Current mood:	chipper
Current music:	Dear Prudence
Entry tags:	round-table

Warm Up
Mood: Chipper. I've always wanted to feel "chipper". At least "dandy". Or even "fine and dandy"...

Today was the first ride out (actually, the second, but I won't count the first because it was just a quick whizz around the Colby Level ride early last week to make sure the bike was in good mechanical order).

I wasn't going to take on the full Round Table ride on the first trip out (or even the complete Calf ride). I'm just too out of shape hill climbing. And it showed. Not only that, the weather was kind of scuzzy. I waited for a gap in the showers, went outside and checked the sky (8 oktas clear) and went.

After passing the Ballagawne roundabout, the hill climb began in earnest. I passed a brisk-walking walker, and went on for a while, but eventually had to stop for a breather. Then I restarted, going through "Purgatory Climb" (there's a short section perhaps only 50 yards long that must be 1 in 6 or steeper that just saps ALL your energy) and had to stop again. I drank some water. The walker which I had passed at the bottom then passed me. How embarrassing! So I continued and made sure I wasn't overtaken by a 4 mph walker (a woman who must have been in her sixties. Doubly embarrassing being passed by a pensioner on foot) and went to the summit of the Stage 1 climb without stopping.

Instead of continuing to The Stacks, I turned right and went down the narrow road that goes through Ballakilpheric and down to Colby. Then back through Colby, past the Ballagawne roundabout, and back home. On the route back through Colby I caught a second wind and pedaled hard. As I arrived home, the clouds were building in big angry black masses against the hills, so I was glad I decided not to do the Round Table tonight otherwise I would at this moment be getting extremely cold and wet (I don't mind the wet one little bit so long as my face is a bit shielded - I just don't like being cold at the same time).

So the total time out tonight was 30 minutes. When I'm in shape, I should be able to do that short ride in 20 minutes or less without any difficulty.