Holiday in planning

22/06/2015Leave a comment

I am a big believer that you do not need to travel for miles and miles to have an amazing holiday. I have lived in Scotland my entire life and yet have not seen the whole beautiful country yet. With the hubby and I on our lifestyle change (or challenge!) I wanted to find a nice break where we can still have an amazing time as well as being adventurous.

The solution – the North Coast 500! Scotlands answer to Route 66. The route way runs to and from Inverness, venturing round the capital of the Highlands, up the West Coast and back via the rugged north coast covering Black Isle, Caithness, Easter Ross, Inverness-shire, Sutherland and Wester Ross. Looking at the North Coast 500’s website (here) I can’t believe how stunning the North of Scotland is.

The website provides different itineraries to suit different tastes – bikers, adventure seekers, luxury travel. This is making the planning of this trip even easier. As I am on a mission to be more “outdoor’sy” we are looking at the Campers itinerary. This 5 day route plan involves things to see along the way along with recommendations for accommodation & eating.

Thank you North Coast 500 for your beautiful informative website, I am looking forward to planning my trip and blogging along the way. Also love following all the pins on Pinterest.

http://www.northcoast500.com/

Images from pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/northcoast500/

It’s Been A While!!

05/01/201405/01/2014Leave a comment

New Year, New Start!

I haven’t blogged in a while. Started a new job which has taken a lot of my time! But its time for a new start, and new blog!

At the tailend of 2013 I celebrated my 30th birthday 3 stone lighter! Still a long way to go, and my determination had slipped a lot over the festive period but starting afresh and looking forward to a healthier and slimmer 2014. Especially now as I have booked a beach holiday and determined to be body confident! (so that gives me until May).

The weather has been absolutely awful, with winds up to 60mph so I haven’t been out on two wheels as much as I would have liked, hoping we get a change in climate and I can enjoy my daily cycles again!

Now away to catch up on all the blogs I love and follow, and think up some blog posts 🙂

Love Gilly x

Friday Picture – Benefits of Cycling

04/10/2013Leave a comment

20 reasons to love cycling!

10/09/20133 Comments

Cycle to Work Day – 12th September 2013

10/09/201314/01/2015Leave a comment

#challengeyourself and take to two wheels on Thursday 12th September 2013!

WHAT IS CYCLE TO WORK DAY?

Cycle to Work Day is a national event, championed by multi gold medal winning Paralympic cyclist, Dame Sarah Storey, which aims to encourage everyone to take to two wheels and cycle to work for just one day on Thursday 12th September 2013.

In order to help make the day a success, they need lots of people like you to get on board and support the day. According to census data, 760,000 people in the UK cycle to work regularly – this number keeps growing steadily, but we want to see those numbers skyrocket this year and beyond! By 2021, they hope to see 1 million people regularly commuting to work by bike.

Cycle to Work Day is a symbol of our desire to be a fit and happy nation and our ability to challenge ourselves in order to see what we can achieve.

PLEDGE TO RIDE

If you want to join us, Dame Sarah Storey and thousands of others across the UK let us know – all you have to do is visit the homepage and hit the ‘pledge’ button. By pledging to ride you’ll also be entered into a prize draw to win a huge array of prizes including a Raleigh Revenio 2 – it’s a win-win!

St Cyrus to Montrose cycle route

24/07/201305/01/2014Leave a comment

I thought I would share my daily cycle route with my blog readers 🙂

As a cycle newbie I love the fact that this route is off-road and allows me to enjoy my ride with the peace of mind that I am safely tucked away from the busy traffic.

The route stretches round the coast from Montrose to the North-water Viaduct at St Cyrus and is designed to create an off-road path for both cyclists and pedestrians. Very popular with fellow cyclists and dog walkers!

From the St Cyrus end (my direction) I begin down at the St Cyrus beach reserve car park, and cycle the short 1 mile quiet road to the start of the cycle track just at the viaduct. The gravel track takes you over the viaduct with spectacular views and down through the flourishing fields (runs parallel to the road but fence separates in-between path and road).

The course is mainly flat but with some deceiving uphill slopes :). You are then off through a gorgeous wood path – my favourite part, through Kinnaber before hitting the long stretch at the old Montrose Aerodrome finishing at the former airfield at Broomfield, Montrose. From this point you can continue on a cycle path down to Montrose beach where quite conveniently there is an ice cream shop, or continue to the South side of Montrose at the harbour.

The route for me, St Cyrus to Montrose beach is approximately a 11 mile round trip, and makes the perfect evening cycle – even better as the route doesn’t not involve any busy roads my dog Rupert can come along for the trip.

Starting point – St Cyrus beach nature reserve

Crossing the viaduct

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View from viaduct

Kinnaber

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Through the woods

Heading onto aerodrome

Montrose Beach

Great track surface for my bike

Review: Runtastic Road Bike Pro App

23/07/201310/09/2013Leave a comment

I have spent a couple of weeks researching cycling computers for my bike. So many on the market to choose from and I couldn’t decide! Then it hit me – I own an iPhone!! Surely there is an app that can track my cycles for me. Yes… Many…

So I tried some free apps, to get an idea of which one works for me. I initially installed the free Road Bike app from Runtastic, loved it almost instantly and upgraded without a second thought to the Pro edition (£2.99).

The app allows you to track your cycles and is packed with features analysing your ride, progress and route.

From the main session window the app tracks the important measures of your rides including duration, distance, elevation, route and calories burned. The route map is a fantastic way of keeping a record of your routes, and ultimately analysing your progress on repeat workouts on the same path. You can also personalise the app to display the features that you want to see.

One of my favourite features is the voice alerts (coach) to distance and times allowing me to concentrate on the road, keeping upright and pushing my legs 🙂 !

From Runtastic’s Website:

In addition to data analyzing and tracking, this app offers a lot of extra features. Download and save maps to your smartphone ahead of time so you don’t need an internet connection while biking. Now trips abroad or to areas where you don’t have mobile access are no longer a problem. To gauge your performance during your rides, the Runtastic Road Bike PRO app lets you measure your exact cadence, speed, and heart rate. Thanks to these accurate measurements, you can track your performance and aim to improve it. Find out more at www.runtastic.com/en/apps/roadbike

As well as these features another nice touch is the session conclusion giving you a breakdown of stats, and a share to Facebook, Twitter and email option to show off your hard work and workout.

Overall I absolutely love this app from Runtastic. The features are ideal for me to keep a log of my rides, and help me set goals in improving my fitness.

Road Bike Pro is available from the Apple App Store and Google Play.