Another wheeling update

Tried another chair at wheely racing tonight. It was agony!

I now know just about enough to appreciate a few more things about racing wheelchair design. The chair I used tonight was smaller than the one I normally use in terms of overall length. It was also substantially lighter, which definitely made the steering much easier.

Unfortunately, the frame wasn't quite the right size for me. I fitted in the seat, although the back of it was very loose so I tipped forwards a lot, which put me in a bad position for pushing and has also resulted in what I can only describe as welts on my legs, where the sides of the cage rubbed them. Ouch! The foot plate was also quite wobbly because it was just hanging down from a fabric strap, so I couldn't really get myself into a secure position (unlike the chair I usually use, where I can get nicely wedged in). There was a useful strap to stop me falling out of the chair when I leant forwards which went over my legs and supported my chest, but I found that when I leant that far down I couldn't actually reach the wheels (they were behind me because I was still falling forwards too much) and, even more annoyingly, the added weight made the frame press down onto the wheels so that all my effort was immediately wasted.

Basically, I was completely the wrong shape and weight for the chair and as a result I had a really difficult session.

Lest this should sound like a moan, it was also a really useful session. The frame rubbed on the wheels whatever position I sat in, so I was still having to push against a lot of resistance. This was exhausting but really, really good practice and great for building up the power in my feeble little arms. It's not something I particularly want to repeat (certainly the skin on my legs won't thank me if I do!) but it was good for me to do the entire session even with that resistance - it proved that I was mentally tough enough, even though I was going twice as slowly as usual (sob), and it gave my arms a really decent workout. Also, since we did a timed 1k, it has set me with a benchmark time that is so ridiculously slow that I am too embarrassed to record it here, but am confident that I can easily beat it next time!

Really looking forward to getting everything sorted as the right size for me. Then I will have no excuse, and will have to be unstoppable!