To date my longest single ride was 130 miles, as a several of the days will require me to go further than that I wanted to cycle further than that, so knowing in the back of my mind that I was capable of such a distance. So today I set off with the intention of going further than I have been before. I worked out a route that was 175 miles this would see me setting out along the well travelled route to Macclesfield but then out through Congleton, through Crewe and Nantwich and out to Wrexham before turning North to Chester, Warrington and up to Wigan where I would meet up my good lady and son for dinner, before heading south back to Warrington, on to Knutsford and then back through Macclesfield. The outward section to Wrexham was amazing, I felt ace, the 40 miles or so of headwind and driving rain that got me to Warrington still felt pretty good, and by the time I got to Wigan I had covered about 118 miles at an average speed of 18.5 mph. This was unfortunately where things started to go a little pear shaped. While stopped I became very very cold, and when I got back on the bike my body was not working anything like as well as it had been prior to the stop. Somehow despite a 180 degree turn in the direction of travel I still had a bloody head wind but at least the rain had eased off. From about Knutsford my knee started to do the familiar twingy thing - it was not too bad so I continued happy that I had got to 140 miles and keen to hit my target of 175. However by Macclesfield I decided to call it a day, I had managed to get myself a new personal best, and while I really did not want to quite (as quitting will not be an option on the ride) I could see no point in aggravating my knee more than I had done already, so I phone and asked my back up team to come and collect me, I continued cycling until we met up with each other at Poynton, by which time I had cover 166 miles. I am to say the least pleased with the distance, disappointed with my knee and a little worried as anything I tried to each while cycling made me feel ill!.
A couple of days off me thinks.