AL Training 24-May

Well Saturday was an odd sort of day weather wise. Started a wee bit on the damp side then as the afternoon came along it dried out.
I had worked out a 40 mile training ride a month back on the Map My Ride web site. The route goes out along the Lang Wang for 16 miles and turns right just short of Carnwath and heads north east towards Livingston. Once in Livingston it was east back home through Kirknewton

During last week the lovely lady from the RNLI (Rachel) had sent Bobby and I a couple of tee-shirts and some fundraising bits. So on the cycle on Saturday I took the lovely big RNLI flag with me and wore my Tee-Shirt.

Are those my feet?

The first 16 miles were great with the wind behind me, but when I turned north east the wind hit me and it was a struggle but its all good training (well that what I kept telling myself).

When I stopped to take the picture I had not seen another sole for about 20mins so I thought it would be safe to stop. But hey presto about 10 cars, one cyclist, a couple of walkers and two pheasants all passed while I was setting it up. The walkers were kind enough to move out of shot while I collapsed for the photo.

The sat-nav on the phone worked really well and kept me straight while navigating through Livingston town. On the first 20 miles I did not loose any charge on the phone so the solar panel was keeping up even though it was a dull damp day, but on the last 20 miles the sky darkened and I lost about 10% charge which is not bad in my books, especially as I needed the sat-nav a fair bit through Livingston.

At one point I had zoomed down this lovely steep hill (Reached my max of 36.5 mph on it) when I got to the bottom the sat-nav polity told me I had missed my turn back at the top of the hill and I had to about turn and cycle back up the hill.There were a few choice words muttered as I peddled back up the hill.

It was a hard cycle, especially with the extra 29kg or weight, but I felt it was best to get a long one in as we will have a 40 miler on the trip and we only have three weekends left. I am preying for good westerly winds for the trip though :0)


Stats
Distance: 41.5 Miles (after a couple of mistakes. The Sat-nav was right and I was wrong.)
Time cycling: 3hrs 40mins
Trip time: 4hrs 5mins
Avg Speed: 11.5mph
Max Speed: 36.5mph