Ellisfield plus a bit more

Husband & I have done the HCC Ellisfield route a kazillion times - so much so that I was getting bored of it last year - but we realised today that X & S have never done it. Less surprising, D hadn't either but he is new to the muddy, nettly world of Hampshire mountain biking! He'd never met S & X before either - they live about 50 yards away from his house!

We needed a shortish ride and I was being very sniffy about some of the rides Husband was digging out (too long, too short, too dull, too much road - I was being pernickety) - so we opted for Ellisfield.

We started part way up hill one at Cliddesden Primary School as there weren't enough parking spaces in the village.

It is a good ride - plenty of off road & the variety of tracks means that the little grey cells get a bit of a work out too. Before the last section, Husband proposed an extension over to Preston Candover and Dummer so we ended up with a little deja vu on tracks we'd ridden last week! Unlike last week, it stayed dry. Heavy rain yesterday meant that my legs were very mud marbled by the end. With the extension, it was 27.42km with an ascent of 567m.

The rain meant that we didn't go out yesterday - opted for a session at the gym where I ran a little better than last time - 15 mins within the 30 minute run.

Bad news on Friday - whilst we were chatting to friends in the back garden, a rat made an appearance - more pest control required!