Injury setback...and alternative forms of transport

I started this blog post about a week ago and never quite finished it. In the wake of the referendum result and ensuing chaos...I just reopened it and it made me smile that I started it with "the bad news"...post 24th June I have a different perspective on bad news! But anyway, here it is...


The bad news is that I am having a forced rest from buggy running due to an aching hip - the same pain I suffered from a couple of years ago, which was diagnosed as "gluteal tendonitis". I went to physiotherapy for it in 2014, so I have exercises that I should probably still have been doing, so when I started to notice that running was hurting again I decided to take a 2 week break from running and make sure I do my exercises every day. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to training asap.

In the meantime I have continued the routine of babywearing for my exercise...carting a ~9 kilo baby around with me as I walk around Peckham and Lewisham should help maintain my fitness level! I've learnt how to carry Angel on my back in the Manduca soft structured carrier, which is much more comfortable. She also seems very happy with it. I've been trying to learn how to back-carry using a woven wrap but so far it is proving challenging - I keep trying to get her on my back with the "santa toss" technique as show-cased in this video but it's tricky. It doesn't help that every time I pick to try it seems to coincide with a screaming fit from the baby, guaranteed to make mastering a new skill impossible...

And for longer journeys we have now ordered a Bakfiets cargo bike from London Green Cycles!

This is going to be our transport method for taking Angel to and from nursery when I go back to work in November, and we hired it for a week last month to test it out. It's extremely fun to ride and feels very stable. "Why not just put a child seat on the back of a normal bike?" you may be asking yourself. Well...mainly just because it's fun. But additionally the Bakfiets has a great rain cover so Angel will not get wet. We can carry two children easily with no modifications. There's space to carry shopping which will be useful (we are a car-free household). Some people (admittedly, this would be the people who sell cargo bikes...) say that it's a safer option for cycling with a child, as the wider frame means cars give you a wider berth (and, I suppose, because the width forces you to cycle rather sedately - no popping out and overtaking buses on narrow roads). Safety is a priority for obvious reasons and because we live very close to the Old Kent Road which is not the quietest of roads.