At some point this week, in one of my blog posts, I said I would do Jeffrey Hill if the weather was nice. And today the weather has been nice. It’s been really nice, actually. Over 20c, which is good going for mid May here in the UK.
As such there was a low incentive to stay indoors today. So off I went, looking to get in ~30km and ideally not on the main roads. Unfortunately that second part can’t be fully avoided, but once you get out of the main part of Preston, heading towards Longridge, the road does get very wide so it’s a little less hairy / scary.
At first I thought I’d just repeat yesterday’s route. But then once underway I figured heck, why not tick of Jeffrey Hill from the todo list?
Heading outbound is pretty much uphill, slowly but surely, until the climb proper begins. I figured I’d keep a fairly decent tempo pace the whole way, including the climb itself.
Once actually starting the climb I was immediately in the little ring.
Not a great sign in terms of a strong effort, but I’d been working the whole way there. Usually I’d go slightly easier and then aim to push for the duration of the climb. For me, that’s about a 10-12 minute effort, edging closer to the 12 than the 10 🙂
Today though, it felt alright. The conditions were good. Low wind, not overly hot, and very dry. Traffic was higher than ideal due to lots of people coming and going from the golf club midway up, but nothing I couldn’t navigate.
What got me were the flies.
My God. The flies.
I’d look down and I’d be covered in them. Little green ones, little black ones, and mosquito looking things. A judicious swipe of jersey and shorts every now and then, and a lot of blowing to clear the ones on both shoulders and then another plume of the little buggers, and I’d be covered once more.
I tried to get a snap of it at the very top. By that time I’d given up trying to clear them off, but it looks like I was exaggerating. Only two can be seen. They’ve done me dirty.
Anyway, things didn’t improve on the way down. All the way I was wiping them off, unable to truly enjoy the well earned descent because I was constantly checking for their presence.
Only once at the very bottom did they finally abate.
Bad times.
I won’t say it spoiled it, but it’s made me think twice about tackling that one without some kind of fly repellent in the future. I’ve been bitten big time.
No PR though today. It felt consistent, and it was a good workout, but clearly it wasn’t a strong performance. Bit disappointed. Often when things feel good they actually turn out to be less so. And the ones that don’t feel great turn out to be the good ones.
I should have known though. The little ring was the giveaway.
Anyway, a good ride. I’ll get in something else tomorrow morning. Hopefully with fewer flies.
