A beautiful day for a cycle!

This being Sunday and my first blog of the week, it just shows you how dedicated my training has been :). I fully intended to do at least a 5k run as well, but an unexpected 'gift' of some whisky on Friday meant I wasn't in the best of moods for running in the morning. No excuses...

Anyway, got up this morning and made a big batch of pancakes for the brood. After that was cleaned up, I went and did a wee shop for the week. That done, I was ready to get ready! Clothing etc was already laid out (supposed to use it for the run yesterday!), so was ready fairly quickly. Got Storm out of the shed, tried to switch on the Garmin and nowt. Dead.? Will investigate later. I recently got RunKeeper app on the Nokia, so tried it for the first time. Seems to be working fine!

Route wise, the Glasgow to Dumbarton cycle, via the canal path and cycle trail is pretty well worn as I have done this route many times. I mixed it up a bit this time by moving back and forth between path and streets. It was a really nice day, albeit a bit windy. There were loads of walkers, cyclist and dog walkers about on the paths, so had to go fairly slow in lots of places. I did the wee circle round the Gardens in from of Dumbarton Castle. Quite pretty looking out ver a peaceful Clyde river.

I didn't have time to dally, so headed straight back. I took the roads through Old Kirkpatrick and then back onto the cycle trail. it was at this point that I really started to feel it in my legs. Combine this with fairly strong winds and I really started to struggle and could feel the strain in my thighs! I wasn't exactly pushing it, but I did try to maintain a decent pace. Trouble wit RunKeeper is I didn't have it set for coaching or anything so was getting no feedback from it at all. No idea of pace, so just kept peddling. The last 5 miles or so were quite sore, and. Was glad to be home.

RunKeeper showed 20.? Miles in 1:38-ish and avg. pace of 4:32? But failed to upload to the website. It said go to support, which I did. By the time I sorted out the connection, the data disappeared! Such a shame as I really wanted it to work! Hopefully now that the settings are correct, it should upload automatically next time!

Before it got dark, I went out and gave Storm a wee wash-down as the mud and dirt were pretty bad! Looks good as new now, putting her back into the shed!

Well, now that I am rested and recovering, I am really glad I went out. Meant to go with Rab today, but thought he was going hill walking. He shoulda told me he didn't go! Anyhoo.... Next time!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Glasgow to Dumbarton