Motivation with added Brain freeze

Sunday 4th April


After not being able to make the Good Friday ‘Early Bird’ training I was determined to have a solo outing at a similar time on Saturday instead (Now Then Vicar and Tim 2 had other plans). Well true to form 06:30 Saturday came and went and yet another best laid plan went out the window. Easter Day however was a different matter and at 06:45 I set off in the direction of Holme Moss. There was method in my madness, even though I knew I had to be in Church in 3 hours time, I was determined to conquer the Moss with style!

Stupidly, I had been reading earlier in the week various blogs on t’interweb about riding the C2C and two things kept cropping up, one was how difficult day 2 is going to be and the other was Winlatter Pass. At 6km long with a rise of 800ft it just seemed a little daunting. So earlier in the week I got the GPS out and worked out that from Holme Bridge to Holme Moss summit is 5.5km and the climb is about 700ft (nearly the same I thought). So back to the ride, I left home feeling to be honest, not great, everything seemed to ache from the start and by the time I had passed Holmfirth centre I felt crap and wanted to turn back.

I didn’t, but I must say that that the first part of the ride is the worst I’ve had to date and that includes some of the mud clumping moorland climbs that Tim2 has dragged me out on. I’m not sure what it was, but I decided to have a week off training and by the time I reached Lane End with every muscle screaming for me to stop and my saddle feeling like a razor blade I was ready to do just that.

But enough whinging, the next part was the main climb up Holme Moss, which actually wasn’t that bad (apart from the head wind and sleet), it was just a case of hunkering down, getting into the zone and counting down the corners and eventually reaching the top. Now was the really difficult part…. continue or turn around for a great sprint back downhill all the way to a warm home and some breakfast. For some strange reason ‘continue’ won even though I was thoroughly uncomfortable, freezing cold and my new ‘Fair Weather’ cycling resolution was rapidly disappearing into the distance.

I’m not sure where the inspiration came from; I’m not usually so strong-willed. It was either the thought of Neil Coventry doing the previous weekend’s 35 mile training ride with nothing but a vintage boneshaker, my broken down spare parts only bike, and lashings of stubborn determination, or Racing Snake’s JOGLE story of Wind, Rain, Snow and similarly a trek over Holme Moss where he finally realised he was ready to face anything, John O’Groats to Lands End could throw at him. I think it was the latter.

So off I went, looking forward to the trip down t’other side! That lasted all of 20 seconds…. I’ve never experienced brain freeze while not eating an ice cream before and certainly never for a full 5 minutes! Bloody hell it was cold! I got to the bottom with blurred vision and the despairing feeling that there was no way back without climbing Holme Moss the wrong way! So onwards…. but to where? I realised this wasn’t a route I had taken before apart from in a car and all I knew that was my theoretical plan was to hook up with the Longdendale Trail onto the Trans Pennine Trail back onto the main road a short hop to Victoria and all downhill to home (Simples!).

Well picking up the Longdendale Trail was easy enough and apart from it being a bit wet and muddy it was straight and thankfully flat…. until it ended! Mmmm, the Longdendale Trail doesn’t actually link up with the Trans-Pennine Trail, well not in a nice continuous flat sort of way. At the end of one you have to cross the A628 and then climb to the top of the moor (all off road) and after 3.5 miles of rocks, mud, puddles and extremely strong wind you can pick the Trans Pennine Trail back up at Dunford Bridge.

At this point time is ticking on and getting home in time for Church seems highly unlikely. I eventually get to the Winscar Reservoir turn off and decide to ring the wife and warn her I’m not going to make it. After a quick Mars break, off I go again and hit the Trans-Pennine Trail. I was expecting this to be another arduous, muddy, slow section but to my surprise and despite the mud and puddles it seemed only a couple of minutes before I reach the A616 and I’m going through Crow Edge. Victoria is next and then I decide to take the easy route straight down the hill to New Mill. I did consider the longer Tinker’s Monument route for all of 3 seconds, but thought ‘next time’.

Anyway, I finally got home about 30 minutes sooner than my warning call to the wife had predicted and on reflection the 38.6km in just over 3hrs wasn’t bad after all. I also learnt a few things on the way. 1) I prefer riding with a group, I always seem to push myself a little harder. 2) Don’t give up early on, I think it takes a while to get your body going. 3) Don’t have a complete week off again! & 4) Plan your route thoroughly when you’ve got limited time.

Mr Motivator