Finally motivated myself to get out on the bike this weekend. I wanted to try and push it a little today but left the house with a couple of routes in mind. I knew I wanted to take on the hill climb out of West Baldwin but hadn’t decided whether to take the longer route from Druidale following the End2End course or head back over the tracks to St Lukes.
On the way to to Injebreck I went through East Baldwin to take in the hill I usually cycle down. It was only short but steep and was a good lung burner this early on in the cycle.
Although the hill climb out of West Baldwin was tough, I was still feeling pretty fresh by the time I got to the top so at Druidale cross roads I chose the End2End route. It was this section last year that mentally screwed me over. Not really sure why this section particularly as it’s not all that taxing but I just wasn’t prepared enough. Really enjoyed it up on top of the hills today though and had some nice flowing downhill sections to blow the cobwebs off too.
I dropped off the hills near the Hawthorn Pub on a really quick downhill road section, dodging the cows on the way down. It was then a fairly relaxed cycle back to Douglas along the old railway lines despite the legs starting to complain.
In the end around 22 miles in just over two and a quarter hours burning 1,362 Calories which I was happy with, Friday night’s kebab almost out of the system anyway. Managed to get over 30 miles per hour on the downhill to the Hawthorn Pub. Not massively fast but always nice to hit a bit of speed somewhere out on a cycle. I am probably most happy with was the elevation gain of over 2,000ft throughout the cycle. A good starting point for the end 2 end training.
