I managed my 1st 200 since 28th December yesterday, my favourite one way ride to Stonehaven from Edinburgh. Whilst mostly tailwind assisted I did make heavy weather of it through a few schoolboy errors and some pretty poor road conditions.
With forecast rain I put on a fairly substantial jacket. Im not a jacket rider and this one had me overheating despite the cold wind. I was glad to remove it for about 90 minutes mid afternoon between the showers but that just served to expose my wet layers beneath to the cold wind which was a bit meh until they dried out. At whch point the rain started again. On Friday both the BBC and MetOffice forecasts had zero rain Sunday and I reckon it rained for around 5 hrs out the 10 I was out.
I used overshoes that are better suited to cold conditions rather than wet. As a result I had warm wet feet that I knew would start to get cold in the final hour or so.
I had a big dinner Saturday night but it just made me feel sluggish from the start. I forced down an otherwise delicious lunch at the half way mark in Meigle but spent most of the 2nd half of the ride feeling very queasy.
The 30k after Montrose represented the only tricky bit into a cross head wind (other than the bit from home to the Forth Bridge) and my legs had just gone. I stopped at the top of the climb after Auchenblae to force down a bit of malt loaf. I think I’d probably been suffering from the dreaded knock without realising it (with hindsight Id probably not taken in enough fluid either what with me baking gently inside a too heavy rain jacket). I rode briefly with two guys from Stoney without about 15km to go but they were too quick for me - only just mind as I still had them in my sights when they were on the final climb through the farm.
Using unclassified roads in Perthshire and Aberdeenshire this time of year wasnt a wise move. Lots of very wet or flooded roads and much crud. B roads would have been wiser.
Still, job done, not a "Hollywood" ride by any means but it was all completed in daylight. Train home and after dodging the booze soaked rugby revellers at Haymarket Station I made the short journey home by a combination of tram then a 2km warm down back home.
The highlight of the ride was seeing a red squirrel near Murrayshall Hotel - but the wee fella scurried off before I could get a pic! Oh and some lovely rainbows while I made my slow motion progress between Marykirk and Auchenblae where I had Mark Shannon’s word ringing in my ears – “there's no such thing as an easy 200”.
A manky bike awaits me in the garage. Will probably go for a gentle swim tonight just to be kind to my legs.
At this time of year I'm normally itching for the days to get long enough to bag a 300. No' just now Im not! I suspect this years audax riding may end up being back loaded.