After being back on my bike for the first time in 10 months on Monday this week I felt so good afterwards that this re-affirmed I really need to work on getting my fitness back.

The weather was looking about perfect this afternoon so I popped out for a 20 mile loop to Selby and back to keep up the momentum. I’m thinking of joining the Selby Cycling Club when I get a bit more fitness back and club rides are allowed again, so thought I’d check out how feasible it would be to ride down to the club meeting point outside Selby Abbey from home.

I started off by heading south towards Church Fenton along a very familiar lane before turning off to head down towards Biggin and the past the excellent Blacksmiths Arms. Then onwards right through the middle of the glorious Bishops Wood (must return for a proper walk in the summer as it’s stunning).

Not long after I was reaching the suburbs of Selby and managed to mis-interpret my Wahoo Elemnt map and take a wrong turn, but it was easily sorted on a parallel street – phew!

I sat down out side theAbbey for a quick breather and slurp or two of my water, then it was back on the road towards home.

The road back took me through the beautiful village of Wistow, then Cawood and finally Ulleskelf. As I got home I had 19.7 miles on the clock, so carried on past the house and onwards a bit so I returned home with over 20 miles to show for my efforts. Very happy with that at this stage!

My legs were pretty tired towards the end but that’s only to be expected and at least passing the 10 mile mark (the total distance of Monday’s ride) I was still feeling full of beans, so fitness must be getting better slowly as my leg muscles slowly awaken.

Now, to hope the weekend weather is good so I can get out for another ride..

A lot has happened in my life since my last post, but I won’t go into that here. Suffice to say I no longer have a beard and now live in North Yorkshire.

Anyway, with Covid and everything else that is going on in the world at the moment, I’ve not been out on my bike for 10 months, I’m really embarrassed to say. Time to start sorting that one out, especially now the weather is starting to get warmer and Spring is round the corner.

I’ve no idea how fit I am other than I know I need to lose 3 stone, so decided I’d just do a simple local loop to start things off and assess how I was feeling as I went round. The route has a few small slopes in it as we get to the edge of the Vale Of York, but noting too testing by the levels I was used to a few years ago.

The sun was out this afternoon, it was not raining for a change and the wind was gentle, so no better time to get back out and start to break myself back into cycling.

I headed south from home towards Church Fenton, enjoying the views over the Vale Of York and beyond. Lovely to see snowdrops out on the verges of the lanes and the sound of nature starting to waken up from Winter.

After passing through Barkston Ash, it was time to tackle the more undulating lanes on the edge of the Vale and towards Leeds. I found I was not great at climbing at all but that is to be expected after being off the bike for so long. Only time on the bike and miles in my legs will change that and that is the plan.

The ride down the lane back towards my home village of Ulleskelf was the fastest part of the ride and my legs were starting to break into the ride by now and I was thoroughly enjoying myself.

I even did a loop round the village at the end, so my end mileage was over 10 miles in total. Nowhere near the 100+ miles I used to do on a ride a few years ago, but Rome was not built in a day and I plan to get back to longer rides very soon, building things up gradually.

Route: click here