Bit of a bull wet day, little wind and cool but none the less a day I required some extra layers when cycling. I was sticking to the 50 miles workout today since I would be doing the Club 100 Km ride tomorrow which I may bump up to 100 miles depending on the weather conditions. So today’s ride was the usual bun run returning over knockhill with me adding on a little bit at the end to get me to the 50 mile mark.
7 of us on the bun run today so we decided to do a slightly different route and go clockwise round rather than anticlockwise. We headed over Knockhill as usual but headed towards Loch Leven and around that today with a cafe stop just after passing Loch Leven. I was looking to do 100 km today to complement yesterdays 100 miles and keep it easy as I was still tired from yesterdays effort. We all split up at Cowdenbeath to head home but I carried on down towards Dalgety Bay to make up the extra miles, with a loop through Cairneyhill back home. 66 miles knocked out at 17 mph avg pleased with that
Another glorious day but it didn’t start that way, it was cloudy to begin with but by the time we got to the first cafe stop the sun had started to come out. I was doing my Ochils loop today so I started with the club up to the first cafe stop (about 25 miles) and then I headed towards Bridge of Allan as the club returned to Dunfermline. It’s been a while since I’ve done this and given the nice day that it was this was a good excuse to go. Second stop of the day would be at Auchterarder for a quick cup of coffee and then I pressed on to Bridge of Earn. I was going quite fast today as I was trying to do 100 miles in under 6 hours which of the 22 100 miles or greater rides that I’ve done I’ve never been able to do it in under 6 hours, the closest was 6 hours 5 mins, so I know I had a good shot at it. Once past Bridge of Earn it was onto Milnathort and along to powmill where my third and final stop would be, time for some coke and cake By this time I was getting very tired and I still had to climb up Knockhill so the rest was appreciated. Once over Knockhill it was back to Dunfermline and home. My Garmin had the cheek to crash as I entered Crossgates which was a bit of a piss take had I lost the data but thankfully I managed to get it back bar the last half mile to home but it showed I had done the 100 in under 6 hours, 5 hours 47 mins to be precise with and avg speed of 17 mph.
It’s a glorious hot sunny day only ruined by the strong winds. There were 10 of us today but this time I wasn’t doing the bun run it was just a ride with some of the club members. Thankfully after yesterdays mad fast ride I wasn’t riding into the headwind to begin with I was still tired from yesterdays ride and not fully recovered yet. We would be in a head wind all the way up to close to Kippen where we would be stopping for a cafe break, I stayed at the back in this part. We would then return via Stirling and the Foothills this time with a tail wind and I took lead for a little while, I wanted to conserve energy here as I would be doing 100 miles today whereas everyone else would be doing around 70 miles. I would split with the group just at the turn off for Knockhill and I would continue on to Milnathort and around Loch Leven. This would still not be enough mileage so I had to tag on some extra miles and here was my problem. Once past Loch Leven I would be into the headwind on my own and by this time I was over the 80 mile mark and tired. The headwind was brutal it had me going at a snails pace and I just didn’t have the power to punch through like I did on yesterdays ride. Anyway 102 miles clocked up at 16 mph avg speed, that would have been 17 mph if it weren’t for the head wind
Another great day to be cycling, hot, no wind and no rain 7 of us today and we did the usual bun run route. I decided again to add a bit more on the end to make it 60 plus miles and managed to keep a good avg speed again, the same as yesterday 17 mph.
It’s a nice warm day with little wind, a little overcast with rain forecast for this afternoon. About 15 of us today doing the usual bun run route, a little faster than the norm but that was fine with me. After going over knockhill I did a little bit more to knock it up to 60 miles before the rain hit.
Today was the clubs first 100k bike ride since lock down and it would be a loop over knockhill down to dunning and Bridge of Earn, up through Glanfarg to Milnathort for our cafe stop. It was nearly 50 miles to the cafe stop so by this time I was quite hungry. After the cafe stop we headed through Kinross and Kelty and down through Cowdenbeath and into Dunferline. I decided I would continue on since it was a nice sunny day with a little bit of wind around but not enough to deter me I continued on doing a loop through Oakley back to Kelty and home getting home just before the thunder storms hit. 100 miles clocked up at an avg speed of 16 mph, another good days ride
Well as far as weather goes today it was overcast with little wind and thankfully although it was forecast to rain it didn’t Anyway todays ride had 15 of us and I was out in the first group who were actually going quite fast to begin with, we had an avg speed of 17 mph by the time we got to the cafe stop, usually this is around the 16 mph mark. Things slowed down a bit after the cafe stop since it was all up hill and by the time I got to the bottom of knockhill I was back to my usual 16 mph avg speed and this is where things got interesting. I had decided to do some extra miles with one of the Kinross Cycle Club girls who rides with us on the Saturday ride, she is a strong fast rider. To put that into context the first 35 miles from home to the cafe stop were an avg speed of 16 mph but riding at Rachael’s pace the second 35 miles were an avg speed of 22 mph This is unheard of territory for me, I’ve never come close to doing that kind of speeds for the last 10 years that I’ve been riding, suffice to say I have sore legs now So 70 miles clocked up in 4 hours at and avg speed of 17 mph, this is the fastest 70 miles I’ve ever done