February 2014.

February is going to be a challenging month as I lost the first 3 days visiting a friend and there are only 28 days to start off with! Panic 'on'...

4th Feb: Got 22.6 in with a variation of the 'local 18'. It involves carrying on past the Stanley Gate pub and heading right into Ormskirk then turning left at the first row of shops, up the shopping street and taking the right fork at the roundabout and heading up the long, steep hill towards Aughton then dropping down towards Kirkby and the rest of the usual route.

6th Feb: Did the local 18 but carried on into the village for a doner kebab on the way back (ahem...) thus making it 18.9.

8th Feb: A Saturday bimble with James saw us meeting at Iceland in Rochdale and heading up the Rochdale canal to Hebden Bridge and back clocking up a nice 27.7. Apparently, Hebden Bridge is known as the lesbian capital of the world - who knew?!

It was extremely muddy but the way out was good fun with the wind behind us. The way back was a nightmare with us heading straight back against howling gale force winds. By this point, my bike was so muddy I resorted to holding it by the top tube and submerging it in the canal. Twice. The bike looked awesome for 5 minutes but was soon  plastered in mud so I probably won't try that technique again!

Photo shamelessly nicked from www.weekendnotes.co.uk because I forgot to take my DSLR...

13th Feb: Did the local 18 for another 17.9. 

16th Feb: James is away with his girlfriend this weekend staying in a wigwam in Cumbria (?!) so I did a route I planned a while ago that I named 'the Wigan weird shape'.

It was quite a strange route because it looks in Map my Ride like the last 3/5 of the route is largely downhill but it felt like one of those routes that was all uphill but managed to miraculously arrive back at the car (how does that even work?!). It wasn't the nicest route ever either, there are some seriously long uphills as well as some canal towpath and farm paths to ensure you end up muddy from head to foot but it was good for another 26.4 miles towards the monthly total.

19th Feb: Did the local 18 for another 17.9. Incidentally, did it in the best ever time at an average of 15.9mph!

22nd Feb: Met James today in Woolston just east of Warrington for a ride I'd found on www.cycle-route.com.

Most of it was very pleasant with no major hills and taking in a lot of countryside but there were some sections of very busy A road and getting back across Warrington was fairly dicey. Definitely not a ride for children or the traffic squeamish but it was another 26.3 towards the monthly total. Just 42.3 to go and I'm away next weekend from Friday...

25th Feb: Did the local 18 for another 17.9. 24.4 miles to go...

26th Feb: Did the local 18 for another 17.9. 6.5 miles to go... 

28th Feb: Went for an potter around the village for a February total of 204.5. Phewww...