Challenge complete!

After completing my 300 miles in 30 days challenge on Wednesday, I decided that my planned ride with Amy should be my victory ride.

Thursday dawned dull, grey and slightly damp but otherwise a good day for riding. Everest decided she was going to stay in one piece unlike last time I'd planned a ride with Amy.

I met Amy at the velodrome and as we neared Asda she advised that her GPS unit had decided we were a considerable distance away from the route (which began where we were)! Um, time for fast thinking as I hadn't looked at the planned route since I last rode it a few weeks ago and wasn't totally sure I remembered it all. To make matters worse the last time I rode the route I spent most of it chatting with a guy I was riding with, so wasn't paying full attention to where we were going anyway!

But we set off non-the-less. If we got lost we got lost.

I took Amy a different route to Chorlton Water Park so we didn't have to go on Princess Parkway and it'd get some more miles in the legs. Once near the park I told her that we'd be going on some trails rather than concrete/tarmac until we crossed the Mersey - that didn't quite go down too well as she'd not anticipated that, but the trails were nicely compacted and not too muddy, so all was well.

All was good so far until we were Tatton Park where I couldn't quite work out which road would take us out to the Knutsford exit, so we backtracked out onto Ashley Rd and followed the boundary walls round to Manchester Rd and through Knutsford. Once on Toft Rd my mind went a little blank and we had to wing it to find our way to The Frozen Mop in Mobberley, but find it we did. While here after mentioning how far we'd come already, Amy suggested I take part in the century a month challenge, after a few gulps of my lovely beer I decided to go ahead with it; especially seeing as I'd do pretty much all the mileage on this ride anyway.

Once out of the pub after a little nosh, I somehow remembered a section of the route so I could surprise Amy - the route to the lovely alpacas, who were greeted with squeals of glee!
After leaving the alpacas behind the route was forgotten again, so we continued to wing it through Wilmslow to find our way to Morley Green and everything began to look familiar again. A 'wrong' turn at a large roundabout took us onto a road that led up to the edge of the runway at Manchester Airport - if we'd followed this road all the way up, it would have taken us onto the orbital cycleway and one of the sections I'd planned. As it was, we got partway up it, saw the runway and thought better of it! Whoops!

Back down to the roundabout and we turned right where I surprised Amy again when I told her the huge tunnels we were going under were actually runways that went across the road, and if we're lucky we might get to see one taxiing across it. Annoyingly not one plane went across before we got into the tunnels...while we were in them, naturally and annoyingly, planes taxied across.

To extend the route a little more I took Amy through Hale Barns and down into Altrincham town centre before heading back along the 'normal' route to Wythenshawe Park. Along Altrincham Rd we both got down into the drops and were pedalling so intently and focusing on the road and traffic around us that we both missed the entrance to the park - thankfully not by much.

Once back at Chorlton Water Park we were going to have a little riverside ride but as the TPT trails were thick gloop due to overnight rain we had a loop of the lake instead before heading back to the velodrome.

A quick stop at Bike Docs for cleats for Amy and then I was having to think of extra bits to add onto the ride after leaving her at the velo so I could get my January century in. No worries there as I headed back towards Manchester City Centre than made my way past my flat and partially to Ashton before I got back home to find I'd covered the distance with a little overlap. Perfect.

So, my victory ride became the start of a new challenge and ended as a dual victory -
300 mile in 30 days challenge completed on 28.1.09 with 304.41 miles
Century (km) a month challenge (January) completed on 29.1.09 with 102km



Boring bits -
Dull, grey, windy (15mph), cool (6 degrees)
Maximum mph/kmh: 36 / 57.9
Average mph/kph:14.1 / 22.7
Distance (miles/km): 63.34 / 102
Climbed: 837ft