Training Routes (road)

Since I would love to be able to go out in the morning and just find my way around the north west and come home when I felt like it, this isn't really an option since I have a family and family life is the most important thing. Therefore, I have to pick routes out from home which are loops of differing lengths and times to suit depending on how long I can go out for, how long I WANT to go out for and the type of route I feel like doing.

Even thought the first mile or so from home is always the same, I can turn off and go in different directions and end up at the opposite ends of the county to the other loops fairly quickly.

I use a couple of websites to plan the route I want to do, but I do not tend to re-plan it once I have done it once or twice since by then I should know the route/time/distance off by heart.

The main one I use is Mapmyride.com. I have been using this website for a few years now to plan short routes, long routes, undulating routes, hilly routes, easy routes, you name it. A new-ish feature that it provides is to be able to follow roads. This means that when you are drawing your route, you do not need to click at each bend in the road and roundabout to draw, you just click at various points and it will draw round the roads for you. Sometimes it will draw the shortest route which in reality is not feasible due to side streets and so forth when you want to go down the main road, but you can "pull" the route out to the main road and the website adjusts accordingly.

One of the main reasons I use mapmyride, besides the fact it does route mapping (which you can save to view later or to share to other people), is that it gives you elevation details. This means you can see how hilly both to climb or descend the road is, so you can gauge your energy to not be wasted by the time you hit the big climbs!

An alternative website I use, is Endomondo. This is a newer website for me, ever since I was given an IPhone as my work phone. Previously I had a HTC Snap which had god-awful GPS signals if it did not see the sky without obstruction (which made putting it in your pocket a no no!). The iPhone will pick up the signal and work fine with it even if its inside a rucksack or pocket, which is ideal for cycling.

Whereas both websites can plan routes, endomondo does not give the functionality to follow roads so you have to literally click on every corner to get the route mapped.

Since it is a work phone I won't pay for more advanced apps to follow routes, therefore I will use the device to track my progress so I can check it when i get home.  I currently use a cycle computer on the bike to do the tracking for me which is just as good as a personal trainer as there is nothing worse than seeing your average speed drop or even your current speed drop!

Loops
Local <60 minute loop
This loop is one of my favourites since its fairly short at just over 13 miles, and is not very taxing except for the first half mile which is a climb past Chorley Hospital, which considering is less than a minute since leaving the house, is not the ideal way to start a ride to warm up.  This loop then heads down the A6 through Chorley, which can be quite interesting during my more convenient night rides. then turn towards Wigan at Fredericks Ice Cream shop.  This road is not as well used as the A6 but does have some nutters who use it as a rat run between Wigan and Chorley.  I turn off this road towards Coppull at Jolly Tar Lane, which then takes me into the back of Coppull, which I then head through Coppull and out towards Charnock Richard on the A49.  I stay on this road for a few miles, enjoying the decent downhill on Charnock brow, heading into Euxton, then I head towards Chorley through Euxton and via Astley Village and home.  I do this in between 45-50 mins depending on traffic lights and my condition, not forgetting traffic volume and speed as well.

25-ish mile loop
This loop begins the same as the above but turns onto Runshaw Lane in Euxton, and head towards Leyland, going past Worden Park, then head towards the bottom end of Leyland and follow Leyland Lane north towards Bamber Bridge then stay on the A6 all the way back to Chorley and head home past the hospital.  This is not a good loop to do with a southerly wind as the A6 can be quite open and is awful to cycle into wind on that road, so I tend to cut it short and go down the A49 then through Buckshaw Village and home.

58 Mile 4hr Loop
This ride can be summarised by the following.  Chorley > Horwich (via chorley new road NOT A6) > Aspull > Wigan > Orrell > Skelmersdale > Ormskirk > Southport > Bretherton (skim past it) > Leyland > Buckshaw Village > Home.
This loop was done recently and I stopped twice for 10 mins then 2 mins

Work-based loops

More recently I have begun to take my singlespeed bike to work to go out for an hour during lunchtime, especially since the more recent weather is a lot milder and cycle friendly without 15 layers and balaclava!


These loops are limited since it has to incorporate getting changed into and out of cycle clothing in the lunch hour.  Therefore 3 loops have been marked, one being around Pennington flash, but the other two are the same except for the longer one which is an extension of the shorter one.


Pennington Flash Loop
This is more suited to the singlespeed or even a mountain bike but not the road bike since the paths are rocky and muddy in places and not suited to anything but mountain bikes or anything that's not got road-biased tyres.  Luckily it has been dry recently and I have been using the singlespeed with the kenda tyres and its been OK, I did have to push at one point because it was too muddy but I went out today and it was all rideable. (I have shared the route on a separate post so you can see the loop on the map)

11 Mile Loop
This loop goes through Newton Le Willows > Earlestown, and heads towards St Helens and loops back round the back of Newton and back to the office.  It has no gradients to note but is good to get the legs spinning, especially on a single speed.

15 Mile Loop
This extends the existing 11 mile loop a bit further towards Sutton (south of St Helens.) and is more suited to the road bike if its to be covered within the lunch hour, however I have done this on the single speed and was back within an hour but only just.