A cold day, and I wouldn’t normally have bothered with a 100km ride. But I was very keen to get the December fondo in, to complete my annual aspiration of completing one in each of the calendar months.
The other half and I visited a restaurant in Swithland at the weekend, about ten miles from here, to the east. As we drove there I was reminded how pleasant the countryside is in that part of Leicestershire, to the south of Loughborough. Except for a very few occasions, I’ve avoided it because it’s too hilly. So when I go eastwards, I take a route that passes Loughborough to the north.
But I decided I’d have another go. I tried to plot a route that would keep the climbing to a minimum, and eventually track northward to join the usual route.
So I wrapped up warm, set off at about 1035, and I revisited the challenging terrain between Loughborough and Leicester. I don’t regret it, but it certainly was a bit of a slog in parts, and I probably won’t do it again for a long time. One nice thing though is that it took me through Thrussington, where there’s a lovely, quaint village shop, tea shop and deli. I visited it en route to Rutland a couple of weeks ago (albeit I think I claimed it was in Seagrave). I went in and was surrounded by all kinds of enticing products and delicacies, completely alone for a couple of minutes until I went in search of someone at the back of the tea shop. Can’t imagine that in South London or Nottingham. I bought a sausage roll and some sort of pastry confection called a “blondie”. I sat outside and watched the world not pass by. Delightful.
I rejoined the usual route at Six Hills, continued eastward until a few miles short of Eastwell, then turned for home. Came back the usual way (or one of them). Pretty cold after the sun went down, but it had been a sunny afternoon mostly, and conditions were very tolerable. Back on 107.52k.
Listened mostly to 5 Live.
Happy to have completed the set of monthly fondos for 2024. But equally happy to have taken a decent bite out of the remaining distance requirement. 9943km done this year now. Another 378 and I’ll have beaten my yearly distance record.