Winter Hill again

After dinner I used the GPS to race my alter ego around Winter Hill again.

It was a lovely warm June evening, and although I made a decent start, before long I had given up the race, and decided to just enjoy the journey.

As a result I was trailing my previous performance by the time I reached the top of the hill (and the best view). Then the competitive spirit kicked in, I hurtled down the slope into Cookham, and caught up with my previous time. I kept up a good pace along the river and back up through Maidenhead. So by the time I got home I was back in the lead again.

That was my third carefully timed ride round the same ten mile loop: each at an average speed of roughly 13mph, or just over 45 minutes from start to finish. In the process I've improved my speed, but not by very much, and this evening I did it mostly by keeping my bottle and maintaning a higher speed downhill, rather than anything more energetic.

Obviously I would have set myself an easier goal if I had timed the first circuit at an easier pace. But I didn't. The result is that it is more satisfying to see an improvement.

It would be even better to see more improvement. But that will have to come on another (cooler) day.