Cycling

Another week, another race. I don't have another planned for over a month, so I'll have to find something else to write about in the meantime...

The weather has been changeable recently. Some rain some days, some sun often enough. Wednesday was rather stunningly blue-skied, so I couldn't resist heading off for a cycle down to Cramond, with a run afterwards. This morning I felt like I hadn't quite got that out of my legs, nor was I fresh after running Friday and Saturday, so I didn't expect much at the Forth Bridge 10k.

A decent warm up loosened me up a bit, but my legs still seemed lethargic. The start was somewhat congested, with an immediate downhill with corners, under the rail bridge then turning uphill. This seems to me to make for a faster start, and I thought at this point I was probably going far too fast, but I stuck with it, drifting past the odd person but broadly holding position.

At the bottom of another hill we came to the start of the Forth Road Bridge, and so a gentle uphill. At this point I felt fairly good, and started passing people. Past the middle and down to the Edinburgh side of the bridge, then up and down and around to an underpass to cross the road, up and around back up the bridge. Still passing people with a bit of effort now; I've come to the conclusion that to maintain pace I need to regularly pass people from about a third of the way in right up to the end, as they fade after starting too fast. It certainly feels good to be able to do that.

Finished in 38:55. The race was won in a ridiculous 30:53—winning by almost three minutes, the solitary figure I could see running back across the bridge during the race seems to have been in a race of his own.

Last weekend was my final 20-mile run before the marathon. Now a little over two weeks to go, and I'm tapering (cutting back on running for the three weeks before).

Currently I'm considering doing a good bit of hill-walking this summer. I've some "big days" in mind, which I would have to actually prepare for, building up my hill fitness. Depends how I feel in the post-marathon month really. Maybe if I do I'll have something to write about...

May try to get in some cycling too. I wonder if I could work up to a 100km ride, seems feasible.

We've had a warm few days recently, and they're longer too... So I've been out a few times recently. The other evening I took a trip to the Pentlands on my bike, reminding me of my lack of mountain-bike prowess. Anyway, nice weather out riding in a t-shirt...

The ride must have sparked my imagination, as I went out yesterday for another ride, this time in a more flat but long way. From the flat, I rode out to Balerno partly along the Water of Leith path, and then spent a while riding around being lost near Balerno. When I found the NCN cycle route signs I proceeded to follow them to Broxburn to meet the Union canal there. Nice cycling on very quiet roads in the sunshine.

At Broxburn I continued along the Union canal towpath, which happened to be from the furthest point I have previously reached cycling out along the canal. From Broxburn the canal meanders around to keep on level ground, eventually arriving at Linlithgow. At this point I was already tiring, so I went into town for a coffee and slice of gingerbread, and had a wander around the ruins of Linlithgow Palace. The picture is of St Michael's church, beside the Palace.

From Linlithgow I continued along the canal to Falkirk, managing to arrive at the Falkirk Wheel as a boat was being raised. I stayed around to snap some pictures, then returned into the actual town centre a couple of miles away to take a train home. A good afternoon of supposedly 70km in t-shirt weather.

Today I went for a walk with dearg, from South Queensferry by the near end of the Forth Rail Bridge to Cramond for a nice pub lunch. The aim was a relaxed walk along the shore with photo opportunities, making the most of the continued decent weather, and that was certainly accomplished. We spent a while taking photos of the rail bridge, then wandered around the coast (mostly on beaches) with a few photo stops along the way.

This is a really nice walk (following the first part of a run described in this entry), mostly quiet and with the possibility of staying right on the coast. It passes through the grounds of Dalmeny House, and eventually arrives in Cramond Brig, for an anticipated pub lunch.

A wander up to the waterfront and back along the shore of the River Almond helped our lunch go down, and soon I was falling asleep on the bus back home...

This started out as a long entry, but it splits nicely into two parts, this being the second...

On the fitness front, things are going well, and I'm looking forward to ramping the miles up to prepare for the marathon. Last week was a lower-mileage week, so after the week's longest run (only 10 miles) I ended up going cycling along the canal this Monday for about three hours... Rather enjoyable, I still want to take a longer trip that way to Falkirk or perhaps Glasgow. Anyway, this week will be my first week doing over 60km, and I'm looking forward to getting some longer runs in. Of course time management does start to become a bit of an issue, I attended a lecture last night which meant I ended up running after dark. Forgot my head torch, quite fun and atmospheric without!

The lecture, incidentally, was rather interesting, by Donald MacKenzie. He discussed the effects of mathematical models of stock options on the markets themselves—what happens when a model becomes widely used by those taking part in the activity itself. From the talk description:

This talk will ask this question mainly in regard to the most famous model in modern financial economics, the Nobel-Prize winning Black-Scholes-Merton model of option pricing, which is the core mathematical foundation of the global market in "financial derivatives" . (At the end of June 2006, derivatives contracts outstanding worldwide totaled $454 trillion, the equivalent of nearly $70,000 for every human being on Earth.)

The talk will describe how the practical uses of the model initially had the effect of making markets more like the postulates of the model, but will discuss how this effect reversed in direction in the 1987 stock market crash, with near-disastrous consequences for the global financial system.

What I got from the talk was that if a relatively simple but accurate model is useful enough (as a decision-making tool) it may be taken up by those participating in the activity being modelled. The model will not perfectly represent the actual situation, and while there may even be more sophisticated models which are better at this, they may not be useful to practitioners. Some activity guided with the model actually has the effect of making the model more accurate (in this case "spreading"), but some activity may not—when the model is too slavishly adhered to the inaccuracy may rear its head spectacularly.

I say this all in rather abstract terms, as I'm not comfortable with the details, but the talk was given quite concretely, and entertaining in the discussion of the sociology of Chicago trading pits.

Have a look at this paper if you're interested, it seems to cover much of the content of the talk.

This was my first "official" week training for my first marathon, Edinburgh at the end of May. I hope not to go on too much of this, it's easy to become a bore when you spend so much time+effort on something, but I'll keep you updated. I've also been all motivated, and doing lots of other stuff too, so I've had a few runs at night with a head torch. An interesting experience... The start of this week was suddenly wintry, clear and crisp cold air, so I had a couple of excellent experiences there.

Yesterday I went off to climb a hill, for the first time this year (and in about three months too). When I changed trains at Perth, I met a couple of guys who were doing the same thing I was—cycling from Blair Atholl to walk up Beinn Dearg. We got talking, and subsequently spent the day together. Strangely, they were PhD students from Glasgow, one even knowing a couple of people from my department.

The weather turned out better than expected, and it was sunny for the cycle in. After fairly hard going up the start of the track, we soon reached snow, which proves difficult but fun to (attempt to) cycle in. After ditching bikes, a short walk leads to the bothy, and up the hill. Beinn Dearg is a flat rounded hill like most of those nearby, so as we neared the top the wind was consistently bracing.

The cycle back down was fast and fun, as you might expect. I do need to adjust my brakes...

I'm afraid I must be terribly British and talk about the weather again. Not to moan about bad weather, more to frame a couple of excellent days last weekend. Perhaps typically for this time of year, the weather is dominated by low-pressure systems coming in off the atlantic in a conveyer-belt effect. About 3 or 4 days out of 5 there will be some rain, and some days are quite wild, with strong wind (including gales) and big dark skies. This really serves to emphasise the other days; when it is clear, it is very very clear, in that way reserved for crisp wintry days, and it is inspiring by contrast. On some days it requires willpower to go out; others it would to stay in.

Last Friday I went out for a run before visiting the gym. The intention was to run for about 10km, which takes less than an hour, but the night was so clear that rather than returning home just after sunset, I kept going "just a little bit further", until I had run around town for about 2 hours (a nice tour of some of our hills) and still found it hard to make myself stop.

On Saturday it seemed nice again, although there was now a little wind, and I went off for a bike ride. I've not been out much recently—since I cycled back from Auchterarder, the longest ride was to and from the Pentlands for a run. Anyway, on Saturday I cycled out through Musselburgh to Prestonpans, and back via Portobello and Leith, maybe 30 miles. An excellent day out along the coast, the views over the water back to Edinburgh were excellent, as well as across to Fife.

Now I must pop out and get a run in.

Another weekend passes. I've been enjoying running, but impatient to run longer and more often. Which probably means I'm not building up too quickly. Restraint is trying.

Saturday was my longest run of the week, supposedly 8km along the canal and water of leith, plus a wrong turning diversion component. In about 6 weeks that distance should double. Hopefully longer runs will mean interesting routes. Anyway, later on I relaxed with a walk, out to dinner and the cinema (Pirates of the Caribbean 2). Nice.

Sunday, relaxing? Well, I took a little bike ride. Shouldn't be too far, as I felt somewhat tired as I set off. The pentlands sounded like a good idea; somehow I ended up on top of Allermuir then Caerketton hills... Would have been much quicker to walk up the steeper bits though. I'm not very good with the uphills. Or, in fact, the downhills.

I've had a bike for the best part of a year now, and never gone very far. In fact, my longest ever cycle trip was the one I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Now I've realised an ambition: I cycled from Auchterarder (where I grew up and went to school, where my mum lives) to Edinburgh, where I live now (and it's been a while now). As I mentioned, it's not that far; it's about 70km (perhaps 45 miles). So I did that on Sunday.

I went up to my mum's on Saturday. Because of engineering works, it took 2 hours station to station, say 2.5 door-to-door. And it was a lovely sunny warm evening. Sunday morning, however, I spent sitting reading a book, listening to thunderstorms and on-off rain. By the afternoon, this seemed to have cleared. There were still clouds, but a little sun shone through, and so I decided to set off.

There was a little rain as I started, but as I cycled through glendevon, between the ochil hills, the sun seemed to break through, and it was all very pleasant. All too soon I was out in open countryside, then heading towards more hills. At this point the weather became somewhat... interesting. The rain very quickly soaked my shorts and t-shirt, and anything else in the vicinity. As that eased off, the thunder started to get louder. Being nowhere in particular, I pushed on. As I neared the top of the hilly section, it became apparent that the thunderstorm was closing, with lightning striking about 1km away. Somewhat worrisome.

Soon enough I passed the Knockhill motor racing circuit, with commentary blaring out to rival anything but the following thunder. From there it's all downhill to Dunfermaline, where I sheltered from another spell of heavy rain, obtained a coffee, and realised that it would not be possible to get a train home because of the aforementioned engineering works.

Fortunately the weather started looking up again, so it was off down the NCN 1 over the Forth Road Bridge to Edinburgh. Straightforward enough, apart from rather too much faffing about with shared-use footpaths. And home in about 5 hours. Given that I think I spent about an hour in Dunfermaline, it doesn't compare too badly with the rerouted train service...

I popped up to Auchterarder to my mum's this weekend on the train with my bike. First time I've taken a bike on a train; it was nice and hassle-free. I still wonder what happens if there's already a full complement of cyclists though.

I went up on Friday night, on Saturday morning I headed off through Crieff and up past Loch Turret to climb Ben Chonzie. Loch Turret is a reservior for power generation, so there is a road from Crieff up to the dam at the end (bit of a climb on a bike). There is also a rough track along the dam up to a Lochan right under Ben Chonzie, which I cycled up. That was fun, but illustrated how useful suspension is on a mountain bike, as it really was a rough, rocky track.

Not much of a walk after that, the day was mostly a cycle. I took a wander up anyway, in shorts and T-Shirt in the slight rain, had a chat with the folk I met at the top, and wandered back down to cycle back. The great thing about a bike is, of course, that the energy which goes into slogging up a hill is returned when you go down again. The road down from the dam was fun!

I took a few pictures I like from under a bridge, just before the road up to the dam.

I started writing something and then lost it. About a week ago.

Further to the last post, I'm holding off running for a couple of weeks to get rid of shin splints, which I could probably feel coming on when I posted that... This is the second week off, and I've been cycling instead. Mostly around town, I went out along the Union Canal past Ratho last week, which was nice. I shall have to go right along to Falkirk at some point. Also, have the idea of cycling to Auchterarder some time, it's not that far.

Had a nice wander in the Pentlands on Sunday, along the ridge. Lovely day. And see the ickle lambykins!

I should learn to post less more often, as I used to. Now back to work, lots to do...

Okay, so more than a week. Making a commitment is scary. Doing so here means I'm serious about it; I don't want to change my mind or break my word. I shall be specific, as that is more useful, easier to motivate and stick to.

I shall run three times per week. At a minimum two of these will be 4km (as I often do on the way to the gym), and one shall be ~6km; ideally the shorter two would be about that, and longer run of over 10km.

Now the excuses. Doing something active at the weekend is not a get-out. A day's hillwalking should not interfere, but two or more days or a mammoth outing can. In that case a couple of runs (even on a treadmill) should suffice. On the other hand, I don't want to injure myself... sore or tired muscles can just suffer, but knees, ankles and shins cannot.

I've kept it up for the last few weeks, so we'll see how it goes. I ran 11k rather quicker than I expected last week, so it will be interesting to see how I go with longer distances once I'm used to running regularly. I have a disturbing ambition to run a marathon one day... It's probably not that crazy an idea (other than the inherent craziness)—if I run regularly and do some shorter events, and trained for it, that is. Okay, crazy.

Okay, some other commitments and crazy goals lest I forget other things I enjoy.

• A proper hillwalk at least once a month this year. A couple of the big hill days I have in mind (Bridge of Orchy hills, the Mamores, some 2-day insanity around Ben Starav, to name but three).
• Get to the climbing wall regularly.
• Actually get out climbing locally, be solidly leading easy stuff by the end of the summer
• Get out on the bike, to the Pentlands and so forth. Go somewhere on the train at some point.
• Finish PhD!

Incidentally, Spring is here. Pleasently sunny, t-shirt weather again today.

Quick update.

Been meaning to write more, but not finding the time or effort required, so I'll be brief.

Mr dearg's been away over the pond for the week, so I've been cranking on with work mostly. Last Saturday I took a bike ride down to the Pentlands, over and back, which was excellent and shall be repeated. Nice to finally ride off-road, if hard for the uphill bit...

Not up to much else, went to Glasgow shopping yesterday with Mum and Grandma and my Aunt Sarah, which was nice. Have a new pair of running shoes to try out... better be good.

And finally. I must recommend The Time Traveler's Wife as a most excellent book. A nice idea, well executed, very easy to read and generally sucked me in.

Updates. Becoming. More. Infrequent.

I bought a bike. A cheap mountain bike, an own brand from Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative. Image pinched from the site since apparently I can't link to the item. Seems okay so far, but I've not been able to take it off-road yet.