…being down don’t bother me.
I should probably start this entry by apologising to GB for holding him back. But I’ve decided constant apologising is no good for the Positive Mental Attitude that I am striving to achieve. Besides which I figure that, by now, anyone who comes riding with me probably knows what they’re letting themselves in for, in which case they could have said no and they didn’t, so it’s their fault not mine. Therefore I don’t need to apologise. Which is why I’m not saying sorry to him. Sorry! *grin*.
Although I may hold him back, I did at least consent to do some hills today. To be fair I had to really as I’ve got a lot of sportives coming up, and they’re none of them flat. Can’t avoid ’em forever! He planned us a route and I was happy to go along with it. It is nice to abdicate responsibility sometimes 🙂 Yes, the control freak can let go of the reins. Who knew? Occasionally anyway…
It was mild again, with wet roads and a nasty strong wind. No ice though – bonus! I was feeling pretty nervous and wobbly as we set off which is odd because I didn’t yesterday. I almost bottled it, turned tail and went home before we’d left town, as the wind blew me sideways across the wet road and butterflies multiplied in my tummy, but I kept my thoughts to myself and kept pedalling.
We started off by going up the Gorge. GB has now learnt that going up (and down!) hills is something I prefer not to have company for, which means he can disappear off at his own speed and await my arrival at the top (or bottom) which I think works for both of us. All things considered I was pretty pleased with how I got up there actually, especially as I’ve not done any notable hill climbing in quite some time. And that wasn’t the only hill. There were ups to the Walled Garden and then up to Redhill to watch the spotters watching the aeroplanes. One of them smiled at us as we left, which was probably as close as he’d been to social interaction all day… An Easyjet landed as we went round. If I was hating the downhill into strong crosswind as I cycled round (and I was) I bet he wasn’t enjoying landing into it much either! It ain’t half exposed up there.
The downs were worse than the ups. Strangely enough I’ve never been down Burrington Coombe before and I can see that in the dry it might be quite a lot of fun. In fact I look forward to practising going down it – it’s just what I need for the kind of hills I’m going to be doing later in the year. However with a gusty cross wind, wet and muddy road, and a motorhome on my ar*e it was a tad less amusing. Still, I got down in one slow piece. Same goes for Brockley Coombe which was nearly fun but I didn’t like the last corner and nearly managed to tense myself up into a straight line. Not ideal. However I talked myself off the ledge in time to sort it out and again met GB at the bottom.
After that it was back home through Claverham where the roads were ‘orrible, Congresbury where the car drivers were ‘orrible, across the corner to Churchill, the lovely stretch of road to Sandford which was not ‘orrible, then Winscombe and home as darkness descended.
Cycling time: 2:35:38
Distance: 35.08 miles
Avs: 13.5 mph
ODO: 6739 miles
It’s not as if I had a wealth of confidence to start with, and clearly it could have done without being knocked out of me again. There was a lot of over-cautious riding going on on anything that resembled a bend or downhill, because I was worrying about the wet muddy roads, which at least partially explains the crappy average speed. That and the hills of course.
Having said that oddly I really enjoyed the ride. For starters it’s always nice to do different routes. The company was good, even if it did talk b*llocks from time to time 😉 As a ride it may not have gone well, but I think there’s a lot of positive to be taken from it. PMA remember? I’ve found hills to practice descending on. I’m heartened by how well my uphills went, and my legs felt really good. (Apart from the knee which start twingeing after a couple of hours even though I’d strapped it up. I think my strapping skills need practice.) If I stick to judging myself by my standards and not comparing myself to everyone else I think I’ll do ok. I was also a very good girl and made up some Recovery when I got in which may be why I don’t feel knackered now. Well if I’m going to take this season seriously then eating and drinking the right things is going to be important. I didn’t clean the bike though – that can wait until Monday 🙂