Wednesday 27 January 2010

Feel the burn

After the lakes ride i rested monday, rode in yesterday was feeling a bit ropey and the usual night ride crew were either busy or too tired with only Giles was up for it. I didn't wanna waste decent weather so agreed to meet giles at barrow bridge. Riding home from work my legs started to feel drained, not a good sign, bananas and bowl of porridge at home before setting off. Met Giles and off we went, barrow bridge still had a little snow but was doable, the usual route up onto winterhill then over to do kennel run, down wildeswood up bastard/school climb and then ice cream run where I flatted :-( Coming back up AICR my legs were complaining so we skipped the pike and straight down george's to hole in't wall. Halfway up my energy (and sweeties) ran out, blood sugar bottomed out big time. Frantically I searched my bag for food and thankfully found a power gel stashed in the bottom, lifesaver! On with the climb, a lights off sneak passed the security hut at the top and on to belmont decent. Brilliant, firmer than the last few times I'd been down and I ripped down, lots of fun. Road climb up scout road was ok now that gel was doing it's thing and the drop back down smithills was tame but fast. Good ride out, 23miles over 3000ft, not an epic but my quads were proper burning when I got home, seems I hadn't fully recovered from weekend.
Giles seemed impressed, bit tougher than the usual night rides but I reckon he could have managed a couple more hills.

Edit oh yeah I managed to ride the drop on wildeswood corner without scoping it out first, might try that more often, trouble is lines there change and speeding towards a drop is a bad time to realise your usual line has been washed away!

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