Project ride my mountain bike begins

Although my mileage has increased to a level I am happy with and I have started to do longer rides it has nearly all been on road. Now that would be fine but the race in May is off-road and at a trail centre, a type of riding that I don't do much of when I am riding off road regularly anyway. So a plan was hatched! It started with arranging to meet Odile for our evening ride at Lee Quarry I then added in a daytime ride with Jumbly and the day was set.

I was all ready to go an hour and a half before meeting Jumbly so I could go a longer way over and take in the ICR, only when I got rigger out his rear tyre was flat. So the extra time was spent putting a new inner tube in. The way over was nice and I was wearing just a base layer and a Jersey. Climbing up Barrow Bridge I felt so unfit as I made slow progress, but at least I didn't stop! Up onto Georges Lane and I decided to drop down through Wilderswood, then along to meet Jumbly. She had some excuse about sore legs, something to do with running 18miles yesterday. So my suggestion had been two hours riding, over to the nab play on the trails, then one hour of cake at the cafe!

The nab has some new stuff since I was last there including a singletrack climb which we both enjoyed. But a lot of the downhill sections showed me I have a lot of work to do. We started with me taking 3 attempts to ride over some logs and there were plenty more bits to scream down or have to try again after stopping. All I need to do is get over there regularly as it will help me with my riding.

Back to the cafe and amazingly enough I had timed it perfectly and we arrived at 1pm. But then it got odd, neither of us had cake. Although the sandwiches on this new bread were amazing!

At exactly 2pm I set off towards Lee Quarry. A mixture of roads and trails taking me towards my destination. By the time I got there the sun was out and I was looking forward to riding. As I was a little early I headed up to do some riding. Partway up I bumped into Chips and Matt Wilderness they said it had been windy earlier but the new stuff was great. So I headed up and did the last descent before getting to the car park. Here I had some food and waiting for Odile. It wasn't long before she arrived, after stripping in the car park to change while a local tried to have a conversation with us we were off.

Partway up the climb and we joined the new singletrack climb, here it got windy and I was reduced to walking up something that didn't look that steep! But it was worth it with some lovely flowing singletrack bringing us back down to what was the top of the climb. At this point staying on the trail was getting harder! We got to the skills area and it has completely changed. The plan was to play but the hail came and it was impossible. We set off following the red arrows, only to find ourselves with four options (I think this might be the new pump track) before getting back to where we started. Here I led us straight down the shortest way. Back to the car and Odile was shivering!

Not long after my last companion for the day arrived when Ali rode up. She had rang me when she finished work unsure of what to do, she wanted to go for a ride but wasn't sure. Next thing I know she was ringing me again, she had a plan, she was going to ride out to meet me and ride home with me as long as I was riding home on road. So with perfect timing she arrived just as I was ready to leave. So we set off, both cold by this point and wishing it wasn't downhill to Rawtenstall. In fact the hill out of Rawtenstall wasn't long enough to warm up on. I was starting to warm up but then I was on a mountain bike so putting more effort in than Ali on her roadie. She tried going ahead and coming back but no still cold. We were both glad to get home and take the wet layers off. Pizza for tea was the easy option. I finished feeling strong which after 9 hours out of the house was good.

90km, not a bad start to mountain bike miles.