Finally I get back out on the LHT

It was a strange old sort of a ride today. The rain had been replaced with some very welcome sunshine but the brisk westerly winds continued. I haven't been for a decent ride on the Long Haul Trucker for a month and I wasn't sure how I would manage, the muscle strain in my back is a lot better but there is still a niggling pain in my left shoulder blade. Before any medically minded folk start to catastrophise, I've had it checked and it's most likely a compensatory injury from the original strain. I took a while to get motivated but eventually I headed out around lunchtime.

The road along to East Linton was a real slog into the wind. The effort seemed compounded by a steady stream of road bikes powering past in the opposite direction with the wind behind them. My cheery hellos were met with blank stares at best. I haven't bothered to look it up but there must have been a club outing or some sort of sportive.

Fighting the wind was becoming trying so I turned off at East Linton and headed to the hills figuring that if I wasn't going far today I would at least get a couple of good climbs under my belt.

Much puffing later and came back through Pitcox with the woods full of snowdrops, then on past the old farm cottages where a clutch of hens were muttering to themselves as they scraped and scratched. 

 From Pitcox I  pushed hard on the climb up by Little Spott and then there was bitterly cold descent as I started back down towards Dunbar.

I stopped in the shelter of a wall as another group of roadies flew past, still no acknowledgement, and poured a coffee from my latest flask.

Out of the cold wind and I soon warmed up in the sunshine. The views were tremendous today. You can't really see it in the photo but there was a faint glimmer of snow on the mountains away to the north.

As I sat having my coffee a couple of roadies asked if I was ok? but again the majority just blasted past. I still didn't give up saying hello.

Back into Dunbar and past the parish church with beautiful blues skies. Like I said, it was a strange old ride. I was a little disconcerted by the plethora of cyclists with so little acknowledgement. It didn't spoil the ride, I still relaxed, pedaled, looked at all sorts of things. I suppose their priorities were all about getting through the countryside as quickly as they could. I don't think I'm suited for racing.