Harelaw Dam loop

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

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it

Posted by littlehappyl

I awoke on Saturday, the day before the 110 mile cycle with some excitement and a bit of anxiety about getting all my things ready for the big day ahead. My brother is a bit of a hero to me and I trust his technical abilities when it comes to bike maintenance. After all, he’s jumped using a heavy Raleigh Grifter, raced BMXs on the track at Southampton, did Freestyle ‘cherrypickers’ on his luminous pink bmx, done many a mountain bike course and now owns a road bike! Nothing to worry about!

I turned up at his house about lunch time and we got to work after a bacon buttie prepared by ‘MeJulie’, his wife. David was prepared, he’d downloaded, printed off and laminated the instructions on how to tune up gears. He’d also been on line and very generously purchased me 2 more puncture resistant tyres (Continental GatorSkins) from Wiggle.

We removed both the tyres from my little Tirban 3 (I’ve got 650 wheels versus most people’s larger 700s!) and I set about getting the new tyres on… The first one was seriously tight but I got there with a bit of careful tyre lever action. Then it came to the second tyre which I very quickly realised was clearly labelled 650 but was really a 700! So back on with the old tyre again!

Then I explained to him about the issue I’d been having with my gears jumping when I was going uphill so we read up on the process to set up the gears… It took a long time to read and re-read the instructions and work out which was the H and which was the L screw… check it out for yourself: http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/rear-derailler-adjustments-derailleur Well, it took a lot longer than expected to sort that issue and then we had to change the front dérailleur: http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/front-derailleur-adjustments. We were in a bit of shock when we checked the clock and realised that it had taken us 3 and a half hours to achieve success! I had to head home to take my dogs out so I left David merrily fixing up his bike gears and I hoped it wouldn’t take him too long.

After altering the settings on my bike I thought it would be useful to go out and test the new set up and so I agreed to do a 10 mile cycle with my friend Dave. As I arrived at the Malletsheugh Inn, near Newton Mearns it was raining! Fortunately enough it went off but I was delighted to borrow a jacket as the temperature had dropped significantly over the last few days and it was seriously chilly. We did the Glasgow Cycle Club Time Trial course and saw a lovely rainbow before a quick change and some pasta carb loading at the Beefeater in Newton Mearns. Spinning the legs at average 15.2mph felt good and reasonably fresh despite last weeks 18 mile run… the new gear set up seemed to be doing the trick. Only problem was the bike was manky!

Sadly it was about 9pm when I finally heard from my brother again confirming he’d finally finished fixing his Specialized Allez – that was a serious maintenance marathon! Lesson learned… don’t leave it til the last minute to sort your equipment before a big event and where possible employ professional help!

It was nearly midnight by the time I’d washed my bike, changed my cleats to new ones, loaded the car, got all my food and liquid supplies along with my waterproofs, spare top and leggings ready for the big day to follow. I was so excited I couldn’t sleep and posted on facebook “Has Santa been yet?!”

Head Wind, Heavy Rain Heaven!

Posted by littlehappyl

“Fancy a 60+ miles cycle Lorna?” my brother asked me on Saturday. So it was agreed that we would have an 8am pedal-off from his house on Sunday morning. (Weather forecast was great – white clouds and sunshine all day).

Intent on being on time, I packed the bike and my accoutrements into the car and arrived dead on 8a.m. ! Well done me! However, in my haste I’d put on my trainers to drive and had left my cycling shoes avec cleats back at my house along with my sunglasses… Fail!

David had breakfast and then did a quick check on my tyres.. both front and rear wheels were low on pressure so he pumped them up to 100 psi as recommended.

Both bikes packed into the car and back over to my house we had a quick pit stop then headed off up the Rollercoaster road in a head wind i.e Kingston Road out of Neilston past fields, the Commore Dam and out past the motorcycle trails academy. As we pedalled down towards the turn off for Fullwood, the dark clouds brought a quick shower so we headed for the cover of the trees by the side of the road and took the opportunity to plan the amended route in a bit more detail.

Phone, safely stashed into the plastic zip-lock bag along with the Wiseman Dairies poncho and then stuffed back into my rear pocket for dry keeping and we were off again. We turned right along a hedge lined road and into Dunlop, wet road, slick tyres and tight bends meant we went at a slower pace than normal. We went over the Railway bridge through the roundabout then turned right towards the A736 and Burnhouse. When we met the main road we turned left and followed it for a couple of miles to the Blair restaurant, Auchentiber then turned right and headed to Kilwinning.

The headwind was brutal so we agreed to just stay in our middle gear ring and pedal it out… after all there was no point exhausting ourselves only 10 miles in with 50 – 60 to go!

We reached Kilwinning and followed the signs for Ardrossan which led us through Stevenston, round the back of Saltcoats and passed the turn off for the Arran ferry from Ardrossan. Out of the town we were now cycling along the coastal cycle path and on through West Kilbride where we rejoined the road again.

This stretch of road was very busy with fast cars so it was a welcome sight to turn left off the main road and on to the cycle path past Hunterston Castle: and through the estate passing the access road for Hunterston B nuclear power station. The quality of the path was a bit more suited to a mountain bike than road bike for this section and the knobbly pavement from there to Fairly where we rejoined the road.

As we came in to Largs, we turned left and went over the humpback bridge over the railway line and into the Largs Marina. Here we turned right and followed the park path alongside the rocky outcrops then the beach before rejoining the main road and turning right up past Nardini’s.

The next section of the route from Largs to Kilbarchan was exactly as we had done on our ‘3 Peaks Loop’ a couple of weeks ago on the 6th August however, the main differences were firstly that David was on his new Specialized Allez road bike and so we went faster and secondly that it bucketed down with rain as soon as we got 3/4 of the way up the Loch Thom road! David choose the moment we reached the top to stop for 3 minutes to stop his app because his phone was nearly out of power and to stash his phone in a dry part of his ‘fanny pack’ as the American’s would call it.. we call it the essential tools and spare tube pack! honest!

I decided it was a good time to put on my free ‘Pedal for Scotland’ Wiseman’s Dairies Poncho… yes I looked like a plastic black and white Holstein-Friesia cow flapping in the wind but it did help to keep me slightly warmer than the cold rain would allow. It did however make an incredibly loud flappity flap noise and acted like an air brake so I had to stop at a layby to tuck it in under my top! As we descended down towards Loch Thom we passed a couple cycling uphill in their rain jackets and they did make me think maybe I shouldn’t have travelled so lightly!

Down by the loch side it was a relief there weren’t as many flies as last time but we did spot a steamed up car just before the police passed us in the opposite direction so if there was anything untoward going on I’m sure the law enforcers were about to sort it out!

There was another short climb before the rain went off again, we stopped and I folded my poncho badly before tucking it under my back to look like a hunchback (thanks David for your description) and then deciding it needed putting away properly in the small pocket, we wolfed down our last mars bars and had a quick drink before we descended down the slippery steep road into Greenock. We were doing a lot of braking before the bends this time – David especially has realised that versus his mountain bike disc brakes, the road bike is like a 1960’s mini versus a new one!! In fact he had a couple of stories of the lucky escapes he’s had in the last week since he has been out on his new bike, misjudging the braking distances!

We went the naughty ‘Road Closed for maintenance’ way round the road works then up to the start of Auchmountain whereupon my poncho leapt from my back pocket and I thought I’d lost my phone too. Safely stowed we granny wheeled it up the 2 mile very steep hill and then on to the great fun back road and on to the cycle path outside Kilmacolm. It was evident the road bike was a great purchase when David was able to zoom along all the way through Kilmacolm, Bridge of Weir and on to Brookfield where he said his farewells, 59.7 miles clocked with another half a mile to go.

I carried on along the cycle path to Paisley, left it at the Paisley Canal train Station and cycled to Barrhead, where I couldn’t be bothered waiting on lights so went via Tesco car park. I was dreading the hill climb home so I stopped to make a call to my mum to pick me up! Plan foiled! Sadly my phone had died and I had to spend the next final 8 minutes of the ride cycling up the big hill and back to my house.

Safely in the door I had a few air punches and a few muted ‘YEAH I’ve done it!’s before stripping off and finding I’d lost my bank card! Showered and dressed I headed back to Tesco car park where I found the bank card! YASSS! Here’s the proof of the ride up to the point where i last checked my phone successfully at Brookfield. The phone died and it missed out the Paisley, Barrhead, Neilston part of my journey so I estimate it was 70 miles in total:

Friday’s 43

Posted by littlehappyl

I had a very busy diary last week so it was Friday before I got back in the saddle with an old colleague of mine, Stuart. He’d been working to 6pm so that gave me a few minutes after getting off the train to fill up on a Mars bar and a bottle of lucozade sport.

We met at Bothwell Street next to the phone boxes and headed down onto Waterloo Street after agreeing it would be good to go on the “Bridge to Everywhere” that used to be the “Bridge to nowhere” and here it is!

And very smooth and pleasant it was on the under-tyre too! (and more importantly gentle on the saddle bottom)! After the excitement and joy of going up and over and down and round and round we headed to another, but not so smooth, curly footpath over the Clydeside expressway and headed towards the River to join the Forth And Clyde National Route 7 cycle path from Glasgow to Loch Lomond.
We were on a mission to cycle between 15 – 20 mph the whole way which, in theory, would allow us to get to Loch Lomond and back to Glasgow in 3 hours and thus still in the hours of light!

The path along the Clyde leads up to the road past the transport museum, along past the old River Clyde docks and then up onto the old train line which has a tarmac surface.

Before we knew it we’d reached Clydebank and we stopped to pump up my rear tyre which Stuart had observed had almost hit the rim when I was going over kerb stones. The next section was along the canal to Bowling. Then we left the water edge and went up into a railway cutting which takes you along a very smooth path past Milton then on to Dumbarton amongst trees.

Through Dumbarton town centre, over a bridge then back out to more countryside and even through a field of cows before joining a river side path that takes you all the way to Balloch and was smelling sweet with lots of flowers.

A quick Mars bar and a drink then we headed back the way we came. Sadly Stuart got a puncture at Dalmuir next to the canal and while he was changing his tyre (lucky he had 3 inner tubes as one spare was faulty) I was attacked by swarms of horse flies and I now have about 10 bites all over the backs of my legs and my arms!

Despite this, we achieved our goal of 3 hours cycling before we got our respective trains home to avoid cycling in the dark! (apologies for lack of photos but I’ve been this route before – see blog entry Braw Bike to Balloch

Roller Coaster 36 miler

Posted by littlehappyl

Firstly an apology… I went out a cycle on Saturday and because I was so focused on getting home (because I was not enjoying it) I didn’t take any photos! I shall try and improvise and use my linguistic skills to describe what I saw so you feel part of the picture!

After bravely asking “Anyone free for a 60 mile George Michael tomorrow?” on Facebook and no takers, I thought I’d get up early on Saturday, take the dogs out and head out for a my biggest cycle yet… ALONE!

However, given all my efforts and my late night chatting with Irene I didn’t get out my bed til 11am so those best laid plans went to waste! Nonetheless, I was delighted to find out that a long lie had meant that the postman had delivered my new saddle and therefore the pre-existing pain in the anatomy, that came with my cycle with my brother on Tuesday, would hopefully get some relief!

The arrival of the new saddle meant I had to go looking for my Allen keys which were notably missing from my tool kit. (Any excuse for me to get my dad to visit and borrow his vast toolkit, have a natter, a cake and a cuppa!)

Its white with a hole – I’ve christened it the polo mint saddle: Its actually a pretty good saddle for the money – check out the spec:

Since I’d left it so late and was putting off going out, I decided 60 miles was too much and changed it to a 36 mile loop which I mapped on walkjogrun.net first.

Then came the fantastic news from my brother that he’d just purchased a road bike and therefore might be doing the Pedal for Scotland Sportive with me in September… his bike is even smaller than mine though – 49cm (mine is 51cm)! We’re a petite family! I was hoping that meant he would come on a test run with me but sadly he was shopping in Glasgow.

Here’s his new Specialized Allez:

I was really struggling to motivate myself to get ready for the ride ahead partly because I was feeling tired and partly because there were passing rain showers. In the end I decided to break rule 32 and took a hydration back pack (without the hydration as I put that into a SIS sport bottle along with a sachet of Go Energy Orange drink to practice drinking from a bottle) and packed a cycling rain jacket (aka ‘the steamer’ as it makes you super sweaty!) and thought ‘Lets hope it doesn’t rain!’

Right get on with it! I hear you shout at me and I was the same I had to shout at myself to get out on my bike!

Ok so here’s the route I took – out of Neilston up over the roller coaster hills on the Stewarton Road [I was feeling seriously tired!]… turned right and went through Dunlop [grateful for some relief from the big hills] then out over the Lochlibo Road and headed through Barrmill. From there I skirted round Beith and headed down to Glengarnock where I left the roads and joined the cycle path. I pedalled towards Lochwinnoch passing the Kilbirnie turn off I’d taken with my brother on Tuesday (but in the other direction). I raced past some leisure cyclists (no lycra in sight!) and got to Lochwinnoch in good time as I was pushing myself to cycle as fast as possible to keep up my average speed to compensate for the slow hills at the start and for the ones coming towards the end!

I popped in to the Lochwinnoch visitor centre and bought some additional juice (Lucozade sport) and some jelly sweets as I was really feeling exhausted and also consumed a gel then slowly swung my leg back over and clipped in again to resume my fast pace on the cycle track. I took a detour in Kilbarchan to see my brother and his wife but alas they were still shopping so I focused on getting this painful cycle done and took the path to Paisley, turned off at the RAH and headed up the Braes and on to Sergentlaw Road which was very steep and almost backwards I was going that slow… I really felt I was hitting a wall!

Thankfully it was pretty much down hill for a bit then one last painful hill at Neilston’s Mill Brae before home.

What a relief! What an idiot…! I realised at dinner with my folks later that night that I’d had 4 chocolates and two of my mum’s cakes in the morning and hadn’t had any breakfast or lunch! So I ordered lasagne, garlic bread and chips for dinner at the Canny Man and was feeling much better.

And now for an admission… I’ve been buying a lot of cycling gear lately! This week I bought 2 tops with rear pockets to let me avoid wearing a back pack in future… I bought a new pump with a presta valve attachment and gauge as my hand pump doesn’t have a gauge… and… I bought a cycling tool kit (looks a bit like a swiss army knife) with allen keys, a screw driver, various attachments and wheel levers all in a nifty pouch!

Secondly, I’m finding myself trying to work towards adhering to the aforementioned rules!

Overnoot for this week, God bless, love Lorna x

3 Peaks Loop

Posted by littlehappyl

It felt like ages since I was last out on my bike and so when my brother called to see if I’d like to try his 45 mile hilly route I was really looking forward to it. I’d rested for a few days after the Great Glen Way 79 mile walk and was ready to face my next training challenge.

Challenge 1… waiting for my brothers mattress delivery! Due by 1.30 p.m. we’d had time to catch up and make chilli for dinner before it arrived at 4 p.m. which meant we were heading out on our 3 – 4 hour cycle amidst rush hour. Thankfully some of the route was to be on cycle paths or quiet roads.

I borrowed David’s Black & Decker safety specs as the next best thing to clear cycling sunglasses and we headed off down through the village of Kilbarchan along its fantastic newly surfaced tarmac (last time I took this route my water bottle ricocheted out of the bracket after going over some uneven road surface whilst being overtaken by a car and thankfully it didn’t do any damage when it bounced off little car parked at the side of the road!).

Up the short hill and on to the cycle path (Sustrans Route 7 Lochwinnoch Loop Line ) we headed towards Irvine at a steady pace on the flat surface and agreed that we’d stick to our middle wheel as David told me this 3 hour 45 minute route is pretty hilly later on and we’d need our strength and stamina.

We quickly passed the folly and the bike with stone wheels I took a photos of back in “Saturday in a Spin”. We exited the path and cycled through Kilbirnie and up a long hill on the A760 Largs Road. It was a granny wheel extravaganza and we both felt the burn as we made our way up to our first real summit. Happy Days! It really makes a difference sharing the pain with someone else and we took it in turns to “break wind” at the front… if you know my brother you will understand the poor air quality I experienced!

Keen to smash David’s route record, we didn’t let the roadworks slow us down and seeing it was safe, we sped over to the wrong direction of the road while the cars growled at us from behind as they waited on a long stream of traffic passing. This gave us a good clear road for a little time and enabled us to do a wee bit more climbing before we went down the steep gradient in to Largs on the Haylie Brae… WOooooah there cowboy slow down dear brother! He must have been doing 40 mph around the hairpin bend while I struggled to get any leverage on my breaks and mistook my rear brake for my front brake and nearly went over the handlebars!

We zoomed through Largs town but I still had braking issues as we went through the roundabout like a chicane! Then we took a right at the famous Nardini’s Ice Cream Shop and headed up to the little shop on Brisbane Road for a little refreshment (Lucozade sport and a Yorkie).

Largs’ famous ice cream parlour

The Old Largs back road (Brisbane Glen Road) was lovely to cycle – very few cars passed us during our ascent up to Loch Thom which was just as well as we looked a bit red faced due to all the effort of our aching legs! As we passed side of the Loch there were millions of midgies and we had to breath through our noses to avoid inhaling them!

It was such a relief getting to the top of the 2nd of our 3 peaks and we hurried down towards Greenock passing another cyclist going the opposite way. The descent was really steep and I still didn’t realise that if I dropped my hands onto the lower handlebar position I had more leverage on the breaks DOH! However, by the point we were passing the old sugar factory I’d finally got to grips with that and was subsequently a lot less out of control – doing 35 miles an hour… in fact I felt confident that I would be able to go a lot faster.. =)

The last serious climb on the Auchmountain Road (yes this is a real name!) (5.1% average grade 2.2 miles of pain) was a nightmare – we both had sore legs by this point and it was a struggle making it up past the cemetery – I briefly thought we might need to reserve 2 plots!.

We paused to take a photo at the top before pushing on hard to the turn off for Kilmacolm on the Auchentiber Road :

Both of us were feeling tired but elated as we pedaled on spotting Kilmacolm over the hill meaning only a few more miles til we were home. I captured a picture of David proving we do have sunshine in Scotland:

We joined the cycle track (Sustrans Route 75 Forth and Clyde) and pedaled on through Kilmacolm, then Bridge of Weir and we exited the path at the Burndale Kitchen workshop at the Brookfield end of Bridge of Weir before spinning along the road and back up to David’s house in Kilbarchan. Yeeha! We’d made it!

Thanks to David for his company, his wind breaking skills and the awesome chilli that awaited us! 45 miles… DONE!

Braw Bike to Balloch and Back

Posted by littlehappyl

After jogging a 10K on Thursday night and feeling pretty full of the cold when I was working on Friday I decided to take it easy on Friday night – just a night in with the girls, some great chat and a couple of glasses of vino =)

Saturday kicked off to a tremendous workout – I help clean the church once a month so I was dusting, cleaning loos, hoovering the hall and washing the windows. It was absolutely roasting so I was looking forward to a trip to the beach with the dogs and some friends on Saturday afternoon. We headed to Irvine and the dogs and I managed a 3 mile walk along the waters edge to keep cool but it was a bit hot for a jog (29 degrees C). After a lovely dinner at The Blair we headed home! By Saturday night, after two days rest I knew I needed another valiant effort in the saddle to get me back on schedule with the training. How timely…. an incoming message from my brother asking if I want to do his “Largs cycle route” with him! YES! was my answer but sadly he and my sister in law were already planning a hillwalk for Sunday and since that’s not on my list of charitable activities I decided I’d be better focusing on increasing my mileage for the Pedal for Scotland and build up the much needed stamina… I texted my sporting activities friend, Claire and she agreed that she’d cycle to Loch Lomond with me. Result!

The alarm went off at 0630 and it was much cooler outside when I took the dogs out.. however, 0630 is a bit keen to start a days cycle and I wasn’t sure if Claire would be up yet so I headed back to bed til 0930 and to my disappointment Claire responded to my “just up are you up for this cycle” with a “To be honest not really =(” !

I was in a state of flux for 20 mins but continued to get ready… “If Claire’s not coming is there any point heading to Loch Lomond? Should I start cycling from home and do a 50 – 60 mile route round past Greenock and back up via Irvine?”

“oh to heck with it I’ll call her and see if I can persuade her – 60 miles is a lonely long way!” Thankfully my persuasive guilt inducing tactics worked and within 5 minutes she’d agreed to come. So in a rush, I gathered my things, got my bike out the shed and filled 3 drinks containers (one hydration pack and two water bottles since its been so hot the last few days I don’t want to risk heat stroke!).

I hopped on the bike, clipped in and headed off down the hill out of Neilston to Barrhead… Thankfully the legs weren’t too sore and the rest had done the trick. Through Barrhead I was fighting with myself – “should I go over the hill on Kennishead road and go direct to Queens Park or do the flatter but longer route past Silverburn…?? decisions decisions!” I’m a bit hard on myself a lot and plumped for the short hard climb route. My PB on that section was 2:02 so today I was 18 seconds off form (owed to the Cold virus I think). I took a wee detour off the main roads through Queens Park and arrived at Claire’s and to my proud amazement she’d managed to change her tyre all by herself and was in the midst of getting ready.

We headed up towards Glasgow (not too far) before she realised she hadn’t started her Strava App and we paused for false start number 1! Meanwhile I realised I’d forgotten to put on my heart rate monitor – Doh! Uch well, we carried on up to Glasgow city centre and went looking for a pair of replacement sunglasses for the ones I lost at T in the Park! Every pound shop in Glasgow has sold out of sunglasses!

We made our way off the shopping streets and down to the Clyde side and then came across the new Hydro Arena near the SECC:

Just beyond that there were trucks, fire engines, fancy cars and go karts lined up for some sort of attraction. We pedaled out along the cycle path past the Crown Plaza hotel, past the Air ambulance helicopter pad and out on to the quiet and wide road that goes past the new Riverside Museum.

HONK! Zoom! A mental angry driver in a car overtook Claire and I who were riding side by side for a bit of banter. We nearly had accidents in our pants because of the fright we got. Thankfully the lights up ahead were at red so I had a chance to catch up and give my opinion –

me: “excuse me sir but I don’t think that blasting your horn at us was a good idea – we both jumped out our skin and we could have crashed”

angry man: ” you have no right to be riding on the roads never mind side by side”

me: “em i think you will find if you check the highway code that its allowed”

angry man.: [lights went to green, wheelspin away]

Well that gave me and Claire something to debate as we passed the next big junction and headed out to the cycle path which used to be a train line going parallel to Dumbarton Road.

And just as we agreed… its written in the highway code

https://www.gov.uk/rules-for-cyclists-59-to-82/overview-59-to-71

66

You should

never ride more than two abreast, and ride in single file on narrow or busy roads and when riding round bends

Thanks again to Traithete Dave for his advice about staying in our middle gear and spinning out the legs… Claire agreed to set the pace at the front and before long we were zooming along the elevated path towards Clydebank. Warning : You have to keep an eye out for tree roots and also for broken glass on this part of the cycle – mainly green (I’m guessing buckfast) and some clear (wild guess Voddie).

Onwards we went alongside Doo huts (pigeon fanciers build tall sheds as 5 start accommodation for their racing pigeons!) then we turned up past the big bike at Clydebank (recent picture with me on top) and stopped at the shopping centre to check out another pound shop for sunglasses – same story. =( sad me for loosing them!

We left Clydebank along the canal and I captured a couple of photos on the move to let you see what its like:

It was here that I took some photos of swans and signets last Tuesday while my car was in for an MOT:

So Claire was on a roll… cycling purely in middle gear seems to work a treat to keep the legs spinning and not exhaust ourselves too much! We stopped at Bowling for a quick snack, a refill of our hydration packs (as its much easier to drink out the pipe and mouthpiece than try to negotiate a bottle and lid whilst on the move) but then some people we’d recently overtaken came past and we packed up and jumped back on our bikes and headed off after them to resume our lead! (This despite Claire and I always confirming to each other “its not a race or a fashion show!).

We passed the SSPCA centre at Milton and I was tempted to stop off and see what I could rescue this week but Claire put pay to that by continuing at a steady pace! (More animals might be a bit much – I already have two 14 year old cats, Tigger and Roo) and the two dogs you have already been introduced to!

We were soon passing through Dumbarton and my old flat in Crosslet road! Through the town centre, up over the bridge and onwards to Renton… the path goes along the river here and its really lovely scenery =). We couldn’t believe how quickly we’d cycled when we reached Balloch, popped along to the wee shop for a sandwich and stopped at the very slow public toilet (it does a full cleaning cycle after every use and confuses people trying to go in when you shouldn’t.

We said our goodbyes, by this point I’d only achieved 33 miles and I knew I’d have to do a lot more whereas Claire was very happy with her 23.6 mile effort (I was over the moon that she’d joined me so I wasn’t too lonely). Claire headed off to catch the train back to Glasgow and I sped down to the cycle track to see if I could race her home!

PAH! headwind! Who’d have known that it was an easterly wind causing me a bit of thigh burn on the way home. I retraced our steps and stopped off at Clydebank for a quick melted dark chocolate kitkat before continuing back along the route to Glasgow city centre.

I was happy to see the squiggly bridge welcoming me back:

My legs were suitably tired and I was in no doubt that the best solution would be to catch the train for the last section of the journey and felt no guilt when purchasing my ticket after completing the 54.3 mile day trip. With less than a week til Claire, Winnie, Candy and I start the Great Glen Way its just donned on me that I will need to do jogging on top of walking while I’m away and cycling won’t get a look in… or will it? to be decided.. watch this space! =)

Doon to Troon

Posted by littlehappyl

Well here I am at t in the park having 3 days off training but have been dancing and walking around a lot so my legs are still feeling well used nonetheless!
Thursday night after a team meeting in Glasgow I met up with my friend Dave the triathlete! He’d suggested I join him on one of his cycles home… to Troon!
It’s so different being out cycling with someone else… We took it in turns to go at the front (although Dave was at the front most!) and I tucked in behind to get in his slipstream. I was totally amazed at how much easier it is to cycle when you are not the one in the headwind!
So in accordance with Dave’s advice I stayed in my middle gear ring as we headed out of Glasgow through Shawlands and up hill on the Ayr road out of Newton Mearns. Doing that meant we had a steady pace and spun the legs. Before we knew it we were out on the A77 and heading up on to the windy moor on a cycle path… Quite a lot of cyclists were out and some of those guys past us doing about 20 miles an hour going uphill! Awesome! One day I’d love to be able to sustain that kind of pace! Once we were over the highest point we went into our top gear and really went for it on a bit of the road achieving my fastest ever speed on my bike 40mph!
We made our way through the country roads near Kilmaurs and down through a couple of small villages before we could finally see Arran through the hazy sunshine. It was so nice arriving in Troon 32 miles down the road – we were both pretty tired and I was rewarded with my first ever protein energy drink! Bleugh!

Keeled over at the lights!

Posted by littlehappyl

So, building on the success of my epic 37 mile cycle at the weekend, I decided to make the most of the sunny weather and headed out on my bike. I didn’t have a specific destination in mind but I could feel how tight my calves were and only a few hundred yards in I was reminded of saddle soreness! I checked out Strava for some near by routes and plumped for the 10 mile A77 Time Trial so headed off out of Neilston towards Newton Mearns. It must have been 20 degrees and my legs were complaining and my breathing was heavy on the first climb after Kirkton Dam (now a dry field) then past a small cluster of houses and farms. There are a lot of pot holes and rough bits of road here and I could feel every little bump! Fortunately I soon picked up speed down to Walton Dam but hammered on the brakes catch a picture of a swan as it went across the reflection of the sun… I was surprised to see more wind farms have sprung up to the left of the Neilston pad – I think they have been breeding overnight!

Ok time to get a wriggle on… legs were warming up a bit so I tried to do a bit more technical cycling by changing up and down the gears so I could keep my legs spinning. I also tried to create equal pressure throughout the rotation of the crank shaft so I would maximise the power and keep the momentum going. Once again I surprised myself when it worked out better than expected!

I had a quick stop to double-check the TT course then made my way slowly up a shallow hill to the start of the time trail on the A77 just past the Malletsheugh (Malletshoe? Malletshug? there will always be a debate on how to pronounce the name of the pub that I frequented in my early drinking days – especially after a couple of beers!)

‘OK HERE WE GO… ‘ I mentally charged myself for the hard workout ahead (to be honest I’ve actually driven over in the car, parked and embarked on this TT before but the horrific head wind that day put pay to me reaching the half way point and I gave up using the excuse that I was just looking for a short trip to try out my new shimano shoes and cleats!). Today I felt strong, I pedalled smoothly, spun my legs and I was relieved to know that there is a cycle path to the side of this very fast and busy road so I had no concern about cars approaching round corners! I sped down into the cooler air of the Motorway underpass then up past the iconic red house marking the start of the windy moor. I sustained a good pace up the long hill and passed some friendly cyclists no doubt inspired by the good weather and the current Tour de France. I am not sure that having a hydration pack on my back or having shimano cleats is going down well with the cycling set but it will do me until my first sponsorship deal! haha Aye right! Ok so I have no idea how I managed it but I was soon round the roundabout near Fenwick and heading back towards Glasgow. I lost a bit of power when I felt a bit tired going back up a slight hill but it was amazing how thoughts of writing about my experience on here actually motivated me to try harder, pedal faster and dig in! So, just for the record, thanks for reading – you are helping me train better!

The downhill back to the underpass was brilliant although I’m a bit scared of cornering fast and flashback to the Harry Enfield “Women, know your limits!” I took it easy on the bend and pushed (and pulled) my way back to the start… I was imagining the likes of Victoria Pendleton coming into the crowd at the finish line to motivate me to get to the end of the TT and clock my first proper distance time. It was also exciting to think “can’t wait to get home to see what speed I was able to sustain over that course” which might sound a bit sad but I’m keen to track my progress on fitness, fatness and endurance over the next couple of months and see how I improve and I just love the gadget side with my heart rate monitor linked to Strava – after all I am a techno geek in the IT industry!

Rather pleased with myself I headed past the Malletsheugh Inn and then “YOWCH ya wee BANDIT!” thought I had some sort of stinging insect in my shoe at my toe! (These fancy cycling shoes have a hole under the toes at the front I guess for airflow purposes! I quickly found a small ramp off the road onto the pavement and disembarked as fast as I could to see the perpetrator… but alas it was all in my mind – the shoes with their velcro and ratchet system can certainly create some pressure and it was just pins and needles I had been feeling!

Back on the bike and 200 yards down the road with my phantom bee sting behind me, I noticed a handsome cyclist at the side of the road who was in the midst of changing his inner tube! With a “Oh No! Good luck!” shouted over my shoulder on the way past I put on a show of speed and accelerated off down the Ayr road past the shops and Parklands but then lost a bit of momentum as I thought about where to go next?!

I popped in to Rouken Glen Park for a quick drink, a photo, a look at a map for ideas and to see what my current milage was… 19.5 miles done I reckoned I had about 30 in me without loosing daylight so I headed for Paisley.I’m lucky that I don’t have a fear of heavy traffic and there was loads as I came through the M77 / Darnley motorway junction and past Macdonalds. However, I got to the lights outside the Mill and was in another world trying to decide whether to go up the road or loop through Paisley before heading home… I wasn’t exactly paying attention to the fact that the lights were still red and I’d already inched forward as far as I could without being able to say I’d not jumped them! So I got that awful feeling… “OH NO I’m going to fall over!” and lost forward momentum and keeled over in front of 20 cars with their drivers and passengers looking on! I put my hands out to the pavement to save myself then when I was fully lying on my side on the pavement I still couldn’t un-clip! Next thing my legs and bike were up in the air as I wrestled to get free of my bike! Then I heard people shouting “Are you okay?” just as I managed to break free! So filled with complete embarrassment I stood up, took a bow and put my thumbs up while having a good laugh at myself! I couldn’t face waiting for the lights to change or getting back on so I walked round to the pedestrian crossing and thought briefly about going straight home to heal my pride but then I reminded myself of the 110 mile challenge in a few weeks and that gave me the impetus to carry on to 30 miles.

The rest of my journey into Paisley and up through Neilston Road was pretty uneventful in comparison but I could really tell I was running out of energy towards the end and I significantly slowed down and did a very slow time up the very steep hill next to the Neilston Mill before heading back for a shower a quick dog walk and a well deserved dinner and bed! Out like a light!

Here’s the details of the TT – sustained 16.5 mph average pace 171 bpm heart rate and am rated 2nd overall against women aged 35 – 44 (i’m 38) Yee to the Haa!

Beautiful sunset out with the dogs ended a lovely day…

Update – only a small bruise on the inside of my right knee and a bit of a scrape to my shoes and the heel of one hand to report – looks like all I really hurt was my pride!

Saturday in a spin

Posted by littlehappyl

What a day… woke up to beautiful sunshine and knew that if I’m to cycle 110 miles in 9 weeks time I’d better get on my bike!

Here she is a 51 cm little cracker… (with wheels so small I had to return the turbo trainer! Well I’m only 5’2″ so thats to be expected I guess?)

As it was the first time in the saddle in a few weeks I took it easy (although living on top of a hill means that there will always be some Queen of the Mountain opportunities!). I filled up my hydration back pack with 2 litres of blackcurrant juice, filled another litre bottle with peach juice as variety is the ~~spice~~ fruit of life and donned the gel padded cycling shorts (believe me on this razor of a saddle they are a welcome necessity but when I’m out the saddle I feel like I’m walking with a loaf of bread between my legs!).

I clipped in and began cycling out of the village and into the countryside along the back roads in a headwind and thought to myself ‘just take it easy, I’m in this for the long haul 30 – 40 miles today’. The countryside is beautiful round here so a welcome distraction was noticing the wild flowers and wild life. Going down the hill out of the next village I built up speed (~30 mph) and enjoyed a bit of a breeze from the sunshine – I could already feel my pale freckle covered skin reminding me that I hadn’t put on any suncream!

Cycling up the steep hill past Caldwell tower (as featured on Gorgeous George’s TV programme ‘Restoration Man’) was a bit tough and the granny wheel was in full effect but the gears went “clunk” after every revolution and jumped round loosing power! I felt a bit stupid not knowing how to improve it but carried on over the cross roads and up to the top of the hill climb (not easy when its jumping out of gear all the time). Realising that my plan to do significant milage today and only 5 miles in, I decided to unclip the pedals and jump off to have a better look and see what the options were… to my amazement I managed to work out how to tweak the gear settings and when I was clipped in and challenged to another small hill I was delighted to cycle in a smooth movement with continuous power! YAAAAS ya wee dancer!

I was gaining confidence,, enjoying the ride more and gaining speed but stopped to capture a couple of snaps of one of my favourite views from an aeroplane when you are taking off from Glasgow Airport – Barcraigs Reservoir which has amazing Douglas fir trees on islands:

Having done the hard climb it was now time to decend towards Lochwinnoch and I chanced my arm and popped in to visit friends who have a beautiful house with a view and stopped for 20 minutes to catch up on their news before I clipped back in and cycled along and across a very busy road and on down past the loch to the cycle track.

I passed another tower in the middle of nowhere and stopped to capture it on film before pushing on to Kilbarchan.

After a short stop visiting my brother in Kilbarchan I rejoined the cycle path and bell ringing to full effect made my way past many dog walkers to Paisley and onwards to Glasgow on National Route 7 Forth and Clyde.

At Pollock Country Park I left the safety of the cycle path and went via the main road to Darnley and up to the Barrhead Dams before looping back round to complete the 37 miles.

My reward.. in honour of Wimbledon!

2 Dogs Jog and I blog

All about Candy, Winnie and the Dog Jog Master!

Cycle Training

Harelaw Dam loop

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it

Head Wind, Heavy Rain Heaven!

Friday’s 43

Roller Coaster 36 miler

3 Peaks Loop

Braw Bike to Balloch and Back

66

Doon to Troon

Keeled over at the lights!

Saturday in a spin