As is often the case, the run up to midsummer sees me awake earlier than I normally am. I'd set an alarm for 0630 but was waaay ahead of that. I was out on the bike by that time; armed with the forecast that said hot hot hot and a strengthening easterly wind increasing as the morning wore on. To Musselburgh and then onto virgin roads for me - Carberry, Elphinstone, grazing the edge of Pencaitland and zipping into Haddy. 

Green countryside, bkue skies and the perennial audio battle of the wind vs in this case larks. As I was on languid downhills, the rush of the wind almost drowned out the song, almost tiny sweet punctures in the rumbling buffeting of the passing air; on the slower uphills, my breathing no match for the larks, winning handsomely. And oh so quiet. Hardly any traffic.

Onwards past Athelstanford and East Fortune before a zig and a zag on the approach to North Berwick. Cold water was taken on and some sustanance too. Direlton led to Fenton Barns, Aberlady and an all too familiar drag back home along the coast. I cycle a bit as you may know, but I've never seen what is a popular jaunt from toen to North Berwick. I've never seen so many people on bikes; all the way back there were people streaming out towards North Berwick and I was constantly passing / being passed on my homeward leg. Which makes it all the more depressing that the local council appears to be mired in consultation about inplementing pop up cycle lanes when there's clearly a huge demand right now.  

Sensing I'd missed a few miles somewhere after Haddington, I turned inland up Willowbrae Road and sought out the most recent Door 7 (Lochend Park before a dart along Princes St; and out to Roseburn. I arrived home at 99.6km so a quick loop around Hesperus Crossway and I was over the hundred. 

I treated my self to about 8 cups of tea and a soak in the bath - left shoulder was sore for some reason? Then slept for an hour before continuing the rehydration. A beer in the sunshine at Hers where I knocked together a Malay / mango curry before dodging the carnage exiting the Meadows in search of takeaway food; a typical Saturday night with people wandering around, drunk. 

Only the 2nd 100km of the year; I checked and oddly I managed one in January but in what has been a strange year, it makes some sort of sense.

Extra is the much blipped poppy field at Inveresk; it's quite fabulous.