50 miles

Yesterday's 50.6 mile bike ride along the Trans Pennine Trail Route 62. We went a bit further following signs towards Birchwood. It wasn't as hot so it didn't feel that bad. I thought it was a nice ride unlike last week which was horrible and sweaty. The route is so unpredictable as some of it you'll be going through a forest/park then the next you will be along the traffic on the path. Really enjoying these weekend bike rides they're a lot more run that running as you get to appreciate and see more on a bike. You can take stops where as when you're running you don't want to stop as you won't be able to get back going again!

We left at 10am which is a earlier than we usually do and stopped off outside the Catalyst Science and Discovery Centre where they have this zip line. We've been going past it for weeks and been wanting to go on it but every time we go past there's kid on it but there was no-one there as it was early so we finally go to go on it. It was so fun I love stuff like this. We got a couple of boomerangs on it.

Then we just carried on with our ride. Not really having a clue where we were going just following the path.

Not quite convinced strava is working properly on my phone as at no point did I think we were going 117 mph?? I was going faster than a car?? No way with a bad knee for a start and even if I didn't I could never go that fast so something isn't right here... I think the average could be right but the max definitely not. I thought we were going faster last week but still not fully convinced with last week's speed either. Let's see if we manage to go on a ride next weekend as the weather isn't look great!

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42.5 miles

Running is so 2019. 2020 is all about the cycling.

With all these pop up cycle paths, the government prescribing cycling for obese people and the government's repair your bike voucher scheme (which I didn't manage to get as it was like trying to get Glastonbury tickets) cycling really is getting pushed. I think we have caught the cycling bug - swapping our weekend long run for a weekend long bike ride. I don't think we'll be doing any races or competitions though. We might have clocked 42.5 miles today but I am fully done in and don't think I could go further. The weather didn't help as it was so hot and humid, I was just so sweaty and sticky it was horrible. It was draining me as well, I just don't do well in the heat.

We decided to go the same route as we did on our 27 mile bike ride so we went under the new Mersey Gateway bridge rather than going along the Runcorn Widnes Bridge. We wanted to go further to see where the path took us.

They're doing resurfacing through Hale Bank but this week the foot path was closed so we couldn't carry on but happened to be behind this couple who were really nice and said we could follow them as they knew a way around to get back on the cycle path. These two were dressed in all the cycling gear with racing bikes and shoes. We didn't know if we were going to be able to keep up with them but they rode slow and kept turning round to make sure we were keeping up. Felt like we were doing the Tour De France as we were cycling in a line along. We didn't fit in though as we weren't dressed in all the gear. We were definitely slowing them down though but they got us back onto the path. So we carried on and they went a different way but ended up behind us which was awkward! But then we lost them and don't know where they went but they definitely couldn't wait to get rid of us.

My Strava says my max speed was 81.6 miles/h that must have been to try and keep up with them but I definitely don't believe I was cycling that fast at any point as you don't even drive that fast on the motorway! But the only thing I can think is maybe when we were going downhill we were flying after we got up the steps and towards the Runcorn Widnes bridge. There's no way my legs would have been able to push me that fast!

We followed the Trans Pennine Trail - National Cycle Network Route 62 all the way to Warrington along the Manchester Shipping Canal going towards Birchwood. We got to 20 miles and decided to call it a day as we knew we had to make it back. I'm so tired now and aching all over. Gonna sleep well tonight!

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