If you trust the weather forecast then today should very much have been another long day of rain. However, I wished for a bit of sunshine last night and woke up to a fairly decent day by autumnal standards. 16c and sunny? I’ll take it. Sure the ground was very wet in parts, flooded in others, but I managed to get outdoors on a lovely long ride so absolutely no complaints, even if I did get a bit filthy.
My route today was supposed to be a repeat of my ride from last Sunday. Only, without the wrong turns. I decided to alter things up a bit from the off, taking a detour out down some of the rougher parts of Preston. Bit scary. Also, a bit high on traffic, fumes, and general unpleasant riding. Won’t be repeating that bit in any hurry.
From there I cut through Preston town centre, through Avenum Park for the first time and then off out towards Penwortham. There’s a little hill climb into Penwortham (I think it’s technically a category 4 climb) that I wanted to do an effort on. However, due to garbage traffic, I had to abandon that as I got close to the top and a car cut across my lane. Lovely stuff.
After this I proceeded down the cycling lane and whilst gunning along I heard a sharp pop. There was so much leaves, sticks, and general debris on the path I was convinced I’d achieved my very first puncture.
Thankfully, after much checking, prodding, and general confusion, I decided I must not have had one after all. Much relief. But the bike felt very odd after this – maybe all in my head.
Proceeding onward I decided to go further than my planned route suggested, heading down the long road towards Tootsies ice cream shop. I should point out that road names are far from my strong suit. But landmarks, especially ice cream shops, are things I can relate too.
This was probably the best segment of the ride in terms of exercise. A nice long, straight, fairly flat wide road which allowed me to build up a steady rhythm and do some work. This felt like a sharp contrast to the rest of the ride which was very stop / start heavy.
That said, being a long, straight road, there really wasn’t a great deal to write home about.
Once I got to the roundabout with the ice cream shop, it was time to turn around and repeat the way I’d just come but in reverse. From there I went on a bit of a wild goose chase, trying to track down my Garmin route again. Definitely some wrong turns taken here. Still, all good pedalling regardless.
On the way back homeward, I decided to check out a couple of Preston’s parks. Avenum, being the closest, was the obvious first stop. With the crazy storm / rain over the last 48 hours, the River Ribble was full to bursting. And being later in the day than I’d normally ride, the parks were packed and the riding tough going, dodging between pedestrians, little kids, and wild dogs.
A second detour through Preston town centre later, and I found myself at Haslam Park. Whilst definitely less busy, I have almost no idea where I’m going on Haslam park so stuck to the busiest pedestrian routes. That was a bad idea for reasons very similar to those of Avenum park, so I cut that as short as possible and decided to head home.
As it was, I was happy with the ride overall. It wasn’t overly exerting, but it wasn’t meant to be. I just wanted to get outdoors and get some cycling time in. The downside is I didn’t get to do the Zwift Academy Workout #1 ride I had planned, but I do have plenty of time to fit that in during this forthcoming week, so no big loss there.
All being well, I’ll be out again tomorrow. It’s all weather dependant of course, and I’m a little sceptical. Right now the forecast is for some sun up to midday tomorrow. But then, yesterday it said rain for today and the sun came. Hopefully it’s not a vice-versa.
