Huw training hard in Italy last week!

Reality Dawns

Having returned in on piece from a great ski trip, I'm really focussing on 22 May now. Telephoning remote ( to me anyway) Scottish locations to book accommodation has made it all seem very real.

Back into the training now, and feeling good about my single day riding performance, I realise I need to start a few consequetive day longer rides. This still feels daunting, but very exciting.

Kit And Stuff

Trev has put together a great list, which resulted in me making another on line order - spare tubes, tyres, brake pads, lube, bar bag..... the list goes on! My once lightweight road bike is changing in appearance :(.

Fundraising

Nearly £1000 now! Fantastic, but please keep it coming !

Its getting closer....

Time is ticking on and May is fast approaching. Less than a 100 days to go and preparations are in full swing. I thought a brief update on a few things was much needed.

Bed and Breakfasts

We met up early February to review the final route, collated by Rodger (and available on the Route pages of this blog) we have split the route down and each taken a number of days to find accommodation for. Easier said than done! Some of the villages and locations we finish the day in have just one bed and breakfast. When there are 7 of you that can make things interesting.

I am certainly looking forward to discovering what a "put em up" temporary bed looks like and whether I get any sleep in it :)


Fundraising

We are increasing our fundraising efforts. We have created information pages and on line sponsor forms on the Intranet at work that we are publishing in a variety of ways. I have even tried pure bribery taking donuts and cakes in on a Friday and offering them in exchange for sponsorship. This is working well.

we also have a half page article in my local Parish Magazine March edition, talking about the challenge ahead and asking for support through sponsorship. This is starting to generate interest in my local community. Watch this space for further updates.

Training

I have been trying to acclimatize myself in the best way possible and starting to ride in all weathers from high winds gusting at 50 - 60mph to setting out on frosty mornings when the temperature is below freezing. So far so good. I am looking forward to the clocks changing and longer evenings to allow more opportunity to train mid week as its purely weekends at the moment.

We have also only been on one group ride so far this year and will need more of them to get used to riding as a team.

Its getting very real now and I am excited!

Thanks for reading, thanks for following and thanks for all your support so far.

Ian

Pictures from the first team training ride.

December / January Update

Not much cycling during the Xmas period. Training did continue, however, with 41 miles on the rowing machine in December, and 47 miles on the rowing machine in January.

After one aborted ride of just over 4 miles in January (very cold, fingers nearly fell off and had to turn back), I did manage a 16 mile ride the day after (now with extra layers and proper gloves).

I've also bought more stuff ready for the ride. I'll publish a full list soon.

We also had another team meeting (yes, down the pub again) and agreed the final route. The Our Route page is now updated with the details copied from BikeRouteToaster.com. I'll add links to the published routes at some point.

On with the training...

Time to get serious me thinks!

So, here we are 2011. According to one of the team, we have 20ish weeks before departures - Eeeeeek. For the first time in a few weeks, got the wheels out t his weekend. Nto too bad - just 2 shortish rides to start the warm up. Tried a few of the old favourite hills - wow - I've got some work to do!

Thanks to so money received for Christmas, I treted myself to a pair of Assos F1 Mille shorts - WOW is all I can say. They are truly amazing - the most comfortable cycle shorts I have ever riden in - there will be no  holding me back now!

October / November update

So following my training failure in September, October turned out to be a much better month. I managed 139 miles over 6 rides. I also did 28 miles of rowing.

Unfortunately, I've not done any rides in November (very wet and cold). I have done 21 miles of rowing (with still 3 days to go). I can't see this getting much better in December.

Planning to route has started. I've currently mapped out the route from John O'Groats down to Warrington (about half way). At some point (probably when I've finished), I'll upload the route onto the blog.

In planning the route, I've used a combination of the CTC routes (free if you join), "Land's End to John O'Groats: The Great British Bike Adventure" by Phil Horsley, and Piemanpete's blog. I also used a combination of Google Maps (very easy to use and share with others) and BikeRouteToaster.com (very good for working out which route is is more hilly!). BikeRouteToaster also allows you to download the routes in a variety of formats for importing into devices (e.g. your Garmin) or other sites. I've also been using some of the tools from GPSBabel to merge routes or convert them into other formats.

So, roll on December (probably more indoor training) and the planning for the rest of the trip.