Hi,

Today marked the start of a return to tougher cycling... Supposedly! However, today seemed really good, perhaps because I've got so much fitter over the weeks. And Dad hasn't, so I look really good compared to him!

The day started with a very long climb (15 miles) out of Keswick, followed by a descent into Carlisle. The climb wasn't really too bad, consisting of lots of little hills, not very steep, followed by smaller downhill sections. At the top was, surprisingly, a portaloo! However, this annoyed me, as the company's name was spelt "Cumbria Loo's". My English teacher would be fuming! The descent was similar (but opposite), with smaller ascents - but we just rolled over them. It was down this hill we broke our current speed record, hitting 42.5 miles an hour! We then cycled through Carlisle, took some photos by the Castle, and headed toward Scotland. The rest of the route was very flat, but going more 'downhill' towards the border, then more 'uphill' toward Moffat. However, overall for the whole day we've only gone up 8m in elevation! We stopped to eat our lunch at the border (after, of course, taking the mandatory photos), courtesy of Keswick YHA. The rest of the route was fairly fast and actually stayed on one road (B7076) all the way to Moffat! That's roughly 30 miles on one road! It was a well surfaced road as well, with a cycle path all the way, although I actually spent most of the time on the road for the slightly better terrain. However, the scenery for that road wasn't too great, as it followed the M6 all the way. Dad reckons it used to be the main road, which is why it was so very straight, well surfaced and quiet (My logic here is that if it is basically the M6 but a B road, there would be no motivation to go onto it for a car - unless of course it was congested!). About 17 miles out of Moffat, we stopped to have a cereal bar and we tried out one of those energy gels - normally for 'emergencies', but we had plenty with us! Now, I don't know whether it just worked ridiculously well on us, or we had loads of energy, but we then absolutely blasted the next hour (which was all it took - I don't know, but we probably did average 17-18 miles an hour on that bit!). We never really dropped below 15 (only on the minute or two that Dad thought he could lead), and on one flat (if anything, it was slightly uphill) with a lovely surface, we hit 25 mph consistently. We frequented > 20mph and spent most of the time at 17-19! Another thing is about our predicted time of arrival, which is displayed on the Gizmo's screen. When we left from that last rest, our ETA was about 4.00pm. We gradually got it down so far that we arrived more or less at 3.30!

Tomorrow is by far the longest stage at 83 miles, but the terrain looks very similar to today's - a long but mild hill up and down, then flat until Loch Lomond. Also, Dad kindly gave us the option of extending it to 97 (the Loch Lomond YHA has shut down, so we're staying quite a while away) but I politely declined ("What? No. You're crazy."). Still, long way!

Until then, bye!

Alex