Peak District cycling weekend

Our summer break this year was a weekend cycling in the Peak District... Perfect! Who needs sun, sea, sand and anything else beginning with S when you've got Winnat's Pass and Mam Nick calling?

I've never been to the Peak District, I have no idea why! It's magnificent , a cyclists Mecca. 

We arrived at our B & B, Merman Barn, Tideswell, at about 1:15pm. By 1:30pm we were on our bikes, we'll unpack the car later! No time to waste, I wanted to try and get up Winnats straight away!

We took a tootle for a few miles for a warm up. Met a cyclist doing similar. We pretty much arrived at the foot of Winnats together. 'Whats it like?' We asked, stupidly.

'Have you not done it before?'

'No.'

'it's easy'

He had a 30t sprocket on his rear cassette,  My easiest gearing was 34 x 25. Luckily I didn't know this at the time.

I started climbing, What can I say? 'OMG.' 'Oh my god.' 'Godddddddd.'

It just gets steeper. You can't see the top for ages. I could see 2 cyclists up ahead. Their image kept me going ('I think one is a woman, if she's doing it, I can do it') totally illogical, but it helped.  The traffic was busier than I expected. It was so hard I really had to give myself a good talking to. I nearly bailed out twice, it was a life changing moment, do or die. If i did a controlled fall to the left I would have landed on my still healing elbow, if I fell to the right I would've been under a car. I had no choice. A couple of times I nearly fell backwards, I could feel the front wheel lifting. The back wheel was spinning. I couldn't hold a straight line. I'm sure it was so steep that  My feet were way back in my shoes! They felt too big all of a Sudden. I tried to think what was hurting the most, my quads were burning, my heart was banging, I felt sick, I could taste metal, I have never ever pushed this hard ( oh hang on, maybe I have, one of my babies was 10lb) . I pushed on and somehow made it to the top, a severe case of mind over matter and had pulled it off.  I made sure I went around the corner a bit as I didn't want to miss out on where the strava segment finished! The guy with the 30t was a few minutes behind me... Lightweight ;-) I took a moment up top to take in what just happened, what a sense of achievement, I had inspired myself here, I felt great. I returned down the same way as the weather was closing in and this would be our quicker  route back to .Merman Barn B & B.

Me, Near Blue John Cavern after conquering Winnats Pass.

The next day we took it steady early on and enjoyed an easy ride in the beautiful Derwent  valley, 

and around the reservoirs, although the last bit from Slippery stones was only going to assesable with mountain bikes so we doubled back. We continued through Edale  valley, refuelled with sandwiches and coffee at The Rambler pub and then hit Mam Nic. After yesterday's efforts of Winnats this was great. A really enjoyable climb, tough, but far more achievable. The views are spectacular. We finished with a windy ride back to the B and B taking in a few more accents/descents! We earned our dinner that night.  Fab meal at The Red Lion, Litton, washed down with a couple of lagers.

Over 6000ft of climbing in only 69 miles over 2 days! Fantastic.
I loved this weekend. #legs #hills #food
I thoroughly recommend The Merman Barn B & B, Linda is the perfect host. I thoruoughly recommend The Red Lion at Litton for great pub grub. I recommend USN products for energy on the go, these rides I used Vooma Gels, CytoPowerHP and Epic Pro. I thouroughly recommend the Peack District for Cycling. Although next time I may opt for slightly easier gearing!

Back in the saddle

Hooray! 2 weeks post fall and the nurse gives me the all clear to try a little cycle.. Now, I hope she wasn't picturing me on a Raleigh shopper complete with basket and poodle trundling off to the shops! Road bike out, 50k ride done. Picked up a Strava QOM, fab. Job done. In all seriousness though I didn't push it. It was just great to be back in the saddle and out in the countryside again.

Back in the saddle Selfie, complete with my photobombing bike mechanic !

I'm still not quite over it, have 2 more visits to the nurse booked this week. The infection seems to have gone but the wound isn't healing. Probably because of the location of it, ie right across the elbow. This is why I'm not running or BodyPumping yet, the constant bending of the elbow. But, if I'm careful things can only get better.Worcester City run bike run in September is looking unlikely, but hopefully I should get enough training in for Oulton Park duathlon. Watch this space.