Ooh MUCH better cycle tonight. Same route as Thursday but without the double back hobble of shame at the start. A few adjustments were made, mostly in the bottom area regarding amount of padding and application of prophylactic cream. I have been advised on all manner of specialist creams, but haven’t managed to get any of them yet, so made do with some 5 years out of date bepanthen (I’m sure these things don’t really go off). And I think maybe there was some improvement in that I am now sitting in relative comfort, but time will tell on that front (back).

We also lowered my seat a bit which seems to have helped both with the crampy feet situation and reaching the brakes, but I think we have also inadvertently changed the position of the handlebars slightly to a probably illegal, but certainly more comfortable position which has similarly helped. So we were on the whole much faster and smilier and I spent some of the downhill sections without the brakes full on which I feel can only be a good thing (except for the bit down from Mugdock which is actually a vertical drop with a blind hairpin in the middle – Paul’s suggestion to ‘just let the brakes right off’ was fully ignored).

The picture is of me and Dad – for those of you who don’t know, Dad is doing the cycle to Skye with me at the end of September. Our fundraising page is now open and all help reaching our goal of £2000 will be gratefully received.