Hi,

Yesterday I told you that today was our longest day, and was 83 miles long. It turns out I was wrong. That route was one including the alternative route that started with a longer detour that avoid the hills, which, not being wimps, we did not take. Because of that, today was only 78 miles, our longest actually being an 83 miler.

Another mistake I made yesterday was in criticising the terrible grammar of the Loo company - I then noticed in my first (while doing LEJOG) update I had said photo's. Unacceptable - I'll probably find a way to blame someone else, but until then, my apologies.

Now, it said that route avoided the hills, so one might expect the hills we did go up to be of a challenging nature. However, I didn't really notice any sort of difficulty in the gradient, although I still had to work quite hard. This was because during yesterday's sprint finish, I noticed a little thing in my calf, so concentrated on stretching that last night, consequently forgetting to stretch the (very important) thighs! Therefore, my thighs were complaining up the hills, and I was lucky that they were neither numerous nor steep - I think I would have struggled! We stopped after about five minutes and stretched by the side of the road, and although it didn't help instantly, I do think there was a long term difference... After about 50 miles, the rest of the day was absolutely and completely flat - following the Clyde and various Canals at 0m altitude all the way. However, we had learnt the hurtful consequences of going too fast, so took it slightly easy.

We planned to have lunch in Glasgow, but there wasn't much on our route - we eventually stopped at a very posh Hilton Cafe, where we probably spent �30.00 (maybe without the full-stop?) on a sandwich and drink!!!

It was a very nice sandwich though.

Glasgow was really nice, following cycle paths through the lovely Glasgow Green, along the Clyde and then through towards Loch Lomond. I would also like to inform my sister that contrary to her belief, Scotland is not always cold - my tan lines have (somehow) got sillier. As well as the lovely weather, we had some nice scenery, including the stunning hills outside Moffat, the Clyde's riverbank and finally Loch Lomond. Unfortunately most of the day was once again spent next to the motorway - in fact, once we missed our turning and might have just hit the border of the M7-something. We also weren't quite as lucky with the surfaces - the first 15 miles were absolutely abhorrent. Fortunately, they then smoothed out to an acceptable level, becoming very nice once we were on proper NCRs - from about 7 miles outside Glasgow to the end of the ride.

Tomorrow is a little bit shorter than today at around 70 miles, but is a little bit hillier and is unfortunately along a very busy A road all the way - not too fun. What will be fun, however, is a hill which you can apparently go down at 50 mph! As an added bonus, it also has some of the best views of the entire trip!

Until then, goodbye,

Alex