It would have been rude not to...

ride today. I had planned not to ride at all today but with lovely weather forcast again it seemed silly not to. Just in case I woke up wanting to ride I planned a route on mapmyride last night - I should learn it is so slow in the evenings! Well waking up the weather was lovely. So I helped Ali get her stuff ready for her course then grabbed ruby and set out - I had to ride her since she has new tyres on and the weather was perfect Ruby weather. I headed off past rivington and then north towards Ribchester. I climbed up Jeffrey Hill, a new one on me but I think I did it from the easier side. I stopped here to get a picture as I could make out Winter Hill in the distance. At this point I started to think about the aim I had set myself, I had set my virtual training partner at 14mph and I was hoping to manage that. At the top of this climb, which I think was the longest of the day I was still ahead so I began to wonder if I could manage a 15mph average. I knew there was a fair amount of flat in the second half of the ride so it was a possibilty. The good thing about following a line on my Garmin Forerunner is I don't spend ages looking at my stats and just enjoy the ride.

It wasn't long before I got to Preston, in fact I only felt like I had been out about 2 hours, obviously it was a little bit more at that point. I wasn't sure when I planned the ride if the rest of the ride would be worth trying to get through Preston - I must say I've never been anywhere in Preston but the train station before so I had no idea what to expect. I had one bit of nasty dual carriageway and had to walk my bike across a road and climb over a central reservation as I couldn't turn right onto the road I wanted but it was fine.

After that it was some nice flattish roads, I did a bit of off-roading but turned round when the pretence of the track being a road finished. The next thing I knew I was climbing up red rock and then back at Horwich before spinning home along Chorley New Road.

A great ride and I'm glad I went out, there haven't been too many days like today this year and to waste one that is also at the weekend would be criminal!







84.15miles @ 15.3 mph (I didn't know I could go this fast!)
Average HR 146bpm
1360m climbed