A tale of two hills.....

nothing to do with the Devon trip....the two hills in question are Strawberry Hill and the Beacon.

Most of you who have done the C2C will know Strawberry Hill; it's the descent from Penrith to the Eden Valley and towards Langwathby...those who remember it will know it's steep! This is fine you might say, why would this be important in my bike ride on Arjuna...I was riding up it!

Arjuna, pictured here, is designed for fit people to ride - when you are fit riding him is a joy - when you are not fit his gears make it hard work going up 1:4 hills.

The benchmark I aim for in cycling is 16 mph average - not too bad on some of the hills around here; I managed 15.9 on this ride - it was 16.2 before Strawberry Hill....something to aim for.

The Beacon was yesterday (Fri 10th Aug); it is a favourite walk of Claire and I, however this time I decided to try and run it. It was very hot and I am very unfit (more so on my running than cycling where I have a base level of fitness from years of doing it). Anyway, I ran all the way up the road to the base of the climb, but have to confess to speed walking up the majority of the hill rather than running - another goal to aim for.