I had meant to ride my bike up Leckhampton today, but Brett saw to it that I didn’t. By the time I got myself together, he’d put my bike on the back of the car and was waiting impatiently for me.

So I skipped breakfast. Bad move. Instead, I bought a load of custard doughnuts from the local co-op and wolfed them down. JABBBA!

We got up there and I was immediately hit by just how unfit I was feeling. Its about three weeks since my last proper bike ride (barring the five-minute commute I’ve started doing again recently). That’s far too long. I’ve also had my perpetual winter cold, and have been going to bed far too late. Its added up to a catastrophic effect on my fitness.

I was immediately hit by just how unfit I was feeling.

If it was my lack of fitness that nearly killed me on the way up, coming down the hill was an entirely different story — this time it was my lack of confidence that saw to me. I just wasn’t willing to commit to anything at all for the first couple of runs. The sticky mud wasn’t helping my mindset either (even if it wasn’t actually affecting the handling of the bike a great deal). I was making stupid mistakes everywhere. Washing out in the mud and landing my hip on a big tree-root didn’t help matters.

It wasn’t all bad. I was flowing beautifully through some of the trails – from the chute down to the new rock garden was working beautifully for me, as was the last section down to the car park. That last section flows beautifully. Its just a pity that none of the rest really came together for me. I’m never the fastest rider of the bunch, but today was especially bad.

I guess I’ll just have to keep on riding, keep on building the confidence back up. It’ll come back, it always does.

One day I’ll nail that trail top to bottom. One day.