Maps...

I spent this weekend doing more planning around the route given that I have a sore back from carrying too much weight in my rucksack (namely my laptop) last week.  I also wanted to do a test pack of my kit but just ran out of time before heading off to a Halloween party with the kids.

The huge map of the UK put together with Sellotape has now been chopped up into day (ish) sized chunks, the plan is to keep the bare minimum of paper in my map case with the rest stowed in a water tight place.  Although I have treated my map case water does get in eventually and as the paper is very thin it is hard to get it apart when dampness sticks it all together. I could buy an expensive Ortleib map case but this money would be better spent on food/accommodation.

Other solutions for the maps: coat in a watered down PVA, sticky backed plastic (army trick), laminate (kayaking trick) or use an off the shelf water proofer for maps.  Thanks to my FB friends for suggesting these.  Also suggested by a member of the Abingdon Tri Club was a product produced by a company called P2i, he knows someone there.

http://www.p2i.com/

The suggestion is to mention the charity thing and see what they come up with. Might be able to treat everything for water repellency – including me!

If you have not lost the will to live by now and still care about important details, the weight of the map prior to any treatment is 60g.

Crikey, I've really got to do this now!

I spoke with the charity that I would like to raise money for today, all seems good and we are setting up a meeting shortly.

http://criduchat.org.uk/

Thankfully they have a Just Giving page which will make things a lot easier. I think several of the chaps there are keen to do this too...could be an interesting meeting.

The link for me is that my daughter shared her special care ward with a young man who has Cri Du Chat Syndrome, the distress that his family went through when they learned of his condition was hard to witness. This is pretty much all the motivation I need to achieve the ride and raise as much as I can.

Winter starts to set in…

I cycled to work on Monday into a stiff wind, felt rubbish when I got there but the trip home was a lot quicker. It's unusual for the wind to be this way round, normally get an assist on the way in. The old, thicker tyres are miserable compared to the slicks. No training Tuesday or Wednesday but cycled and used the gym today.

I watched a YouTube video about 2 lads cycling end to end last night, couldn't sleep after that as it highlighted just how remote some of the route is. I am now worried about my knee failing and running out of food – makes things more interesting. Among other issues they suffered a broken frame – twice (welded up at two separate garages), held a pasta eating competition and swam in the sea at both ends of the country; amazing but very daunting too.

I will try to get a long ride in at the weekend and also test pack my gear. The other thing I have been working on is a route card in as few words as possible to be used in conjunction with the map.

More maintenance and testing….

Had a reasonably hard training week last week so did no cycling this weekend. It's worked out quite well as I have a mild cold and have been happy just to tinker with my bike. I removed the slick tyres to save them for next year, it's a shame as they are very easy to push along the road but a pair comes in at £56. In addition to this I replaced the rear inner tube as it had a couple of patches, I'm sure it would be fine but it's inviting a puncture, patching tyres in the cold, dark and wet on the way home is not pleasant so best to avoid it.

I have finally got round to removing an inch from each end of the handle bar, the brakes, shifters and bar ends have all been adjusted and just need their positions testing on the way to work tomorrow. A quick sit-on test in the garage felt ok but time in the saddle will tell.

I cooked a packet of Super Noodles on my Trangia stove in blowy conditions to see what would happen. All went very well and the meal took about 20 minutes from cold water to eating; in reality the burner would be a more shielded from the wind so it has performed pretty well. I will test baby potatoes next week to see how long they take. Today's test has confirmed that I could put a packet of these away between meals without wasting too much time. It would be a good opportunity to rest but without affecting the length of the day too much. I think the best tactic will be a couple of hours cycling and a 15 minute rest with some food (mostly cold I would guess). That way my legs get a decent rest and I should not get too many stiffness issues the following day.

If anyone has suggestions for high (complex) carbohydrate meals that can be cooked in a 1 litre pot do post comments below, it would be most appreciated!

Nice Sunday Afternoon Ride.

Fantastic ride on Sunday, we decided to take in a few of the undulating roads around Uffington and essentially did a 25 mile loop through Wantage, Lains Barn, Hanney back to Uffington.  I cycled there and back which added a further 25 miles to take the total to 50.

In terms of the tyres, they were great. I kept up nicely with the road bike but could not accelerate as quickly and there was a marked difference in gearing, my top gear had a higher cadence compared to the road bike which meant I could not go as fast down hill.  The front end felt a little light but I soon got used to this.

The true test of the slick tyres would be a commute to work (Monday, 17th Oct); I reckon that the cruising pace on the flat increased by 2mph and I posted a quick time despite not putting a full effort into the ride. There was also a nil wind i.e. not a following wind which is usual.  Overall, a great investment but I shall be removing them and saving the rubber for my trip.  I am thinking that this would a. be cheaper and b. get more yield from training with slower, stickier tyres.

Didn't get round to grinding off the bars but will try and do this at the weekend.

Weekend Stuff….and maybe some training.

Had a great ride into work yesterday, lovely autumn weather, slightly cool and nil wind. I had not managed any rides during last week due to meetings and commitments at home so it was great to get peddling again. The only reason for going to work was to get a ride in – job done.

My new maintenance stand arrived on Friday so I spent some of Saturday cleaning the drive train and also swapping both tyres for some 1.3" road slicks. I have never used these before and just wanted to see if there was a difference as the theory would suggest. The least friction possible will be helpful over 1000 miles I suspect. I am hoping to grind off the ends of the handle bars tomorrow to narrow them down in the hope of a more comfortable position.

Facebook is brilliant; I have hopefully managed to queue up a riding partner for tomorrow afternoons 50 miler. I haven't seen this chap since I left school but I know from FB that he is a keen road biker. It will be interesting to see just how fit I am and whether I can keep up with him. I have suggested a route that takes in a lot of the hills south of Wantage – up and over the Ridgeway etc. I think the afternoon will go a lot quicker with someone to chat to.

More Kit Planning

I have spent some time looking at the kit list with a view to shaving down on weight. The first stab at determining kit weight came in at 19.699kg, having binned the heavy front light and battery pack and also the kettle I now weigh in at 18.769kg. There may be a couple of other things I could do to bring the weight down but I want to think carefully about what to scratch from the list. The decision to leave the front light at home arose from the fact that there will be plenty of daylight to allow for delays of a couple of hours in any one day and I have a lightweight head torch that could be used at a pinch. One item that would save over 800g is the lock – do I really need to take a lock? This will need some thinking through but I think the answer will be yes. There will be times where I will need to leave everything to pop into a post office or supermarket, the challenge is effectively over if an enterprising chav nicks my bike and puts it on eBay.
I think the next thing to do is work out where I want stuff packed and then create a checklist – saves time when you are preparing for the day ahead. At this stage, I do not even know if all this stuff will fit into 3 pannier bags and a bar bag. On previous trips, I didn't weigh things and go into so much detail given they were only 3 days and 250 miles max. I did use a check list to pack though; the result looked something like this:



Lynmouth 2010



 I won't be taking the front mudguard and the stove fuel bottle will be stowed under the down tube. The tyres will be slicks and the bar grips have been changed for bar ends and a wrist pad to help mitigate numb fingers. The other change will be the width of the handle bar, by grinding off an inch from each end this will bring my hands more in line with my shoulders and should reduce the bend in my wrists thus taking the pressure off the various nerves that run through that area.

I am aiming to get a decent training ride in at the weekend, we'll have to see how much time is available!



Encouragement from the Mrs

Sam had been working with some visitors from Scotland today and mentioned that I was looking to do LEJOG next year. He then brought her up to speed with the latest fatalities on the road…..

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Tayside and Central | A9 branded 'Scotland's deadliest'

Thanks mate, great move.

More Route Finding.

Spent some of today chopping up two road atlases and sticking them back together again. To finish off, I highlighter my preferred route from one end of the living room to the other.
Having read through other peoples experiences and looked at various websites, it looks like the most direct route by A roads is the only option for me given the timescale for the ride. I was a little perturbed by the proximity of some of the larger cities but then took a bit of comfort from some of the wide open spaces that IU will be riding through. One guide highlighted some of the hillier bits but I am not convinced that I know where all the tough sections are yet. Once I do know, this will inform my daily mileage to try and give my legs a chance.
The next step is to type a brief narrative for each part of the route with notes of remote shops etc.; I still worry about running out of water and food in an isolated part of the Lake District or Scotland. Having words as well as a map will make navigation easier – I like to cross reference all the time to avoid getting lost.

 

Hopefully going for a beer with a veteran next week to chat through some of this stuff, I have started a list of things that I want to ask him already.

Aches and Pains

Busy day today starting with the commute, then followed by work rubbish until a weight training class at lunchtime, more work rubbish and then a reasonable ride home. The wind had picked up a bit and aligned itself in precisely the wrong direction but still nice to be away from the office.

I have had a back ache just under my left shoulder blade for a week now which wakes me up in the morning.  I have attributed this to last weeks weight training class but don't remember hurting it.  Today's class provoked a twinge during dips and bicep curls. I am counting on the fact that if I continue to train it will go away.  My knee is playing up after loading up more weight than usual for the squatting - essential exercise for cyclists but I was just going through the motions at the lighter weight. Again, train through it - none of this 'I need to rest' rubbish......clearly I know more than the experts. My final complaint is my shoulder, the right side tightens a lot more than the left and is probably a result of the surgery in July plus the fact that I have carried my pre-historic laptop for the last 3 commutes.

Things are going well then?  Do we make these conversations to impress people by telling them that despite all the issues we have we continue to grind it out day after day? Or do we talk about this stuff because it makes us feel better and that we are trying as hard as we can in the circumstances.  The final 'or' is are we too precious about this sort of thing and should just put up or shut up? I'm not sure I know the answer to this and I probably engage is a little of all three.

This, of course, has nothing to do with completing the end to end because 99% of this challenge is mental, the other 1% is about finding a public toilet to avoid squatting behind a hedge on the A30. I know it's going to hurt, I know my brain will pack up when I run out of energy, I know I will have mechanical problems and sleepless nights listening to the Polish lorries steam past my bivvi. I know all of this so it won't be too bad when it actually happens - will it?

Route Finding.

Having picked up a little more enthusiasm yesterday evening, I pulled up the mileage spreadsheet and looked at a road atlas to have a go at refining some of the distances on certain parts of the trip. The idea was to reduce mileage on days that would encounter hills – Cornwall and Devon were the obvious ones and then the Lakes and then Scotland. That doesn’t leave much of the trip that is flat!

The first two days have been mileage limited to 70 but then I got a bit stuck. I suspect that I will need to chat to others that have completed the route to get their take on when it’s hilly and when it’s not.  Given that I could not solve this immediate issue, I started to highlight the route on the atlas, eventually I will cut up the map to reduce it’s bulk and have a flicker book of the route.

I have been enjoying a lot of the comments I have read about ‘death trap roads’ – again, this would seem to be the case for most of the trip.

I think I can't be bothered...

This weekend saw some glorious weather for the beginning of October, temperatures in the late 20’s and sunshine all day. Despite this and since the bike fit last Wednesday, I have suffered from a lack of motivation which has meant no cycling (although I have attended the usual gym classes).

I think there were a few of reasons for this: laziness, heat, upper back discomfort from the weight training class I did on Tuesday, stuff to do at home.  Having written these down, none of them are real reasons which makes me a loser. I suspect that if I had made the effort it would have been fine. Memo to self for next episode of apathy.

I cycled to work this morning, a pleasant trip taking the usual route through Abingdon and Radley which then diverted through Littlemore to Cowley as I had a meeting to attend at a different office. Although I have not tweaked things to the absolute measurements provided by Bike Dynamics there is a decent improvement in power, it remains to be seen if the back and arse ache are reduced on a long ride.

It is surprising (to me) that having enjoyed the experience of the bike fit I lost interest until this morning. Something else to think about and avoid next time.