Recently found myself dragging myself back up to scratch after a three week lay off due to a nasty cough. Decided to have a spin around Ladybower and Derwent reservoir as I had heard it was reasonably flat. I have to admit to the selfish enjoyment of overtaking a large amount of families and cycle hire groups on bikes as I make my way around, knowing full well that I am not that fast at the moment. Then recently as I made my way home from work on my commuter, a guy wearing jeans and a T-shirt on a scruffy looking fixed wheel bike with flat pedals and trainers burns me at the lights and leaves me for dead. Ah well I thought, there is always a bigger fish.
I'm at my fittest ever at the moment, and so with all the confidence in the world I decided to join some local XC guys on one of their regular evening rides. I got home after 3.5 hours of high-speed, up hill and down dale utter misery, wanting to cry, on the verge of cramp in every muscle in my body, and collapsed on the floor unable to move for half an hour.
Absolutely beasted me. A very humbling (and probably required) experience.
Since then I've been too scared to venture beyond the confines of my very small pond.