The Horror of Littondale

Today was a tough, tough ride and for once I was off the back, cast adrift in a place of despair, pain and suffering I am not used to!

It was a long early bird ride - Arncliffe and then over to Malham - a road I did not know. It was also the "a" team out - probably the fastest group of early-birds (well, fastest considering we are all middle-aged fathers-of-many).

There was a strong headwind all the way out, and by Arncliffe, after having done a couple of hard stints on the front, I was dead. This was not helped by not wearing my rain-jacket and being thoroughly soaked through.

A quarter of the way up the climb, the headwind was so intense that I had to stop and unclip, and push for the final section of the steep bit. The ignominy!

And in case you aren't sure what ignominy means, from dictionary.com:
1. disgrace; dishonor; public contempt.
2. shameful or dishonorable quality or conduct or an instance of this.

I felt awful from there on in, and struggled home to suffer for the rest of the day.

I'm obviously not feeling well, so a few days off the bike is planned. Which is a real shame as I have three days off work and the weather is starting to look good.

The other day I waxed lyrically about why and how I felt so strong, and today I don't know why I felt so bad.

The above text is littered with excuses though, which is a bit of a kop-out.

Perhaps it was just a bad day at the office.