Training Continues

Out for another bike run this morning (its saturday so morning is anything before 1400). The numbers are getting lesser and lesser - today there were only two of us. We decided on a short sharp run as both of us have plans for this evening.
It was a glorious day up on the moor. Its still a bit wet from the winter, but since its built on bog I don't really expect it to ever properly dry out. Winds were low and coming from the north east (as opposed to our normal south westerly prevailing wind, but NE wind is cold and dry while SW wind is warm and wet)

Of course, I forgot to bring my map with me, but I felt we could manage. Off we set but within a few minutes we had a route problem. I felt we should have gone left instead of right. Colin had a map, we checked and turned back only to find that the left led down to a single turbine with no route out. We were right all along. So we retraced our steps and continued on our way.
For some reason all the gates were open today which made it much easier - going over the cattle grids at high (ish) speed is better than having to navigate the spring loaded pedestrian gates.
It was quite busy also, i guess the dry warm (for this time of year and location) weather brought everyone out.
At the end of the day we did 8.25 miles in 53 minutes. This is an average of just over 9 miles an hour. Its an improvement on last week (but not over the same course) but as we spent more time on the tracks rather then the spine road I'm happy to count it as an improvement.
I'm still not confident on the rough surface. Some of the rocks are quite big! I know you are supposed to just bounce over them but I can't help but keep close rein on my brakes keeping my speed down. This then compromises me on the next climb. Live and learn I suppose.