s a man shouting at a woman on a bicycle. On the pavement. Boo hiss. He’s shouting and swearing at her and pointing to the road saying “there’s the fucking road, this is the fucking pavement” but I can’t hear what she’s saying so I turn my iPod off so I can be nosy but she’s got an annoying squeaky voice like the bimbo in the office next door so I turn my iPod back on to drown out Mrs Squeaky Voice Pavement Cyclist and the man’s still shouting and swearing at her and usually I wouldn’t condone a man shouting and swearing at a woman in a bullying and intimidating manner but she’s cycling on the pavement and therefore deserves everything she gets. I decide to leave them to it in case the police are called as it is getting rather heated and I resist the urge to kick one of her wheels before running off really quickly and continue with my journey which remains uneventful and I’m going to try really hard to get three runs in a week from now on which only leaves tomorrow for me to do another running commute – which according to my marathon training schedule has to be extended to take in 8 miles – as my new evening class starts on Wednesday and on Thursday Gary’s coming round to be beaten at Scrabble and partake in some unabstemious behaviour involving beer and pizza and Friday’s the day before my long run and so I can’t run home that night and it would be nice if someone could invent some more days in the week please.
Stats
Distance: 6.16 miles
Time: 1:07:25
Pace: 10:56 m/m
Calories: 615
Bicycle rage incidents: 1
Days in week: Not enough
Music
Hole
Faith No More
David Bowie
The Cult
Franz Ferdinand
Jamiroquai
Sleeper
The Twang
PIZZA…..YUM, I still haven’t had any this year yet. I’m starting to really fancy the idea of one though. I agree with Phil’s comment the other day, we seem to have stoppped eating meat as well – no need.
Well done on the running – I love the iPod world filter.
What’s the new course?
arhh… essex road (my street) is usually such a civil place… did you happen to notice the new banksy on the essex road chemist?
New days of the week are only allowed if they are work-free. 😉
Have to get out tomorrow morning and check out this Banksy as I’m so out of touch it’s right by my house and I knew nothing of it.
I am always amazed at the anger on the roads. Everybody seems to hate everybody else. For every cyclist complaining about being cut up by a car there will be a car driver complaining about cyclists jumping traffic lights. For every pedestrian angry at the cyclist on the pavement there will be a cyclist angry about pedestrians just wandering into the road.
You are right stick your ipod on and insulate yourself.
Is this the official start of your marathon training or are you in the pre-training preparation stage?
Well good job for the run home and leaving well enough alone. Too much violence in this world.
Cyclists do make me mad… apparently those big red things called traffic lights don’t apply to them. Either that or they can’t see them. But then they moan when motorists can’t see them and knock them off their bikes.
Emma, as a cyclist, I must admit that moaning is the least of my reactions if I get knocked over.
Visability is an interesting problem because we only tend to see what we are looking for. There is a nice video from TFL about illustrates this by testing your powers of observation.
How about a Frataday which we could fit in just before Friday. Bin Thursday and have 3 days off?
Sorry Highway Kind, I was being slightly tongue-in-cheek there. And not all cyclists are that bad. But unfortunately there are the odd few who squeeze up on the nearside, or weave in and out unpredictably, then wonder why motorists moan about them.
Plus one nearly knocked me over as he tore down the river path yesterday at great speed (on the pedestrian side of the path, too), then swore at me and my dogs like we were in the wrong and shouldn’t have been there, so I was probably not in a good mood towards cyclists after that 😉
Emma, I thought that by overstating so much you were being a bit satirical. Inconsiderate cyclists piss me off as well.
The thing that I see more and more are people so fixed on their own journey that they take no account of other people. They get angry at anything that even slightly impedes them. Motorists, cyclists, pedestrians are all infected. The only real difference is that the capacity for harming others decreases with speed.
There is just too much anger