Tired legs go to work and back

 Not a bad commute - pic from above Draughton tonight on the way home, Embsay Crag and Crookrise visible

Well, blogfans - I did it.  Woke up at 6:30 expecting to hear torrential rain battering the Velux window on our landing (I'd considerately moved into the spare room to allow K her beauty sleep as she's not working Tuesdays) but instead there was silence - no wind, no rain and therefore no reason not to get on my bike.

I'd assembled my biking stuff with an air of wintry resignation - proper waterproof jacket, roubaix arm warmers, long-fingered gloves and a cap to wear under my helmet.  But when I went out to get my bike it was not only pretty still, it was positively balmy!  So it was short sleeve order for the ride in (with a proper waterproof in my pocket in case things got nasty).

My legs weren't happy - HR was down, breathing felt easy but my legs just ached.  The climb up through Draughton was hard, and even the short undulations over to Cringles felt tough.  I was worried how Holden Lane was going to be.

In the end it was hard, long and felt like I was hardly moving - but in fact I was faster than last time I rode up it on my own - 7mins bottom to top.  Ironic that I'd always reckon to be able to run a mile in 7 minutes without too much effort - this hill is only 0.6m long and feels desperate!

A blast down to the valley, with another scare on a wet right hander in East Morton saw me at work in the fastest time yet over this route - 58mins door to door.

The ride home began with me being thankful I'd brought my jacket as it was proper raining.  This stoped as I got onto the top of the moor, but there was plenty of surface water to soak my arse.  No big-ring heroics tonight - easy gears all the way and a very scary descent of Holden Lane, with me convinced (but not worried) that this would be a very slow ride home.

In the end the sun came out and I was quicker than any of the rides home in this recent batch getting home in just over the hour.

My only question is - how the hell did I ever do this 10 minutes quicker?  I almost broke 50 minutes last summer - how???