Month: July 2015

Harelaw Dam loop

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On a roll!  2 nights on the trot…

After work did a bit of weeding with my state of the art Fiskars weed puller to rid my back garden of weeds… who knew pulling out dandelions by the roots could be such brilliant fun!

I was keen to make the most of a sunny evening so got out the new Cannondale Synapse to go for a cycle (I haven’t been out on it since 3rd June when I cycled round Arran with my brother while on holiday).  I quickly fitted my new swanky Lezyne lightweight hand pump (one of my 40th birthday gifts from my brother and his wife) and headed out for a hilly 12 mile route.

Thankfully I packed a gel as, in my enthusiasm for weeding, I had completely forgotten to eat any dinner and half way I was already out of energy.

I felt ok as I headed out of Neilston up through the village and up the rolling hills past a couple of small dams but near the top of the 2nd last big hill I managed to do a bad gear change and completely jam the chain between the frame and the big chain ring! DOH!  Fortunately I saw the emergency stop coming and managed to get out of my pedals before keeling over.  (makes  a nice change!)

A little metal protector that was glued on to the frame had managed to get caught in the chain and that’s what had caused it to jam up so bad so 2 very oily hands later and 5 mins of wrestling the chain at the side of the road with the bike upside down and I was back in action.

I said to myself, ‘just enjoy this ride, its the first in a long time so no pressure to go fast and get any QOM’s!

Well I went as fast as I could on the downhills but I was struggling to get up the hills.

It was a gorgeous night and I stopped for a couple of photos:  I was surprised that there were white mummy sheep with Black lambs!  Then there was a nice tree lined route – shame about the lumpy tarmac!   And a view of Ben Lomond from the top of the final hill!

Managed 12 miles in 51 min 29s

Average speed 14 mph

Top speed 38 mph

 


   https://www.strava.com/activities/341844739/embed/8cd57452f052a94202a4193009c800596e792460

A wee three before tea…

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I’m back…

It took the sun to break through the clouds and for me to say “enough is enough!”.  To be honest I miss the running and cycling and with the poor wet / cloudy cold weather recently I’ve not been motivated to get out much and as a result I’ve been feeling cabin fever and putting on some weight!

So….  no more pies and back dog jogging and cycling after a reasonably restful couple of months recovering from the marathon and the London to Paris 24 hour cycle.

Tonight I decided to jog from the house and at 19 degrees (according to the car) went out in a black vest to try and get some vitamin D!  The dogs looked smart with their new leads – turquoise with white stars and lime green with turquoise stars… image

just waiting on their new collars to match.  It was the usual 3 mins hanging about in my front garden to get a satellite signal for the Garmin.

Run was pretty challenging today as I’m feeling out of shape!   First hill was slow, through the village I thought I had lead legs but the real challenge was the run up through the midgie Glen to the high point.. going up hill was pretty slow and out of breath.   The run back down the hill through the village was much better although I got a stitch when I was passing the park!

Least that is out of the way and it can only get better!    No challenges in the diary yet… thinking about it…

Brighton Marathon and London to Paris in 24 Hr Cycle

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Well I haven’t posted in 5 months and I haven’t been training much in the last month but I’m keen to change all that… !

New blog entries I’m going to write up on wet nights to look forward to…

  1. Brighton Marathon training…
  2. Brighton Marathon event
  3. London to Paris cycle training
  4. New Bike
  5. London to Paris in 24 hours event
  6. The Cobbler
  7. New Challenges ahead…

Watch this space