Vale Royal AC Runners

Once again, this last Sunday centred around a bike ride. As has quickly become the norm the plan was to meet at Mark?s house at 9 and then head off to find Ken pedalling towards us on the Davenham by pass. There had been rumours that others may also becoming for this ride, including (Motor) ?Biker? Jo Edwards, the Club Genius, Team Tandem, and the Cuddington sniper! Maybe the nickname ?Thunderbolt? was inspiring others! So we thought it best to give them a few minutes, just in case, before we set off. It also gave my Garmin, a chance to find its satellites. The Garmin, which will come on the actual ride with us, will give us a totally accurate measurement of how far we cycle (only human error can prevent this ? and that?s hardly likely is it!). By 9.10, with no one else arrived, we decided to get on our way.

We quickly spotted Ken at the traffic lights on Kingsmead, and had a quick chat about which way we were going to go, we cycled round Davenham roundabout as we tried to make a decision, Mark refused to decide on a route, claiming that previous blogs had blamed him for poor route selection ? he also claimed that there have been exaggerations and inaccuracies in the blogs!! Anyway, after 20 laps of the roundabout, in less than a minute we were soon heading down the by pass towards Winsford averaging about 45mph!

We headed that way in case Biker Jo was (running) cycling late and still heading towards us. Every time we saw a cyclist in the distance we believed it could well be her, (this went on for the first three hours of the ride!). As we cycled (almost in single file!) down the by pass a car towing a caravan passed us (it took it a while!). However, it was not content to just pass us on the completely open empty road it also felt the need to blast its horn for a couple of hundred metres, such aggression so early on a Sunday morning! I guess some people just don?t look forward to a week?s caravanning holiday in Winsford! Particularly when the weather forecast isn?t good either! Anyway, this incident was almost enough to stop Mark cycling no handed! However, it was not the first caravan related incident we?ve had, Ken very nearly joined the Caravan Club last week, when one swung in too quickly down a country lane and missed him by inches. Apparently they?ve got a reputation for swinging ??.always wondered what the attraction was!

Following this Mark proposed that we got off the main road, he suggested using the old section of Jack Lane to get us from Moulton to Winsford, Ken looked sceptical and mentioned words like rough, narrow, gates, muck, cows etc. But, Mark was quite insistent, however, a mile or so later as the lane got rougher and narrower Mark noticed that there were some gates across the road and an awful lot of muck everywhere (no idea what caused that!) so he decided we should ?Jack it? (Jack **it more like!) and turn back! So we were soon back on the by pass and looking for ?Biker? Jo, but slightly concerned that she may have gone passed when we were ?off roading?! At this point I noticed that although I?d acquired my Garmin satellites ok earlier I had forgotten to press the start button! I calculated using the sat nav in my head that we had probably done 3 miles (as we?d been out for nearly an hour now!) and reminded myself to add this on every time either of them asked ?how far have we gone now??!

This week I had taken on the advice from the ?experienced? cyclists we met last week, ?running shoes will rub your feet raw after a few days cycling!? and was trying some different footwear, wearing my old Puma Canvas trainers the prospect of raw feet was now the last thing on my mind! However, I feel that Ken may have spotted the age of my trainers, as we are soon talking about a man in America who had recently sold a pair of original (25 year old) Nike trainers for over a $1,000 dollars, ?would they be older than yours?? he asked! The conversation moved on to other collectables and Mark confirmed he had a ?Dinky?, which he used to play with a lot when he was younger, but hadn?t seen for years, Ken discussed the importance of having a box for it, Mark advised that he couldn?t remember it being in one, but could recall polishing it regularly, I?m pretty sure I heard Sid James turn in his grave, and once again it was time to ?carry on cycling?!

We headed on along Winsford Industrial Estate, then through the town centre, and out towards Darnhall, and out on the country lanes we saw a very fast moving bike coming towards us I reckon we passed each other at a combined speed of approaching 50mph! Well I know for sure (thank you Garmin!) that we had upped our pace to nearly 5mph and Ken said the other cyclist was going about 10 times as fast as us! As we passed we realised that the other cyclist was Pete Maher, we turned to shout ?alright Pete!? but he was already out of sight! Once again this ride was done without a map so at this point we decided to head for Beeston ? as we could see Beeston! A lot of our rides use the see it and head towards it method. Thankfully, we need to come back through Cheshire when heading to John o?Groats, and luckily we?re pretty sure you can see Beeston from Lands End, if not we?ll just have to head for Jodrell Bank!

Following the lanes we came out a T-junction opposite a field of lama?s, without the Garmin at this point I would have suspected we had cycled a considerable distance, but the satellite?s suggested 15 miles (+ 3 obviously) so this clearly wasn?t South America! Mark suggested a left hand turn on to the A51, half a mile later he decided that was the wrong vchoice and we did one of our u-turns, we?re getting quite good at them now (all very co-ordinated!) practise makes perfect and all that ? we re passed the lama?s and they looked pretty puzzled, to be fair I think it?s their natural look I really don?t think our cycling had confused them. We then went through Bunbury, where we got some directions to a café (near Beeston). When we came to the A49, Mark thought it was too busy a road to cycle the half mile to the Café, so we did a bit of a detour, there are some beautiful views from Beeston Castle, although a bit hazy ? due to low blood sugar levels! But, after 5 miles of cycling down the lanes we once again came to the A49, we were now 200 m nearer to the café! So this time we decided to risk ?the busy road?!

Stopping at the café by the canal, it was a tea all round plus Sausage and Chips for one of us! Did you enjoy last weeks quiz? Is it worth another? Perhaps not! It was a pretty cool day for cycling and my hands were cold and with my fingers slightly numb I did a spot of juggling with my cup of tea but luckily managed to catch it before it hit the ground. To be honest Ken?s fingers looked even colder, in fact we were alarmed at how pink/red they had gone! It transpired that he was wearing a pair of latex gloves under his cycling mitts ? apparently their real role in life (or death I guess!) is ?for moving stiffs?. After a quick read of the paper (this cycling lark?s not easy!) we were ready to set off again, just as we were leaving a large group from one of the canal boats were heading in to the café in fancy dress, some wearing wigs, one dressed as a parrot, another as a Viking. They appear to be a much friendlier bunch than caravanners but I suppose we haven?t got in their way quite so much! A caravan Viking, if such a thing exists, would definitely have pressed his horn!

From Beeston we turned into Tiverton, where Ken had spent quite a lot of time as a lad at his auntie?s house, running errands to the shop! Perhaps where his love of running started ? spurred on by his auntie?s motivational speech ?just nip to the shop for me and you can keep the change?! The lanes were busy and we had to be a little wary at times as there were a lot of horseboxes heading for the Polo Club, in amongst the larger traffic was a speedy Red Robin Reliant (wouldn?t Robin Reliant Polo be a great sport?), Mark went no handed again and waved frantically at the driver, who didn?t look best pleased and probably wondered (understandably) what was going on. We were all disappointed at the lack of a positive response, maybe he hadn?t recognised Ken riding a bike, we were kind of assuming that all Reliant drivers knew each other I think! or perhaps he would have expected Ken to be on a unicycle, who knows? Anyway, the fears that we had that the driver might come back and get us, and that we would all end up in a pile of fibreglass, came to nothing ? he may well still be attempting his 3 point turn!

From there we worked our way back in to Tarporley, passed a pub where Ken said he?d once seen Zorro ? was just about to ask how many pints he?d had that night when he confirmed that it used to be a cinema! It was raining now and my little jacket was fighting a losing battle, passed the Polo club we went ? with my jacket proving to be about as much use as a left hand polo player. In Whitegate Ken turned off to head home, as the Garmin registered nearly 40 miles, whilst Mark & I turned left towards Sandiway as this seemed a good opportunity to call and see Bernie. But Bernie?s Beamer wasn?t home ? a quick phone call established that he?d be back in half an hour so we decided to cycle a bit more and call back, but the rain was getting heavier and heavier, so in fact we cycled to Blakemere Craft Centre (0.23 miles ? thank you Garmin!) and got another cup of tea! Bernie, if you?re reading this don?t read that last bit!! After heavier, replace it with ?however this didn?t stop us and we took the opportunity to do a 30 minute effort, obtaining a high revolutionary cadence and reaching maximum heart rate for a sustained period to achieve the training objective!?

We then cycled back to Bernie?s and had a chat with him (and another cup of tea!) during which time the worst of the weather passed over. What?s that saying ? just get a teacup in a storm ? isn?t it? The weather was still pretty bad though as we rode back home down the by pass, as fast as we could, the plan of gentle cycling had long been washed away, Back on Kingsmead Mark headed home, we were back by 2.30, with 51 miles covered, and pretty much as wet as wet could be. With my Puma Canvas trainers now totally full of water (and my feet rubbed raw!) I wondered why people talked about soaking their feet as if it were a good thing!

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