Saturday doorstep ride

Maybe it's too much of le tour on la tele, maybe it's LeMond with his often quoted "It never gets easier, you just go faster", but the last four weekends have included travelling to rides, working out nutrition and a minimum of a metric century. I've been pushing it. The Surly Long Haul Trucker is just designed for this. If you are a "leisure rider" and want to soak up the experience of the ride, then I heartily recommend the LHT.  But.. after 500KM of hard riding on new routes in the last month, there is part of me that starts to crave something carbon, light, fast and expensive.

I must be getting tired. A carbon frame may be a thing of wonder and beauty but so is the world around us.  I'll stick with a steel frame, fat tyres, and rack that carries a flask of coffee.

This morning was a quick ride before breakfast so as to leave the rest of Saturday free to sort out all the little chores I have neglected over the last month.
06:30 and the tide is close to high springs at Dunbar. The above photo is taken at the Glebe, only three minutes walk from my front door.  The blur on the horizon is the Fife coast, between the rocks is about 10 degrees N. If you set sail on that bearing, you might see a few oil rigs but the next point when you would have to stop would be the pack ice of the North Pole.

That wonderful fresh morning air that you can almost touch had me pushing hard before the heat of the day started. I felt the sun building on my back along past the golf course, then it was down the short drop to Belhaven Bay with the aroma of honeysuckle and clematis sweeping past in the welcome shadow of the overhanging Sycamores.

From the bay I went around town, and then eight miles later came back here. This time there were a few dog walkers about, so off to East Linton and back around Dunbar and inevitably past here again. More dog walkers and a few family groups.

The spirit and the legs were still willing, so around again to make an enthusiastic 50km. Back home for a hot shower, a hot coffee and the illicit pleasure of a second breakfast.
You don't have go to far for adventures when you remember how to appreciate what is on your doorstep.