Last night, the forecast for this morning wasn’t promising.  It was looking ominously like winter may return.  This morning’s ride promised strong winds, icy roads and below freezing conditions.  Not nice.  Potentially miserable, in fact.

Who knew what weather this morning would bring!

The fact that we were planning an early start didn’t help.  It would mean a 5.45 alarm for me so I had time to eat and digest a decent breakfast.  Despite doing as much advance preparation as possible, there was always a chance that I’d disturb the slumber of other members of the household. This had the potential to add further misery to proceedings.

The worst case scenario was that I set the alarm, woke everyone up, and the weather was too bad to head out.  This would result in me being frustrated and extremely unpopular.

So, there was a suggestion that we cancel our outing.  Given there are just six weeks until the Euro City Cycle, and I’ve only recently started cycling outside again after a winter on the Turbo Trainer, I was really keen (bordering on desperate) to get out.  So we took a chance.

Fortunately I awoke to a bright, still day.  There was a bit of frost around resulting in a “crisp” morning, but it was far better than we had hoped for.  Result!

The River Dee from the bridge in Ballater this morning

Unfortunately we lost one of our group (of three) before our ride began (I must make a note to add my cycling shoes to the “essential items of kit” for the Euro City Cycle!).  However, Mr P and I enjoyed a nice ride which included a half-way coffee in the sun in Ballater, on Royal Deeside.

A bright morning in Ballater!

Today was the first time I’ve cycled over 50 miles.  The ride wasn’t fast, but it wasn’t easy either.  It’s great to get another decent ride into my legs.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to back it up with a short outing tomorrow to get more used to cycling on consecutive days.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get out early again in the morning.  What a difference the longer days make… let’s hope I’m fortunate with the weather again!