7 - Kendal to Bolton

Stats for the day:
Distance: 126.0 km (78.3 miles)
Elevation: 1966m
Saddle time: 6:24 hrs
Total time: 8:44 hrs

Average 
Speed: 19.6 km/hr
Heart rate: 97 bpm
Cadence: 68 rpm

Maximum
Speed: 58.0 km/hr
Heart rate: 158 bpm

Elevation profile



TOUGH DAY!

Perhaps we'd been lulled into it, focusing on Kirkstone pass, but today we climbed an extra 25% on yesterday in 15 fewer miles and it really took its toll. 

400m doesn't sound very much but hitting that climb at 10 - 20% into a serious headwind is draining on both the body & mind. To try & put the wind into perspective yesterday on a similar descent I hit 60kmph, today touching just over 30.

Forest of Bowland

This all came about in the forest of Bowland, confusingly titled given the lack of trees since it's a huge expanse of pretty desolate moorland. Having now researched thoroughly this (all 30 seconds of google/Wikipedia) apparently forest traditionally was a term used for royal hunting ground. This was also the location of my first fall of the trip, virtually on the Lancashire border I'd stopped to look at a big stone & the information boards (or at least pretend to while recovering from the hill climb). In attempting to start off again I'd clipped my cleats into the pedal and tried to push off, however the hill was too steep (have I mentioned hills enough yet?) & without any forward momentum I landed on my side in a slow motion comedy tumble. Luckily no one other than Sean or Nick were around to witness this embarrassing moment. 

Forest of Bowland

We were determined to make it past half distance before stopping for lunch today so we pressed onto the little village of Slaidburn, where an elderly couple sitting on a bench at the crossroads pointed us in the direction of a cafe on the green, a rather idyllic setting & a good spot for apple pie & ice cream. 

Lunch over & within 5 mins we were back grinding up a 16% incline. The constant up & down seemed to repeat itself, but I think I may have just blanked it from my mind. 

Eventually we reached the road into Bolton via Blackburn the A666. Now without wanting to be disparaging about either post industrial northern town the joke rather writes itself.  A missed turn out of Blackburn also contributed to spending longer on the 666 than we would have liked. However some judicious use of the garmin spotted a shortcut back to our planned route. Of course shortcut = hill climb and we ended up with a great view of Bolton & beyond in the late afternoon sunshine. Powered on by jelly babys and the knowledge we had less 10 miles to go we flew down the final few hills to our classy premier inn. It happeneds to also be the weekend of a Bolton ironman so the the sight of Lycra clad cyclists is the norm rather than exception.