OK, so I had a blinding Dragon ride. I’m still kinda gobsmacked by that. Let’s face it, that kind of performance is totally out character, and quite probably a complete fluke. In years to come I’ll be sitting in various cafés, recounting the time I was 234th…and everyone else will be yawning and ignoring the wrinkly misguided nostalgic cyclist in the corner…
But that was Sunday. Today is Tuesday. And that little internal voice was off… Well, it could be my internal voice, it could be my bike telepathically communicating with me – we are very close after all. Either way… It’s sometimes hard to make out what it’s saying. Sometimes it’s just a general I need to be out on my bike feeling. Sometimes it’s telling you that it’s way too windy out there and you should stay at home and be safe. It’s a chatty little thing. Today it was wondering whether or not I could actually do hills. I mean, maybe Welsh hills are an anomaly right? Maybe I should try some local hills instead. See, it’s hard to get hilly riding in around here at the moment. The first ride of the week tends towards being a recovery ride. The second ride of the week shouldn’t be too hard because it’s too close to the weekend. And the weekend ride is a sportive! OK, so that usually involves hills, which is great, and each sportive is really a training ride for the big one but…
So the little voice was niggling away at me. Hills hills hills… Once I’d heard it, that was it. If I’d ignored it, I’d have felt like I was wimping out. Bailing. Can’t have that right? So hills it was, making it up to join them up as I went along, which was quite enjoyable. Sometimes unplanned is good. The dots I joined up were Shipham Hill, Burrington Combe, and Ebbor Gorge. Strava says I did my best times on Shipham and Ebbor too, which is kinda cool, tho I was a tad slower than sometimes up Burrington Combe. It was dry, fairly sunny, a bit windy, and by no means warm out there. Chilly and hilly in fact. I didn’t have quite enough layers on, but luckily the hills warmed me up, the downs weren’t too long, and there were enough sheltered spots or sunny intervals to keep me just on the right side of the temperature seesaw. Ebbor Gorge felt like hard work today. One of those times when you’re convinced something isn’t working properly, that there should be another gear left, that you’re sure it used to get easier earlier, that you get up it just because you know you’ve done it before so you know you can, and you get up it because it’s the last hill before you’re heading for home. So it’s a relief to know that the reason it was hard is because I was doing it better than usual, even if not by much!
My exact route? Well if you want to see it, Bella will tell you all about it here. 796 metres of climbing may not be much, but it’s only over 2 hours/30 odd miles, so I think that counts as hilly. I tried to ignore Bella too (sorry Bella) and ride like the Dragon – listening to myself and my gears. Mindful riding, as I like to call it. It seems to work.
I also thought I’d spare you more photos of hills you’ve seen before. Besides which I was busy concentrating on riding up them rather than immortalising them on camera, that being the point of today’s ride! How’s about a photo of this lovely fence instead? A work of proper craftmanship. It goes on for quite a stretch and it’s gorgeous. Must be nice to have a proper trade, to be a master of it, to work with your hands and to make something both functional and beautiful…
…and back in the real world, where we’ve lost touch with those roots, here’s how some would prefer to treat our countryside.
Why would you do that? It’s not like the tip is far away. Considering the wrapping, it may well even have been a new mattress. Not that that’s really relevant one way or the other, since it shouldn’t be there whatever its condition. But if it fell off a lorry, you’d stop and pick it up right? So it’s been left there deliberately, in an area of outstanding natural beauty…until someone else clears up the mess.
Cycling time: 2:16:02 hrs
Distance: 33.53 miles
Avs: 14.8 mph.
ODO: 14311 miles
I’m a bit behind on my mileage for the month, so I hope to get out on Friday too if anyone’s around. Then there’s the inevitable Sunday sportive of course… At least the weather was ok today, the same is apparently not to be said for the rest of the week. My legs even came out to play…gotta love a good chain ring tattoo :).
