You did the first route which, given how waterlogged everywhere is, was probably sensible for you and your bike. The second route is more direct and is on the TPT for a fair way. It will be proper mucky today, it’s mostly dirt.
No pictures of Frank though, what’s going on? 
And I did report yesterday about how wet the cycle path is, can’t remember seeing it so underwater.
Your pics show it’s going to take a while to subside
Sorry about missing Frank, looking at my route that turn off up the steps from the canal towards Timperley is where I seemed to screw up my nav.
Your original route must have been pretty rough as I was glad to have a crosser & 36mm tyres. I had seen you post about water somewhere recently - & again today 
- but I’m unfamiliar with the Millennium Greenway that far east. I was very much out of my comfort zone after 30mins today 
.
I think the routing got confused because I normally do road cycling only - so around Warrington it kept trying to keep me on roads.
My bike was pretty mucky on the October ride from the extra miles on dirt on the TPT. I ended up having to stop on the canal towpath to clean out the dirt from my rim brakes!
Will use the winter bike next time, might be going to a concert in May. 
It was the Kingston Wheelers 300km audax yesterday and I was feeling pretty good for it. I’ve dropped almost 10kg since Christmas and upped my riding volume and am feeling fit and healthy. Those of you who pop into the bikepacking thread may remember that I did a 200 and 300km audax last year and both of them turned to worms as I had chronic indigestion and couldn’t get enough calories in. I was hoping today would be different, but unfortunately not. The first few hours started well. I’d had my usual daily breakfast of a cinnamon bagel, banana and coffee. Got to the first control and managed to get there before the rush, grabbed another coffee and banana and headed off to the first main feed stop. I started to feel crap again after this and sipped some fruit juice and proceeded to feel rubbish for the next 90 minutes, while my stomach just got heavier and heavier. I wasn’t feeling properly sick but I just didn’t have the energy going into my system and so started my tried and trusted method of sucking on some fruit pastilles and water. I gradually started feeling better so my speed picked up and a fast group of Kingston Wheelers who had passed me 30kms before, I caught up with. One of their guys was bonking and they were towing him to the next main control, so I had a nice, fast 20kms into the halfway point. I was feeling better so had a pastie with water and fruit juice and a short sit-down. I’ve learnt in audax not to dawdle too much and to try to keep moving, otherwise a long day becomes even longer. There’s a bit of a climb out of Amesbury and you head up into the Tidworth Camp area, which is quite exposed. I’ve done this audax twice before and loved this bit. Not today. There was a headwind and normally I’m happy to get down low and spin the gears, but I was having to sit up to give my stomach a bit of room. Another couple of hours of feeling ropey. It was at this time that my bike started to play up as it developed a really odd squeaking noise that I’d never heard before. I got off three times, trying to track it down but my BB, crank, wheels and mudguards were all fine. I then worked out that my right pedal was really rough. They are my old TT bike powertap pedals and the water from the puddles must have got into the bearings and started washing the grease out. It sounded horrible and the grinding noise would come and go, but I was still able to pedal ok.
So started feeling better again and there was a guy who had passed me and I started to reel him in and we two-upped 20kms to the stop at Whitchurch. There’s a lovely coffee shop there, so I had a vegan sausage roll, which is food I knew I would be safe with and a coffee to perk me up. The guy I had caught left a bit before me and I thought that I’d catch him again, but again, I felt awful as I left the control and had the worst 2 hours. It was probably the hardest 50kms of the event with a few steep-ish hills and into a headwind. At times, on the flat, I was barely maintaining 12-14km/hr, let alone mph. I resigned myself to feeling this way for a bit and just had to suck it up. I got to the next control and found a garage a km away and had a strawberry milk which settled things down.
I had 60kms to go and this where it started to rain and the temperature dropped. My stomach was not bad but not great either, so had a bit of a longer stop here to sort myself out, have a wee and get ready for this last bit. It was 6pm by this stage and I’d been out for 12 hours, and the light was going. It had been raining a lot more in SW London as I headed through Ascot and I slowed up quite a bit. Potholes that I couldn’t see and having to dodge around huge puddles; gravel-strewn and narrow cycle paths. All this dented my average speed even more. Just after Ascot, my pedal threw a proper wobbly. I had to stand up to force it to spin as the big puddles had made it start to seize up again. I was starting to get properly cold and wet but I knew the roads from my Sunday rides and didn’t mind too much. Eventually got to the HQ at 8pm, 14 hours after starting. I was the 6th rider home out of 61. It’s not a race 
but still nice to be up the front. I rode on my own for around 250kms of the 300. Some quality ‘me time’. 
I am frustrated. In all the endurance stuff I have done in the past, triathlon, time trialling, running, paddling etc I used to be able to eat anything and be absolutely fine, but unfortunately, something has changed in the last few years and this just isn’t the case anymore. I wanted to enter the London-Edinburgh-London audax, which is next year. It’s been on my bucket list for a while but I’ve decided it’s not to be as don’t want to spend 5 days controlling my stomach.
I’m also frustrated because the good bits felt really good. When doing this stuff, my simple effort level meter is ‘can I talk and eat withouth having to catch my breath?’ Other than a couple of sharp hills, I never got into any form aerobic distress. I was also really comfortable on the bike and I had no issues with my contact points. A little achy at the end, but that was all.
Nevermind. I think 200km rides will have to be my top limit. It’s a shame as I really like the audax community who are avery varied and mixed bunch of riders and an even more varied range of bicycle types. Although Ti bikes with tt bars seem to be in fashion (only saw one rider actually down on their bars though 
)
Sounds like a tough day, but you got round. The feeding is the biggest challenge. I’m absolutely fine up to about 5 hours or so, after that it more often than not ends up similar to yourself. I’ve had some success with Ucan but it’s expensive and I’m not sure I could use it all day.
Was that KW rider Harry? I saw on Strava he had a hard day of it.
Sounds frustrating but that was an absolute beast of a ride. I’d much prefer to be doing that in July and 20 degree heat though not in what I imagine was full winter kit?!
Yes, pretty sure that was him. Offered him some fruit pastilles, but like me, he’d been eating but it wasn’t going in. Adam, Javier and another guy went past me while I was stopped with 60k to go.
Well done @wheezy, you got round despite having a tough day. Sounds like you’re in really good form at the moment too, which is always a nice thought I find eating during endurance stuff a huge challenge too, hope you can sort this out.
So maybe you were going faster than you thought?
I always had digestion problems on any long distance racing and found I had to take a lot of calories in liquid form. Dilute ‘full fat’ lucozade, followed by lemon GO, topped up with small amounts of easy to digest solid food (different forms of sugar basically and malt loaf).
Honestly, I really wasn’t. I was much more steady than I would normally ride on a standard 3-4hr weekend training ride. I don’t eat or drink a lot on the bike at the weekends. Usually stop halfway through for a coffee / cake / roll though. Maybe just need more practice eating on the bike. 
Just coached (open water) Laura M-P who cycled a tandem around the world…fascinating…
You would have thought she’d have picked a lighter bike
with hubby…
Back in the earlier TT days (nearly 20 years ago!) there was a lot of talk about nutrition, it was redbiker that put me onto lucozade.
Eating whilst riding was another good suggestion as it limits what you can consume in one go.
Thanks Cobbie. Always happy to try a new approach.
I’m ot suggesting lucozade per se … it was easy to drink and digest for me but there are plenty of alternatives with sports branding.
You might find it hard to get without sweetener these days as the sugar content was so high
All that cake you post on Strava has destroyed your gut biome 
But, seriously; maybe something has “just changed”
And, if it has, a paid for test should show what it is. Or a BUPA full health MOT / check over?
Pretty much the only cake I eat all week!
I have a couple of theories. I’ve had a predominantly plant based diet for the last few years. I’m not vegan but eat very little meat, fish, eggs etc. I was speaking to a colleague at work who has been vegan for many years and she said that there is quite a bit of is anecdotal evidence that switching to a plant based diet can trigger food allergies or intolerances. I did a food allergy test last year and it showed a reaction to barley. I can’t have beer anymore. The easiest answer is to probably stop doing stupid long stuff, even though I quite like it.
Or you could just eat meat like a real man