Out again this afternoon, getting in as much outdoor cycling as I can between now and next Monday. Today I decided to go for another “climby” route, this time heading out to local hill of note: Beacon Fell.
Really this is a ride of two halves. There’s the ride out, which is where the hard work takes place. The first half includes all the climbing, and even when you get to Beacon Fell, the loop around the top is not flat at all, with one very short but steep climb, a lairy descent, followed by a couple of little grinders on the way back around.
However once done with the hard bit, it really is all downhill on the way home.
One nice thing I always look forwards too when passing through the local village of Goosnargh is a house with this sign outside. It’s tricky to read when you’re on the move, but the residents there put out a board with a quiz question and often other notices too. It’s a really nice touch.
As above, the ascending portion of this ride never really stops. There’s continual, gradual climbs followed by flats, kinda like a stair step. This goes on for about 15km or so.
What caught me out today was the location of the start of the “timed” climb.
In my head I have the ascent of Beacon Fell down as the Carwags Lane climb. This is the hardest portion of the whole uphill section of the ride. It’s only a shortish climb, at about 1km or so, though goes up to about ten percent or so three quarters of the way up.
As Beacon Fell is a fairly popular local place, getting up Carwags Lane without having at least one motorist waiting behind you is something of a luxury.
Today I had a guy behind me who, very fortunately for me, was extremely patient, and when I finally hit the top he even gave me a thumbs up.
All I remember was seeing my heart rate around 190bpm.
Standard for me, that.
The fun doesn’t end once up.
Though I did stop for a breather, and to enjoy the view. You can see a long way on a nice day, and staring out to sea, in relative peace and quiet is a good reward after the climb.
After recovering a bit I decided to cycle round to the other side and eat my banana whilst looking at the other Fells.
You can see above, just barely (but clearly if you click and view full size) the climb I did yesterday. Just in the middle of the two clumps of trees on the left, that’s Oakenclough.
Definitely a nice day, weather-wise, than yesterday. Though I did end up filthy as there was plenty of puddles and stuff that were unavoidable up top.
I decided that I’d do one hot lap.
Unfortunately I had to let two cars go during that lap and as such I reckon I lost a handful of seconds, but I managed a new PR today of around six and a half minutes. In other words, Beacon Fell is just a real life volcano circuit.
After this I was happy enough to head on back home.
My legs are definitely not fully rested at the moment and given that Friday is supposed to be a one day heat wave, I figured I might have a rest day tomorrow. Not sure yet as tomorrow is also looking quite nice and I’d rue wasting a sunny day, so may just go for a recovery trip and take it easy.
Anyway, it’s late and I’ve had a bunch of stuff keeping me from switching off. So, with that, I’m out.
