Uncharted territory.

I did it! I spent the whole day at work procrastinating and more dithering and talking myself into and out of cycling tonight. It was rainy, I was tired, I have other things to do (like grocery shopping - hardly fun!) but I need to train. Like really NEED to train!

So I got home from work, and practically walked in the front door and out the back (just taking long enough in between to admire my front room which my wonderful parents have finished decorating for me today, and to ring and thank them while devouring far to much clotted cream shortbread.) I know I know, clotted cream shortbread is not the usual pre-workout low GI index slow release energy source food for top athletes. But I'd recommend it! And anyway. I'm not a top athlete. (no, really!)

Once on the bike I remembered I had completely forgotten how the heck to work my little bike computer that tells me clever things like how far I've gone and average speed. Hey ho. Thank goodness for maths and mapmyrun.com! I also donned my camelbak (courtesy of Graeme) for the first time. This is an ex-military camelbak in proper khaki camouflage. Oh yes. I'm practically a pro with that on. Except when I actually tried to drink from it WHILE cycling. And nearly choked and fell off the bike. whoops. It takes practice you know! And I pride myself on my multi-tasking abilities, but cycling and swallowing was definitely a new challenge! (I conquered it by the end tho!)

So, the above map shows my route. Now the reason this was uncharted, is because I had a vague notion of trying to find the colliery way cycle route to Radstock, but wasn't entirely sure of the route. Whereas my previous long route I had run, so I knew every hill every turn, every pot hole. This I had driven part of. About a year ago.

So I headed off towards Great Elm, wondering what things would hold. Going out of Frome on that road is exhausting. Its a long slow drag all the way from my door. When I FINALLY reached the top of the hill my first thought was "Thank Heavens" and my second was "if I go down that I have to come up again" swiftly followed by my third "maybe I'll just turn around and go home - then its all down and no more up". However, I bravely pedaled on....well actually I wimped out completely in that the gradient of the hill (downwards) was so steep I braked all the way down! It was a long lovely down. And at least I kept going forwards. I had by this point decided that I would attempt to do a loop, rather than face a hill that had scared me going down - going up. Sometimes for-warned is fore-scared, and I decided I'd rather tackle hills that I didn't know just how steep and long they were rather than tackle one which I knew had scared the bejeezers out of me on the way down, and I would almost certainly fail to get up! Better the devil you don't know.

The next little bit was lovely, until you cross the river and have to go through Great Elm Village. Now that, ladies and gentlemen. Is a hill. A HILL. A STEEP LONG BIG HUGE SCARY HILL.

I walked.

Well sorry, but I figured getting home in one piece was quite important. And I doubted I would do that if I attempted to cycle anymore once I had lost the ability to keep breathing. Caz has the right idea you know. She lives within feet of the south coast. That means mile upon beautiful mile of FLAT road / promenade / cycle path just begging to be trained on. FLAT. Humph. I'm not jealous at all. (really).

So anyway, by the time I was going through Great Elm village (its really beautiful - if you haven't ever been I recommend a stroll through) I was on the lookout for cycle path signs. I finally spotted some for Route 24 at the very top of the hill - pointing away from Frome much to my frustration! My great mistake, I was realising at this point, was that I hadn't bought a map. I had slipped my mobile and credit card and door key into my pocket. But no map. eeek. Still, I do have a fairly good sense of direction so I just bravely plodded on. It was at this point that I truly knew I was in the depths of the Somerset countryside. Or should I say 'Zummerrzet Countrrey Soide'? I got stuck behind cows. Dozens and dozens of them. All being herded along by a lovely farmer who I swear was 80 years old if he was a day, sometimes using his stick to walk with and sometimes whacking a stubborn cow on the rump and saying "Com on myy byeuteee, tharts the wayyyy". Or something like that. What a great excuse to slow down again! Once the cows had sidetracked into their destined field, I pedaled off, on this now unknown lane - never been there before in my life, feeling like I was in the middle of nowhere. It was hard to believe that I was only half an hour from my suburban front door. Beautiful, stunning scenery. Honestly people, you have to get out of your cars, get on your bikes, or get your walking boots out and start really exploring where you live. I could have lived in Frome for years and not found this if I just got in my car all the time. Go in search of your local treasures. I wish I could find a way of securing my camera to my bike so I could snap pictures to share with you - maybe I will yet, but stopping to take pictures every so often isn't very practical (although a great excuse to have a breather....hmmm!) All of a sudden here it was. The track passed under a bridge, a disused railway bridge, and the cycle path started at the end of it, and ran up to join the railway! I cycled up it 100 yards or so, and found a map! Hurrah for sustrans. What wonderful people! I saw that I was 1 mile due South of Buckland Dinham, and so decided to head on up to there (abandoning the cycle path this time) and then back into Frome on the Vallis road.

Thanks to that map and my wonderful sense of direction I was only slightly flustered when I got to an unsigned junction I hadn't bargained for, and followed my gut by turning right - east - towards Frome. I will have to admit to the being more than slightly swayed as well by the fact that although I was 85% sure this WAS east and therefore the way to Frome, I was 100% sure it was DOWN (west being up!) so headed off. As I came into Buckland Dinham I had the best treat of the evening. The swallows. Loads of them, all swooping a gliding, coming REALLY close to me and seeming completely unperturbed by me and thing. It felt something like I imagine it must feel to swim alongside dolphins. I am sure they were keeping me company for a bit. Stunning.

So there you have it. 7.5 miles or so, not my longest, but my hilliest by far. If you have a look at the map click on the bit where is says 'show elevation', and you'll see. I hope you're impressed. I am!

P.S. There seems to be some trouble embedding the map - so here's a button so you can go look at it on the MMR page...