I can't claim it was an interesting ride but it was rather strange in one respect. With the wind behind me going up the bypass it was like cycling in a vacuum; I was flying along at top speed and it was almost silent. As soon as I turned around and started heading back, into the wind, it was like cycling on the deck of a trawler with the wind howling off the fields - quite strange. Anyhow it wasn't an interesting ride but it was 20.4 miles to start December off.
9th December: I did the local 21 tonight after work. It was extremely blowy, but thankfully dry, and I spent a fair amount of the ride leaning slightly into the wind to stay upright; always a good time to remind yourself that cycling into a strong wind must be good training, surely? Despite the weather it was a fairly enjoyable ride, especially when the wind was behind me, and it's another 20.2 miles for December.
12th December: It had been been peeing down all day today so when it finally stopped at about six I dragged myself out to do the local 21. That was the plan anyway but a couple of indecisive moments saw the actual route I did being a hybrid of various local rides.
It was windy and there was a heck of a lot of standing water and semi-flooded roads but it was quite an enjoyable ride and my legs felt good and it was a much needed 20.9 more miles for December.
16th December: I had the day off work today to catch up on some chores so I managed to get out and do the same ride as above in the afternoon. It was blowy but dry so quite a nice ride overall. It was a day ride so my first ride in a while without my Diablo lighting the way which was nice and 21.4 more miles.
20th December: It was a gorgeous day today with sunshine and blue skies so I decided to head out and do the local 21. That was the plan until I got onto the bypass and found it was extremely windy and, as often happens on my rides, I decided to go exploring instead. I wanted to know where the road goes if you go past Warbrecks nursery and turn left at the the T-junction and ended up in Ormskirk coming home via Edge Hill college. The weather was warm enough but the wind was dangerous; there's a stretch of the road back from Ormskirk that's single carriageway with open fields on either side that had me leaning into the wind constantly and trying not to cycle into the pavement every time there was a brief lull in the wind. Anyhow, I survived and another much needed 15.6 miles for the month.
22nd December: I was knackered after work today but I manfully necked a cup of full-strength Bourbon Espresso, made in my stove top, and headed out into the night. I ended up doing another hybrid of my various local rides aiming to avoid as much traffic as possible.
It was windy (the beginning of storm Eva as it turned out) but much less than it has been recently and I felt great all the way around so a very enjoyable ride over all and 18.8 more miles for December.
28th December: I took Awesom-O today on the last day of the Christmas holidays and did the full local 24 miler. It was fairly windy (the start of storm Frank as it turned out) but not dangerously so like it was the other day and my legs felt strangely awesome all the way round which was a bonus. Anyhow, 24.4 more miles.
Well, I didn't make it out again for various reasons so the total for December was 141.7 and 2015 ended up at 2264.3 miles. Given the poor weather in January and a couple of bad months with my knee, ending up just over half a month down for the year was not a bad result overall. Also, I've just found out I might be being dragged on a week long family holiday 'probably somewhere in Spain' where I'll probably hire a road bike and disappear each day so here's looking forward to 2016!
