20 miles of purgatory, 20 miles of hell
I’ve not been out on the bike for a couple of weeks, as Arthur is off school so I’ve been helping look after him most of the time, and we went away for a few days. I’ve done some good walking though.
Today (Wednesday) looked like a free day, so I’ve had my eye on it for a big ride. It came though, and the weather was ARSE. Really rainy and pretty breezy too. My philosophy is to just stop whining and do it anyway, though. So off I went.
The first half of the ride was constantly rainy, and very uppy downy as I zig zagged along the south side of the edge of the Vale of Belvoir. I thought at the time that this was the hard bit.
Then I got to Belvoir Castle, and felt all happy with myself – look at my stupid face – I have no idea what’s waiting for me. I went down the wonderful hill towards Redmile and turned left onto the appropriately titled “Long Lane”, and OH MY JESUS. OH. MY. JESUS.
The wind.
OH MY JESUS THE WIND.
It was directly in my face for the next twenty miles, with little to nothing standing in its evil largely-nitrogen way. I cursed it a great deal. Just look at this flag:
I have 21 gears on my bike – I was in gear 1 or 2 for 90% of the last 20 miles. Averaging about 6 miles an hour. It was the hardest bit of cycling I’ve ever done. Still – I did it! And I can walk now, although my legs are if I’m honest just a little bit tired.
Also, as a bonus, I found this perfectly sensibly named road:
And here is the usual high speed ride footage – this time I took both batteries – changed it just at the right point – but still couldn’t cope with the whole ride. Still – got the rainy bit and the half way point and the beginning of the horrific death slog up Long Lane.
And the ride data:
Until the next time, farewell. I’m going to eat some food now. Well – a lot of food.
* six hours later – I had two buttery / cheesy muffins, I had a nap on the sofa for an hour, I had a long bath, I sat in a rocking chair groaning, and then I ordered a massive pizza and ate 3/4 of it. Phosphorus spike, but sod it.