It seems like years since I posted here - unfortunately my innate laziness extends to writing as well as training. In 9 days, I'll make a brave attempt at the Guernsey 'Graniteman' triathlon, which is a half ironman distance triathlon (1.9km swim in the sea, 90km bike, and a quick 21km run to finish off)
What a pain in the neck that will be.
Anyway, I must confess, at the beginning of August, the usual fear gripped me when, I realised that, no I couldn't blag this one either. So like a fool I began training, mostly here in Glasgow.
Although diet i'd say is the single most important thing in any long distance training, you have to have some decent places to train. Living in Moldova probably isn't brilliant, for example, if you are keen to cycle 50mile training rides every other day (due to the extreme danger of death and bad roads, more than the drunk taxi drivers you see in Russia) Anyway, in Glasgow I've found a few corkers in terms of long distance cycle paths (which you can of course also run along)
The two routes I've been using are
1. Glasgow to Fenwick - A cheeky wee 40miler, i'd recommend just going back the way you came though rather than whats on the map via Eaglesham, as that road to Eaglesham is downright dangerous - it's single track with bike lanes on each side (which means no cars ever acknowledge the cycle tracks existence, especially when a car is coming the other way.) However, there are some great tracks in the bizzare Whitelee wind farm which is on that road - it's the biggest windfarm in Europe and can be quite fun doing circuits there, with the army of giant windmills making their surreal whoosh and their shadows flitting across your face.
The route from Glasgow to Fenwick has one major drawback though - it's basically uphill all the way from Glasgow - thats about 20miles of uphill, which can be a bit of a ballbreaker. However once your out of Glasgow/Mearns then you have your own personal cycle path all the way. You can go on until Kilmarnock but along regular roads and remember by this time your in deepest Ayrshire with all the attendant inbreeding, so look out for people with six toes or three nipples (I should know.)
2. Glasgow to Balloch This 40 mile roundtrip monster takes you right to the shore of the beautiful Loch Lomond. It's a path pretty much all the way, and isn't quite as tough in the hill scene as no.1 above. You cycle along the canal and the River Leven, so its a beautiful route if its not raining, and even if it is, there's a pub at the end of the journey and a railway station (Balloch) that takes you all the way back to Glasgow Central for under 5 pounds if your too lazy to cycle back again. If you're feeling energetic, you can actually keep on going north, on a great looking track, a flat 17 miles more all the way up to Tarbert (here) then on from there if you like the scenery.
I've agreed to do an Ironman finally next year, which means I'll be the fool running these routes next summer. If you see me lying on the side of the road with my face deep in cowdung, please take pity and take me to the fish and chip shop...
What a pain in the neck that will be.
Anyway, I must confess, at the beginning of August, the usual fear gripped me when, I realised that, no I couldn't blag this one either. So like a fool I began training, mostly here in Glasgow.
Although diet i'd say is the single most important thing in any long distance training, you have to have some decent places to train. Living in Moldova probably isn't brilliant, for example, if you are keen to cycle 50mile training rides every other day (due to the extreme danger of death and bad roads, more than the drunk taxi drivers you see in Russia) Anyway, in Glasgow I've found a few corkers in terms of long distance cycle paths (which you can of course also run along)
The two routes I've been using are
1. Glasgow to Fenwick - A cheeky wee 40miler, i'd recommend just going back the way you came though rather than whats on the map via Eaglesham, as that road to Eaglesham is downright dangerous - it's single track with bike lanes on each side (which means no cars ever acknowledge the cycle tracks existence, especially when a car is coming the other way.) However, there are some great tracks in the bizzare Whitelee wind farm which is on that road - it's the biggest windfarm in Europe and can be quite fun doing circuits there, with the army of giant windmills making their surreal whoosh and their shadows flitting across your face.
The route from Glasgow to Fenwick has one major drawback though - it's basically uphill all the way from Glasgow - thats about 20miles of uphill, which can be a bit of a ballbreaker. However once your out of Glasgow/Mearns then you have your own personal cycle path all the way. You can go on until Kilmarnock but along regular roads and remember by this time your in deepest Ayrshire with all the attendant inbreeding, so look out for people with six toes or three nipples (I should know.)
2. Glasgow to Balloch This 40 mile roundtrip monster takes you right to the shore of the beautiful Loch Lomond. It's a path pretty much all the way, and isn't quite as tough in the hill scene as no.1 above. You cycle along the canal and the River Leven, so its a beautiful route if its not raining, and even if it is, there's a pub at the end of the journey and a railway station (Balloch) that takes you all the way back to Glasgow Central for under 5 pounds if your too lazy to cycle back again. If you're feeling energetic, you can actually keep on going north, on a great looking track, a flat 17 miles more all the way up to Tarbert (here) then on from there if you like the scenery.
I've agreed to do an Ironman finally next year, which means I'll be the fool running these routes next summer. If you see me lying on the side of the road with my face deep in cowdung, please take pity and take me to the fish and chip shop...
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