We're moving the End to End forward !

Training has been going really well and May seems too far away, so we have decided to move our dates for the End to End. After a lot of discussion we have agreed to start on the 26th of August 2011. I rang the bike shop at Wick and they were very helpful, we can send our bikes up by courier and they will set them up ready for us. We have looked at lots of different ways to get to the start, trains, hire cars etc, but we have decided that flying up to Wick is the easiest option, we will fly from Bristol to Edinburgh and then on to Wick. All we have to do then is cycle home. When we first talked about this we thought that we would need 14 days to complete the ride. However having mapped the ride out and looked at where we will camp, it looks like it will be more like 11-12 days (the last day is from Okehampton to Lands Ends, at 102 miles, so we may split this into two days due to the hills, we'll see how we feel when we get there). We have all our equipment now and we are planning to do a camping trip in May to try everything out. Being a bit of a geek I have a spreadsheet detailing the campsites, their tariffs, the daily estimated mileage. I have also mapped the route out on bike route toaster (what a great tool) these can the be uploaded to the sat nav, I just need to work out how to keep it charged up now.

Start	Finish	Miles	Campsite
Wick	Thurso	37.03	Thurso Bay Campsite
Thurso	Lairg	75.56	Dunroamin Camping Park
Lairg	Fort Augustus	81.17	Cumbernalds Campsite
Fort Augustus	Inveraman	90.88	Beinglas Farm
Inveraman	Abington	85.64	Mount View Campsite
Abington	Pooley Bridge	82.42	Waterside Campsite
Pooley Bridge	Croston	75.83	Royal Umpire
Croston	Presthorpe	89.76	Mill Farm Caravan Park
Presthorpe	Clevedon	105.23	Bullock Farm Campsite
Clevedon	Okehampton	87.93	Betty Cottles Inn
Okehampton	Lands End	101.89	Home

New bike and the New Forest Sportive

My new bike arrived and it was well worth the wait. Its a Secteur Elite, I chose this because I could use it for my club rides and it also takes a rack, ideal for the End to End. I had the week off following the Cornwall Tor, so I signed up for the New Forest sportive, 85 miles in beautiful countryside and very fast smooth roads. Again it was a fantastic day and Wiggle was very organised. Registration was not quite as good as the Cornwall sportive, but it wasn't long before we were on the road. I was going really well and thought that I was in for a good time. I met up with a young lad from Wales and we spent the ride taking turns up front, to give each other a rest. I kept telling him I would need to drop off the pace, as I didn't think I could keep going at that speed. However I did, and managed to complete 85 miles in 5hrs and 9 minutes, so if I can just avoid hills on the End to End, I should be ok. :-)

Joining the YOGI's

George has been riding with his local club for a while now and is always saying how much he enjoys it, so I thought I'd give it a go ( though I really wasn't sure about it ). The nearest club to me are YOGI in Plymouth which is approx 25 miles from Looe.
I joined them on a Saturday morning for a 'long and steady' ride of approx 55 miles. Its always a bit awkward joining a new group but I was made to feel very welcome. I enjoyed the easy going nature of the group ride and managed the pace fairly comfortably without holding anybody up. Comparing it to riding on your own, you are riding harder but in shorter bursts with more stops.
The following weekend a 100 miler to Exeter, Dawlish Teignmouth and back was organised. Approx 30 riders turned out which surprised the organisers who weren't expecting so many. Another glorious sunny day with a tough first section up over Dartmoor followed by a long downhill into Exeter.
Another brilliant day and looking forward to the next one.

Cornwall Tor

At last the day was here. Although I felt my training was going pretty well, this was going to be the first opportunity to ride with and measure myself against other riders. I knew the course was going to be tough but felt confident that I could at least cover the distace as I'd already done several 70's, a couple of 80's and a 100 miler. I had fully completed the training program so felt as prepared as I could be.
Again we were dead lucky with the weather, a lovely sunny morning with light wind. George and I set off together but we were amongst a lot of other riders in the early stages. The field was fairly bunched as we hit the first climb and we were quickly separated. Never mind I thought, he'll catch me when we get on the flat.
Well someone with a very sick sense of humour set this course, with climb after climb through the villages of the north Cornwall coast and all the time waiting for the infamous Millook hill. The only flatter sections are in the last third where I fortunately teamed up with a Truro rider and we worked together to keep up a good pace. He dropped me though on the final steep climb with a few miles to go.
I finished thinking I was ahead of George but was not sure - had he gone past me at one of the feeding stations? But no, he came in a bit behind me. We were both on a real high from having made it round such an insane course! It was a great experience and look forward to doing more of these sportives in the future.

The Cornwall Tor Sportive

Well the day has come to do our first sportive, we did a short ride yesterday and it was a lovely hot day. Adie is just back from Spain so this weather is suiting him, but it's a bit hot for me. The sportive was very well organised and Kilo to Go had sent out all the registration equipment and timer tags the previous week, so it was just a matter of turn up and go. I was amazed at how many people were there and such a friendly atmosphere. It was quite cool in the morning so I had worn some sleeves which I could remove if it got hot later, a great buy if you're trying not to carry too much gear. It wasn't far before we hit the first hill and Adie's hill training came into play again, before long he was disappearing into the distance. My plan had been to conserve energy at the start to make sure that I had enough to finish the course. We had one main objective in this ride and that was to finish in front of an old colleague. This was the toughest ride I have ever done, it was just hill after hill, running along the North Cornwall Coast, but I was determined to climb every one of them, including Millook, a 30% hill. I finished in 6hrs 12 minutes, roll on the new bike, which should be waiting for me when I get home. Adie finished 45 minutes in front of me, I really must start to do these tempo rides and hill repeats!!

First 100 miles

We were both progressing really well by now and were both getting up to an 80 mile ride, so a few weeks before the Cornwall Tor we decided to meet up and try to do a 100 miler(I am in Cornwall, George is in Wilts). It was a glorious day and the route was pretty tough(they all are in Cornwall). It was a great ride. If it had finished at 85 miles I would have been absolutely fine, but I did hit a bit of a wall at 90 miles and the last 10 I really had to dig deep. But we had done it, our first 100!

First 100 mile ride

I was working in Cornwall a few weeks ago and I met up with Adie for a short training ride. I had taken my Scott Sporster down, as this was the bike I was going to use on the End to End. Well that needed to change, I needed to get myself a bike that will keep up with Adie. I knew I was poor on hills, despite training regularly. However Adie had been following a strict training program which includes hill repeats and he was leaving me standing. So its time to visit my local bike shop and spend some money. We arranged to meet for a longer ride this weekend, my new bike is ordered, but it doesn't look like it will arrive until after the Cornwall Tor Ride. First of all we were planning to do 80 miles, but by the time it got to Saturday this had increased to the first 100 miler. Anyone who has ridden in Cornwall will appreciate that there is nowhere to hide from the hills. We left Looe early and headed out towards Bodmin, there were a few hills on the way, but nothing too treacherous. We climbed out of Bodmin towards Camelford and onto the Atlantic Highway. Wow what a road! We were flying and heading towards Bude where we found a nice little cafe about a mile from Bude. What a welcome stop, at exactly 50 miles. Leaving the cafe we headed towards Launceston and this is where the ride really started to get hard. After a great downhill into Launceston, there was a huge climb out, up to about 900ft and then back down again... and up again... and down again.... 5 times this happened and my rubbish hill climbing was really starting to show. Adie was kind enough to wait at the top for me, but by the end of the 5th climb I was virtually done in. We had to stop for a drink and something to eat. But by the time we hit Liskeard I was feeling much better (many thanks to Soreen). We headed back to Looe using the back road that runs alongside the railway line. By the time we got there I was feeling great and my legs were full of energy once again, we had already done 97 miles but we weren't stopping there, we had a target. So after a few trips up and down Sandplace and up to the Barbican we had done it .... 100 MILES!!!

Tough Ride

I have been training regularly with the club and everything has been going really well, so when the club calender said that there was a longer ride on Sunday, I was raring to go. I woke up looked out the window at the dry frosty day, 1.5C, but at  least it was dry ad sunny. I left the waterproof coat behind, I wasn't going to need that today. About an hour into the ride the heavens opened, the wind picked up and I found myself pedalling into a very wet head wind.  That wasn't too bad, about 50 miles in, winter arrived with a  vengeance, it started to hail so hard it was stinging me through my clothes. By this time I had lost all feeling in my fingers and when I squeezed the handlebars a waterfall came from my gloves, adding to the amount of water running out of my shoes. My brakes decided that it was too wet for them and the hail was piling up on the road, this made the down hills very scary (the blocks had completely worn out). The initial plan was to stop for coffee and cake around about 40 miles in and do 80, but because it was raining, we decided to cut the ride short, missing out on the food stop. I had only taken one flapjack with me which was well and truly used up by the time we had done 60 miles. I considered just pulling up at the side of the road and letting nature have its way with me. I had no energy left my legs felt like I'd torn every muscle and I was carrying 2 stone of water. I crawled home the last few miles in a great deal of pain, poured my clothes into the washing machine and soaked in a hot bath. After a hot bath I found myself sitting on the sofa with a big smile on my face, what a Buzz!! :-)

Spending the pennies

So time to get riding. I had an old mountain bike in the garage that hadn't been ridden for years, so I brushed the dust off it and gave it a go. I found it really uncomfortable and quickly realised that it wasn't going to be much use to me, there must be something better than this. A visit to the local bike shop was needed, and a shiny new Tricross caught my eye. With a discount on last years model and 12mths interest free the deal was done!
My first ride was about 15 miles and I repeated it the next day. By the following evening I was sat on the sofa with a an ice wrap around my knee. Perhaps this was going to be harder than I thought! After a few days I started again. This time I concentrated on getting the bike 'fit' right and made all sorts of adjustments so that I had pain free riding over shorter distances. I then slowly got the distances up to about 20 miles.
When we entered the Cornwall Tor sportive it was three months away and attached to the entry was a suggested training program. The program was based on a long ride at the weekends with two or three shorter rides in the week. The longer rides started at 30 miles and over the weeks built up to 80 miles. The mid week rides consisted of short high pace sessions on rolling roads and separate hill sessions. I followed this program pretty religiously and could feel myself getting stronger week by week. By this time I was hooked, I really was enjoying this new sport!

Well there's no backing out now

Up until now it's just been an idea that we were chatting about down the pub, but today, Adie went and bought himself a bike. It's a shiny new Tricross Sport, so it looks like we are really going to do this. I am hoping to do the ride on my Scott P2 Sportster. We are thinking of doing the End to End over 14 days which seems quite realistic, having read some other blogs on the net. Just to be on the safe side and make sure we are fit enough, we are looking to do the ride in May 2012, but we'll see how the training goes. One of the biggest decisions is whether to camp or to use B&B's, most of the blogs we have read so far are recommending the bed and breakfast option, if only because there's a soft bed and hot bath at the end of a hard days riding and the luggage requirement is lighter. I have joined a local bike club "Behind The Bike Shed" in Andover to help me get fit for the End to End. I am learning a lot about spinning rather than grinding gears, along with the benefits group riding has on the energy required to cover longer distances. Hills are my biggest weakness and I'll need to do lots of work to improve this, it feels like I am in reverse as everyone else goes whizzing past me on the hills. Adie and I have signed up to do the Wiggle Cornwall Tor in April,  this should give us some idea as to our levels of fitness. This will be the first sportive we have ever done, so we have opted to do the 73 mile route, which still covers a lot of hill climbing, including Millook, reputed to be the steepest through road in the country.

With a rapidly approaching 50th birthday looming it was time to do some of those things I'd always been threatening to do before I was too old!
So when George and I had met for a pint one evening and he told me he really wanted to do a LEJOG I didn't hesitate in saying that I would do it with him. I'd actually been thinking of something bigger, but this sounded like a great idea, reasonably achievable and could be a brilliant adventure. And as George said, we would be crossing three countries!
We quickly agreed a few basics, neither of us could take more than two weeks off work, it would be unsupported and would probably include some camping.
All I had to do now was buy a bike and start training!

What were we thinking?

Well like most great ideas, this one was born over a couple of drinks in the pub. Adrian and I were discussing the adventures we would like to undertake before we were too old to complete them. I happened to mention that I had always wanted to ride from John O'Groats to Lands End. Before long we were talking about buying Bivi bags and sleeping at the side of the road and what a great challenge it would be to do such a long ride. Well that was a few months ago now and things have moved on. We both now have new bikes, we've set a date of 26th of August 2011, we've been training hard and this blog is to keep you all informed of the progress we're making with the training and the ride. Along the way we are hoping to raise some funds for the Childrens Hospice South West, so please click on our Just Giving link and help us to help them.