The wind was fairly light for a change but it was quite warm and I was pleased when I arrived at the chippy and found I'd averaged 18.2 mph. A solid 21.2 miles to start the month with.
8th September: I didn't get out for a ride with James this weekend because he over-did the partying somewhat on Friday night so I had to go out today to get some miles in.
I'm getting rather bored with the local 18 so I decided to visit Formby Cycles in Formby, I've known it's there for ages but I've just never got around to visiting. The weather was hot with a coldish wind that howled in my face all the way there but was reasonable on the way back. It was OK, lots of nice MTBs and road bikes to drool over and 30.4 more miles for September.
10th September: Did the local 18 again tonight but with a bit of variation thrown in. The road marked with the black dots on the map is a farm track that runs through the fields, it's all tarmac'd but very uneven and heavily patched.
I've definitely decided that as long as you're sensible and try and avoid rocks, stones and potholes, there's no reason to stick rigidly to tarmac roads with 700x25c tyres. Another 21.9 in the bag.
15th September: Did the above route again today. It was nice and hot and barely any wind so very pleasant and 22.0 more miles for September
21st September: Today James and I did a route I drew in Map my Ride yesterday. It was very pleasant with a good mix of unmarked country lanes and A and B roads with around 1,800 feet of climbing.
The weather was spot-on, a combination of that subtle late summer heat you get at this time of year with a pleasant breeze so a very nice nice ride and another 31.3 for the month.
As a slight aside, I think it must have been the Southport air show today because as we were chatting by the cars after the ride I heard the sound of jet engines overhead. I looked up and a Vulcan bomber was flying over us at about 500 feet which was awesome (photo shamelessly borrowed from the Daily Mail website).
24th September: Did the rural version of the local 18 with (most of) the industrial estate last night. It was overcast and slightly chilly. It was the first ride this year where I had to wear my thin fleece over my t-shirt, quite depressing but you can't hold autumn at bay, I guess.
Despite the cold it was a nice ride (ending at the chippy in the village for chips - I'm doing the BHF Manchester to Blackpool on Saturday so I'm carb loading!) and 21.7 more miles for September.
27th September: Well, it finally arrived - the 2014 BHF Manchester to Blackpool night ride. Starting from the Trafford Centre in Manchester at midnight and finishing at the tower in Blackpool, it is a 52 mile night ride aimed at raising money for the British Heart Foundation.
After a bit of forum searching I decided I really wanted to complete the ride under the magic four hours barrier and ideally wanted to get under the three and a half hour barrier. In the run up to the event, I was slightly apprehensive about this ride and treated it more like a grand tour than a single ride, I had home-made caffeine drinks and six inch-thick slices of Soreen in my rucksack paranoid about running out of energy half way through the ride. In the end, the chasing after other groups and sticking with people going as fast as I wanted to seems to have overtaken any nerves and I didn't stop for food at all and was extremely pleased when I finished in 2h 57m!
| My bike by the sea in Blackpool after a hard three hour ride up from Manchester. |
Judging by the number of people at the finish area, I'm pretty sure I came in the top 10% of the field so a very pleasing first BHF M2B night ride and 51.4 more miles for September.
30th September: I needed a massive 0.1 miles to make the two hundred miles for September so I went for a quick pootle 'round the village for 2.8 miles and a total of 202.7 for September.
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