The weather forecast for today improved slightly overnight, with the day forecast to be rain-free from 1000 or so. The wind was coming from the north-west. I wanted to do 66 miles ideally, to get the September distance up to 400. But I knew that if I didn’t, I’d have a chance to overcome the deficit over the weekend – the forecast for the last two days of the month also having improved.
I set off at 1100, to do the Upper Westbound route. Up through Coleorton, up through Melbourne, over Swarkestone Bridge, west along the Beloved A Road, through Willington, Hilton, Hatton, Sudbury then north toward Ashbourne. I stopped not long after a village called Little Cubley, because going any further along that route means coming back along a long, steep hill. I’d done nearly 31 miles at that point. I turned back, bought some goodies (including an ice cream Mars Bar – nice) at the petrol station at Hatton, then turned west to Foston to add some distance. Then I came back the usual way (pretty much the same way as the outward leg) from there.
I was going to do something different on the way back to avoid Rotter’s Rise south of Melbourne, but I just sucked it up in the end. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, I think partly because I’d doped myself with a chocolate milkshake and some chocolate M&Ms.
Thought I might encounter some flooded roads near Sudbury but nope, all good. The roads dried out nicely in the afternoon and the temperature climbed a bit as well. So the return leg was a lot more pleasant than the first half of the ride, especially with a tailwind. The headwind was definitely an irritation on the way up.
Listened to 5 Live, the Pale Fountains album Pacific Street and more of my audiobook.
Back on 66.06, and that’s just got me over the 400 mile line for this month. If I can do the same for the remaining three months, this will be the first year I’ve recorded a minimum of 400 for each month.