Day 7, Rugby to Nottingham

60.31 miles, 4:44:56 hours
Total miles: 404.36
Total hours on the bike: 33:08:38

Another day of rain (making a total of 5 out of 7) and a fair degree of pain in both achilles and right knee made for a tough final day.
At the halfway point I was reduced to stopping at McDonald's for lunch - it was throwing it down and I couldn't find anywhere else. I changed into my last pair of dry socks and stuffed handfuls of serviettes into my shoes as I tucked into the only veggie food available - chips and onion rings.
After a half hearted attempt to dry my shorts under the hand-dryer I set off in the rain once again.

After an hour or so I came upon a familiar sight - in the distance were the towers of Ratcliffe power station. For the first time in my life I was pleased to see the ghastly coal-fired monstrosity - because it meant I was properly close to home.

By the time I hit the Nottingham city boundary my knee was screaming with every rotation - and even slight hills were difficult to tackle without a grimace. I was reduced to taking the cycle-lane around the ring-road because I couldn't maintain the kind of pace required for the road.

And then almost without realising it I was home, and within the hour I was in a hot bath with a cup of tea - and no pain!

Thanks to everyone who supported me - either by donating money or by helping out in other ways. At the time of writing the total raised is £1125 against the target of £1000 so it's mission accomplished.

Now to choose a name...

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Day 6, Evesham to Rugby

43.54 miles, 3:5:36 hours
Total miles: 344.05
Total hours on the bike: 28:23:42

After yesterday's easy experience, today was a whole lot tougher, and it was all down to the weather again. Strong winds and heavy rain made for slow and uncomfortable progress. Fortunately it was just a short run to our friends Donna and Ed in Rugby, my wife is working in Coventry tomorrow so she's coming down tonight too.

I've had no mechanical issues on the trip yet - with one day to go - thanks in part to a pre-ride service from Ross at Cycletastic. The bike is in desperate need of a wash though - at the end of each day we have both been covered in road-gunge, but I have been able to shower. A job for the weekend then.

My left achilles and my right knee ligaments have been in competition all day to see who can shout the loudest. I've been ignoring them in the hope that they will eventually get bored and stop wingeing. My left knee has occasionally joined in with a 'me too!', but I ignored that as well.

So, last day tomorrow - 60+ miles to Nottingham.
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Day 5 Coalpit Heath to Evesham

63.39 miles, 5:05:44 hours
Total miles: 300.51
Total hours on the bike: 25:53:06

Today was a doddle, a delight, a dream - because there was NO RAIN!
There was a large thunder shower in the afternoon but I managed to find a pub and waited it out.
Just a few hills and no real wind made for the easiest day so far.

Heavy rain is forecast for the night and early morning so I copped out of camping again and found a B&B.

Just 2 days (of rain) to go.
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Day 4, Bridgwater to Coalpit Heath. Fewer hills, more rain.

45.77 Miles, 4:00:05 hours on the bike.
Total miles: 237.12
Total hours in the saddle: 20:48:02
Total hours in the rain: about 15.

Made it to my brother and family's house, just north of Bristol.
I'm now past the halfway point. Less than two hundred miles to go.
It bucketed it down today - after a couple of hours of constant downpour through North Somerset and into the Mendip Hills I reached a whole new level of wet.
My proposed stop off at Cheddar Gorge was scrapped as expected and instead I went to the pub to partially dry off.
The rain eased off to a light drizzle after an hour or so, so I set off again. Of course, within 5 minutes the heavens opened again and by the time I got to Bristol I was wetter than ever.
My new 'waterproof' gloves had decided they would rather be a pair of old sponges than an item of expensive technical clothing. At one point I could be seen at the side of the A38 wringing them out like a dish cloth.

Today also marked the day I got properly lost for the first time.

On the plus side - it seems I've developed an interesting new skill. The ability to pee by the side of any road - anywhere.
Regardless of how busy it is, how many motorists, horse riders or ramblers are around.
If I gotta pee, I'm gonna pee!
Quite a useful skill for a long-distance cyclist.

On through Gloucestershire towards the Midlands tomorrow. The forecast is for more rain so it's probably B&Bs from here on in.
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Day 3. Torrington to Bridgwater.

66.05 Miles, 5:42:20 hours
Total miles: 191.35
Total hours in the saddle:16:47:57

If the forecast for the rest of this week is accurate then today was perhaps the only dry day I will have in the whole week. There were plenty of hills in the morning but the afternoon was flat, windless and dry - so I made good progress.

The dull pain in my 43 year old knees is now constant but the worst hills are behind me and at some point tomorrow I'll pass the halfway point.

I had planned to semi-wild camp in the middle of Exmoor but with heavy rain forecast for the morning I pushed on to Bridgwater and a B&B.

Waterproofs on in the morning and on towards Bristol. I was going to swing by Cheddar Gorge and a next-door Wildlife Trust reserve, but I think I will just press on to the next base if the forecast is correct.
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Day 2, Wadebridge to Torrington. More hills and a lot more rain.

55.05 miles, 4 hours 42 min.

Total time on the bike: 11:05:37
Total miles: 125.30

I rescheduled from last week to this because the forecast was better.
So much for the forecast! It rained almost non-stop today. When it wasn't raining it was foggy. I even had to have lunch in the rain because the cafe I stopped at only had outside tables available.

But the weather wasn't my biggest problem. That was the hills.
Constant hills!
Towards the end of the day I was reduced to pedalling for 30 seconds then resting for a minute, pedalling then resting. Such was the angle of the incline and the energy levels in my legs.
It was all worthwhile when I crested the last one in Torrington to see my wife and parents in the distance waving me in. I was then treated to a chocolate medal, a pasta dinner and a home made chocolate coffee cream cake :-)

Tomorrow's section is the worst day for hills, including a 25%er - but the forecast is DRY!
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Day 1 - Wet, Windy and Weally Weally Hilly

Day 1 - Land's End to Wadebridge
Total time on the bike: 6:23:17
Total miles: 70.33

Hill, headwind, rain. Another hill, more rain, the same headwind. Another bloody hill, more wind, a really steep hill and more wind and rain. For 6 and a half hours!

I rode through some stunning scenery though, and for the last hour it stopped raining and the wind was so strong I nearly dried out!

Tomorrow it's onto Devon and some REALLY big hills!

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Rain Stops Play

It's hard to believe with the weather so glorious at the moment but the forecast along my route for the week I had planned is for RAIN on 5 out of the 7 days.
So I have rescheduled for the following week - setting off on the weekend of the 2nd June.
There's no going back now because I can't get any other week off work!

Fully loaded

This morning I sorted out all the gear and was surprised to find it weighed a total of 20kg :(
Fortunately this is exactly what touring bikes are built to do so I packed everything into my panniers and loaded up. The whole rig was so heavy I could barely get it out the house!

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New gear 2

Leon from the Wildlife Trust has loaned me his wicked little stove and his fab Rab Neutrino sleeping bag - half the weight and 3 times the warmth of my cheapy one.
Good nights sleep assured. :-)

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New tent!

Birthday present from my wonderful wife.
I realised today that I had tweeted about this but hadn't mentioned it on the blog.
It packs down to a very small size and weighs less than 2kg so is just perfect for my needs.

Flo the chicken thinks it might be a bit pokey, but she's spoilt.

Man Flu conquered!

I managed to recover sufficiently on Monday to get out and try my 14 mile loop - and clocked just 31 secs behind my PB, not bad for a man in my condition!

Man Flu

It's the nicest weekend of the year and I'm so full of cold that I struggled to get out of bed yesterday.
After grimacing through the wind and rain of recent weeks it was frustrating to see such blue skies and not be able to get out.
The best I could do was give my bike a good clean ready for next weekend.



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Another 45 miles

Another 45 miles yesterday - in the rain of course.

Despite the weather I felt really strong for the first couple of hours, in fact I didn't stop until 28 miles - and that was because I needed a pee and to refill my water bottle, I'm pretty sure my legs could have gone for longer. I started to tire soon after as the aches kicked in and the weather started to wear me down.
I need to bite the bullet and buy some new waterproof gloves. After 3 British winters mine are waterproof in name only. They're not very breathable either so the insides smells like I've been pickling onions in there!

I'm definitely getting fitter though _ I can climb harder and for longer and can descend faster and with more confidence. In fact I'm more confident on the bike all round - the one benefit of all this training in the rain is that I am now comfortable in a multitude of unfavourable conditions. When I first started anything less than a perfect road surface had my heart fluttering and my hands reaching for the brakes.

The picture by the way is a wind farm a few miles north of my home. I was around 200m from the nearest turbine and it was totally silent despite turning at a fair pace. All I could hear was my breathing (the wind farm is on top of a hill natch) and a chiffchaff in the tree behind me. Nothing from the turbines - no air turbulence, no rotor noise, just 5 beautifully elegant turbines silently spinning away.

Now to clean the 45 miles of road muck off the bike and do it all again.
It's just started to rain of course.

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13 mile loop

Haven't been able to make the time for any long rides since coming back from holiday, but I have worked out a quick blast out into the countryside and back that I can do in less than an hour - and be back before anyone knows I'm gone.

I've started using a training app too, which really helps with motivation.

I've read conflicting reports about whether short-duration, high-intensity rides like these will have any effect on my long-distance ability but the miles have to count.

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First ride since returning from The Gambia

COLD, WET, WINDY.
That is all.
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Holiday

Been in The Gambia for the last 2 weeks, hence few posts.

Still managed to get some miles in though.

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Another 50 Miles

It was a really pleasant day to be out on the bike this Saturday - it makes such a difference when it's not cold, wet or windy!
My sponsorship has made it to £750 too which is just amazing!



50 miles? No problem!

50.04 miles to be precise.

And all before lunch.

At least it's warmed up a bit!

I was helping a friend move house all day on Saturday so had little choice but to get out in the pouring rain on Sunday morning.
I only managed 50 minutes!

Not sure if this was such a great idea...

The forecast said the temperature would be up to 4 degrees today.
I wasn't convinced...

A Winter Wonderland

Couldn't get out on the bike this weekend.
Saturday Morning was minus 3 degrees and then on Saturday night this happened:

So it was off to the gym on Sunday to spend an hour and twenty minutes on this:

What joy.

New Gear

The new front pannier racks that I managed to get for £4 from eBay!

(Scraggy beard from a jumble sale - helps to keep me warm on the bike!)

This now means I am nearly sorted for cycling gear - still need to source a few camping bits - see The Gear link for more details.

Please let me know if you or anyone you know can help out!

 

Last weekend's training ride

Cow hat from Evan!

January a.m. = double gloves!

Some words of encouragement from Charlie

1 cow, 1 man, 1 bike, 1 mission

The Wildlife Trust have posted a really cool story about my ride on their website.

Love the headline!

http://www.nottinghamshirewildlife.org/