. Pretty steep drop, and long, which meant I kept unclipped for a while, but nice addition. Steep drop down to path that eventually does down to Dreghorn - would not like to do it in the wet.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
New path in Pentlands
Having been off the bike for most of 5 weeks with illness and travel, it was great to go out again on Sunday for a short turn round the Pentlands. Still seem reasonably fit, but have to improve endurance to do the 5-6 hr rides in Spain in July. Went up Balerno to the top and turned left and over the the col above Dreghorn drop. instead of riding right the way down, I took the sheep path right traversing around the north of Allermuir
. Pretty steep drop, and long, which meant I kept unclipped for a while, but nice addition. Steep drop down to path that eventually does down to Dreghorn - would not like to do it in the wet.
. Pretty steep drop, and long, which meant I kept unclipped for a while, but nice addition. Steep drop down to path that eventually does down to Dreghorn - would not like to do it in the wet.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Longer rides: Kelso, Carlops
Three weeks of pretty good rides. A colleague from work persuaded me to ride to Kelso and back over the Lamermuirs. Beautiful ride out, sunny, but we felt we got a bit lost going though the Border's countryside by the end. 4h10m, 85k. The way back was into the wind and quite a bit of rain, we took the longer road, bypassing Longformacus. 5hrs and 97k home. Longest road ride I have done. I was tired the next dayl,but not too bad. Graham was on a titanium racing bike, and me on my steel city bike which meant we were eveny matched. He is training for a 500k 'race' from Trondheim to Oslo - lunatic!
Keeping up interval training - getting faster on long intervals but have not done so many 2 min intervals recently. Doing the long intervals starting on the bottom road of Arthur's Seat, and doing 4 circuits.
Went out early with Neil one Sunday to ride to Carlops and finally do the track back over the Pentlands. Pretty fast over to Nine Mile Burn - managed to ride up the single track on Exponential without putting down a foot - that really is one of the hardest sections in the Pentlands. However Neil burst a gear cable that we didn't manage to fix with zip ties, so everytime he wanted to change chain ring I had to stop and help! The ride up to Borestane is great, can't wait to do it North to South. The log broadworks on the way down are boneshakers on a hardtail though. Boring field back to Harlaw and back to town via the Mushroom field, Community Compost path and water of Leith. 60km, 4h10min. Route on 'Map my Run'.
Planning all week to do the Carlop route in reverse, down to West Linton and over Caulstane Slap - the only part of the Pentlands we have not riden.
Found a new lunchtime ride - up to Craigmiller Castle, round the park, down past the New Royal. They have cycle path, with loads of steps, and then they have blocked off the paths coming out the back of the site - they built bridge foundations to cross the stream, but did not build the bridge. There are 2 ways round - either out to the main road and onto the new cycle path, or down the field from the Castle. Both lead across a wide field towards the playing fields behind the Jack Kane centre. There is a fun path though the woods there. Did this with Dermot one day, and Neil on the Friday afternoon. Had a great fast ride with Neil, who has his new second hand Epic. We set off fast, Craigmiller - River Esk - into the back of Dalkeith Park - and back home. Riding at 85% MHR for more than an hour. Slowed a bit by the end. 1:15 28k. Approx ride map on 'Running Map'
Sunday morning feeling a cold coming on, but up early to go to the Pentlands - cold and very windy, we take it easy and just ride out to Exponential, returning via Red Road, Black Hill, Den's cleuch and Phantoms cleugh. Hadn't done that loop for a while, so good to see it again. Had just changed by rear tyre from a Conti Vertical, which had been great for winter to a Conti Speed King, which was fasater, but felt much more insecure on the unexpectedly wet ground. Had an interesting run in with some highland cows. Probably should not have gone, since I have been down with a sore throat and cough all week and no bike at all.
Also replaced by front wheel with a stronger DT5.1 with Hope Pro II hub - feels heavier, but I am not worried about bending it like the old 117.
Keeping up interval training - getting faster on long intervals but have not done so many 2 min intervals recently. Doing the long intervals starting on the bottom road of Arthur's Seat, and doing 4 circuits.
Went out early with Neil one Sunday to ride to Carlops and finally do the track back over the Pentlands. Pretty fast over to Nine Mile Burn - managed to ride up the single track on Exponential without putting down a foot - that really is one of the hardest sections in the Pentlands. However Neil burst a gear cable that we didn't manage to fix with zip ties, so everytime he wanted to change chain ring I had to stop and help! The ride up to Borestane is great, can't wait to do it North to South. The log broadworks on the way down are boneshakers on a hardtail though. Boring field back to Harlaw and back to town via the Mushroom field, Community Compost path and water of Leith. 60km, 4h10min. Route on 'Map my Run'.
Planning all week to do the Carlop route in reverse, down to West Linton and over Caulstane Slap - the only part of the Pentlands we have not riden.
Found a new lunchtime ride - up to Craigmiller Castle, round the park, down past the New Royal. They have cycle path, with loads of steps, and then they have blocked off the paths coming out the back of the site - they built bridge foundations to cross the stream, but did not build the bridge. There are 2 ways round - either out to the main road and onto the new cycle path, or down the field from the Castle. Both lead across a wide field towards the playing fields behind the Jack Kane centre. There is a fun path though the woods there. Did this with Dermot one day, and Neil on the Friday afternoon. Had a great fast ride with Neil, who has his new second hand Epic. We set off fast, Craigmiller - River Esk - into the back of Dalkeith Park - and back home. Riding at 85% MHR for more than an hour. Slowed a bit by the end. 1:15 28k. Approx ride map on 'Running Map'
Sunday morning feeling a cold coming on, but up early to go to the Pentlands - cold and very windy, we take it easy and just ride out to Exponential, returning via Red Road, Black Hill, Den's cleuch and Phantoms cleugh. Hadn't done that loop for a while, so good to see it again. Had just changed by rear tyre from a Conti Vertical, which had been great for winter to a Conti Speed King, which was fasater, but felt much more insecure on the unexpectedly wet ground. Had an interesting run in with some highland cows. Probably should not have gone, since I have been down with a sore throat and cough all week and no bike at all.
Also replaced by front wheel with a stronger DT5.1 with Hope Pro II hub - feels heavier, but I am not worried about bending it like the old 117.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Spring
Again, a long period of neglect on this blog, although I have been out on the bike a fair bit. Since November the snow never returned, but there has been a fair bit of mub. The last month in particular has been deep mud in the Pentlands, not even worth trying to ride round it, so we have got better at ploughing straight through, or pulling a small manual to get the front wheel over the worst.
We have been setting a few challenges in the Pentlands: riding up Harbour hill a few times, and sliding down, racing down to Glencorse - which I still win, and racing though the woods around Harlaw reservoir.
In order to ride down Black Hill path, we used to ride upthe field, but I realise I should be able to ride the narrow path. very narrow, and a sharp drop on the left hand side, but it can be done mostly, except for the bottom section.
A great new place to play is the beach at Harlaw - covered in rocks which makes it a good place to practice balance, choosing lines in rocks, but also being able to ride straight through piles of 10cm stones, which is a useful skill for the mountains of Spain. Shame I ripped a few teeth of the chainwheel after riding over a 50cm rock a few times.
These new routes have made the Pentland routes much more interesting - I think of all the time we wasted riding round the landrover tracks, when we should have been ducking though the trees, riding the beach and climbing the hard paths.
The last ride Neil and I did was pouring with rain, and very windy, so we decided to climb the steepest hill this side of the Pentlands, up from Dreghorn. There is one point it is impossible to ride, especially when most of the effort is going into stopping oneself being blown off the bike. On the way down we swapped bikes, so I couldh ave a go on a FSR and Neil could remember what a hard tail is like. A strangely soft ride, no hard jolt when coming off a little jump. Unfortunately his front brake was not working - the Bike coop had been meant to fix it the week before, but apparently had broken something when they bled the brakes.
It was my turn to break the brakes the following week. After doing some long interval training out to the Pentlands and up puke hill I realised the rear disk pads had worn right off, after only about 6 rides. the clip was grinding on the disk, so I took them out and rode home without them. Of course I then slammed on the brakes and broke of a pin fromthe piston - had to by a whole new back brake. grr.
We have been setting a few challenges in the Pentlands: riding up Harbour hill a few times, and sliding down, racing down to Glencorse - which I still win, and racing though the woods around Harlaw reservoir.
In order to ride down Black Hill path, we used to ride upthe field, but I realise I should be able to ride the narrow path. very narrow, and a sharp drop on the left hand side, but it can be done mostly, except for the bottom section.
Beautiful Pentland morning in Feburary
A great new place to play is the beach at Harlaw - covered in rocks which makes it a good place to practice balance, choosing lines in rocks, but also being able to ride straight through piles of 10cm stones, which is a useful skill for the mountains of Spain. Shame I ripped a few teeth of the chainwheel after riding over a 50cm rock a few times.
These new routes have made the Pentland routes much more interesting - I think of all the time we wasted riding round the landrover tracks, when we should have been ducking though the trees, riding the beach and climbing the hard paths.
Looking down Harbour hill to city
The last ride Neil and I did was pouring with rain, and very windy, so we decided to climb the steepest hill this side of the Pentlands, up from Dreghorn. There is one point it is impossible to ride, especially when most of the effort is going into stopping oneself being blown off the bike. On the way down we swapped bikes, so I couldh ave a go on a FSR and Neil could remember what a hard tail is like. A strangely soft ride, no hard jolt when coming off a little jump. Unfortunately his front brake was not working - the Bike coop had been meant to fix it the week before, but apparently had broken something when they bled the brakes.
It was my turn to break the brakes the following week. After doing some long interval training out to the Pentlands and up puke hill I realised the rear disk pads had worn right off, after only about 6 rides. the clip was grinding on the disk, so I took them out and rode home without them. Of course I then slammed on the brakes and broke of a pin fromthe piston - had to by a whole new back brake. grr.
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