Day 9

We made it!

Lairg to John O'Groats - 100 miles

Up at 5am we were on our bikes at 6am to get to John O'Groats early afternoon before driving to Perth for the night.

For the first 50 miles we must've only seen 10 cars in total, was so peaceful and barren.




The North coast seemed very picturesque, but then when the rain poured down it suddenly looked very bleak. We arrived at John O'Groats on schedule just before 2pm only to find the official photographer does not work saturdays - surely the busiest day of the week?!

Still we did our own pics and toasted a great success.

 

9 Days
1040 miles cycled
0 inches walked
56000ft uphill
80 hrs in the saddle
0 punctures between us

Great success!

Massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored us or helped in some way to make this trip possible. We have been blown away by your generosity and are rapidly approaching doubling our original sponsorship target which is amazing.

Also a massive thank you goes to Mark Klat - without his rally driving/cooking/mechanic/navigational/washing up/massage skills this trip would honestly have not been possible, cheers big fella you have been awesome.

Also hearing the Costa girls snigger whenever he ordered his favourite coffee was a particular highlight of the trip - skinny latte with vanilla essence, now that is a real mans drink!

Day 8

Applecross to Lairg

110 miles. We changed our route today as the weather was due to be bad, it saved us 10 miles but meant cycling straight up the other side of Bealach na ba directly from our campsite.

And by that I mean 5 miles and 2053ft of cycling uphill at often a lot more than 10% incline. In fact the bits that were 10% incline felt pretty flat!

This one hill took an hour to cycle up, even cycling down the other side was difficult as the temperature was near freezing plus the hairpin bends and sheer cliffs off the side of a single lane road made for a
white knuckle ride.








Very cold day today, didnt get above 7 degrees until after lunch, by that time we had pressed on through some bleak landscapes to Lairg.

Overnight Location = Lairg

1 day to go!

Day 7

Glen Coe to Applecross

120 miles, but with a small sting in the tail. The sting being climbing the highest road in Britain at the end of the day, after having already cycled 110 miles.

Beautiful scenery all day today and some nice sunshine as well.

Cycling up Bealach na ba was incredibly tough but so worth it, I'd recommend this to anyone as it is so spectacular.

Even had guys on motorbikes giving me the thumbs up as I crawled to near the top.

Seeing as the forecast was cold we were meant to be camping but wimped out and stayed in one of the wooden pods, was probably too hot with the heater on all night!

Overnight location = Applecross

Day 6

Abington to Glen Coe

Our longest day at 135 miles.

Heavy rain was forecast today and indeed as we woke up it was pouring it down. Fortunately the rain stopped just before we left and stayed dry most of the day.

The first half of the day was fairly boring and stop, start going from one side of Glasgow and out the other.

The second half of the day was spectacular, up past Loch Lomond into the Highlands in glorious sunshine. Well mostly sunshine, at one point some huge clouds came over the mountains and dumped rain, fork lightening and a whole load of darkness on us.

Cycled the last 20 miles with icy cold feet, still at least we had a toasty warm b & b tonight!

Overnight location = Glen Coe

Day 5

Bolton le sands to Abington, another 120 mile day

Scotland here we are!

Over shap fell was a nice climb, 1400ft high, going uphill for about 10 miles.

The rest of the day was fairly boring on a b road tracing along the motorway. Still we are over halfway now, only 4 days to go!

Overnight location = Abington

Shap Fells

Day 4

Telford to Bolton le sands, just a short day today at 120 miles

Our wives and children gave us a nice surprise by turning up at Telford overnight and happily waved us on our way in the morning.

Today was a rubbish day of cycling, just a case of getting through the busy northern towns in the pouring rain and out the other side.

Nice campsite on the coast, shame about the howling wind...!

Overnight location = Bolton le sands

Day 3

Cheddar to Telford via bristol and into Wales, another 127 miles.

Actual sunshine this morning surprisingly, via nice cycling up cheddar gorge with no traffic.

Over the Clifton suspension bridge, then the old Severn bridge followed and we were into Wales. Up and down some hills we then reached our glamorous premier inn hotel.

Sore legs, necks and hands for both of us, starting to feel the burn the following mornings now!

Overnight location = Telford

Day 2

Day two, lostwithiel to cheddar, via Dartmoor. 127 miles of seriously tough hills through some of that typical Dartmoor weather.

By that we mean rain, cold and mist! Very pleased to complete this day, as on paper it is our toughest.

Overnight location = cheddar

Day 1!

Right, now that we have finally located some wifi signal here is a quick update.

Day 1 has been done dispatched, 60 odd miles up and down some of cornwalls finest hills.

Lands end was hardly visible, day for the raincoats and soggy feet.

Oh and a dragonfly crashed into my mouth and 5 mind later I looked down to find it on my coat!

Overnight location = lostwithiel

We'll post a full write up when we have some more energy and signal!

Two weeks to go!

So, its been a few weeks (ok, more than a few) since our last update, now we have just over two weeks to go until we depart from Lands End! So what have Dangerous Dazza and myself been up to over the past few months – well quite a lot actually!

The training has on the whole been going very well. It’s been very difficult at times to squeeze in training amongst normal family life, therefore myself and Dangerous have not made it out on our bikes together for half as many training rides as we would have liked. However, individually we’ve both clocked up an impressive amount of miles in the saddle this year.

Dangerous has often cycled to the New Forest and back at weekends as well as increasing his commuting mileage, plus many a time has he been seen sweating away in the gym at work. And that was just because of walking the 200 yds to get there…! He’s experienced lots of punctures lately so fingers crossed he has got them all out of the way before the big one.

I’ve done a few long rides at the weekend, increased my commuting mileage and have done some gym work as well. One positive for me is that I’ve used my winter commuting bike for most of my training as my decent bike does not come out unless zero rain is forecast (which as you will know is not very often). I’m hoping all of my training on this heavy bike (around 12kg) will serve me well when I switch to my decent bike (about 7.5kg) for LEJOG.

What we both didn’t realise was the amount of planning involved in organising this type of ride, we have both put in so many hours of planning, way higher than either of us can count. So many different aspects required thought; bikes and set up, what spare parts to take, clothing for on and off bikes, camping gear, food/drink, route planning, accommodation booking, sponsorship (holding a raffle & other things), custom t-shirts, blog/facebook updating, contacting local media, contacting various companies for freebies/sponsorship etc etc – the list is almost endless!

But we are nearly there, with just over two weeks to go all we need is to finalise the small details of our plans and make sure our legs are ready for action. At this point I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored us so far, thanks to your generosity we have already raised in excess of £1500 (online & offline) and are well positioned to reach our target of £2k.

All of your support will really spur us on and please keep the sponsorship coming in! If you are reading this and haven’t yet sponsored us please do so now. And if you have already sponsored us please free to do so again as all money raised will go straight to our two grateful charities!

Hopefully once the Long Good Ride is underway we will post regular updates to let you all know how we are getting on (i.e. how many times Dangerous Dazza has stacked it), until then please wish us luck!

Two weeks today and we shall be hitting the road in Lands End....!

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My chief mechanic making sure I am doing things correctly!

 

Training Ride Number 4

Training Ride Number 4

16th and 17th June

This weekend was meant to bring about our next big training ride, however family life has to come first meaning Dazza and myself were not able to meet up for a ride as planned. Despite this we have both managed to get out separately for a few miles, here is a quick account of our adventures...

"Dangerous" Dazza Klat:

Distance: 30 miles

Top Speed: 36 mph

Average Speed: 16 mph

Altitude Gain:  5ft
Avg Gain Per Mile: 0.01ft 

Weather conditions: Sunny spells

A circular tour of the local area was in order today, hitting as many big hills as possible.  Porton, Gomeldon, East Grimstead and West Dean were all duly dispatched.

My legs felt sluggish on the flat as I had done loads of leg exercises and weights at the gym on Friday, however I still found as many big hills as possible. My legs felt powerful going uphill and I nailed two long 12% hills, one that went on for well over a mile (but felt much longer). After those hills I even managed to tackle a couple of steeper hills of about 15% with no problems at all. 

I could have gone further but didn't feel great before hand, so decided to call it a day and head for base where Mrs Dazza was cooking me a slap up lunch.

The ride today was really positive, at the bottom of the long 12% hill I did think to myself that I was never going to make it, however in reality I climbed the hill with ease.

Next stop - increasing the mileage.

Mark Underwood:

Distance: 95 miles

Top Speed: 44 mph

Average Speed: 19.5 mph

Altitude Gain:  4000ft
Avg Gain Per Mile: 42ft 

Weather conditions: Cloudy, Windy (But the wind was mostly kind)

Saturday brought about a trip to Aylesbury for a kiddies party, instead of driving I thought it would be a good idea to cycle and meet Alexis and the kids there...

It was one of those days today where everything that could go wrong, did.

I woke up tired after not much sleep, then stumbled about the house half asleep taking ages to make breakfast and setting off later than I had originally planned.

At precisely one mile into my 90 mile journey I was less than amused to get a puncture in the front wheel… plus I was travelling downhill at 30mph at the time! Luckily I managed to not stack it onto the terra firma but my main priority was stopping as quickly as I could so as to not damage the rim of my now flat wheel! Not a great start to the day.

Tube quickly changed, back on the road I was travelling through the less than glamorous locations such as Larkhill and Netheravon. Second setback of the day – road closed at Netheravon for resurfacing, 5 mile detour (after a couple of u turns), dammit! Now pressed for time it meant I had to average more than 20mph for the next 3 hours to get to the party in time. And no time for food breaks either.

Luckily the strong wind was pretty kind, often I found myself on a slight uphill travelling at 20mph+ and around 25mph on the flat, this is where the tri bars came in handy to make up for lost time. For some stupid reason I planned a couple of miles of my route onto the busy A34 dual carriageway heading to Oxford,  not a great place to be on a bike so I sped up to 30mph+ for this bit! At these speeds the miles seemed to tick by pretty quickly and the small villages soon passed by one by one.

Next negative, I discovered my bottle behind the seatpost had got a hole in it (second week running) and was rapidly emptying of energy drink. I had noticed earlier it had slipped down onto the wheel, obviously I hadn’t noticed soon enough…! Fortunately I still had enough drink in another bottle to last the journey.

I needed to eat (cnp chocolate flapjack in case you were wondering), but without time to stop this brought about its own challenges. Cycling uphill meant breathing heavier and struggling to swallow food at the same. Cycling downhill one handed meant it was hard work to stay upright in the wind and very wobbly when travelling fast! Either way I managed it and sped on to my destination.

After cycling at speed for 4:45 hrs without a break I had made it to the party on time (well, near enough which is good for me) as planned. Very good to know I can knock out nearly 100 miles without even stopping, plus doing so at speed, bodes well for our LEJOG based activities.

I left Aylesbury (driving) feeling very positive. However, I would be feeling even more positive if I had remembered to put my cycling shoes in the car before we left…! Doh!

Very glad to put this day to bed!

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The Long Good Route

So then, the route is pretty much decided - this has proved one of the most difficult things to organise so far.

The route we have settled on has taken some time to compile, it has taken some time because we have both wanted the route to be scenic but yet at the same time not a massive 4 week tour of Britain (mainly because the ladies in our lives wouldn't let us escape for this long!).

We have had to factor in several things like avoiding main roads where possible, campsite/b&b locations plus we wanted to take in iconic places like Dartmoor, Cheddar Gorge and Bealach na Ba (which for those of you that don't know boasts the greatest ascent of any road climb in the UK). Unfortunately most of the iconic places seem to involve a lot of cycling uphill....

So here is the route in fine detail (Some small lanes will be changed as no doubt we'll discover a lack of tarmac in places!):

Day 1

Day 2: Part 1
           Part 2

Day 3: Part 1
           Part 2

Day 4: Part 1
           Part 2

Day 5: Part 1
           Part 2

Day 6: Part 1
           Part 2

Day 7: Part 1
           Part 2

Day 8: Part 1
           Part 2

Day 9: Part 1
           Part 2

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Training Ride Number 3

Training Ride Number 3

 

Saturday 12^th May 2012

Distance: 68 miles

Top Speed: 42.5 mph

Average Speed: 14 mph

Altitude Gain:  4658ft
Avg Gain Per Mile: 68.5ft 

Weather conditions: Sunny, but windy at times

As you can see a bit of time has passed since our last training ride, unfortunately normal life has got in the way over the past few weeks which has prevented us escaping on our bikes for a few hours, until today at least.

Starting off from Darren’s caravan our plan today was to up the mileage since our last ride and stick to the back roads heading towards Hungerford, Newbury and then back to base for a bbq. Special thanks to Dazza as the route he planned was good, hardly any main roads and hardly any cars on our travels. Our route:

http://www.brytonsport.com/mapTrackView/3?id=522397

Special thanks also goes to our friends at Rocket Fuel, we were powered round the route today by their special self-heating cups of coffee. I’m not entirely sure how it works but when you are in the middle of nowhere its great to have a nice warm cup of coffee whenever you fancy, without the need for anything to heat it up! Open the cup, wait a few mins and magic – coffee is hot and ready!

                                                                                                                          

For the first 30 miles we were faced with a headwind, this made the going tough and both of us often looked down to see if the bikes were in the right gear as at times it did not feel like we were hardly moving! I was still feeling the effects of a mate’s stag do the previous weekend – this made the riding extra tough (I appreciate it was nearly a week previous but as I’m getting older it takes a lot longer to recover!)! At times the only thing driving me on was the thought of a bbq once we got back, mmmm burgers…!

Dazza’s extensive bird watching experience once again reared its head as we saw several large birds over the fields, I’m told several were buzzards, and buzzards especially like wearing thermals – or something to that effect. Big, steep hill conquered towards Inkpen and we sat down for a well earned bite to eat and a 5 minute breather at around the halfway point.

Luckily the halfway stage meant it was time to turn around and have the wind behind us for a change, I’d even prefer pouring rain to constantly riding into a headwind, it just makes everything such an effort – even riding downhill! We plodded along through lots of quiet country lanes, neither of us was exactly full of energy so we just cruised along rather than putting the hammer down. Past Thruxton race track and towards Middle Wallop we hit the wall, zero energy left at about 10 miles from base.

A quick dive into the petrol garage for some scoff and extra drink soon sorted things out, amazing what a bit of food can do! Soon we were off heading towards casa Dazza on the last 10 mile stretch, ready to taste that bbq food. Unfortunately because we’d been out for longer than expected the women folk decided our bbq was a no go as it was already way past lunch time, however the saving grace was that the burgers were already under the grill, nice work!

All in all today was a success, some good miles covered but neither of us had eaten anywhere near enough food before we set off. Our training continues with lots of gym work, plus we’ll squeeze in as many long rides as we’re allowed to between now and August! We also will up the mileage commuting to work, plus we need to ride some big distances on consecutive days to see if the legs still work!

Positives:

• Some good hill training covered, although nothing was too steep on this ride we still racked up a decent amount of altitude gain.
• Mark using decent bike for the first time in a month (it only comes out in dry weather!)
• Discovering the ability to knock out a further 10 miles even when completely knackered!
• Spending nearly 5 hours on the bikes, good to get used to lengthy stretches in the saddle.

Negatives:

• Neither of us were prepared properly in terms of food or drink.
• No BBQ when we got home!

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New Forest Sportive - 15.04.2012

Sunday 15th April 2012

Distance: 84.42 miles

Top Speed: 36 mph

Average Speed: 18.2 mph

Altitude Gain: 4285 ft
Avg Gain Per Mile: 50.8ft 

Weather conditions: Sunny, but windy and quite cold

So here we are, our first major challenge in the diary since beginning training a few months ago. I say here we are but unfortunately it is just myself flying solo - Dangerous Dazza had no choice but to pull out of the ride through illness. But I’m told this was actual illness rather than a case of man flu (though admittedly man flu could easily knock anyone out of action for a month or longer!)…

Today was all about upping the mileage and working out a decent fuelling strategy - sometimes on long rides I get into a rhythm and like to plough on when instead I should really stop briefly to take on some much needed food and drink.  Today worked out quite well as I ate actual food (no nasty tasting energy gels!) and did not run out of energy at any point. Route:


http://www.brytonsport.com/mapTrackView/2?id=446841

Starting off in the sunshine was nice (although the temperature wasn’t much above freezing this time of the morning) but the strength of the wind soon became apparent in the early miles on the exposed stretches of roads in the New Forest. Leaving Brockenhurst we made our way to Redlynch via the back roads, a few solid miles riding into the wind was hard work so it was good to reach Woodfalls and head back into the forest with the wind behind us briefly. But I did have a quick rest stop to let the pigs cross the road in front of me at one point…

Heading towards Godshill was fun because I was averaging over 25mph for at least 5 miles on a flat road with the wind behind me, I think riding my decent bike today (rather than my heavy winter training bike) definitely helped my pace. There were lots of club riders all riding together like a pro peloton, taking turns at the front to take a battering from the wind and keep the speed up. This is where having Dazza there would have helped, we could have each taken a turn heading into the wind with the other person benefitting from slipstreaming. Instead I just had to plough into the wind on my lonesome and tag onto the faster club riders whenever I could (only not taking a turn at the front of their group – cheers lads!).

The first feed stop at 34 miles gave me a chance to scoff some banana and flapjack quickly, refill my drink and then get back on the road. Soon we were through Ringwood and Burley swerving round horses and going over way too many cattle grids for my liking (or my shiny new bikes’ liking for that matter!). The second feed stop was probably a bit too close to the first as it arrived on 54 miles, still I didn’t turn down a chance for some jam sandwich and flapjack action!

Heading back into the wind we ploughed on towards Bucklers Hard and Beaulieu, then back round in a loop to the finish line at Brockenhurst on 84miles. I was glad to finish but not because I was spent, surprisingly I was feeling good by the end of the ride and had finished quite fast keeping up with a few of the club riders, I was just glad to get out of the wind and was happy to have kept up a decent average speed. Cycling time was 4:37hrs, total time inc feed stops was 4:50hrs – not bad I think for 84 miles in windy conditions!

I found the hills today very easy, one was 25% but it was so short it didn’t really register, none of the hills were half as severe as the hills I’ve been practising on at home – which leaves me feeling pleased that my hill training seems to be good! Plus of course all my training is done on a very heavy bike, riding my decent bike is way easier in comparison.

All in all (I speak for myself, not Dazza!), a very good day all round – I left the ride feeling very positive and if anything will up the hill training to make future long rides even easier. Only problem is convincing Mrs Dazza and Mrs U (well, soon to be..) to allow us out of the house for hours on end to complete said long rides…!

Positives:

• Good mileage done (and I parked my car up the road so did a further 14 miles on the day)
• Hill training paying off
• Good time/average speed
• Not ever running out of energy (fuelling must have been right for once!)
• Endura clothing was perfect, v comfy and good temperature maintained
• I’ve got the route saved so Dazza will attempt it with me in the near future once he has been nursed back to full health 

Negatives

• No Dazza – I could have done with my wing man to help me out!
• Riding into strong wind for too long
• New bike needs some adjustment – seat is too uncomfy for my liking!
• Cattle grids giving my bike a battering

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