Milestone #6

6,000 Miles

I don’t know what it is but I always seem to be behind when it comes to writing these. Maybe I’m too busy at work, or have too much to do at home. Maybe I’m doing too much cycling so am too tired. Nooooooo, it definitely can’t be that!!!

Anyway, whatever the reason it doesn’t matter. I have now firmly passed the 3/4 mark of my annual target and still have more than 1/4 of the year left to complete the rest!

I’m pretty sure that the latest 1,000 was the quickest to pass which is not really too surprising. Reasonable weather makes the time pass much more easily leading to longer commutes and extra weekend trips. It’s also much less of a strain on the bikes, and my time in fixing them up, when they are not getting completely battered by the wind and rain every day.

As I’ve said before, it’s good to have a target to work towards instead of just randomly picking and choosing when to ride. It helps to keep me motivated and each time I pass milestones like this it spurs me on with a great mental boost. No doubt I will need some of that in the final few months of the year…

Weekend Boosters

The extra weekend trips I mentioned above were really awesome and among some of the most enjoyable miles I have done on the bike. One of them was a 20 mile loop from the house with my youngest boy (age 11). He had done a few 10 mile rides before but we had a Sat afternoon with nothing arranged and the sun was splitting the sky. We decided to go for it and had a wonderful time out on mostly nice quiet countryside roads.

The second trip was the one that took me over 6,000 miles and was a ride with another of my boys. This time it was the middle boy (age 15) and we were again blessed with a beautiful day so made the most of it by heading out in the morning. He has wanted to do a 50 mile ride for a while now and this was a perfect opportunity to do it. The sun was out, it was quite warm and there was very little wind.

We headed out North over the Forth Road Bridge and did a circle around the Forth, coming back on the Kincardine Bridge before eventually arriving home with 57 miles completed. He also learned the joys of the cafe stop as he stuffed a huge piece of chocolate fudge cake down his throat halfway round!

It was such a good day out and I can’t wait to do another. He did really well considering it was nearly twice as far as he had cycled in one go before. Also, don’t tell him but it was harder for him than me as his bike is heavier with worse components on it than mine….