No post as my mother died last week. It was not unexpected as she's been very ill since before Christmas, but it's still knocked me for six. Just back from the States where her funeral was held on Wednesday. What makes it worse is that today is Mother's day in America.

The very very nice ladies at Dirt Divas allowed me to move my B2B day to the June course, free of charge. Thanks ladies ;)

Raging case of jetlag and can't really face going to work tomorrow.

Yesterday, M and I met up with N and S from www.diaryofamountainbiker.com for the first of what I hope will be many testosterone free rides. What do I mean by that? Well, rides that go at the pace of the slowest rider. At the moment, that's me on the climbs and S on the downhills, so we seem to make an excellent team.

N was very kind and sorted out a 10 mile trail at Peaslake with loops built in meaning any one of us could take a break while the others continued on, allowing us to meet back up at a central spot. This worked really well as S and I were able to take a break while the boys did a technical bit. I even did a technical downhill that was a lot of fun but learned two valuable lessons:

1) It's really hard to clip in on a bouncy downhill if you stop halfway down.
2) I need to practice riding with only one foot clipped in.

The climbs were killers for me and just drive home that, while I'm getting better, I still have a long way to go to get back my previous level of fitness. It'll get much easier as the weight drops off, too. It's already starting to happen. I'm half a stone down and am able to fit in to some clothes I bought in the January sales that were too small. I'm wearing one of the skirts right now. YAY!

S had a very bad slam a year or so ago and has lost all her confidence. She stormed up the hills, but didn't really like getting up any speed going down, but I'm so sure she'll be overtaking me going downhill, too, in no time. Then I really will be the little red caboose! The important thing is that she enjoyed it and is up for our next ride on the 9th of May at Oxshott.

All in all, Mr Ditch Witch seemed to enjoy it, but, after his H&R collarbone break last year, he's disheartened at how much fitness he's lost. The man's a demon, though, so will soon be back on form.

N appeared to enjoy it, but I suspect was losing patience with me for being so slow but was so gentlemanly that I couldn't really be sure, bless him!

The one disappointment of the day was the sausage roll from Peaslake Village Stores; too greasy, so I think it will be cake for me next time.

My Dirt Divas day is fast approaching, and, if my performance at Peaslake is anything to go by, I may be in for a world of hurt…

Only 2 and a bit weeks to my Dirt Diva day. Since Mister suggested I have his wheels, my bike is much lighter and I'm finding climbs easier, so I'm hopeful I won't be a complete sweaty, trembling mess for my Back to Basics day.

I've arranged a day at Peaslake with another girlie from www.diaryofamountainbiker.com for this Saturday. Looks like it's going to be a wet one, though.

I like getting wet and muddy, though. Once you surrender yourself to it, it's kind of liberating.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not really into segregation, but the fact is that I've heard enough stories of how women start off in mtb and it all goes horribly wrong.

Blokes say things like, "I took her to Coed-y-Brenin and had to wait around while she followed at a snail's pace, it drove me mental" or "she only wants to do easy stuff and it's SOOOOOOOOOO boring" or "I can't stand it when she cries". Well, the short answer is to stop treating her like one of your fit male friends. Even if she is already a gym goer and a size 10, doesn't mean she'll be able to leap on a bike and keep up with you.


We're just different, OK? We're not better or worse, just different.

I've been incredibly lucky to have a wonderful b/f who is very supportive and patient and for whom the idea of spending time with me is more important than getting in some mental downhills.

But, the one thing that has become obvious is that if we're going to get more girls into the sport, we need to have a community where those not so fortunate have somewhere to come and get the support and comradeship they need to catch up with their other halves.

So, the idea of this site is to try and provide that environment.

If you want to get out and ride at YOUR pace, then let's get together. Hell, we can consider it a play date for our men-folk! Let them go off and do what they want and we can do what we want. How cool would it be to be able to swap riding stories with them?

I'm intending to start a forum at some point, too, where people can organize rides all over the UK. Beginners only or family rides or whatever you want. The important thing is that the rides will be at YOUR pace where YOU are enjoying yourself. Attitudes will have to be left in the car.

In the short term though, I want this to be a hub, for me more than anyone else, of all the useful sites and funny blogs and cool gadgets and girl related stuff that I want to remember and share. But if you find it useful, too, that's even better. If you find something you like and you think other people should know about it or you just want to remember where you saw it, tell me and I'll add it.