No.15 The hills are alive with the sound of ………….

Gentle, rolling, steep, craggy, sweeping, long, short, twisty, undulating. There are many words to describe a hill. Indeed life before cycling conjured up a very specific vision of what a hill should look like. It's quite clear now that I was way off the mark. A hill is quite simply anything that isn't perfectly flat. At the moment training is all about the hills. I never thought I'd say this but we are actively seeking them out. It's clear to see that Graeme is a happy man enjoying the challenge of getting us both to the top. Previously I had been known to choose 'next left' on seeing that the route looked a harder option to the 'right'. Now I see impossible before me and I head straight for it.

"Breathe in through the nose, don't let the gear get on top of you, strong legs Jane, breathe through the pain, slow the breath, you're annihilating this hill, you look so strong, that's it - smooth legs, focused head and breathing will get you to the top." I'm not sure how Graeme does it? Cycling, hills, breathing and talking? But it's great that he does. It would be so easy for me to give up, especially when my pain barrier is being broken but he keeps me focused, and eventually, we get to the top of the hill, switch up the gears and the speed and hunt down the next one.

Last week we went to tackle a nearby hill. Fairly short but the road gradient is 16%. It's the steepest hill I've tackled in a long time and my fear of having to unclip from the pedals if I can't make it was growing. To be fair I think that fear helped get me to the top! I had been in bed ill for 48 hours in the week leading up to it so it was pretty emotional achievement for us both. A mixture of exhaustion, pain and elation. It gave me a real boost. On the the actual ride there will be all sorts of hills to deal with. Day 11 gives us a categorised hill nearly 11 miles long. I can't even imagine what that will be like. All I need to remember is if all else fails I'll have to walk!

Some hills just can't be ridden!

As sponsored RearViz riders we always ride safe with our RearViz in place (a rear vision mirror mounted on the arm) and the view today was a little different from the usual traffic. I saw the peleton in my RearViz way before I heard their calls to let us know they were approaching and I already had myself braced. I have experienced a peleton before, on our cycle to Oxford last July, and its fair to say that I still find it one of the scariest things ever! In fact I've added it to my list - spiders, clowns and now peletons. This one was quite special though as there, right in the middle, was Olympic Track cyclist Jess Varnish. I was scared stiff with the number of riders, but for literally a millisecond I was cycling next to a world record holder! We managed to keep the group in our sights for just over a mile. It really is spectacular to see.

Fancy your own RearViz?

 Quote #BIKE2014 at http://www.rearviz.com and they'll make a donation to 

The Lee Spark NF Foundation :-)

So what's next? Tomorrow will be more hills. We actually had a route planned for last Sunday but the weather and my lack of energy from being poorly made us postpone it. Hopefully we will wake bright- eyed and bushy tailed to a dry day!

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Thanks so much for reading. Your comments and support really are appreciated :-)