Really very cold; a couple of degrees above freezing. I wrapped up extremely warm, with three layers on my legs and five on top, not counting the chest pack. Left work at about 3:30pm so I’d get an hour or so of daylight cycling in before sunset.
I prefer my Garmin Instinct watch for night riding, because it illuminates with a flick of the wrist. But I wanted to make sure that a firmware upgrade had fixed the Xoss as expected, so I used that. And it worked very nicely.
I wanted to do about 33 and I decided on a Twycrosser. It was dark by the time I’d reached Pinwall and for some reason I took a right, instead of a left to Ratcliffe Culey. So I ended up doing a sort of odd figure-of-eight route, coming back along the Bypasser roads (backwards). A bit disorienting and I didn’t quite know where I was for a while, but of course that just adds to the fun when it’s dark. Really properly dark down there as well, but I took the Energizer [sic] front light and that did a spectacular job even on the lower brightness setting to prolong the juice.
Saw a helicopter in the field along Gallows Lane again, with its motor running. Stopped to watch it take off about 120 metres away. It went south-east.
I’ve replaced the England flag hat with a Union Jack one which much better represents my identity. It looks very fetching actually so since I didn’t take any pics while I was out I posed for a portrait on my return. I must say I was very snug, actually warm apart from my fingers and toes.
Back on 32.80 miles, very close to my intended distance. And that’s 340 done this month. But it looks like rain at the weekend.