I haven't forgotten about this challenge, but my health and fitness got knocked right back in June by a heavy cold and its after-effects on my dodgy lungs.
I got over that and have been feeling much fitter for the past few weeks, but the weather has been really windy so all thoughts of speed were forgotten. I just concentrated on getting my hilly miles in with a view to making a serious attempt to get fit next year.
Anyway ... I woke up today feeling pretty good and the forecast was actually looking promising for me to try and take a few seconds off my Cragg Vale PB. It was supposed to be dry, mild, overcast and with cross/headwinds on the climb of only 4-5 mph.
So, I did a short warm-up on my gym bike this afternoon and then headed off to Mytholmroyd to see what I could do.
As forecast, it was pretty mild, and the skies were grey. I set off with my usual plan - make a fairly strong effort as far as the bus turning area at the start of the steep section and only then look at my GPS to see how I was doing. On days when wind is not a big factor, my time to that point is about half what my total will be to the top, give or take a few seconds. My current PB is 25-37 so I decided that if I was 13-00+ at the halfway point, I would abandon my attempt and just climb the second half at a steady pace. 12-00 to 13-00, I would really go for it ...
Anyway, the first half of the climb went really well and I had to fight the temptation to look down at the GPS screen until the halfway point. When I got there and looked down, I saw my time was ...
... 11-27. Blimey, that's the fastest I have done on that climb for years! It seemed that I was going to smash my PB so I got out of the saddle and sprinted up the steeper part of the climb to where it eases off on the open moorland, and ...
... met a wall of wind!
Curses! The forecasters had got it wrong today - the clouds were rolling in, it was getting darker and colder, and then the rain started. The wind was way stronger than forecast and my speed was crippled. I should really have backed off there and then but decided that I might as well see just how bad it would be. Answer - pretty bad! I was getting tired and it ended up taking me 28-00 to do the climb. That was a full 5 minutes slower for the second half of it!
By the time I got to the reservoir I was soaked and it was getting dark an hour early because of the clouds and rain. Waves were breaking on the sides of the reservoir. I didn't have lights with me so I u-turned and headed back down the hill. The wind noise disappeared at about 12 mph so that is a pretty good guesstimate of the wind speed I had battled.
I'll keep an eye on the weather and if an opportunity presents itself, I'll have another go. I would really like to achieve a 23-xx before the end of 2014, but even a 24-xx would be pretty good, considering what has happened the past couple of years.