Day 7 Carlisle to Ayr

Posted: May 30, 2014 by limbs22 in Bikes, Cycling, Fitness, Food, Garmin, GoPro, LEJOG, Motivation, Weather
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Another 7am start and breakfast en route meant that we crossed the Scottish border by 7.45! This felt like a big milestone that we have now conquered England, but slightly daunting that Scotland takes up half of our milage! To mark this occasions we stopped at Dumfries for a full Scottish breakfast after 36 miles.

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By pure chance we met up with another LEJOG cyclist who we last met at Lands End as we were starting our journey. Well done to Pete Jackson for your big ride North and solo effort with a really well loaded bike!

From Dumfries the road over the hills to Ayr must be one of the best cycling routes. This felt so rewarding traveling over the beautiful roads compared to the slog through the busy North West Days when the weather is nice and views as good as any, makes the miles float by! With only flocks of sheep to contend with, David looked like Nell the sheepdog rounding them up!

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As the days go on we are starting to get fitter and fitter; getting into a good routine. This meant that today we managed to average 15.4 mph over the whole 93 miles including the lumpy bits. With the heavy panniers on that is not bad effort!

The only downfall today was the state of some of the roads. At times it felt like cobble stones and there was a few ‘testical shocking’ moments! Thank goodness for the cyclocross bikes!

We did not stop for lunch and carried on straight to Ayr which meant we arrived by 2.30pm. This gave us a good chance to get our clothes washed and turned around after the long 90+ mile days.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/510025113

Talk about a small world, arriving back to the hotel after a refuel we bumped into Fred the butcher from Greenside who was sat in the bar, so a good catch up was had swooping tour trip notes.

Geoff T shirt seems to be getting more and more appropriate:
EAT… SLEEP … CYCLE!
He reckons according to his Garmin calorie counter he has burnt 34800, which is rubbish. The amount we have to eat seems like that amount sometimes.

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Tomorrow we are off sharp to catch the ferry across to Arran and with the weather looking good we are excited to get a full loop around the beautiful island!

Here is a link to some facts and figures about Prostate Cancer. Which is very scary, please have a read and share if you can:
http://prostatecanceruk.org/information/prostate-cancer-facts-and-figures

Also a big thank you for all your encouragement and reading of our blog. It is so nice that so many friends and family are interested and routing us on!

https://www.justgiving.com/WilliamsLeJog2014/

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Comments
  1. Kay and Nic says:

    Och you are two bonnie laddies. Brilliant that at last the weather is kind. No doubt you are going for the 8 am ferry. Enjoy your island hopping. 🌻🚵🌻🚴

  2. David Baker says:

    Small world indeed …. is Fred pedalling or on his Goldwing? Enjoy the best day of the ride tomorrow – well maybe apart from the last one! – and keep your eye on the rocky shoreline between Pirnmill & Catacol for otters.

  3. Susan says:

    We just did the pub run to Newburn with Debbie and Tim and Chris F. 20 miles and I have heavy legs. Can’t imagine how you two keep going. Have a fab day in Arran
    Xxxx🚲🚲🚲😊😊😊😊

  4. Clare Pearson says:

    Amazing work – glad that you have beautiful scenery to entertain you both today, too. Nell has taken to attempting to round up the wheelbarrow recently – bless her! Xxx

  5. Mark Forster says:

    well done lads, guessing the scenery is going to get better and better over the next few days

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