Last minute for Hereford Ride - Who put malvern in the way!

The weather's good, and I have two days free (not working) that wasn't expected. I have my phone with me in case of emergency but I'm planning to ride.  The hotel is booked (B&B was full) and I'm set to head of at 12:00.

Just for safety I'm posting my route (will be stopping in Worcester for lunch).

View Larger Map
I'll check in once I'm there.  I'm not expecting to be there before 5. I'm going to be taking my time as this is a long one and I've got to be in fit condition to ride again tomorrow.

I Love Cycling in England!

Update:

Well I left late, not until past 1:00 so I didn't get to Worcester until 3:00.  All my plans were based around taking a rest stop and food there, so nothing for it. Food in the Slug & Lettuce and then on.

Got out of Worcester by 4:00 (got lost due to misleading sat-nav instructions).  Then saw a nice big hill up in front of me.  When I say "hill" I mean Malvern.  And my road took me pretty close to it. Wish I'd noticed that on the map while I was planning this trip.

Still I finally got into Hereford at 7:00.  Pretty lousy time even for me.  Going to leave a little earlier today for the return journey.


Second Update

Well the return journey was a lot easier. Worcester to Hereford was a lot more up-hill than I had realized on the way.  The return was so much down hill that it went by a lot easier.

Had chance to stop in Worcester again. A very pretty place for what I saw of it.

All in all, a fun trip.

Don't Listen to the Weather Man

So the whether for this weekend was forecast as wet then very cold. This completely ruined my plans of trying Hereford and back across two days. Well Saturday was wet and Sunday cold, but warmer than predicted and with a lot of sun.  In short the conditions on Sunday were perfect for I nice trip out. Perfect to practice riding with the weight of the panniers on; something else I've had too little chance to do.

But where to go.  Hereford was off, I really want two days to do that.  The simple answer then was to do a ride I've done before and go to Mum and Dad's.

A little colder than I would have liked towards the end but I managed it in a good time (for me).  Including two stops to re-program the sat-nav I managed 2 hours 22 minutes. The route (from Sainsburys to Mum and Dad was 37.4 miles.


View Larger Map

Feels so good to do a ride when I wasn't expecting to.

Planning to Cycle

Well the weather is turning better, the days are getting longer and spring is starting to feel like it's in the air.  It's time to crack out the road bike and get back in the saddle.  Hmm. So the bike needs a little maintenance, new grips and a good clean down and weather proofing would defiantly not go amiss.

It does however feel so good to be back in the saddle getting where I'm going that much quicker than the buses, feeling the air fill my lungs, the hypnotic rhythm of my feet winding away swift miles and swearing under my breath at every moron of a motorist I have to swerve to avoid.  Best way to travel in the world!

So now it's time to start planning what I want to do.  I've said for so long than I want to do Land's End to John o' Groats (although I'd like to do it backwards and end in the sunshine).  But that's a little far for me as the first ride and I'm only really just starting out doing long distances.
I've settled on doing Birmingham to Pembroke dock. Looks like a fun ride and I get to go over the Brecon Beacons.  I'm told thats a bit hilly but hey; I'm out for fun.

View Larger Map
First things first. Start getting used to doing long distances on back to back days.  Never actually even done that before.  Longest trip ever was 56 miles and that was all in one shot on one day.  This is going to be a different challenge entirely. I've got to do the same sort of distance and still be in a condition to cycle the next day.  So the very first target will be to do Hereford (via Worcester) and back from Birmingham.  I'm pretty confident I can do this in a weekend if I can do it at all yet.  I would have done this, tomorrow and Sunday.  The weather looks like its going to stop me though.

Here's to March the First then.  Lets see if the weather holds.