45 mile road ride today. I’d planned a route that includes a fair bit of climbing – Affetside, Edgeworth, Darwen, Blackburn, Haslingden and back home through Edenfield and Ramsbottom. A sting in the tail through Ainsworth village and we’re done. 45 miles altogether. The entire route goes up and down a lot – top speed was 42mph (in a 30). Not bad for a compact chainset ;0)

Michael and I are going over to Llandegla in the morning. I think he’s getting a bit bored of going there to be honest and he’s wanting a ride in the hills proper. “It’ll be a right bog, mate” I’ve told him. What I really meant was “It’ll be a moan-fest halfway through the first climb, sunshine.”. After that, I’ll drop some Newcastle Browns off at my dad’s then maybe I’ll get another long ride in – maybe that big bugger of a climb up to the White House pub and then down into Calderdale. If I do, I’ll just creep over the 200 miles in the last week. If not, I’ll go out on the SS for a bit. The rain and this knee niggle dropped me a few miles this week.

Mountain Mayhem in a week’s time. It feels a bit weird, not being worried or nervous about it. Normally I’m solo-ing things like this so being in a mixed team of 5 will be like a bloody holiday! Still, it’s all miles in the bag innit and it’ll be a giggle. We’re planning to get a wicker basket to put a plastic ET in and we’ll each attach it to the bars for our lap – that’ll be our “thing”. Maybe we should get 2 ET’s to save pissing about with a toy alien in the changeover area.