I wanted to do 36 or so today. Lovely sunny day for it, and I set off on the Cannondale at about 12:50. Decided I’d do the first 18 miles or so of the new lower-elevation route I’ve devised to Northamptonshire, then the same 18 miles back.
Cooler than I expected when I set off in bare legs, but I had two long sleeve layers on on top, and soon warmed up in the May sunshine. Once again I had the eTrex to assist with navigation. What a luxury that would have seemed 20 years ago; a handlebar-mounted electronic map that pinpoints your position and gives you distance done and distance to go. I prefer it to using a phone as the LCD screen is very readable in strong sunlight and the AA batteries last for many hours.
Had to contend with clouds of greenfly near Desford – my jersey was covered with the little buggers by the time I’d emerged from it. And I saw some kind of small stoat creature crossing the road rapidly about 20 metres in front of me, near Thurlaston. It seemed to have an improbably bulbous head, but in retrospect perhaps it was carrying something it had just killed? That was the only wildlife of note on this trip, anyway.
The plan was to take a small detour at the bottom end of the ride, to a village called Stoney Stanton. I was curious to see it because it featured briefly on a programme from 1972 that I happened to watch a couple of weeks ago, a sort of travelogue following a car journey from London to Manchester using an A road route.
So I took a right along a road called Watery Gate Lane, but half a mile later was met by a rather impassable ford. So I turned back the way I’d come and back onto the main route. I briefly considered navigating to Stoney Stanton a different way, but in conjunction with the pointless mile I’d just done, this would have added 4 or 5 miles and I wasn’t comfortable doing that many at this stage. I settled for a village called Croft instead, where I spent a happy ten minutes lounging on a bench in the sun.
Took a brief detour along Kirkby Lane on the way back, partly because I needed a surreptitious and quiet spot for a wee – but also because I wanted to add a mile or so, as at that point it looked like I’d be back home on about 35 – and I’m doing my best to extend my distances by 2 miles a week.
As I visited the contents of my bladder onto a clump of nettles, 5 Live reported that Brighton had gone one up on City – which promised to make the remaining football coverage a bit more interesting, but not for long. By the time I had mounted my bike again City had equalised, and three or four miles further up the road, they were in front.
My knees held up pretty well – a bit sore now as expected but the only time I felt any trauma or pain was when pushing up a brief but steep hill approaching Desford. Encouraging, for now anyway. I’m assuming I’ll get MRI results in the next week or two.
36.09, 106 done this month. I still have 176 to do to meet this month’s target, but the weather looks good for a few days.