Hi Scoosh
Another weekend of disasters as I got to Galashiels on Friday evening and realised I'd forgotton my cycling shoes so after an unsuccessful visit to Alpine cycles in Innerleithen to see if I could buy new shoes (and cleats), it was a drive home to pick up shoes.
But the good news was that Sunday dawned dry and (almost sunny) so I had a lovely ride as far as Traquair then I turned into the wind. From then on it was a struggle. That climb was bad enough but nothing like the climb from Mary Loch towards Tweedsmuir - I was in bottom gear on the flat sections so the final pull was torture. It just felt like I was going nowhere with a lot of effort. The long flattish stretch towards Moffat was also a trial - I think I was mostly doing about 12kmph - pushing so hard that the gentle climb made no difference. So by the time I got into Moffat I was beginning to wonder if I was going to make it back to Galashiels. Then the heavens opened - luckily while I was in the cafe but it didn't improve my outlook. The climb back up to Mary's Loch seemed easy without the wind, even in the pouring rain, and I was actually quite surprised how good I felt - using the big ring (of a compact). The run down to the turn to the Gordon pub was a delight - sun out again and a blasting tailwind and lovely scenery. That set me up for the final 60km although I was severely flagging around Lilliesleaf (the A7 looked very tempting, I have to say, at this stage) with sections still getting the wind (although it seemed to have swung more NW than W/SW) and those bloody hills
Anyway it was a very tired cyclist who arrived back at the car just before 7pm - so 10.5 hours more or less but it felt a lot longer. I must have made up quite a bit of time in the second half (not surprisingly) as the 20km or so from Tweedsmuir to Moffat took an hour even with all the kms of downhill into the town. This took the time for the first 93km (including cafe stop in the Glen cafe) over 5 hours and it was nearly 6 hours before I dragged myself out of the Rumbletums cafe.
So a pretty hard day but it gave me a lot of confidence in my endurance as I was really hurting on those climbs into the wind (I stopped noticing my heart rate - Polar HRM on the bars for distance/speedo - as it was above my anaerobic threshold for hours) - it's hard to imagine having a harder first half ride really (unless it was on a 400km
) and a few companions would have made things a lot easier.
Very impressed with the area too - I've never spent much time in the Borders, usually just passing through to the northern mountains, but it's a lovely area. The climb up the valley back to Mary's Loch is so dramatic - I must go back with walking boots to investigate the Grey Mare's Tail - is that a water fall?
So roll on the 300km in a few weeks time
) and, if I feel good enough, part of it on Sunday too 
.
And Sunday I pottered in the garden for a while as it was sunny and did, briefly, think it would have been nice to be out cycling but it all seemed like too much hard work...
with tired legs
