Had the best of intentions this morning, and half a plan sketched out in my head for a cheeky metric half that would bag another 3 letters for the
ABC challenge, but it just didn't happen.
After some Olympic standard faffing it was out of the door on the Giant and up towards Coal Road. They say the first mile is the hardest and it certainly felt that way today. Anyway, the bike knows the way so all I have to do is provide the forward motion.
It was dry and thankfully a bit milder than of late, but forecast to be a bit blowy. Coal Road became Skeltons Lane then the long descent into Thorner and along Main Street before climbing out of the village up Milner Lane. Blimey I was huffing and puffing at the top of that climb!
Along between the hedges and thinking to myself that it didn't seem that windy - and we all know what that means don't we..?
Round into the top of East Rigton on Holme Farm Lane and round to Rigton Green, then Bramham Lane into semi-rural solitude on filthy roads.
Here the wind made itself felt - from being at my back it was now an interesting crosswind at every gate / gap in the hedges and while I've been out in worse I was glad this lane is usually traffic free.
Across Jewitt Lane and the climb back up onto the other end of Holme Farm Lane and now straight into the wind - but at least this bit is fairly flat. This made my mind up that the metric half was off - it had been harder work than it should have been up to this point and forcing the issue wasn't going to help.
So, left at the junction with Milner Lane and back the way I'd come into Thorner, then out on Carr Lane and the ups and down (mainly ups) to the A58.
Along there and the climb back up Coal Road, across the roundabout and then local roads down to home, still battling that wind, before a long loop to push the mileage on.
15.05 miles (24.22 km) in
1h 13m at an average of
12.3 mph with
777ft climbed and an average temperature of
6.6°C
Glad I got out and a short ride is better than no ride, but I just wasn't feeling it today. Goodness knows why, but my get up and go seems to have got up and gone lately.
Very little chance of getting out tomorrow with 40+mph winds forecast, so any riding will be on the turbo.
Sorry, no pics as I didn't stop anywhere, but here's the map: