The weather forecast for today has been very changeable over the last couple of days. Yesterday morning it looked like I could get 50+ miles in before the arrival of rain in the evening. Early this morning it looked like rain all day. It did rain this morning quite a bit but by 3pm, the forecast was telling me I had a few hours to get a ride in without rain.
Since the roads were wet, I decided to take the hybrid. Once I got to the garage though I realised that I hadn’t brought non-cleaty shoes with me – I often forget that the hybrid has civvie pedals now. I certainly wasn’t going to do a Twycross in the Crocs that I use as temporary footwear between the house and the garage, where I keep my cycling shoes – so I decided to take the Boardman instead.
Twenty minutes after I set off, and against the best advice of the Met Office, the rain came down by the bucketload. It only lasted about 10 minutes, but left me thoroughly soaked.
Curiously, a few minutes after the rain stopped, I turned south onto Ashby Rd at Snarestone and the road went from soaking wet to bone dry in the space of a few feet. A heavy blob of rain must have passed over, just clipping Snarestone. It must have been possible to have stood on Ashby Road, remaining perfectly dry while watching the rain coming down a few yards away. Fascinating.
Just checked the rainfall radar for the time the rain came down and yep, it looks like that’s exactly what happened.
The roads were quite dry for the next 15 miles until the southern approach to Heather, which is roughly level with Snarestone. So the rain blob would have been travelling pretty much exactly eastwards, which makes sense of course. I was quite pleased to have taken the Boardman in the end.
I gave a celebratory fist pump as I chested the imaginary 3,000 mile finishing tape between Sheepy and Sibson. Since the roads were dry enough at that point and my clothes had dried off a bit I decided to extend the ride a bit by taking Barton Lane across to Barton in the Beans rather than coming straight up through Shackerstone. I love Barton Lane. So quiet and secluded, yet decently surfaced and some nice scenery as well.
Not an entirely enjoyable ride; my feet were a bit damp for the remainder of the ride after the downpour. My gloves were cold and damp as well, but I stuffed them into a bottle cage for part of the ride and made do with bare hands.
Pleased to have got a Saturday Twycross in, especially with footy on 5 Live, albeit Alan Pardew isn’t my favourite match summariser. A bit of a Saturday tradition.
The bike computer on the Boardman has developed a bad habit recently – it takes a few hundred yards before it notices that the front wheel is spinning when setting off, or after stopping for a while. I’ve had that one for over ten years actually so not a bad innings, but maybe a new magnet will fix it. I do have a spare somewhere, I’ll have a good look for it tomorrow.
23.72 miles done today and that’s 3,013 this year, 382 this month. Looking at the weather forecast, the September campaign may well be over.
I’m currently aiming for 3,750 this year and my monthly targets are based on that. Certainly it looks almost easy now, but could I possibly reach 4,000? Depends on the weather, I think. I do have some holiday still to take and of course there are some public holidays near the end of December, so perhaps it’s doable.