On Friday I cycled to South Queensferry and back to see the VAT Run, a community project centered around a mountain bike trail very close to the Forth Road Bridge. I’ll blog in more detail about that later this week but I was reasonably pleased with my average speed – around 13mph sustained over two 10-mile runs.

My replacement USB-WERK arrived later, so it was fitted on Saturday morning.

Elly and I were photographed while spinning, and there’s a very good reason why doesn’t spin.

This morning Lev and I hauled ourselves out to do laps of Arthur’s Seat with 6 other folk from LifesCycle. I did 4 laps (just over 20 miles) in 1 hour 45 minutes, so an average speed of just over 11·5mph. I was finishing my 3rd lap when I was overaken by one of the spinnign instructors – she was finishing her 6th lap. (I don’t her overtaking me 3 times though.) Despite being the slowest by far of this group, I was pleased

• that I carried on to the bitter end
• that I’m not so knackered I can’t spin this evening
• that I stayed in Lev’s top range of gears all through. A year ago I’d have struggled to stay out of Lev’s bottom range on the slopes.

Finally, lots of swearing at the van that tried to mash Alan on London Road and the car that tried to take me out on a roundabout in Holyrood Park. Vehicles already on the roundabout have priority even if they don’t have infernal combustion engines, you arse.

On the way hiome, I tried the new USB-WERK. This one also stops charging my jPhone when Lev stops moving, so I guess the first one wasn’t faulty after all.