Ride 21/09/2014 Gleneagles

Ride 21/09/2014 Gleneagles by Paul_Lund at Garmin Connect – Details.

Another glorious sunny day in Scotland (miracle) and with my road bike in for it’s service I was left with my mountain bike, so wasn’t going to go great distances. I decided to take a ride up to Gleaneagles and the Ryder cup to see what I could see and even though it doesn’t start until next Friday it was very busy up there. Even though I had got there by going via Glendevon I planned to return via Sheriffmuir but unfortunately my curiosity got the better of me. On the road to Sheriffmuir there is a dirt track that I keep passing and not knowing where it goes, so this time I would chance my luck and ride it to see where it went which subsequently lead me to riding off road up over the Ochils, around Dumyat (big hill I sometime mountain bike up) and down to Menstrie. I’ve never know about that route and have never seen it on the maps, and haven’t even noticed it on the OS maps I have, but it does show up on it if you care to look properly Anyway it was a nice off road ride for about 3 miles with the rest back on road all the way home. 56 miles clocked up and a nice day for it

Ride 13/09/2014

Ride 13/09/2014 by Paul_Lund at Garmin Connect – Details.

Well it turned out to be a really nice day for cycling so decided to ride into Edinburgh and follow router 76. What I hadn’t taken into account was route 76 is an off road track around Dalmeny park, suffice to say I was riding really slow praying to god not to get an puncher on my road bike. Excellent ride for my mountain bike but a bad idea for my road bike. Suffice to say I made it around unscathed and headed to Cramond beach where I had my lunch before heading on to the Royal Yacht Britannia. I then turned round and headed back out of Edinburgh and onto Broxburn and up to Bathgate. I went back home via Avonbridge to bump the mileage up and up and over some hills onto Shieldhill, I certainly felt these damn hills on my legs but carried on around my 15 mile Falkirk loop back to home, 78 miles clocked up

Ride 07/09/2014 Comrie

Ride 07/09/2014 Comrie by Paul_Lund at Garmin Connect – Details.

So decided to ride to Comrie today as there was a westerly wind, so if I did a straight north south ride things would be ok. I didn’t quite take into account the hills involved in this especially the hill up to Sheriffmuir, which is bloody steep on the mountain bike but just a cunt on the road bike. Suffice to say I couldn’t get up it in a oner (like I can on the mountain bike), I had to stop cos my lungs died, strange feeling when you just can’t breath fast enough. Legs were willing, heart rate was over 200 but manageable, but me lungs gave up the get go. Anyway after a short rest stop I pushed on, up and over the Ochils. The hill by Langside was actually a nice hill to ride over, you parallel the river Knaik. It’s a steady climb that plateaus at the top so you are riding flat for a few miles before you descend into Comrie. It’s like riding in the highlands all you see are hills, took some pics but it was a bit dull by this point in time. Decided to skip out riding back over the Ochils on the return journey and returned via Dunblane and Stirling. Its a nice 70 mile ride, bar the beginning