Training continues

The training for the Peak District 50 miler has continued this week with a 24 mile ride after work on Tuesday, includind 3 large ish hill climbs.

A 15 mile ride home, up to St. Helens and through Burtonwood, on Wednesday.

And 25 miles along the Sankey Valley Park to Billinge on Thursday. 2 large hill climbs at Billinge and a puncture on the way too. This was mostly off road, wasnt easy and wrecked my arse.         But                NOT BAD FOR A FAT LAD.

Shent finishes off the puncture repair while I take photo

Old locks, Part of the dissused Sankey Valley Canal

  

text a donation

I am now taking donations by text.
All you do, text      oily50 £1        to70070
There are no network charges and the proceeds go directly to Orchid Cancer Research.
Oh you can alter the £1 to any amount if you wish.
Every little helps!!

Charity page

This is my just giving page for donations to Orchid Cancer Research. I'm cycling the 50 mile Peak District Challange to help to raise some money. Sunday 19th May
Every £1 helps to motivate me, please send a £1 if you can...........

CLICK HERE

Snow Joke

7.00 am Fri 22.3.13 outside Garage

Well the snows back across the North West, but oily has made it in to work on the GT mountain bike yet again.
No scraping ice off windows in the morning for me and no sat in a freezing car waiting for the heater to warm up (a couple of hundred yards cycling and im quite warm thank you).


NOT BAD FOR A FAT LAD......

The Training Started

Well, the training has now started for the 50 mile PEAK DISTRICT ride, organised by "Bike Events".

 I completed this ride last year with Shent (another mechanic from another local garage).

 Allthough the distance wasnt really a problem, I wasnt prepared for the hills that went up hill for miles on end. Its a circular ride so for every up hill section there s a down hill ride after, but last year I wasnt recovering on the downhill ride  from the previous uphill slog, so I soon run out of energy and had to walk up many of the hill sections.

 I completed the 50 miles in 6 and 3/4 hours.

 This year I would like to knock an hour off that time so Im doing more hill climbing training.

Over the Bridgewater canal, after first
mile of the climb

Looking backwards
doesnt look too steep, but look how
the hedgerow falls and how low
the horizon is.



 Ive tried to find the largest hills in the area and have been cycling a 10 mile route 4 times a week.

 Ive been doing this for the last 3 weeks. Its getting easier now so ive now stretched the ride to 20 miles which I intend to do 2-3 times a week.
 As the date for the ride gets closer (19 May) I will be doubling the distance to 40 miles at least once.   

Looking up hill past the entrance
to Walton golf course. Its uphill now
for 5 miles

At the top of Hill Cliffe
looking over Warrington

NOT BAD FOR A FAT LAD !

microlighting again sorry

To anybody following this blog, Im sorry to say that there hasnt been any cycling adventures, other than my daily commute this week 'cause ive been flyin again. I cant speak about it here 'cause as I ve been reminded this has gotto be a cycling blog

appology

It has been brought to my attention that the last post about microlighting has nothing to do with cycling..
My point was that this blog is about "wheres oily been" (where has he been),
but re reading the first initial post then it IS supposed to be about my cycling exploits.
Therefore please let me appologise for my digression. Wont happen again.
Back to biking!!!

Microlight Flying

This weekend I have been to relive my other passion,microlight flying.
I have nt flown my aircraft for a couple of years now and I have decided to ressurect the hobby.

This is my flexwing microlight. Its a Mainair Sports Flash 2 Alpha.
It was manufactured in 1988 so is now 24 years old but in excellent condition.

To fly this aircraft you need a pilots licence and to maintain the licence you are required to fly a minimum of 5 hours per year, which I have nt achieved in the last couple of years so I now need to satisfy an instructor that I m still competent.
So I booked some time with the flying instructor who taught me to fly 13 years ago and I took myself off to the airfield, St Michaels, in Lancashire where I keep my aircraft.
He spent 1 hour and a half putting me through some excercises, landings and take offs, slow flying, stall recoveries, steep turns, recovery from a spiral dive, recovery from unusual attitudes and engine failure forced landings. I think I did OK but I have requested a little further training next week to build up my confidence again.

SOME FURTHER PICS........



COCKPIT VIEW



PILLING. LANCASHIRE

FLEETWOOD

2100 ft

RIVER WYRE ESTUARY

FOR MORE INFO ON MICROLIGHT FLYING SEE BMAA WEBSITE
FOR INFO ON MICROLIGHT LESSONS IN LANCASHIRE SEE NORTHERN MICROLIGHTS

Motivate me



Cold n dark

This is me wrapped up for my commute to work in these icy cold mornings. I'm setting off at about 0640. It's still dark out and its been about -4 these last few days, but I soon warm up.

Not bad for a fat lad

Its snowing tonight and forcast to snow all night so tomorrows ride in to work should be interesting. Looking forward to it.

St. Helens scrapyard run

Yesterday, Friday, I took a ride from my garage to St. helens 10+ miles away in order to pick a part up from a car breakers. Normally I would take a car to do this run but it being reasonable weather (overcast but dry and no wind. Warm too for January) plus I had nothing else to do, so i took the bike.

I managed 22 miles in 1hr 40 mins, averaging around 13mph

St.Helens rugby stadium

NOT BAD FOR A FAT LAD.

Oh they didnt have the part I wanted by the way. I should have phoned first !

Clare gets a ride

Clare finaly got a ride on her new steed. Wasn't long, only a couple of miles but its a start.
Unfortunately she now walks like a cowboy and can't sit down for long.

So thats a sore ass for a fat lass.

She's now going to be reffered to by her new nickname of "saddlesore" in this blog.
But hey every new rider gets sore at first. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddle_sore


Her cycle fitness will soon build, quicker than she realises, and I'm looking forward to future rides together.

Anybody thinking of taking up cycling, yes you will get sore at first but stick with it 'cause you will get over the soreness very quickly

Back from the Edge

Today I'm back from the Edge,  Alderly Edge that is.

After a couple of days of over indulgence, too much food and too much beer, plus not having done a long ride for a few weeks I thought it was time to get the bike out and hit the road once again.

I've been thinking of a trip to Alderly Edge for a week or two, so I decided this was it.

The weather forcast was'nt looking brill, predominantly dry with some showers, some maybe heavy at times. hmmmmm?

So 8.30, which is really first light at the moment, off i set only to realise after 5 miles that I hadn't put the dustbin out for collection. With Christmas bin collections being disrupted it's important not to miss one.
A quick phone call to Clare reveals that she wasn't answering so I cycled 5 miles home again. A great start!

The ride was uneventfull. Through Lymm village and turning right just after the church took me to the village of Rostherene, a collection of houses that seem to be untouched by time. Built to house the men and women that worked the Tatton Park Estate in the 18/19th century.

        CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE.

From Rostherne I entered the Tatton Park Estate, which was the home of the Egerton family untill in 1958 it was donated by Lord Maurice Edgerton to the national trust for the benefit and enjoyment of others. Well worth a visit.
                                                                                    CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Road runs throught the park to Knutsford

Tatton Mere in the middle of the park

Now in Knutsford I found a shop that if anybody wants to buy me something special for christmas next year (Clare), and can't think of anything (its not easy I know), well this is the shop to try........

The car in the foreground only £220,000



The bike £299


From Knutsford, through Mobberly to Alderly Edge.
I didn't find much at Alderly Edge to talk about or photograph except this hill......

It's Swiss Hill and its listed in a book Clare got me, "100 greatest cycling hills".
I had to ride it while I was here its only 516 meters long and took the author 4 mins to ride it.
No more than 100 meters I got before my lungs were busting. Couldn't do it. So feeling a bit embarrassed and glad nobody was watching I rode down and rode off. He he he.





Cycling back took me through Wilmslow and down a road that goes under Manchester Airports runways.

This shot is of the tunnel that goes under the runway and is the spot where the planes can be seen going over top.
I waited a while to see if I could get that picture but time and the dark clouds looming meant i had to press on.

Just as I was underneath the runway though, I was met by the unmistakable whine of jet engines going over the top. DERRR!

As I left the airport heading towards Altrincham, it started to rain and it was pretty heavy at times.
I still had a good 15 miles or so to home and the rain never eased so needless to say i was soaked to the skin when I got in.

Lymm church on the way back

Back for 1:45 pm. Just over 50 miles.

 

 And on the table Clare had me a superb full english breakfast.

                                          WOW!

 NOT BAD FOR A FAT LAD !

New family member

Our new addition to the family. 

This is the bike I've bought Clare. Rockrider RR5.2 from the Decathlon store in Warrington.

 This is bike no.8. It joins the rest of the fleet, which I'll be introducing in more detail at a later date.

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

As an introduction to the joys of cycling I planned a short ride in the country for Clare to try out the bike.

Over Winwick Rd

Unfortunately (or fortunately as it transpired) I had to go on my own.
Good I thought. It gives me a chance to try the route out.
It was from our house to Burtonwood crossing some farmland on the way.
Some of the pathways I hadn't used before.






The weather wasn't good, rain and wind. The wind started out against me so it was hard going.

Underpass at Winwick

Under motorway 

 Everywhere's flooded!

           Which way round this lot?     Left round first puddle, then right, right again 'n' left, easy

No water here though!

Appart from abandoned tyres (they get everywhere), this started off as

a nice pathway.

But it soon turned to this...

Anyway I made it to Burtonwood wet and muddy.    Coming back down the roads was a breeze, downhill with the wind behind me I had a free ride without pedaling for over 1 mile. Whe hey!!

Only 6 1/2 miles round trip.  I dont think Clare would of enjoyed it though.

I did.....  Not bad for a fat lad

Water water everywhere. This was a horse paddock at one time. Soon be a fishery.

To Lancaster cancelled

Well Peeps, my planned ride to Lancaster has had to be cancelled this weekend due to the icy weather. The original plan to ride to St. Michaels airfield and overnight in the tent on Friday night, riding back Saturday was scuppered because Clare had to work away over the weekend leaving me to stay home to look after dog.
The alternative was to ride there and back on Saturday but i cancelled that due to ice.

I still had to get out on the bike though and burn some calories off, get some fresh air so i dug out the old faithfull GT MTB and set off across the fields.

GT Aggressor

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Route:  Radley Common- Peel Park- Houghton Green- through field to flooded quarry- under M6 to Croft- Risley- Birchwood- Rixton- Manchester Rd. to Newcut Lane- onto Woolston Newcut pathway- along River Mersey to Kingsway Bridge - home on the road down Kingsway.

Through Peel Park

This is through a field leading to the flooded quarry at Houghton Green

Me and my shadow. 

Just see how muddy it was. 

Under the slip road from M62 to M6 North

Little did i know that it would get worse

                        

And over the M6

                                                                

                                                               

                                         

Going down a track that leads along the M62 to the Birchwood
junction, I took a left turn down a track that goes behind Risley
Prison, where it started to get a bit muddy, well very muddy in places.
At one point, along a dissused railway line, the wheels sank that much
that i came to a full stop and had to turn round. No photos 'cause i
was a bit busy sinking.




Here going across Risley Moss you can see how
frozen the ground was in places. I did slip and come off at one point when I braked.  It was sometimes better to ride in the puddles.

view across the moss

After crossing the Moss and going through Rixton, I intended to get onto the banks of the Mersey and go underneath Thelwall viaduct but the path has been closed due to bank errosion. So i stayed on the A57 to New Cut Lane and went along the path that follows the River Mersey from there.

a good pathway along Woolston New Cut

Grey Mist. Popular with fishermen

Mersey

Mersey River

By the time I got to Kingsway Bridge the sun was setting so I decided to ride back home down Kingsway Avenue.

 All in all a very enjoyable afternoon. 3 hours and just over 22 miles. Not a fast pace, wont break any records, but..............Not bad for a fat lad.