First off - Merry Christmas everyone!
My plan from the beginning had always been to cycle on Christmas Day. One of the perks of being an early riser is that a 4:45am alarm sometimes isn't too bad. I was out the door just after 5am and on my way, with the aim of returning before 8 - and before the parents woke up.
The route plan for today was flatter one that yesterday's adventure. With the sky clear of rain for the first 10 miles I was optimistic that it was going to be a dry ride. Then the heavens decided to open. Aided by the headwind that seemed to be following my every move the miles seemed to be taking longer to tick off. My route mainly consisted of loops of a section of road, repeating this to rack up my miles before doing the 10 miles back again. I got to 25 miles and the rain, wind and surface water led me to the decision to head home. With 10 miles left to ride I knew the total for the day would be 35. Luckily the wind wasn't as bad on the journey home today. Torrential rain I can deal with for a couple of hours, but a relentless headwind just makes for unpleasent riding. The occasional heavy gust and a mostly calm(ish) breeze for the journey home.
As I neared my house, I couldn't get the idea of failing to do 40 miles out my head. This resulted in my circling past my home 4 times to make up the extra 5 miles to hit the average for the day. With 40 miles on my Garmin I was happy to be just ahead of target two days into the challenge. I arrived home to my parents having just woken up - perfect timing. A quick shower and change before tucking into some chocolate gold coins as a pre-breakfast snack. Now for a day of eating all the foods and a cosy film viewing.
I'm taking part in the Rapha Festive 500 challenge on Strava. Cycling 500k in 8 days from the 24th-31st December. I'll be tweeting,instragmming and blogging my journey as part of documenting my progress.
Current total = 153/500k.
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