Was hoping to do a longish one today, perhaps Grimston and back. But the forecasters had introduced a threat of rain for this afternoon, so I scaled down my plans. Decided to do Stoney Stanton and back.
Nice day – sunny with intermittent cloud, not too warm, a bit of a breeze. Given the aforementioned likelihood of rain, although I hoped to be home before it came over, I selected the Boardman as weapon of choice.
I didn’t bother setting up the route on the eTrex. I thought I could probably remember the way and if not, I’d just use Google Maps on the phone. And yet – I deviated from my intention, and from the route I’ve done in the past, because I arrived at Stoney Stanton without having gone through Barwell. I reached exactly the same destination, a crossroads at Stoney. But I’d arrived there along a different road. Looking at a map now it’s clear that I took the wrong road out of Kirkby Mallory.
Anyway I decided that actually, I preferred the way I’d come to the classic route I’d intended, so I decided to come home the same way. Wasn’t sure I’d remember all the turns, but I did.
I experienced a couple of light showers on the way back up, then just south of Bagworth, torrential rain. At least an hour before “light showers” had been forecast, and this was proper biblical rain. It lasted about 10-15 minutes. I gave the bike a wipe down and a good seeing to with GT85 on my return to the garage.
I was a little concerned about how my knees would do as the right one has been a bit sore since Saturday’s 55 miler, but it was OK. Quite encouraging. I’d visited a particularly brutal set of hamstring exercises on myself before setting off. Definitely helped. I did a couple more when I stopped at Earl Shilton as well.
35.99 (I knocked 0.01 off for walking the bike to and from a bench). According to the Strava route planner I saved myself 10 feet of elevation and half a mile by coming a different way, so I’m not sure why I chose the other route last time. This one is definitely nicer, especially by virtue of not coming through Barwell.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2632385182
I started reading Mark Lewisohn’s Beatles biography on holiday in Wales and really enjoyed it, but the trouble is – I only ever read books on holiday. In an environment where I have my computer, guitars, bikes and other toys available (ie at home) I just don’t have the attention span. So I had the idea of buying it in audiobook form, so I could listen to it while riding. That worked really well and I got through most of a chapter on this ride. It’s really beautifully read by Clive Mantle, who does the scouse accents nicely.
The audiobook itself is a 43 hr, 45 min audio file, but it’s controlled by the (Android) Audible app so you can jump to particular chapters. I used a new set of bluetooth earphones and the controls on that (dangling from my right ear) allowed me to jump back 30 seconds easily if I became distracted. The earphones themselves (made by JVC) sounded really good and the charge lasted the whole ride, though they started to beep a low battery warning over the last few miles. I was able to take a phone call from a friend without stopping, as well.
Will attempt a Fondo on Wednesday.