I should have known – Google had warned me “Very steep hills”.

Initially, I thought, “Hey! Maybe I’m fitter than I thought?!”

Google got it right.

My Garmin wristwatch confirmed it – from 10am to 4pm my recorded “stress level” was 100% most of the time. . . that translated to being in bottom bottom gear – and struggling.

The only answer was get into counting mode: 1,2,3 with every turn of the crank . . . .up to 50, for each finger on each hand.

Pause.

Start again.

Only look up when you count to 50.

And never despair.

It worked.