A few mishaps this week....

A guy we met up in the hills today who's given us an idea for a route next week.

That Highland Cow looks slightly threatening

An old ruin (the building not me) that I've eventually found the track to.

The long push up to the summit of Allermuir today, we were both too knackered to pedal up!

A hill runner was on hand to take our pictures at the summit (in a gale as usual)

The river/stream where I came off on Wednesday night.

What a week, managed to eventually source a rear shock for my oldest Anthem and did most of my riding this week on it. Highlight of the week must have been my embarrassing come off into the water just up from the Howe when I totally misjudged the exit from the island in my haste to get ahead of Mark and ended up lying on my side in about 18 inches of water, my head actually went right under! This was at 8 pm and about 10 miles from home, luckily it was relatively mild and there was a tail wind as well! Still bloody cold by the time I got back! Today, Saturday, Baz and me did a 29 miler here, there, and everywhere up the Pentlands and managed over 3500 feet of climbing, which in the soft muddy conditions left the legs feeling a bit weak! Another good weeks biking but I wish the warmer weather would come.... 

Another new track discovered....

Dawn breaking and already we've been out for just under 2 hours!

Me photographing Baz photographing me!!

The view from the top of Bells Hill before the steep descent.

Me trying to look full of energy at the top of Bells Hill (and failing)

Off at 5.30 this morning to try and get a decent ride in before the threatened bad weather forecast for the middle of the forenoon. As usual we like to try out different routes and today we opted for a track up Bells Hill which Baz to his credit managed to clean while I had to push the steepest parts. This turned out to be a Strava segment and Baz to his disgust after waiting for me at the top then found the segment ended a few yards further on and I had a quicker time by 3 seconds. As the rain was still holding off we did Black Hill as well and conditions were more or less perfect with hard ground but next to no ice. 27.5 miles today and nearly 3000 feet of climbing......and the rain started 5 minutes after we got home!

Marks training for his enduro gets under way

The start of the journey.....the car park by the side of the River Tweed in Peebles

Getting up near the top of the black route at Glentress and there's still the odd patch of snow lying.

Time for Mark to have the first of many pieces of flapjack!

The end of the long climb before the descent to Innerleithen and it's more flapjack!

Baz and I did a little 5 mile local loop as a warm down when we got home

Mark's entered an enduro at the end of March and so far has done more ski-ing than biking this year so some hard riding was called for to get his leg muscles (and lungs) back into condition! We started at Peebles, climbed to the top of the black route at Glentress then turned over to descend the fast, furious track back down to Innerleithen golf course. There we climbed again up into Caberstone forest where he began to suffer (to our amusement) but never complained before the slidy descent to Innerleithen where I nearly wiped both him and Baz out when I lost it on one bit, thank god for trees, they stopped me just in time! After Innerleithen it was back along the side of the Tweed to Glentress again and the climb back up to the Buzzards car park to take in the enduro descent down Janets Brae. By the time we got back to the cars we'd managed over 30 miles and  over 3500 feet of hard climbing. To finish the day off Mark, when he got back to his house, was driving with a fiend up to Aviemore for a days ski-ing  tomorrow!

Baz and I did a short 5 mile local route as a warm down when we got back home to give us just over 36 miles for the day. 

A bit of frost, a bit of ice, a bit of snow.......but no wind!

A Giant leap for mankind!

A selfie of sorts with West Kip in the background.

Baz attempts his trick riding!

The final bit of track down to the Howe

A perfect morning for biking up in the Pentlands i.e. no wind, the difference is incredible as we're usually at some stage of the ride got a gale force wind in our faces!

Bits of ice here and there added interest but there were no falls and the ground being hard with the frost made it feel like the height of summer (though the temperature didn't)! 27.5 miles done this morning with a few variations thrown into the route to keep things interesting.

Never seen so much ice in ma puff!!

The suns just about to come over the horizon and its nearly -5

Spikers definitely needed on this stretch of road

Tried to cross this ditch but the snow was too deep!

The descent to the Howe on a very icy track.

I think this morning must rate as the iciest ride yet, the descent down the seven steps was more or less 3/4 of a mile of rough ice with even the ice spikers sliding at times. The highlight had to be the descent to the Howe, hopefully the video plays OK and you cant hear some of my colourful language at places!