Ride 08/01/2023

The weather forecast was for a good day, although this wasn’t strictly true, so I decided I would go for my strava Grand Fondo badge of 100 km. I started early before the usual Sunday club ride so I could get in the extra mileage needed, about 15 miles, and headed North through Cowdenbeath and Kelty, around Cleish and along to Hill End and over Knockhill. I didn’t plan any particular route for today so this actually got me an extra 20 miles Unfortunately the weather was worse that expected, it wasn’t supposed to rain but thankfully I had my raincoat with me, it was also windy as well which meant I was into a head wind on the outbound leg of the ride. Also annoyingly no one turned up for the group ride so I soldiered on, on my own, on the normal Sunday route over Knockhill for the second time, down to Dollar and up to Coalsnaughton for the Cafe stop, again headwind all the way there I had my usual coffee and cake and carried on. Riding on my own means I can go at my pace which is faster than the normal group ride but it also means I’m burning calories like no ones business and this was starting to take it’s toll. Thankfully I had a tailwind going back home and the weather cleared up and the sun came out but I was starting to get quite tired and sore. I didn’t go home via Dalgey Bay, I had my extra mileage and didn’t think I had the legs to do it, so I went the direct way home through Dunfermline. The last 5 miles were a bit of a struggle, and although I averaged 16 mph which is the norm for the group ride, considering I went over 70 miles in distance and over 4200 feet of climbing this is pretty damn good for me so I’ll take that as a win but boy I was pretty shattered by the time I got home.