I’ve always thought the Lang Whang was a strange name for a road, but it’s certainly descriptive. Long, hilly, goes through the middle of nowhere – well, Carstairs/Carnwath to Edinburgh anyway. The best bit about the route is that, once you are past Tarbrax, you get a huge amount of high speed downhilling into Edinburgh. Even once you’re back in the city, the route through Juniper Green is top-gear speed-camera-taunting stuff.
The magic numbers for today were: 65 miles in 4h13m, averaging 15mph, and my hrm says 125bpm average. The ride was fueled by a multistage breakfast (cereal, bacon sandwich, big pancake, 2 cups of tea), a litre of liquid (sports juice and water), one fruit&nut chocolate bar, two caramel wafers, half a packet of wine gums and a banana. I feel like a machine for turning chocolate into heat.
After yesterday’s hill riding I did a lot of stretches and felt totally fine this morning. I never used to bother stretching, until last year I went to a yoga class and realised how tight/short my leg muscles were. Now I’m much more aware of this, I don’t just think ‘oh well, my legs must just be sore from cycling’.
Mmm, large amounts of tasty food await …
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