MTB Ride to the Gym

My exercise is pretty minimal at the minute and this is showing in my clothes, or more in their lack of fit.

With this in mind, I decided to start riding to the gym on a Wednesday morning.  It's 7.5 miles each way so I get in a decent distances altogether.  The problem is trying to find an off-road route there as I won't ride on roads.

From home, I head into Rivington using the bridleway at the back of the school and then drop down and cross the road and head down to the prep school.  From there, I ride along Horrobin Lane, then turn down The Street and head to the Yew Tree.  At the Yew Tree I turn right along Back Lane.  This is quite a long stretch of road, but it's a very quiet narrow road so very few cars go along it and when they do it's nice and slow so it doesn't bother me.  Not one single car passed me on my way out and just one did on my way back.

The road brings me out into Limbrick, which is where I have a stretch of road that I don't really want to ride along.  I know that you can get onto the canal from Limbrick as I've done this on the White Bear Way, but I can't remember what the terrain is like and whether or not it is OK for bikes.  I need to go for a walk there one day and check it out.

The next place I know I can get onto the canal is at Cowling so I have to ride along the road a bit to get there, although I must admit to having gone on the pavement the first time because I'm just not confident with roads.  Before you mock, how many of my road riding friends can honestly say they have never been knocked off or clipped by a car?  Not many I bet.

From Cowling I ride along the canal until bridge 78 which takes me into a housing estate.  I ride down the road, then cross Eaves Lane, making my way down some terraced streets and then eventually come out near Aldi, ride through the car park and arrive at the gym.

Riding there is the easy bit, riding home not so much.  Not only is it practically all up hill but I've also just finished an hour's worth of weight training so I'm usually pretty knackered!

Total distance - 15 miles