Hello World...

Yes hello world that's how I feel right now after being 6 months in the dumps so to speak, I feel fit and healthy and that feeling is the best feeling in the world, you really do miss it when something happens to rob you of your hard gained fitness but enough of that you must all be getting fed up of reading about me going on about these things...

Friday
Sooo, today or rather this weekend has been the most fruitful enjoyable weekends of the year for me and it all started on Friday as I headed to the gym to do a simple all over workout concentrating on my legs but getting in a few upper body exercises. I want to do some proper squats, I hate squats they make me want to puke but they are the king of all exercises as you get a full body workout however all the hard core body builders are hogging the stands grunting out 150+ kg and I would feel a right weed squatting with probably just 60kg so instead I head over to the leg press to force out a few reps, the squat will have to wait for quieter times...

Saturday
A beautiful day in the mid 20's 'C so I set off on my bike to do my usual loop around Preston on the Hill, it's just 20 miles so just over an hours worth of bike and sun. The chippings that the Council in their cheepness had deposited all over the roads I like to ride on and has stopped me from riding this loop has mostly gone, ground into the tarmac or slung to the sides of the roads by a few weeks worth of cars but I'm still cautious travelling these roads however on Saturday it wasn't the chippings that got me it was farmer Giles as he trimmed his thorn bush hedges with yes you can guess it, a puncture. I stop in Preston on the Hill opposite fellow club member Martin Hickmans house but I cant get the thorn out of the tyre so knock on Martins door and with the aid of a pair of tweezers we eventually get the thorn out, so thanks Martin and Jackie for your help. Note to self, buy some tweezers...

Sunday
Another fantastic day even warmer than Saturday and I love the sun, the warmer and sunnier the better for me, so at 11ish myself and Phil M set off on a 30 mile loop. We want an easy ride a steady 15 - 18 mph ride, but today Phil is a bit like my dog with a cat. My dog thinks he is a wise dog, he knows cats can hurt him with those nasty sharp claws but any cat that decides to leg it is fair game and my dog will chase until it's cornered then he will back off, quite normal I suppose. So here we are having a chat along Marsh Lane when another roadie comes past and the chase is on, Phils off after him down in the drops so I follow. We are racing along at 23 to 24 mph and I'm puffed, we catch him as we come to the junction at the end of Marsh lane, roadie turns left as is our route and I thought bloody ell here we go again but there's another roadie having a break on the junction and as we pass I hear a 'Hi Mark', I look and recognise Andy from the club so we pull over for a very welcome break and a chat. We ride on together heading through Comberbach and then cross the A559 into Great Budworth where there's a hill which Andy storms up as myself and Phil climb at our own modest pace, it's here that the 'sprint' we had a few miles comes back to bite us in the bum with tired drained legs as we crawled up this little ankle biter of a hill. Andys waiting for us outside a pub and it's so tempting just to nip in for a pint...

Phil M & Andy

We resist the urge and carry on and then it's Andys time for a turn on the front and when he does the pace goes up so once again I'm puffed but it's all ok as this sort of pace is whats needed to nudge those poor fitness levels up a notch or three.

  Arses of which Phils was very sore - new saddle...

 

Eventually we say our byes to Andy as Andy heads over to Tatton and we carry on heading north through to Appleton Thorn and then west where we were down to 15 mph into a bit of a headwind which leached energy like multi coloured fairies as we headed towards Stretton and finally home.

30 great warm sunny miles in the bag, great stuff and my leg didn't hurt at any point in the ride. Later came a stubby or two in the garden to top the day off and a fantastic way to finish the whole weekend off ...

My Stats

30.5 miles, 2 hrs, 15.2 mph average, Av HR 144bpm (75% max) 901 ft climbing (garmin)