More MTB from Peebles

Another ride from Peebles into the forests above Glentress, through a windfarm and down the Leithen Water. Lovely house and walled garden in an unexpected location in the overwise bleak mountainous terrain north of Innerleithen.

Cheese and ham toastie in Innerleithen for lunch before a tough ride along the Gypsy Glen route. Very hard work and suffered from swarms of flies on the hill top.

Overall a pretty satisfying journey.

Glentress

After a weekend when I failed to get out for any outdoor exercise I decided to head down to Glentress on Monday morning. What a wonderful place. Such a great range of well maintained trails. Made 2 ascents going round mainly blue on the first ascent and descent (with a tiny bit of red). The second ascent was to Dunsyre Heights using landrover tracks - hard work and reaching around 1000 m total climb. With some energy left at the end I went out for a 5.5 km hilly trail run. Fun day out.

Birmingham & Funkenteleky

Colin headed up from London and Hannah & Cherry down from Edinburgh to arrive in Birmingham on Thursday evening.

On Friday we had a busy day moving Hannah's stuff from old to new house in Selly Oak. A small step up in niceness of her new property for Year 3 at Uni.

In the evening Hannah was performing at Funkenteleky. A great fun show and Hannah did great.

On Saturday we visited the Birmingham Back to Backs - old traditional working class homes in central brum. Colin and Cherry squeezed in a quick visit to the Botanical Gardens in the early evening.

The hotel in Central Birmingham was a very bad choice with so much noise all night.

Train home on Sunday morning for Colin & Cherry. Hannah followed on a few days later.

SufCamp 17 - 23 June

An amazing week in Switzerland at SufCamp. A hugely busy schedule of riding and coaching sessions with great food and guest speakers. Really enjoyed it. Daily updates were posted on my Facebook Account so I won't repeat the detail here.

Tweedlove Skinny

With just over a week to go before SufCamp this years Tweedlove Skinny had to be an easy effort at a comfortable pace. A new route this year heading to Innerleithen and then North through the Moorfoots. It was generally quite pleasant although I didn't like the section along the busy main road.

There as the bike show on at Peebles Green with a huge section of demo bikes on display. It might be worth booking some test rides in future years.

Moncreiffe Hill - Orienteering and MTB

One of the great things about orienteering is the places it takes you to that you would otherwise never visit. I've driven so many times past this hill just before Perth to the right of the Motorway. It's a really nice and well looked after area with nice paths, a few old hill forts and decent views. The orienteering was hot and hard with the summer growth making finding the controls a bit more difficult. Lots of nettles as well. Got round pretty successfully for a 5th Place on the green course.

Afterwards got on my bike and headed back up to the top of the hill.

Followed my nose for a while which eventually took me down the South side of the hill and into the flat flood plain area that is surrounded by the Tay, the Earn and the M90. Managed to find a route through the confluence of the two rivers.

Would have been nice to do a circular route but the riverside track started to look even more unwelcoming so headed back and then onwards to the event car park.

A nice steak out for Cherry, Max and Colin at Kyloe later in the evening.

East Lothian Cycle

This weekend is the last hard weekend on my training schedule. With damp weather forecast I headed out on the heavy touring bike for a ride round East Lothian. I wasn't feeling fab so welcomed the opportunity for an early stop for coffee and scone at the very nice Humbie Hub. After that onwards to Gifford for an early lunch stop at the Lanterne Rouge. Properly nourished I made the rest of the route home without any further stops. 60 miles in total - a bit wet in the latter stages.

Mussleburgh Sprintelope

A rare Wednesday when able to partake in a mid-week event. Biked back and forth to Mussleburgh and did the long sprint course around the town. Great fun as always with these events.

Penicuik Estate

With haar descended upon Edinburgh we head South out of town in search of sunshine. Penicuik Estate proved to be a nice sunny spot and a good place for a walk with Max and Cherry. The old House was open so could read a bit of the history of the place.

90 Mile Borders Ride

Just a few more hard weeks in my training schedule with a 90 mile target which I aimed to tackle in one day. A long route in the Borders through Galashiels, Melrose, Kelso, Coldstream. Some lovely weather and frequent stops along the way. Made it through in reasonable shape.

Lads Weekend to Alicante

Colin flew to Alicante with Jet2 on Friday morning getting into the airport around 2 pm. Checked into the excellent Apartmentos Tito in the centre of Alicante in an ideal but slightly noisy location. Nice view from the flat:

We had a nice walk to the Port area and got stuck into the beers. As usual there was a little too much drunk on the first night.

On Saturday we walked up the the Castle of Santa Barbara. My second time up and enjoyed it again as it is a great Castle, a nice walk and fabulous views.

On Sunday we took the 11 am boat to Tabarca where we spend the afternoon. A small and slightly run down island but interesting enough.

The trip was over all too quickly with a flight home on Monday morning.

Bike Miles

Another weekend cranking up the miles on the bike. 50 mile tour of Tweeddale circuit on Saturday and 2 1/2 hours on the trainer on Sunday.

Sunday Scorpion

We headed out for the big ride of weekend at about 9 am after a big breakfast. Stunning weather made for a lovely day out. Relatively flat on the ride which took in bits of Glen Feshie before heading to Glenmore Lodge via Loch Morlich. A modest climb over to Boat of Garten and then to Carrbridge. It was then out into the wilds and a big ascent up the Burma Road and then down towards Aviemore and a final push along the road back to Newtonmore. 69 miles total ride length.

  

Saturday Shakedown

After a drive up to Newtonmore for Stewart Gray's Woodlands weekend of mountain biking. Also present were John Middlemiss, Peter Inman, Derek Murray and Neil McPherson.

The Saturday ride was a pleasant easy ride of about 15 miles to ensure all the bikes were in good shape for the following day.

Dinner out at the Glen Hotel.

Brighton

With a very poor weather forecast we decided to visit Brighton so we could do some indoor attractions if necessary. We visited the Pavilion - Cherry wasn't impressed ! A wander around the Lanes and then a walk to the end of the Pier managing to resist all temptation to game, gamble or make ourselves sick (on the ride or the sweet foods).

A drive back to Gatwick and flight to Edinburgh saw us back home at a sensible hour.

Tulip Festival

With better weather on Thursday we went to visit the Castle and grounds and enjoy the display of tulips. Gardens were very nice with a nice mix of different areas. The interior of the Castle was pretty good as well.

In the afternoon we went to the Wetlands centre. It was great weather for ducks for a while but brightened up later and we had a pleasant walk and short boat ride round the extensive natural site.

In the evening we went to Littlehampton for a very short look around and dinner at 47 Mussel Row.

Arundel

Colin got the train from London to Gatwick and Cherry flew down. We hired a car and headed off to Arundel. As the weather wasn't great we deferred the Castle visit to the Thursday and instead had a wander round the very pretty town, visited the museum and the Cathedral.

After that we headed to our hotel the Bailiffscourt Hotel and Spa and enjoyed the pool and gym facilities.

A very nice 3 course evening meal at the hotel.

Crazy Golf, Steak and Goodbyes

On Sunday the whole family headed out to Fountainpark for a round of crazy golf in the newly opened indoor course. It was fairly good. The courses a little dull but the surface and course condition was good. Colin won with Max a very close second. Also had a game of pool afterwards.

In the evening we went to Los Argentinos for Steak (or Fish) as this was the last evening before Max returned to Glasgow, Hannah to Birmingham and Colin went off on business to London.

80 Mile Cycle

Keeping up my challenging training plan on the bike I had a 40 mile mountain bike ride on the Friday followed by an 80 mile road bike ride on the Saturday. The Saturday ride saw some lovely spring weather. The ride headed South to Innerleithen then East past Ashiestiel House to Clovenfords then North to Heriot and home. Nice breaks at Innerleithen and Clovenfords to refuel. Managed the distance well and arrive home in fairly good shape.

Cycle Home

On Sunday Colin got dropped off at Moffat to cycle the 62 miles home. It was heavy going at first with strong headwinds and I was feeling pretty despondent at first. By St Marys Loch I was back to familiar territory and perked up a bit with a third of the route done. Coffee and scone at The Gordon Arms and another stopped not that long after for tea and cheese sandwich in Innerleithen.

Got home after around 5 hours on the bike feeling reasonably fresh at the end.

Derwent Water Circuit

On Saturday Colin and Cherry walked around Derwent Water - around 10 miles of very flat walk. The sun shone and there were nice stops for coffee and a late lunch.

Dinner in the evening at the Inn at the Square.

Hardknot Pass

On Friday Cherry went out with the Westons to the Rum Story in Whitehaven and to Cockermouth.

Colin was out getting the bike miles in. A pretty miserable day so wrapped up in waterproofs headed off towards the edge of the mountains on a pre-planned 40 mile round. Turned out the one of the roads was a somewhat iconic climb - the steepest in England. Not really what I was expecting or wanting. A long push up the hill which reached 30% gradient in places.

Dinner in the evening with Richard and Tom at the Ratty Inn in Ravenglass.