I felt rough this morning. Low on energy and washed out. Took me until 10:40 to get out of bed. But with rain forecast over the next couple of days I thought I should go out and do 30 or so. I’m on call so I couldn’t do a long one anyway.
With the wind coming from the north-east, I thought I’d do the eastbound route for a bit and come back. When I got to the A6 junction though I pondered the road sign to Loughborough and thought – why not? So I took the A6 into Loughborough.
My visit to the celebrated Leicestershire market town mostly consisted of cruising along its dual carriageways, but at least it was quiet. I did take a brief detour into the suburbs though to visit my ex-girlfriend’s parents’ house, where I stayed a few times in the late ’80s when I was still living in Hartlepool. I don’t think they’ve lived there for many years, but it was a nice sentimental excursion along memory lane.
After that I was faced with the choice of coming back homeward along the main A road, which I didn’t think would be particularly safe, and the more urban route along Snells Nook Lane and Copt Oak Road, which I knew would involve a tedious uphill slog. I settled on the latter. At least it made a change. I could just have come home the way I’d come of course but I probably wouldn’t have remembered the way.
Picked up a few spots of rain in Ibstock, but only for a couple of minutes.
Back on 27.24 miles, seemed like quite a lot of work for that distance but I was already over target for May.
It was unusually cold so I wrapped up warm, with my Union Jack dutt. Lots of flags out for the Platinum Jubilee so I must have blended into the surroundings quite nicely. Saw a couple of persons of colour out on their bikes and I made a point of giving them a friendly smile and a wave – because cycling is for everyone, and our flag stands for respect and inclusion.
When the sun came out I overheated a bit. Nice run out nonetheless. Something a bit different for a Sunday afternoon.
https://www.strava.com/activities/7222565594
Just noticed that I have 2112 miles to go, to hit my yearly target (4200 miles).