13th, 14th and 16th Feb

Armstrong...Indurain...my hero Djamolidine Abdoujaparov...Mckerracher...

These were the names to inspire we to greatness over last weekends cyclefest.

For a chap who hasn't really spent longer in the saddle then 2 hours (other than the living nightmare of Augusta), the weekends total of about 7 hour was significantly longer than usual alas, the greatness i aspired to had gone awol.

Things did get off to a promising start on Saturday when the generous staff at The Kirkhouse Inn made me a lovely cup of coffee. Once we got riding though things took a turn for the worse as my flimsy gloves and scrawniness of build meant the sub zero temperatures were hard to bear. My fingers got so cold I was close to vomiting. Fortunately my cycling PA Charlotte was on hand (!) with a warmer set of gloves. These, paired with Duggies wise call to take a coffee and cake stop at Aberfoyle, allowed me to get some feeling back in my hands. The rest of the ride was great, pretty leisurely and scenic, lots of fun and good banter. Photos from the ride are two posts down. Thanks to everyone present for making it such a fun ride and to Duggie for some excellent cycling tips.

Sunday was another bike ride (first time I've cycled two days in a row, legs felt fine although bum was a little touchy on first contact with saddle), accompanied by my faithful PA Charlotte, this time responsible for getting my overshoes on. Some would regard this as an easy task, i'm not one off them. Once Charlotte explained I didn't need to unscrew my cleats to put them on things did speed up and we got out on the Coulport Loop.

Lovely morning, sunny and still, good steady pace, nothing crazy. Got out close to Coulport and the road was closed so our only real option was to climb the dreaded Peaton Hill (17% gradient). Much moaning and groaning ensued, washed down with gels, before we commenced the assault on the hill. It was tough, think my heart rate stayed in check but the legs were going. Both made it to the top unscathed, great sense of euphoria before Charlotte kamikazed back down to the loch side, followed gingerly by me. Followed the route back round to Faslane, up in to Glen Fruin (which didn't seem half as hard as usual after Peaton Hill) and back to Rhu. Garmin stats are in post below.

Swam this morning with Mr Forbes. 2.5k set, lots of short, fastish stuff, arms felt gubbed as they generally do for some reason in the morning. Girls had a morning off, tut tut tut!