Ride!

My legs are tired today.

I did a ride last night that was a lot harder than I expected it to be. On reflection, I think the difficulty stemmed from two factors: the strong wind and my choice of route out of Sheffield.

There's a road that gets me to the peaks that, in my head, seems like a quick and direct route out of town and not too hilly. However, all the rides I do that use it end being horrible. The second ride I did with Tom on that May Bank Holiday used it and was almost a disaster as I hit "the wall" one third of the way round. That "No Flats" ride I did was indescribably difficult considering how short it was and last night's ride was pretty gruelling. When I got home I went on mapmyride.com to see how far I went (48.19miles) and have a look at the profile of the course. To my surprise I found the top of the road I've been using is only around 100 feet lower than the top of Mam Tor. No wonder it kills me!

When I was half-way up it a guy turned onto the road behind me on a nice bike but just wearing normal shorts and a t-shirt. I thought I would drop him easily but 30 seconds later I had a cheeky glance behind me and he was only 20 metres back. I put in a bit more effort and struggled on against the wind. After another minute I looked back and he was still only about 40 metres behind. So I decided to really put the hammer down and imagined all the phrases the Tour de France commentators use ("he's really putting the hurt into the other riders"/"they're shovelling coal now!"). It really hurt and I felt I was struggling so much I was scared he was just going to cruise past me. I also felt I couldn't have another look back as it would be too obvious that I was trying to drop him so I had to wait until the top of the hill where the road sweeps into a big "C" shape that covers about 600 metres. I looked over my shoulder nearing the top of it and couldn't see him. "He must be right behind me!!" I thought. Fortunately, he wasn't and I'd managed to drop him good and proper. Unfortunately I'd pretty much ruined the rest of the ride for myself and I'd only ridden 8 miles!

As I rode towards Winnats Pass I was genuinely worried that today would be the first day I wouldn't actually make it up. Although, when it came to it, it wasn't too much of a problem my legs felt drained of energy and the wind was relentless.

Then came a revalation. The return journey was great. My bike felt like it had a motor on it! It didn't stop the last hill hurting though. It's 4 miles of nice smooth road that's very satisfying to get to the top of. Especially yesterday.

On the way back to Sheffield I really expected my legs to get those shooting pains but fortunately I avoided them again.