Miles: 125.2
Monday got the week underway in fine fashion with a sunny afternoon. I did 15 miles on the usual route in the late afternoon. But change was at hand in the evening - a large shower of heavy rain passed over from the south between 9 and 9:30. It left drizzle in its aftermath, so no more cycling was done that day. Tuesday was hot and sunny. Wow! Perhaps summer was making a comeback? Lovely stuff anyway, so I took myself out for an hour in the afternoon (back with 32 miles) and then nipped back out in the evening after watching England v Ukraine to add another 8 miles to the total, returning home with 40. Wednesday was mostly sunny and very warm, although there was a period in the afternoon where it looked as if it was turning thundery. This never happened and the sun came back out. In celebration I went out on my bike for a good hour, taking my camera along for the ride again to take a couple of snaps for the blog. I got back with 57 miles. There was no football to distract me in the evening so I shot out again later on for another 8 miles, gliding homeward with a total of 65. Sterling work for a Wednesday.
Thursday morning brought rain in plentiful supply. By the afternoon this had (temporarily) cleared away. I decided to get out on the bike slightly earlier than usual just in case the patches of rain that were threatening the region pounced before the rain radar suggested they would. I'd only gone a mile when I got a fly in my eye, despite wearing glasses as usual. Ouch! I had to return home to fish it out and then set off again. It turned out to be a humid, sticky ride. The overhead conditions weren't great and there were patches of heavily localised showers in the area. I managed to avoid these, encountering just the odd spots of drizzle here and there instead. I came home with 81 miles. Steady rain returned at 7:30 in the evening and became quite heavy so no more cycling was possible that day. As a consolation prize, I went to the pub instead. No guilt attached to this, as there was no alternative. Friday was a complete washout. Appalling. It rained from 8 am at least until finally stopping just after midnight. The River Calder flooded again over in West Yorkshire but we got off lightly here in comparison.
Saturday. A grey and blustery day until mid-evening at least. I didn't bother making my customary trip into town but went out into the countryside instead. I had to make a detour from my planned route before a mile was up to avoid a stretch of flooded road. I rolled home 70 minutes later with 98.5 miles... I dashed in to get my camera to take a pic of the flooded road. I was disappointed to discover that the water level had subsided noticeably in the meantime. Never mind, I returned home with 100 miles in the bag. The rain returned while I was watching the rather dull Spain v France quarter final on tv, so no more miles were done.
That left Sunday for me to push on and post a bigger total. Fortunately the weather was much improved; sunny, but with a gusty wind coming in straight off the Irish Sea. I took myself out on a 24 miler and came home with 125 miles in total. In the evening there was the small matter of England v Italy on tv. The extra time and penalties realistically left no time to add any more to the total, so that was it for this week. Had the match ended after 90 minutes I would have definitely added another 8 at least. I think I should have gone out on the bike instead of suffering the pain of watching those penalties.
The stats:
Time taken to get 100: 6 hrs 15 m.
Total for 2012: 3026.1
2012 average weekly mileage: 121.04
Consecutive 100s: 24
Miles needed for 6000: 2973.9
Percentage of target reached: 50.43%
With 27 weeks to go, average weekly miles needed for 6000: 110.14
A few things of note have occurred this week. The big news is that I've reached the halfway stage in my quest to do 6000 miles this year. I've achieved it a week ahead of the halfway stage in the year too. Excellent. The other piece of newsworthy info is that I posted my fastest time of the year to get 100 miles done; 6 hours 15 minutes shaved four minutes off my previous best, set just last week.
Update
Here's a photo of the flooded road. It was a lot deeper than that when I first encountered it. Honest.
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