High Peak Miles Count Triple

Last weekend I thought it would be a great idea to cycle from Glossop to Congleton. It seemed like a great plan. I could get some miles in and practice for the upcoming Cat and Fiddle challenge.

This was an extremely challenging route for my new-ish to biking legs. It seemed to be all uphill. Each hill once conquered was replaced by another wall-like road. Then some hills and for variation, some more hills. There are of course downhill sections, but they fly by so fast and are so easy, I tend not to notice them. It probably wasn’t as bad as it felt. At a number of points I wondered if I’d actually make it. As in if I’d get there, not as in I might expire.

The route I took is described in the MapMyRide map here .

During the week I had purchased some clipless pedals and practiced using them on the spinning bikes. Initially unimpressed. You do a lot of standing up on the spinning bikes, so I don’t think you feel the benefit so much. After my ride through the high peak, I can’t recommend them enough. Lost said they’d be good on the hills and she was dead right. You can definitely dig in/pull back with your heels so that you use the back of the leg muscle more than the front, or in combination with the front. This also means that there is less weight on the front of the foot as you don’t bear down on the pedal so much. With the shifting of the weight I don’t suffer from the numb bottom of foot effect that was really bothering me on the Manchester100.

On the subject of the clipless bike shoe, Joby pointed out that Aldi are getting some bike gear in, and this includes some cheapo bike shoes. Might be worth £14. I might get me a high vis jacket. Only £20 and it’s waterproof, maybe also a heart rate monitor so I can figure out how many calories I’m losing.

I figured out from this ride that I need to build up stamina, leg strength and obviously athletic ability. The result was I got picked up in Macclesfield and didn’t make it to Congleton otherwise I’d have made us late for reservation. In the end only 26 miles according to my bike computer, or 22 miles according to Mapmyride. It took around three tough hours.

The weather was glorious, not a cloud in the sky and the surroundings stunning.

The day after I did twelve lovely Cheshire miles. Lovely flat country lane and all done in less than an hour. It was during this ride that I decided that High Peak miles count triple.

My current training is based around trying to do five to ten miles per day of as many hills as I can bear, plus spinning. I’ve not been able to do the bonk training because I am apparently incapable of getting myself out of bed early enough.