The title of this post is supposedly how Jacob’s Ladder in the Peak District got it’s name – it doesn’t feel like you’re going to heaven when you’re climbing up the frickin’ thing though!
It was so good to get out on the mountain bike today and hit the Peak District. The route we ended up doing was a familiar one, Jacob’s Ladder. Despite it’s short length, 17 miles, it always feels like they’re 17 hard miles!
I’ve done the route many times, but today was only the second time I’d ridden down Jacob’s Ladder rather than up – and when I say ridden up, I mean ridden up some of the lower section and walked up the rest pushing the bike. Going down at least allows you to stay on the bike for longer.
The route I had intended doing today was the Peaks 100 Day 1 which was a route concocted and ridden last October. It starts almost the same way as Jacob’s Ladder but is significantly extended. After two hours of riding we’d only moved about 8 miles – these were 8 hard uphill miles for the most part. It was going to be a long day at that rate and my lack of riding over the last few months wasn’t making it easy for me either. We decided that without lights we’d be better off omitting the extra section and just sticking to the Jacob’s Ladder route. This decision had it’s fate sealed when Miles came a cropper on a fast downhill section towards Hayfield when jumping a rather large drainage channel. He came off out of my line of sight in front of me and when I came around the corner I could see him sat down being tended to by another member of the group. The suspicion was that he’d broken his collar bone. Mark (pictured at the top of this post), a more first aid aware member of the group had a good prod at the bone and it looked like it wasn’t actually broken but Miles was getting a fair amount of pain out of the knock. We got to Hayfield and left Miles there – there wasn’t an easy way back in that condition so we decided that if the rest of us ride back to Edale we could go and collect him in a car, in the mean time Miles could take advantage of a local pub rather than aggravate his injury.
When we got back to Edale, probably the best part of two hours later, Miles was already there – he’d explained his predicament to a Hayfield local with a van and he’d been given a lift back – he seemed to be in better condition as well, although tomorrow will bring aches and pains – but bruises and damaged muscles aren’t as bad as broken bones.
update: It is actually broken, so no cycling for 4 to 6 weeks :(
The snow covered picture above was taken two years ago when going up Jacob’s Ladder – it was sunny at the bottom, but covered in snow at the top and a blizzard hit just after I took that photo, visibility all but disappeared. Just over the ridge and on the way down, the sun was out, the snow had melted and it looked completely different. Today was surprisingly warm for February, but there was still snow left in places.
Today took 4000 calories out of me which is way too much for this ride and more of an indication of my lack of exercise recently. I’m hoping to get out a lot during my time off work and get back to where I was – it’s far too easy to let fitness slip. As a comparison, the 50Km ride mentioned above which covers this route and a lot more besides took 4000 calories out of me in October. So, twice the distance, but the same effort. Hmmmm.
![Portrait with a Clumber horse [10/52]
I actually intended to try and do quite a straight portrait and include the horse at the side of me. I stood with my back to the horse with my camera at ...](http://publicenergy.co.uk/Projects/52-Weeks/20100306-1145-0017-Edit/803460292_nQg6M-Th.jpg "Portrait with a Clumber horse [10/52]
I actually intended to try and do quite a straight portrait and include the horse at the side of me. I stood with my back to the horse with my camera at ...")
Well a slack January and two days cycling and my bum hurts! It doesn’t happen very often – only when I’ve not been cycling for a long time. When people who hardly ever cycle get on a bike they often complain about an aching arse but when you cycle often it just doesn’t happen. So today was a reminder that I’ve been slacking off and not cycling enough.
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Diana 6:22 pm on February 5, 2007 Permalink |
That’s really cool that your looking into bike commuting. How many miles is it to your work? Are you going to put slicks on your mountain bike or pick up spare bike?
If I don’t join the ranks of the self-employed, it is my goal to be able to bike to work. The car gas fill up and maintenance thing is getting old. hehe.
I hear yah on the sore bum. I haven’t my bike in so long, and that first ride back is going to be sore :)
publicenergy 6:45 pm on February 5, 2007 Permalink |
My car journey is 16.8 Miles – the two main options for the bike route are 20 miles and 14 miles – approximately.
There is a government scheme to get all of the tax paid for a bicycle if it’s used for commuting so if I can persuade my employer to do it, I should be able to get a commuting bike with 43% off the price. It might have to be a commuting bike that can be easily used for other things though! ;)
Diana 2:09 am on February 6, 2007 Permalink |
Nice! That’s awesome, I don’t think we have any incentives like that here.