Café riding is the way to go

Very happy today - my training plan instructed me to do no more than 1 hour 15 mins on a 'café ride' - that's where you don't do anything too strenuous and make it enjoyable - hence the café. So I donned denim skirt and boots, hitched up my panniers for the first time and set off to Usk, a moderate 7 miles along back lanes with a few gentle slopes which I tootled up in baby gears. I have been meaning to visit the farmers market in Usk for ages, which I was reminded of by that chap on the telly with a camper van this week, so instead of finding a café I found the market and had a happy half hour wondering if I needed such delights as alpaca bed socks and orange and ginger marmalade - I bought the latter as it's pretty much a necessity, the socks will have to wait. I also bought some lime pickle. a huge piece of welsh black beef, some proper carrots with mud and green tops - then I remembered I needed real necessities such as loo paper, tea bags and milk so scooted off to the local Spar. Feeling rather pleased with my neatly packed panniers but a bit worried about the weight, I headed home and was delighted to note that it didn't actually seem too much of a struggle - although had there been any proper hills it would have been a different matter. Still, one ridiculously small step closer to 550 miles on a fully laden bike.