Pedalling? What's that all about then?

Family do at Rick and Kath's today, so did my usual and baggsied a bike ride over there.  Arranged to meet Rick at the top of the Trough and rode the last 15m with him.  Also had the pleasure of the company of The Herb on the first 20m too, so I had only a quarter or so of the route to do on my own.

I was wondering whether my legs would feel like rods of iron, pumping the pedals like the pistons on the Casey Jones Express, given they've got over 300 miles of running in them in the last 6 weeks or so.

No such luck - I felt decidedly un-bike-fit, and really felt the effort on the gnarly little climb out of Slaidburn.  I managed the climb up to the Trough ok, partly spurred on by the tempting flash of fluorescent yellow from a cyclist's top (never caught her) and partly by the glorious nature of the scenery:

It all felt a bit easier after the Trough, but what was noticeable was the fact that my brother wasn't going backwards at the same rate of knots he was last time we rode this route together - in fact he wasn't going backwards at all!  An amazing turn round of weight loss and fitness improvement - I'm going to have my work cut out in Mallorca in a few weeks!

In the end I averaged just under 15mph for just under 50 miles, which I'm pleased enough with given the fact I've done so little on the bike - but it does show I'm going to have to work a bit once this marathon stuff's out of the way!