Bike not run

At the beginning of March I'm doing a Trail Cycle Leader course in Linlithgow. It'll mean I can lead rides on trails, so places like Glentress forest in Peebles. The scary thing for me is that I need to have logged 20 rides before I go on the course, albeit 20 rides I've done in the last 12 months. That doesn't sound like a big deal for someone who calls themselves a cyclist, but apart from the fact that when I do ride it tends to be on my road bike I'm also spending most of my free time running and not on a bike, so I'm having to squeeze in some serious off road mileage in the next month! I need to have done at least 8 rides of 2.5-3 hours and one 6 hour ride with the rest being at least 1.5 hour duration, so yesterday I got my bike out the shed and off I went...

The weather was pretty grim. It was blowing a gale and there were rain/sleet showers on and off all day. I decided to ease myself in gently and started off on the Longniddry railway walk, which was pretty painless as it's nicely sheltered from the wind. Not many people about, although I did see a couple of women running with their dogs and I had a fleeting moment of jealousy that I wasn't doing the same! I had a silent word with myself to remind me that I love riding my bike and can do both (not at the same time of course!)

After Longniddry I rode onto the nice singletrack path which runs alongside the coast road. It's quite sandy in places, and there are some sections where you could easily plummet onto the rocks below, but generally it's a nice wee path and certainly much better than being on that fast stretch of road. The path snakes from the dunes to a wider track through the trees opposite Gosford Estate and then into Aberlady village. Here you have to ride on the road for a short stretch until you reach the bridge over the estuary which leads to Aberlady bay. This is a really nice place to ride, or run, as it's quiet and there are lots of birds. You often get dirty looks from birders who assume I'll disturb the wildlife by being on a bike, but I like birds and they don't seem any more bothered by me than they do by the giant telephoto lenses the birders point at them!

Lots of nice tracks lead you to Gullane Bents, with some stunning views of the beach and the very choppy North Sea. By this time I'd only done 13 miles and I'd been out for 1 hr 20mins (slow going due to wind and my current lack of bike fitness) but I was really tired! A quick stop at the Co-op for some food (croissant and a banana) and then I decided I should head home. I had a route in mind which involved some farm tracks shown on my map, but it soon transpired that every farm track in East Lothian is knee deep in thick farm mud so I decided to cut my loses and head back to Haddington on the road. By the time I was riding over the hill road from Aberlady my legs were screaming and I was chewing the handlebars!! Luckily what goes up must come down and the long fast descent into Haddington brought a smile to my face. I was glad to get home and have a freshly baked bagel (thanks Husband) and in the end what I'd intended to only be a short ride turned into a 3hr 20 minute ride. Stick that in your bike log and smoke it!! :)

Resting today, as it was just too windy to risk CaniX in Dalkeith. Will run tomorrow no matter what...

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