Nojo

After the sniffle infested riding disaster that was September I've been slowly increasing my mileage so when I Got a pass out for a full days riding this weekend I was wondering about a big ambleside ride or maybe a long route at llandegla, so many choices, unfortunately saturday's forecast was poo so did no prep friday night and sure enough it was piddling down all night and most of the morning, my riding mojo was AWOL. Local slog it is then, let the mrs have a lie in and didn't leave til lunchtime pointing out this wasn't the planned alldayer (which I would be cashing in soon as the weather perked up) Feeling good so I grabbed the singlespeed, I knew it had been a while but checking it was august the last time I rode this, but way back in june (!) since I did a proper SS ride and boy did it show. Grunted up the golf course and I had almost reached winter hill road before I subconsciously flicked my index finger looking for an easier gear. Hole in the wall was just slurry, even my mudXs were having trouble coping. Wildeswood went ok, no way was I going up school climb tho so went down to the barn and up AICR. Messed up the cobbled corner before the pike, only just got around it and I was struggling getting up the final loose section. Not good. Rode the drops and struggled in the ruts, down georges to do wildes singletrack, felt slightly guilty riding this, I had meant to stay away from it during wetter parts of winter but there were plenty of other tyre marks heading for it so wasn't going to deny myself, fun. Up the tarmac to the mast and down san marino, a lot slower than tuesday but still fun.

Over to witton weavers way, dropped down to roddlesworth river then climbed to the cafe, suffering. Up the cobbled road was OK but going up lion's den I was dying, just no strength to pull back on the bars, very nearly stall crashed twice when I tiredly wandered off line and hit rocks. Damn my weak, limp, noodley, little girls roadie arms. Don't matter how many miles you've got in your legs if your arms are shot you'll struggle with thrutchy SS climbs, a shedload of willpower and luck only just got me through the climb. Round the hill and dropped to sunnyhurst and over to whitehall climb, round cadshaw to strawberry duck and around entwistle res, (rear brake gave up) going up the super steep climb on rollercoaster I was trying to grunt and swear myself up it but eventually stalled, where the dog walker I hadn't seen cheerily said "nearly" I'll get it next time. Water had finally seeped into my shoes by now and my toes were getting numb so round turton golf course along the chicked run and home through tonge moor. Got home head to toe covered in mud, my bike making some crunchy noises, dunno if pads wore through or the braking surface fell off, will check the carnage tonight.

39miles 5,500ft. Damned hard work, gonna take a while to get used to proper hills again, still tired this morning, wrists were aching as the cockpit is a bit short for full on climbing but worth it on the downs. Dropper post worked well, I don't normally drop the saddle on the blinglespeed so was descending with more confidence, will strip it tonight see how much crud gets inside during ~5 hours of awful conditions.