Not all doom and gloom….

Sunshine and all that goes with it is one of the great joys of life, and as we hurtle towards the winter solstice the lack of rays from our nearest star has a direct effect on my mood and energy levels. It may well be unseasonably warm, but crikey this morning here in East Lancashire it was gloomy.  On waking to the sight of a battleship grey sky, I felt a diaspora of gloom descending, reinforced by a look at the newspapers and television news where there was hardly a spark of brightness and light anywhere.  The bed was warm and snug and the thought of leaving the nest to pedal through the grey and slightly dank conditions was distinctly unwelcome.  Cycling was on the agenda and I wrestled with my conscience – could I claim exhaustion, dengue fever, plague or alien abduction as an excuse to skip, should I just be honest and say I just didn’t fancy it, or just hope my cycling companion would  feel the same and  we could agree to just potter out for coffee and cake? I went for the latter and was just about to breathe a sigh of relief that I was off the hook when the ‘where are we going’ text arrived and subsequent communications made it clear that no matter how doomy and gloomy I, the weather  or indeed the nation were feeling today, baling out was not an option!

The weather never got above gloomy today and it was freezing out in the Ribble Valley and there was some serious log stocking up going on – we noted the  need to stock up on long sleeve tops and neck snoody things but the Charlie Brown like black cloud lifted and there were some valuable lessons learned.

• True friends don’t take no for an answer and understand when to push you for your own good
• If you don’t cycle for 2 weeks your fitness levels drop drastically and the hills become enormous again
• If you grit your teeth and recite poetry/sing songs in your head you can get up the hills
• Toasted tea cakes and coffee are one of the joys of life especially on a grey Sunday afternoon.
• It is really cold as the sun sets in November
• Making the effort to spend time with friends is always worth it, especially when you are tempted to stay sunk in your own increasing gloom.
• No matter how much doom and gloom there is around at the moment we  are responsible for the creation of our own sunshine .

Two cyclists and the Hill of Doom

There were several hats worthy of Indiana Jones in the small terrace last night, none alas worn  by a heroic Hollywood actor, they were  part of the Halloween  costume choice of daughter and friends – not sure which ghostly tales  cowgirls feature in but they were happy and looked amazing.  My recollection of old Indy is that within the span of two hours he managed to conquer everything thrown at him and  his  sundry companions and inevitably emerge triumphant.  So today  minus the hats – we are good helmet wearing cyclists,  two of us set off to conquer the Hill of Doom – well my companion has already triumphed over it but for me it was still there blocking the way to smugness.

We faced several challenges along the way – dealing with time slips due to my companion completely missing the clock change last night – battling mythical creatures – who knew Accrington was home the great metal Gekko?  Every ankle biting dog  in the area was rampant along the canal, and we drew several disbelieving looks as a result of the fact that we were both kitted out in identical outfits purchased from the local discount supermarket  giving us the appearance of belonging to a team but without the speed of a tour peloton. Undaunted we hit our stride and even overtook a couple of five year olds as we ploughed towards our nemesis – the long hill from Accrington up to Baxenden.

The weather was brilliant – the sun came out causing us to melt in our bargain lightweight fleece jackets,  but we ploughed onwards and upwards,  fighting off more dogs,  yet more dogs, and another group of  cycling infants until there it was …….  the Hill of Doom.   With gritted teeth we flew down the dip into the valley of my usual despair – my companion was up and pedalling hard and reached the summit in seconds, trailing in her wake  I  followed and with a monumental effort  pushed to the top!

Now most people just whizz up and down this bit and don’t even give it a thought but it has been a bit of a bete noir for me and so I am basking in a feeling of achievement. I won’t mention that the other killer stretch – with a gradient  close to  that of the north face of the Eiger which requires a standing start is still defeating me – but that is for another day -  it could possible be  the last crusade.  For now I am off to a warm bath with a glass of something cold, white and alcoholic to bask in a major sense of non celluloid created achievement.