Woke up at 8:30 this morning. . bit of a drizzly and breezy day. . got ready and left at about 9:30 after a healthy breakfast. Today was my Hill initiation day and I was looking forward to going out on the bike into North Wales. . . Our ride started from Pensby on the wirral out through heswall along the Chester High road to a place called shotwick where we turned down and followed the dual carriageway down to the river dee and across the Flint Bridge and up to Northop. Still no hills . . . or only very little ones and we had done about 20 miles. . . we then arrived at the first Hill. Halkin Mountain (name makes it sound worse than it is but not much worse) so from riding along between 14 and 20 mph we suddenly ground to a 7mph climb . . . only for about 3 miles but what a looong 3 miles. At the top of this Hill I realised there was a new art to master and that was cycling and breathing at the same time.
At this point my excitement about the rest of the climbs we were bout to make was dwindling as I realised I was not half as fit as I hoped I was. So we climbed a bit further until we reached Rhes-y-cae. At this point the rain started and we made a quick pit stop to put on the waterproofs before making our decent.
Hills suck but descents are great - if you look at the picture above you'll notice a dip between 2 hills in the distance. From where we had just stopped we must have travelled almost half way to that dip without pedaling and although we had to keep alert flying down narrow country lanes scattered with sheep poo it was a welcome break from our 7mph climb. The descent turned super steep after about 2 miles and I found myself having to use the brakes considerably to avoid getting a bit of cross country practice along the way. After reaching the end of this heavenly descent we began another climb up between the two hills on our way towards Ruthin. At the top of this climb we had another quick rest and photo opportunity . . .
nice outfits. . . . . so after another descent which took us almost into Ruthin I was feeling pretty pleased with my progress so far . . at this point we must have done about 30 odd miles and a fair few hills. So we stopped quickly to see if there was anyone in at my uncle's (Chris, just to verify this you have a tortoise-shell tabby cat (not funny lynn) with a shiny blue collar! and a doorbell that rings twice when pushed once) . . . anyway at this point we headed off again and as we did my dad announced that I wasn't going to like the next hill. Just to get things clear. . I wasn't particularly fond of the first 3 hills which didn't seem to need an introduction to their hilliness so I was sure as hell not going to like this one.
The Bwlch is the name for this long uphill slog that nearly brought my first training ride to a grinding halt. Although not a particularly steep hill this cleverly engineered bit of road is designed to sap every little bit of strength I had left, and if a speed of 7mph felt a little bit slow and embarrassing on the first few hills then my speed on this one was nothing short of shameful. At the top of this hill I was greeted by grinning dad who seemed to have enjoyed the bwlch far too much and had to wait for me to catch him up.
We stopped here for tea and Eccles cake which I found strangely hard to consume and then started to make our way back to the Wirral and home to Pensby.
At the risk of this blog turning into a short novel the journey back consisted of lots of aching moaning and suffering amusing cramps in muscles I don't think I have ever used before. Incidentally getting cramp while being clipped in to bike pedals can have some interesting results. All in all a great initiation into hills and a good 65 mile first ride. .
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