Right then. Yesterday, eldest had her covid isolation birthday party, for which she wanted curry for her tea. All good. Typically I tend to go a bit heavy on the ordering, but that’s because I get two meals out of it – tea, and then dinner the next day.
Now, why is any of that important? Because of course, I went cycling right after eating my curry at dinner time. Whoops.
The plan for today was 30km. I figured I’d do the same loop as yesterday (roughly, but in reverse) and that would tick off the 30km target for the ride. However, once out and heading that way, I decided to spice things up a little and do a climb. There are several around Longridge that involve Jeffrey Hill, and today I opted for the middle of the three. For the record, I think this one is the easiest route up, this one is the hardest, and today’s was in between.
Right off the bat I knew it wasn’t going to be a winner of a climb. Finding a rhythm up to that point had been difficult, and whilst I’d had 20km to settle in, as soon as I hit the bottom of the hill my pacing was all over. Not knowing how long it might take to make the ascent, I was trying to aim for 3.2w/kg average. It’s turn out it took me 24 minutes… yikes.
Now, it’s a tad unfair as I did have to come to a complete stand still during this one, as half way up is a cross roads and there was a number of cars turning in all directions. However, at most, I lost 30 seconds there, so no great shakes.
I would say I could do better. Knowing it took 24 minutes is really helpful for my next attempt, for sure.
Truthfully I’m surprised it took that long – it didn’t feel it lasted that long. If I’d have had to have guessed, I’d have been at 15 minutes – certainly under a 20 minute / FTP effort, anyway. Very interesting.
After doing that climb I fully enjoyed the descent, heading back home via Longridge. I deliberately wanted to ride through the village centre as yesterday I saw a shop that really caught my eye…
Hark! An impostor.
That’s not my shop.
Anyway, looks quite stylish, nice job.
What surprised me most, when home, aside from that 24 minute effort, was that I’d only burned about 1000 calories.
Considering yesterday I managed 800 in less time and without the hill, I fear I was inefficient today. I could have skipped that damned hill! Lol.
No, it’s all good. It goes some way to burning off the naughty behaviour. Though, not all the way, I’m sure.
Right, so amazingly, I only have 5km left on my weekly riding goal to hit 100km… not sure how that happened, but I’ll take it. That might mean an easier ride tomorrow. Or a shorter one. I don’t know. I’ll definitely be out doing something, but who knows what that will be just yet.
