I sometimes forget that I am knocking on the door of 50. I know it shouldn’t matter but on a day like yesterday I sometimes feel the full force of entropy taking its unremitting toll. But before that, on Saturday, with nothing planned I managed to persuade Mrs G to join me on a gentle ride after watching the rugby. Having endured the agony of watching England scrape through we almost had to force each other out the door.
It was a beautiful day as promised with autumn being kept at bay, just, by the unseasonably strong sunshine and high temperatures. This was the first time that we had cycled together for over 20 years. Karen was apprehensive that I would be speeding off but I promised I wouldn’t and that this was a gentle cycle in the countryside. And it was. But it is hard to moderate your pace especially since I have a skinny tired carbon race machine and Karen has an alloy hybrid with thicker treaded tires and that really does make a difference. But we really enjoyed it. I did climb hills much faster but Karen understood from cycling with her friends that you need to do hills at your own pace. We stopped off at a farm shop and were chased down a dirt track by Jack Russell yapping at our pedals. Amusingly, when I barked back loudly it ran off into a barn whimpering. When I saw they had home-made sausage rolls and scotch eggs I gave in. And, sorry Sainsbury’s, they were fantastic. Made from pigs reared on their farm. We will be back!
The circuit was one I have cycled many times (including with son Dan), through Leigh, Newdigate, Rusper, Norwood Hill and back, about 22 miles. Given this is only about the fourth time Karen has cycled I think she did fantastically well. She was worried about her fitness but I was the same earlier in the year when I first got on a bike. I really hope we get to do it again. Although I may have blown that chance when I said I wanted to do a proper training ride the next day. You can imagine the response. “Proper ride”! I still haven’t heard the last of it.
So yesterday I went on a “proper” ride and headed South East to the Ashdown Forest for a change rather than West to the Surrey Hills. The route took me to Turner’s Hill, down to Wier Water than up to the forest plateau, down to Coleman’s Hatch, then up Kidds Hill (The Wall) then back home via Hollow Lane, Lingfield and Outwood. It was a truly beautiful route, especially the views from Ashdown before Coleman’s Hatch across to the North Downs. The sun was beating down on the trees that were just turning, the odd leaf floating down which by this time next week will be a slippery and treacherous mush.
I could sign off now leaving you with the image of an idyllic cycle through pristine late summer English countryside (I wish you would I can almost hear some of you say) but of course that would miss the point of this post and, probably cycling in general. I think its fair to say it was a hilly route. Turners Hill, Weir Wood and Kidds Hill alone represent three challenging climbs or as Chris Hale would say “thoroughly unpleasant hills”. It’s hard to articulate why I went on this, or indeed any other route with hills on them. It’s almost as if they in themselves are the reason I do this. And yet they are lung busting, leg burning torture when attempting them. And once again, perhaps because it was a hot day and I ran out of water, I was some miles from home and starting to close down mentally. The wonderful weather and scenery seemed an irrelevance as it crept by slower and slower and all I could think about was a cold beer and a lie down. My lowest point was when I realised I had taken a wrong turn and had to retrace my tracks back up a hill adding three or four miles to my middle-aged legs.
The whole route was 52 miles. Half the average daily route we cycled on our John O’Groats to Lands End adventure but I felt just as knackered as on the worst of those days. It’s amazing how out of condition you become and how quickly. In reality it’s a combination of ignoring the good diet I had been sticking to early this year, drinking more and the looming operation for a double hernia. I need a new goal (the Ventoux jaunt never happened). The body is weak but my mind isn’t up to much either!
