Despite about a months notice, along with several reminders during the week, I had (of course) completely forgotten my wife was out this afternoon / evening on a hen party. Whoops.
When she came in at about 1pm and said – you do remember I’m going out at 2.30 – I had to hastily drop everything and get my bike kit on, or there would be no riding for me this day. And that would have been a crying shame as it was a very nice day out there in Preston. Windy, yes, but sunny. Lovely lovely sun, how much I have missed you.
So I was almost in summer kit today.
Everything was summery, except for a long sleeve base layer. I have to say, I am absolutely loving that Assos Mille jersey. And whilst I’d set off in my gilet, I had become so hot that it was already packed in my back pocket. Nice. I’ll definitely look to get some more Assos kit I think.
With the Alpe du Zwift ahead tomorrow, this ride was supposed to be fairly laid back. I’d say it was … in parts. I’m probably going to regret some of the efforts during the hour of pain tomorrow morning.
Intentionally though I kept to a fairly flat route. Once again heading out towards the coast – it’s flatter that way – and at what was meant to be a relaxed pace. Well, turns out that with a lot of stop / start due to traffic lights and those ridiculous gates they insist on putting on paths for whatever reason, I was having to stomp the pedals just to get back into the rhythm… so yeah, probably not the best way to do a low intensity ride.
Most frustratingly, I was expecting to be out for an hour and was already pushing my luck at the time to be home came closer. I figured what the heck, I’d just go a little further, add on five minutes and get that little bit extra time on the dry and sunny roads.
Well, I kinda boobed it and realised I’d gone out to far and would need to high tail it back home at a much higher speed than I wanted to do. Anyway, I kinda did it – maybe five minutes late, but home, sweating and panting.
Turns out I’d missed the text that told me I had an extra thirty minutes so not to rush back. Gutted. I skipped a chunk of the route I’d liked to have done… but I guess I can’t complain at another outdoor 30km on the week. And a little extra rest time may come in handy for the morning.
