The Skye adventure proves to be a game of two halves ............again!

What a superb day out on the Island of Skye. Bigman and The Ironman travelled up to Kyleakin on Friday evening and re-visited Saucy Mary's Hostel. Wih the Ironman having a more musical talent, the Bigman will leave him to recount tales of the ballads of Saucy Mary in his version of events. Suffice to say that sleep deprivation was suffered by both! After a healthy plate of chilli corne carnie and fish, by Bigman and Ironman respectively, they both indulged in a carb induced sticky toffee pudding washed down by ice cream. ...............Ironman is starting his diet tomorrow.

The temperature inSkye was 22 degrees at 06:30 when they rose to begin preparations for race day. A good size portion of porridge supplemented by bananas provided a good start to the day. Bigman mixed up his chewy banana slices with raisins and a sprinkling of the Ironman purple energy jelly beans. Departure at 7:00 meant we would arrive at Portree at 8:00 in time to register and get ready for the off. The marshalls were well organised and even provided a spare tube - they must have heard about Bigman's Etape experience ........... one for spare kit box he thought!

The race began with a staggered start at 9:00 in 26 degrees and a strong wind out of the south east. The wind would be their friend for the first 20 miles however for 60% of the race they would be battling a headwind. A target finish time of 6 hours 30 minutes was agreed.

A top speed of 72.9kph was recorded by Bigman on the first section. They were flying. An interesting location for the first food stop at the bottom of a hill in Staffin. We had pre-arranged we would use the food stops and to fill bottles with water given the temperature and the fact we would be climbing almost 10,000ft of ascent. At Hungladder, some 27 miles on, the nature of the ride changed. The battle was not only the climbing but also a head on wind that seems to vary its direction of travel so as making it difficult to take shifts at front.

At the 41 mile mark just before we turned towards Dunvegan, the return of the Etape struck. Bigman got a puncture. Now you would have thought tfrom his experiences a couple of weeks ago he would be well experienced at changing tyres. On re-mounting his bike after replacing the tube, he was literally pedalling squares with a flat area of the tyre. After a few hundred yards they had to stop again to replace the tube which appeared to have a kink in the tyre. Some thoughts about abandoning the enlarged race and taking the smaller 55 mile race, took place however the second tube sorted the problem and they were back on their way. 30 mins were lost from time and so the target remained for 6 hours 30 mins of elapsed time.

The trip out to Dunvegan had the wind on our backs and we were able to make good time. At Dunvegan the real challenge began. Around 31 mile back to Portree with the majority uphill and against the wind. The race marshall advised there were only two hills. What she did not advise was that the first lasted for 20 miles! This section was the toughest for the Bigman. Near the Glenbrittle turnoff, the road looked like it had a steep downhill followed by a sharp climb. At this point Bigman was trying to remember who it was that had the original idea for this outing. Fortunately the road wound north and down to Sligachan for the final climb however wind assisted. With Ironman shouting down the Kilometres to travel and the time left to complete within 6 hours elapsed time, the pair melted the tarmac with an average speed on the last 9 miles of over 35kph. Pretty impressive considering they had climbed 10,000ft of ascent over 95 miles. They completed the ride in 5 hrs 55 mins.

The Isle of Ske has many awesome views and this was a crackerjack route. The views around the headland and down to Uig were amazing. The guys felt very honoured to have such brilliant weather in such a beautiful part of Scotland and not a midge in sight! Mind you, neither did they see the Three Chimenys Restaurant so highly acclaimed by the Ironman

When they travel to Cape epic the total climbing over the eight days is 48000ft over 8 days and so this outing was a great test of current fitness with only 41 weks to go. On the way back to Dunfermline, the team stopped for Fish and Chips in Pitlochry. Ironman's diet will start again tomorrow..........................

The diet starts once more....

Well a mixed day of training.

Good day - 4 mile run, easy pace and no ankle pain

Bad day - Cheese and tomato toastie with CHIPS (these were not ordinary chips, they were fabulous chips!)

Good day - 30 mile bike on the Culross Circuit with the bigman, easy pace, leg loosener prior to Skye

So the diet lasted 24 hours before the pull of chips won me over - zero tolerance!

The bigman chose to use today to build muscle by doing every climb seated. He's an awesome climber and is looking good for Saturday. We swallowed quite a bit of added protein today - the flies on the cycle path were out in force - I certainly didn't need much tea when I got home! It was a much more gentle pace than yesterday's thigh busting thrash. We were even able to chat!

We popped in to Hardies Bike Shop in Cairneyhill - the bigman has ordered his wee cog for alpine ascents later in the year. You get great advice and we were able to chat through the relative benefits of 29 inch wheels on the mountain bike - doesn't sound gripping conversation but he had the bigman and I facinated at the option.

I got home to wee note posted under a plant pot at the door from my wife to say she was in the pub and to come and get her on return. I thought great a pub tea! Good call! Then I noticed a daisy chain at the door, her friends car still in the drive and my phone buzzed - 121 - missed calls x 10 - oops - I'd locked her out. She'd borrowed a tenner from her piano teacher to buy a drink, cancelled her piano lesson until tomorrow and killed an hour and a half in the pub. Not normally a problem but when you wearing your training kit and have just been out training for 90 minutes.....

She's a forgiving woman fortunately!

So light tea to make up for the chips, a bit of work and getting packed for the trip to Skye and my day is almost done. Another cracking day!

Hopefully we'll be able to post an update from Saucy Mary's tomorrow evening.

little cogs......

What can I add to yesterday's blog to give a better picture of the training ride.....

True

• It was windy
• We went to the bike shop to ask about the bigman getting a compact fitted to his bike
  
• We pushed hard all the way round
• We were pretty fast
  
• We both felt strong and in good shape
• We both were wearing far too many clothes - 2 layers and a jacket was a tad OTT
• The Bigman hadn't eaten lunch - I had

False

• I didn't drag the Bigman round in fact I spent much of the time struggling to keep up
• The Bigman tucked in behind - the truth is the Bigman bore the brunt of the wind (hopefully he'll do the same with 24 deg and 17mph southerlies forcast!)
• My heart rate monitor didn't break 100 - my heart was pounding like the bass drum in a heavy metal band

The Bigman is now the terminator - a machine on hills. At the end of yesterday's full on trip I turned and enquired if he had any reaction to the burn up the hill home. He answered 'truthfully?' paused and added 'no'. Never have 2 letters struck such fear into a 46 year portly surveyor - the realisation of 95 hilly miles with the bigman machine is too scary to imagine. I turned back to Carnock a slightly nervous warrior fearing yet another clan massacre in the highlands! I'm hoping the ironman training is still in my legs and will drag me round.

The weekly diet has started again.....no doubt I'll be posting the same message next week. It's difficult to stop eating the quantity of food I was eating while ironman training - given I've cut down on training considerably it's only got one place to go and that's straight to my gut!

Been out for a 4 mile run this morning and depending on today's diary might manage to venture out with the bigman later today.

What he thinks he need a compact chainset for I'm not sure - he has no limit at the moment. Little cogs and the bigman whatever next.....

Is Skye the limit?

Whilst the sun was having a rest day, the temperature continued to remain high and so the Bigman took the opportunity to go climb training on Cleish. A round trip over 20 miles, the focus was on driving the drive chain hard whilst remaining seated on the saddle. Four climbs of Cleish later and a not insignificant amount of fluid expended, he returned to Dunfermline satisfied that he had 'enjoyed' a nice taste of the weekend 'fun' to be had on Saturday's 95 mile trip around the northern peninsula of Skye. The topography has more ups and downs than an episode of Coronation Street. Bigman and Ironman are hoping for 6 hour time over the 9913 ft of ascent.

The Bigman is just hoping the Tacksman has used all his ammo on the Etape :-)

The flights to South Africa were booked today and so we are another step closer to John and Dereks Epic caper on the Cape Epic 2010.

3 seasons in one day....

It was a funny day today. We'd arranged that the bigman would collect me and we'd head out for an hour and a half on the bike before soup and sanies at mine.

We left in Spring, had a glimpse of summer and headed home in Autumn having completed just over 40km in the hour and a bit out round the Clackmannan / Carnock circuit. It's a great route. The first 12 km is on the cycle track - great because you can blether. At the end of the track you turn towards Clackmannan, past the castle and then on to the wee road that links it through the green fields to Kincardine. Flat, wide and no cars - fab!

The road was shut due to roadworks - little evidence of much ongoing work but the carriageway had been ripped apart and we picked our way through rubble to Kincardine. The cycle route through Kincardine is pretty well signposted, yet still I almost took out the bigman on a left turn he realised I hadn't seen and then he turned off in the wrong direction - concentration was at a premium today!

We decided as we pedalled round to venture to Skye for the Skye Sportive which will be held in Portree.



It's a 95 mile trip with one or two wee hills - to quote Scooby Doo - Yikes!




The website is http://www.handsonevents.co.uk/Events/Skye/skye.htm which will give you more details of the race.

The Fit One is considering coming up and maybe Santiago will join the party with a bit of luck!

So I've booked Saucy Mary's for the pre-race banter and we're looking forward to a wee west coast adventure!

So no blowouts, punctures or ice cream. Life is back to normal. Normal can be so good!