Ullapool Sportive

Big cycle weekend away to Ullapool and Oban. Stopped on the way up on Friday for a 26 mile cycle from Aviemore to Kingussie and back. The sportive on Saturday was tough going with lots of hills and wet and windy weather. I felt pretty tired but got round the 65 miles course - just.

Decided to pass on my planned 52 miler on the Sunday and have a leisurely drive home.

Levens Hall and Hutton Roof

We left Birmingham on Monday morning and visited Levens Hall house and gardens in the afternoon. One of the oldest and nicest gardens in the country with the world's oldest topiary garden. Very good guided walk with one of the gardeners. Well worth a visit.

Later on we headed up to a high area of limestone between the Lake and Peak districts. Great views on a calm sunny evening.

Mason at the Vale Village

We took Hannah to her new room at Mason in the Vale Village Birmingham. The room was looking quite homely very quickly.

Cherry and Colin had a wander around Campus and went to a parents talk before saying goodbye to H in the afternoon.

Birmingham

On Saturday we set off on the road with Hannah to Birmingham. A long drive down. Went out for a walk round the town centre in the evening and dinner at Carluccios.

London & Brighton

A busy week with a flight down to Gatwick and then train to central London on Monday evening.

CPD sessions on Tuesday then Board meetings on Weds and Thurs followed by a visit to the BUPA Brighton office on Friday.

Squeezed in a few gym sessions, a cinema trip to see Julietta and a theatre trip to see Wicked.

Tour of Tweeddale

An early start to drive down to Peebles for my second outing at this event - now with improved bike.

This is a relatively small and low key club run event with around 300 riders across two courses (50 and 100 miles. I was on the 50 mile route. Easy parking and no queues at the start. Great !

Nice cycle on relatively quiet roads through to the first stop on the A701 just before the turn to Talla. Decided to stop and enjoy the spread. A coffee and several small cakes.

After the short stop it was off to the big climb at Talla. It was too steep last time out with the heavy touring bike. It was very tough this time but I dug in and made it up. Heart rate was up to max at 173 bpm and jumping off was looking pretty tempting at several points. A long fast downhill off the mountain and then a fast flat section through the Gordon Arms. Pushed along quite hard on this segment.

Soup and roll at the Gordon Arms at mile 35.

Final section had an initial steep climb and then fairly easy run into Peebles. Feeling pretty comfortable at the end completing in 3 hrs 48 elapsed time and under 3 hrs 30 allowing for the two stops.

Cinema & Zizzi

Family outing to see the latest Woody Allen film Cafe Society. I really enjoyed it and it met with general approval. Afterwards we had dinner at Zizzi's which was pretty good.

Athelstaneford Open Garden Day

Cherry and I headed out to Athelstaneford in East Lothian for a tour round the village and 10 open gardens. An interesting range that included professionally designed marvels, model railways, great views and very normal back gardens.

Pentlands Mountain Bike Orienteering

Entered the Pentlands Mountain Bike Orienteering as a pair with Stewart Gray. Stewart brought very good knowledge of the area and working as a team probably helped to optimise our route choices. I had to work very hard to keep up so it was certainly a very good fitness test. We came 11th overall of 43 riders - much better than my usual last or near last position at these events.