Not sure I’d be in the mood for cycling this afternoon, following a 230 mile drive back from South Wales, where I spent the last few days – but after a 90 minute rest and a bit of lunch, I felt well up for it. Rain is forecast for tomorrow evening and I wanted to make a bit of progress to this month’s target (400 miles).
Lovely afternoon for it – warm, bright (not quite sunny) and light winds. I did what I think I once termed a “Twycrosser with Orton Detour”, a bit like the “Bypasser” route except that it goes right into Twycross.
Came back up through Sibson, which similarly I haven’t done for a while, then Gibbet Lane.
Took this pic of the bike and some Alpacas at Packington. Hadn’t seen them there before. They didn’t seem at all bothered by the bike, or their photographer.
I was having a fine old time cruising along, taking it easy and listening to the drama of the final day of the Premiership on 5 Live, until I seemed to run out of juice. I bonked, coming down the hill from Sibson. Mental fatigue from the drive, the ill-effects of too many cocktails over a long weekend and failure to feed myself properly today all caught up with me. I could feel my legs pedalling under me, but they seemed to be running on empty. I went a bit numb and seemed to be zoning out!
But I made it to the bench at the Gibbet Post where I consumed a flapjack I’d fortunately brought with me. I gave it ten minutes to kick in before I set off again and I was fine after that.
The footy was high drama. I got the results I wanted at both ends (Liverpool didn’t win the league and Leeds stayed up). But I yanked my right earplug cord on my thumb while adjusting my jacket zipper and broke it. I only had audio in my left ear, but that was fine for football commentary. When I was a kid I had a little transistor radio with a single earplug so it was just like old times.
Anyway – 30.12 miles.