Evening Sun over Ilkley

There's a piece of news that I haven't shared here up until now. I made a decision a few weeks back. It was absolutely the right decision but I'm still having difficulty facing up to the reality of it. I've been putting off making it public. I'm no longer going to the Dolomites for the Cent Cols challenge this month.

There are a number of reasons. First and foremost is my fitness. I had an amazing week in the Pyrenees and by any normal standards proved myself very fit, but my day-to-day recovery was quite poor and I never found any zip in the legs. I got up all the cols in reasonable form, but I felt so very one-paced. Each of our days in the Pyrenees only amounted to half of the climbing that was required for each day in the Dolomites. The hard truth has since dawned on me that I'm just not strong enough to complete 125 miles and 5000m climb a day for 10 days. Not even close!

The plan was to return fit and strong from France and enjoy a month of hard training, long evenings out in the Dales with a few events at weekends and a couple of mega hard days to condition the body to the stress of climbing steep roads for long periods of time. It was a great plan - except that I returned from France feeling exhausted and the terrible weather has undermined completely the resolve for long rides. Add in to the mix this new project at work, into which I've had to put many hours of preparation for the workshop last week, and the equation didn't compute.

So, I should have been in Italy today rather than back in the office in Shipley. I guess I've been feeling a little fed up, but at least it was a lovely late summer evening. This shot (of a familiar landmark) is to remind me that being here in Ilkley isn't really anything to feel sorry about.