An outing up the Vicdessos Valley

Lovely day again, cold but clear, so an outing on the bikes was called for. I reckoned I had done enough hill work for a while and needed an outing on relatively level terrain. Andy also fancied a training run, so out came the roadies and we set off from Tarascon, along the Vicdessos Valley up to Marc (the final few kms provided a nasty little sting in the tail, it has to be said). I was keen to see how far I could push myself on shallower gradients and wore a heart rate monitor for the first time. I went off at a fairly smart pace, feeling strong and keen to push my legs harder. However, it soon became apparent that Andy was struggling and was generally feeling under the weather, so the strategy changed. But at the end of the day, we did get a nice 46km ride under our belts, with what turned out to be 600m of ascent and just over 2 hrs of actual riding time. The scenery was also spectacular towards the head of the valley with Mont Calm looming over us, but a photo was impossible due to the angle of the sun which was immediately above it - shame!