Hi again.
I've got nobody here at home to share my days cycling with and thought it would be nice to share it with all the good members here at Cycle Chat.
Some mornings I will just get up, and on the spur of the moment will decide its going to be a day for a monumental bike ride. It doesn't happen very often but today it did and ended up cycling 92 miles. The first 30 miles were brilliant and managed to average 17.5 mph. Mind you, I did have a good tail wind to keep me going. After a nice Bacon bap and a cup of hot chocolate on the river side in Chester I then decided to cycle along the river side cycle path going past the race course. Eventually I ended up on the outskirts of Chester in a large housing estate called Blacon. Back up until 1976 when I was a young whippersnapper we used to live there and I thought it would be nice to have a good look around the old place. It was your typical large council house estate with a selection of del boy style tower blocks dotted around. I was quite taken back to see that my old road was no more and had been completely redeveloped with some rather nice looking new homes. Gone where the three storey blocks of flats and the rows of depressing run down council houses. I was bit disoriented first as to where my old house was, but sitting in the corner it had miraculously escaped the redevelopment and looked quite out of place. After a drink and a puff on my e cig I than went to the top end of Blacon to see another house where we lived. As I was looking at it reminiscing of the days I would be playing with my tin pedal car on the pavement the neighbour to my old house came out , and I got chatting to them. It turned out they where my old neighbours way back when I lived there. They made a hell of fuss of me and invited me in for a brew and also got the neighbours from the other side to see me. It really brought back some good memories of yesteryear. Eventually I had to say my goodbye and felt quite sad thinking this will probably be the last time I will ever see them as well as the memories that goes with them.
It was now back on the road again but this time with a fierce headwind. It was hard going heading back home with the combination of the Welsh hills and the head wind. As childish as I am something made me laugh on the way home. A rather well too do looking gentleman was walking his giant poodle dog The dog was walking very gracefully along side his master with all its fur cut looking like a topiary bush.. This poodle suddenly decided to drag its backside along the floor with its back legs sticking up ( it obviously had a scratch in its nether regions) As it looked so comical I burst out laughing whilst the dog owner looked like he wished the ground would open up and swallow him up with embarrassment. As I got got closer to home I was now determined to beat my personal best on mileage achieved in a day. So a detour was taken to try and rack the mileage up. My previous personal best was 70.
The last ten miles was a killer.Some roadies came flying past me and as usual I tried to give chase , but the legs where having non of it. I just resigned , in the end to getting home in one piece. Eventually I got back home after nearly collapsing through the front door ,much to the amusement of the neighbours. My cycling gear has crawled its own way to the washing machine while I'm lying here on the sofa suffering from rigor mortis of the legs lol.
Would I ever do this again.?
A resounding yes. Its been a cheap day out ,and have seen more in one day than what I would seen doing many hundreds of miles in the car.
If your still awake after reading this I applaud you.
All the very best.
Johnny.
I've got nobody here at home to share my days cycling with and thought it would be nice to share it with all the good members here at Cycle Chat.
Some mornings I will just get up, and on the spur of the moment will decide its going to be a day for a monumental bike ride. It doesn't happen very often but today it did and ended up cycling 92 miles. The first 30 miles were brilliant and managed to average 17.5 mph. Mind you, I did have a good tail wind to keep me going. After a nice Bacon bap and a cup of hot chocolate on the river side in Chester I then decided to cycle along the river side cycle path going past the race course. Eventually I ended up on the outskirts of Chester in a large housing estate called Blacon. Back up until 1976 when I was a young whippersnapper we used to live there and I thought it would be nice to have a good look around the old place. It was your typical large council house estate with a selection of del boy style tower blocks dotted around. I was quite taken back to see that my old road was no more and had been completely redeveloped with some rather nice looking new homes. Gone where the three storey blocks of flats and the rows of depressing run down council houses. I was bit disoriented first as to where my old house was, but sitting in the corner it had miraculously escaped the redevelopment and looked quite out of place. After a drink and a puff on my e cig I than went to the top end of Blacon to see another house where we lived. As I was looking at it reminiscing of the days I would be playing with my tin pedal car on the pavement the neighbour to my old house came out , and I got chatting to them. It turned out they where my old neighbours way back when I lived there. They made a hell of fuss of me and invited me in for a brew and also got the neighbours from the other side to see me. It really brought back some good memories of yesteryear. Eventually I had to say my goodbye and felt quite sad thinking this will probably be the last time I will ever see them as well as the memories that goes with them.
It was now back on the road again but this time with a fierce headwind. It was hard going heading back home with the combination of the Welsh hills and the head wind. As childish as I am something made me laugh on the way home. A rather well too do looking gentleman was walking his giant poodle dog The dog was walking very gracefully along side his master with all its fur cut looking like a topiary bush.. This poodle suddenly decided to drag its backside along the floor with its back legs sticking up ( it obviously had a scratch in its nether regions) As it looked so comical I burst out laughing whilst the dog owner looked like he wished the ground would open up and swallow him up with embarrassment. As I got got closer to home I was now determined to beat my personal best on mileage achieved in a day. So a detour was taken to try and rack the mileage up. My previous personal best was 70.
The last ten miles was a killer.Some roadies came flying past me and as usual I tried to give chase , but the legs where having non of it. I just resigned , in the end to getting home in one piece. Eventually I got back home after nearly collapsing through the front door ,much to the amusement of the neighbours. My cycling gear has crawled its own way to the washing machine while I'm lying here on the sofa suffering from rigor mortis of the legs lol.
Would I ever do this again.?
A resounding yes. Its been a cheap day out ,and have seen more in one day than what I would seen doing many hundreds of miles in the car.
If your still awake after reading this I applaud you.
All the very best.
Johnny.
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