Al training ride 3rd march 2013

Al – Training ride 3^rd March 2013

Well the day was bright and the air temperature about 7Deg C. It all seemed perfect. The only issue of the day was I only had 3 hours as I had to be elsewhere in the afternoon.

Prepared the bike with its extra weights to give me more of a work out. This is adding 10KG extra using some of my sons weights. Does not sound a lot but boy when you start up a steep hill you sure know you have got it on the back.

I am using an app on my wife’s phone called Google Mytracks. It will map out your route and also give you stats on the route. Speed, elevations, time, etc. All this can then be uploaded to your Google drive to keep track of. Its great.

I have been looking at a new route that takes me out towards Edinburgh but along the pentlands. Using the output from MyTracks I managed to produce this map of the route I took.

View down Currie Kirk Hill

I started out nice and easy along the main road. When I reached Currie I turned up in to the Pentland hills. Up what I call the Currie Kirk hill. This is just short of a mile of steep gradient, great training for Skye I hope. The view from the top, as you catch your breath, is stunning.

The new part of the route takes me across the hills and passed some very nice reservoirs to Colinton. At the first res I was taking some pictures and looked down the bank dam of the res and thought jings that’s steep. Little did I know that that’s the path I was going down. Woow it was steep and there are some mean corners on the way down to the next res.

View out over Edinburgh

The views out over Edinburgh were fantastic on such a good day.

Once down and back on the suburban roads the cycle became humbrum. I stopped in Juniper Green to try a new energy gel drink I wanted to try, knowing that I had the Currie Kirk Hill coming up again in a few miles I hoped it would give me an energy boost. (more later on the energy gel)

View back over Threipmuir

Well along came the hill and I have to say I made it without too much bother and headed back home via the Harlaw and Threipmuir reservoir’s.

All in all a pleasant cycle

Now for the stats

	Total Distance	16.49
	Total Time	01:50:16
	Moving Time	01:47:33
	Number of Tracks	1
	Average Speed	8.97
	Average Moving Speed	9.20
	Elevation Gain	1,699
	Min Elevation	478
	Max Elevation	1,100

P.S

Well I thought that was the end of the cycle but that energy gel did not agree. Next day my stomach felt bad with cramps. Seems whatever I eat causes me stomach cramps. I think I will stick to the Jelly babies in future :0)

Al