This afternoon I got outdoors for the first ride of the week, heading up to local climb of note Jeffrey Hill. This one isn’t steep as much as it is fairly long. It’s a decent climb all the same and the descent is all the more enjoyable for it.
I was expecting to get wet on this ride. Packing my rain jacket and arm warmers, I set off after a light shower but fortunately the cycling gods were smiling on me today and the bad weather never came.
Where I was less lucky today was on my climbing performance. During the climb I was happy enough with my progress. Sure, after the “baby Ventoux” climb from Saturday I wasn’t exactly wanting to push my absolute limits, but I felt like I gave a decent effort all the same.
However when it came time to review the figures on Strava, there was a very different story to tell.
The only thing I can think of on this one is it must come down to the route I took. Last time, in fact the only other time that I’ve climbed Jeffrey Hill, I took a wider looping run in from a the South. Today I came in directly (as in heading East), and that means first climbing in to Longridge. Again, not a hard climb as much as a long slog uphill. The gradient was pretty much gradually up hill from my house to the peak of Jeffrey Hill, after which the second half of the ride was largely downhill.
Ultimately I think I’d burned my fuel just getting there, and by the time I was there I had seemingly less in the legs to give. Disappointed in the time, but I can’t really fault the effort as I felt good enough about it at the time.
Anyway, the only other thing of note on this ride today was in getting a wasp between my eye and my sun glasses whilst in the way home. Talk about scary. Thankfully I didn’t get stung. Or crash. Or both.
Then when I got home I went out with the family for an ice cream. Can’t complain.
