Gardens of the Lower New Town

Trip by bike with Cherry to the New Town for a wander around 10 small New Town gardens.

Eildon Three Hills Race

Walked to Waverley, train to Tweedback, walked to Melrose. Then a lung and heart busting steep climb up the first of three Eildon Hills. Stunning views seen only briefly before taking on the other two hills and a sprint back down again. Around 55 mins of high intensity effort. Time was 150% of the winning time.

Journey home by public transport.

The effort led to a very poor nights sleep and being wrecked the following day. Decided to take 2 weeks off exercise to see if this improves my sleep.

Tweedlove Skinny Sportive

A return to the Peebles the day after my 18.5 mile run for a nearly 50 mile cycle ! A reasonable start time for the cycle with starts up to 10.30 am but I got there by around 9 am. There were unfortunately long queues in setting riders off which seemed excessively cautious on there part.

The first part of the route was quite nice made easier but helpful wind direction.

The latter parts were more painful when the wind blew very strongly into the face. The route again had a mile or more along the A703 and the very fast moving traffic which I really don't enjoy.

Overall - unless they change the route I think this is one to skip in future years.

Gypsy Glen Run

After having to defer this adventure several times due to work I finally managed to get a saturday free for a long hilly run. I took the X62 bus from Edinburgh to Innerleithen. This was a lovely bus with USB chargers and bike storage. Journey time was 1 hr 30 mins but it passed quite quickly.

From Innerleithen I ran along the railway line cycle path to Peebles where I stopped for coffee at Costa. It was hot and humid and felt like hard work.

Refreshed by the coffee I headed out of town and into the hills make the long climb at a fast walking pace up the Gypsy Glen route. A nice downhill before later hitting the road back into Innerleithen which was a bit of a slog for the last 3 miles and I was reduced to run/walk given the tiredness in my legs. Overall not in too bad a shape at the finish. Overall the journey took around 4 hrs. 18.5 miles distance and 500 m climb.

A very nice coffee and toastie at No 1 Peebles Road then back in the bus home.

Mallorca Day 3 - Soller

Today we to took the tourist train to Soller and the tram to Port de Soller. A very nice trip. Just a gentle stroll along the seafront from end to end and several beers.

After the return by train we walked homewards via the old town, the port, a nice roof top bar and a bar playing classic rock videos which put us all in a pretty good mood on our last evening.

Mallorca Day 2

After a leisurely start we all headed up the hill behind the hotel to the Castle Bellver. Pretty awesome castle.

We then walked onwards to the old town.

Everyone ran out of steam a little earlier this evening after drinks at the Irish bar near the hotel.

Mallorca Day 1

After a night spent at Gatwick Airport at the Bloc Hotel I took a BA flight to Palma arriving just after lunch and meeting up with Ian and Warren at the airport. Took the bus to town and stopped at the first bar, where Mark and Glen joined us, to start the long afternoon and evening of drinking and wandering along the seafront and into the old town.

Tour De Forth

I need to remember that cycle sportives invariably have a horribly early start time. Departure from Ingliston was at 8 am so I needed to set the alarm for 6.30 am and make a quick getaway. The weather wasn't great with light drizzle at the start and threat of rain most of the day. Things were going well until Limekilns where I punctured on the cobbles. Dealth with the puncture reasonably well but only got a few miles further before another puncture. Another change and then another puncture shortly afterwards. That was me out of tubes so I needed to call event rescue who fixed me up at Torryburn. Kyle Strachan the mechanic found the sharp chunk of glass embedded in the tyre - I'd looked for stuff in the tyre but hadn't found anything.

As three hours had passed and I was only a quarter way round I decided it was best to call it a day and head back the way I came rather than try to go the whole route.