I’m not sure if it’s a Mayhem hangover or something else, but I’ve fallen out with riding bikes offroad recently. Whenever I went out I was getting annoyed about stupid things – too muddy, too many flies, too many people on ‘my’ trails, tyres too draggy….so I’d been running a fair bit, 8k offroad running and all the pain that involves. Knowing deep down that this is all wrong, wrong, wrong (but good prep for the 3 Peaks all the same), I got the road bike out and went for a 3 hour ride on it the other day. Ace. I loved it. I rode miles and miles way, then rode back again, climbed loads of hills, hit 40 on the way back down a couple of them, got my HR really high and got a nice and fast average speed.

So I did it again this morning – I only had 2 hours so I sped up to Rivington via the Breightmet badlands, past the bottom barn, up to Belmont Rd, Egerton then back home via Affetside. Averaged about 18mph which is bloody quick for me (considering the hills) and found myself chasing down a few other roadies for a laugh.

I’m enjoying this lark so much at the moment I’m even looking forward to the Manchester to Blackpool charity ride tomorrow (I’m doing it with a group from work) – I’m expecting to be riding alone though as I’m aiming for 3 and a half hours. Then I’ll ride back, perhaps.

Next week I’ll get the 29er out again and hopefully have some fun. I’ll be ready for a change soon anyway…