One of those evenings

Had one of those horrible rides this evening. Having only moved to Leeds 6 months ago, I haven't yet figured out where all of the roads around my house take me (i live just off a ring road which does make for a hairy ride out!). Tonight was the first time i had, had the opportunity to get some mid week miles in my legs and i spent some time yesterday evening planning a route that looked reasonably easy to follow given my complete lack of a sense of direction. I also used some of my lunch hour today, plotting and memorising the different roads and junctions i needed to take and/or watch out for, just to make sure i didn't get lost. Anyway, tonight finally came (the novelty of training is yet to wear off) and i headed off on my new ride. It was all going rather swimmingly (bar a couple of stops to check the map on my iphone) until i got to the part of the ride where i was to enter a main road and then swing back on myself for the home leg. On the map, the amount of time i was to spend on this main road looked minimal however once i was actually on the road the left hand turning i was so desperately looking out for failed to materialize. I kept riding, perhaps for 10 or 15 minutes and there was still no road junction appearing in the distance. By this time the sky was getting increasingly dark so i decided that it was time to concede that my miserable sense of direction had struck once again and i pulled into the next layby to swing my bike around and go back home the way i came. It wasn't until i had stopped and looked over my shoulder that i realised i had spent the last 10 to 15 minutes free wheeling at a steady 20mph downhill. I suppose it all makes for good training!