Having taken advantage of a special offer for a day at the half-term KOW playscheme, I was child-free today.  This being the case I planned myself a nice long route, as I probably won’t get many miles in for the rest of the week.  I won’t bore you with the details, as you can see where I went for yourself here.

I set off a bit after 9 into the wind, down the main road, and then with the wind behind me, up Sparrow Hill, across to Wedmore, over the levels to Wells.  That took a bit over an hour, which was mostly fine – a tad chilly with the gusty wind, but ok.  My main challenge today was to go up Bristol Hill – the big hill out of Wells on the Bristol Road, which I’d never done before.  Well – I have now…and boy does it ever go on.  And on.  And on….  Still, I made it, and was kinda pleased with myself.

However after that it all went downhill, and not in a good way.  Up at the top I found the wind.  22mph+ WNW wind.  With gusts and squalls.  The rest of the ride was just a slog into it.  It was particularly bad getting to the airport hill, and I even had to pedal down Brockley Coombe – where’s the justice in that?  Or the fun for that matter!

Because it was a constant push, bits of me started giving up one by one.  As I hunkered down for hours, that bit in between the shoulder blades went numb and ouchy.  My lower back twinged.  My left knee kicked off again, which it’s not done in a while.  By the time I got home every downwards stroke with the left leg was excruciating.  (Oddly enough, the pain completely disappears the minute I get off the bike).  I started dreaming of a hot bath somewhere around Chew Valley Lake…and still had a long way to go!  It was very tempting to shortcut home from Puxton, but I stuck to my route – i’m stubborn like that.  Mind you, to add insult to injury it also rained on me in Banwell…

Rarely have I been so happy to see the Webbington, this time from across the valley in Christon…and by the time I got there, the wind was behind me again, which is probably the only reason I managed to get up the hill and home again! 😉

Cycling time: 4:06:32
Distance: 60.77 miles
Avs: 14.8 mph
ODO: 278 miles

Total climb 2744ft/836 metres.

The bath was as fantastic as I’d been hoping for and, having taken my Recovery and eaten some pasta, I’m feeling many shades better than I was…but still distinctly achey, and definitely quite tired.   Even my left little finger hurts!  That was bl**dy hard work and, whilst probably very good training, not what I would call a good ride! 🙂

One more thing – since I started cycling properly, on the “old” bike, if you count miles on that and miles on the new one…as of today, my legs have now done over 10,000 miles!!! (10,023 to be precise).  That’s very very cool 🙂