Improving...............?

Having only done a couple of 25 milers last week, I was feeling a little conscious that I hadn't done enough.  In fact Sunday's ride was postponed as an evening with Ann's family in Paisley the night before, turned out to extend until gone midday by the time we got home, and the 'one or two' ales that I'd so happily sunk the night before hampered all enthusiasm.

Today was another of those frosty mornings, so I headed out to take a steady ride out to North Berwick again.  A gentle 50 miler was what I was needing.

After having cycled about 5 miles, the frigid air was beginning to penetrate into the legs, feet and hands, so the gentle effort was upped, to try and get a bit more warmth into the body.  I decided not to stop for a coffee in North Berwick as I wanted to see if I could just whack out the 50 miles in a one'er.  So I just stopped for a glug of drink from my bottle and to take a quick piccie along to the harbour.

I got home after 3hours and 20 minutes, which gave an average speed of 15mph.  I gave that some thought whilst I eagerly devoured some soup and a sandwich and was actually quite pleased with the distance and speed.  If I could keep that up all day, which I appreciate is doubtful at his stage in the training, then in theory I could clock up a 100 miles in a day if push came to shove.

Whilst pondering on the effort needed to do this I thought about calories needed to keep me going.  A bit of internet research ensued, and I came up with the fact that for a man of my weight, cycling at between 14-16 mph, I would be burning about 900 calories per hour.  So today's ride came in at an impressive 3000 calories burned.

This is excellent if the sole purpose of cycling is for weight loss, but it's not.  Obviously I will lose weight on the trip, but based on the fact that we'll be burning maybe an additional 5000 calories a day on the trip, then serious thought will have to be given to how we are going to consume in the region of 7500 calories per day.  I'm no nutritionist - so that will have to go on the list of things to think about.  I wonder how many pork pies and pints of beer would make up the daily requirement !!!!!

Montane

Planning any form of adventure, will usually involve reviewing your kit and upgrading, replacing or just simply getting a new item.  I’ve been trying to make do with most of what I already had, but some of it is simply well beyond its useful lifespan. Working in an outdoor store, does have its benefits in terms of getting staff deals on kit but that doesn’t make up for the fact that the salaries are awful, so buying new gear can still prove to be expensive.

Take for example my old cycling jacket – so old now, it’s actually faded quite significantly and makes you sweat more than a fat lad in a sauna eating a vindaloo.

Over Christmas when Ann and myself were in Chamonix, I tested  out a down jacket and some winter trousers for Montane.  Despite the European sounding brand name, they are a British company based in Northumberland.  Both of these garments really were top quality, full featured garments.  If you’re likely to be belaying in cold climates, then the North Star down jacket really is something I would wholeheartedly recommend.

With that in mind, I thought I would chance my arm and see if they had any test kit available from their cycling range, or indeed, a jacket that hadn’t met the grade in terms of their quality checking.

Some companies will just trash your emails and not bother replying, and then there’s companies like Montane.  Not only did they very kindly agree to give me a new cycling jacket, but they also showed genuine interest in what I’m doing and actually wanted to keep up to date with the training, how I’m getting on physically and psychologically and see any photos.  It's refreshing to find a manufacturer that makes clothing that outdoor users need and who are actually interested in what folk are doing in the outdoors!!

Check out their website and see all the goodies they sell.  There is also details of various exciting events and expeditions, so if you are an adventurer yourself, or even an armchair adventure enthusiast, there’s loads there to inspire and while away an evening.  And none of that Bear Grylls ‘playing at adventure’ nonsense either !!

So I’d like to publically say a massive thankyou to the guys and gals at MONTANE for the jacket.  I hope you keep up to date with our trip, and I’ll let you know how I get on with the jacket.

http://www.montane.co.uk/products/men/shell/velocity-dt-jacket/246

Something to think about when training

It's been 10 days since the last post, and I've continued to get out on the bike as much as possible on my days off.  To be honest though, I've not been doing nearly as much as I think I need to do, largely due to the continuing foul weather.  It's not really been raining much, well hardly at all really, but over the last 2 weeks, as I've been getting more into it, the wind has been buffeting at high speeds virtually every day.  And the day's it's not been windy, then there's been a really sharp frost. 

In fact on Monday's ride out to North Queensferry, I went through the very picturesque Dalmally Estate, and on one of the steep inclines, putting down the power to keep the speed up, I even had the back wheel spinning.  Now that is very disconcerting when you're locked into your pedals and I can tell you my buttocks definitely clenched a little tighter.

Ben Saunders - the polar explorer posted a link on twitter the other day, saying that if you ever think the training is getting to you, think of Tommy Godwin.  Godwin, it turns out, holds the record for the greatest distance cycled in a year at 75000 miles !!!!!!!  And this was back in 1939.

Godwin's bike weighed more than 30 pounds. As war came he rode through blackouts, his lights taped to a glow. Silk knickers were substituted for chamois inserts and Godwin maintained a vegetarian diet. For the first two months Godwin's mileage lagged 922 miles behind the previous record holders schedule. Godwin increased his daily average beyond 200 miles a day, and on 21 June 1939 he completed 361 miles in 18 hours, his longest ride of the record.

On 26 October 1939 Godwin rode into Trafalgar Square having completed 62,658 miles, gaining the record with two months to spare. He rode through the winter to complete 75,065 miles in the year.
In May 1940 after 500 days' riding he secured the 100,000-mile record as well. Godwin dismounted and spent weeks learning how to walk before going to war in the RAF.

By anyone's standards - that is truly is an achievement of gargantuan proportions, and defines an athletic achievement that will almost certainly never be beaten.  Yes - we have great cyclists now doing the tours, as well as the long distance cyclists, but even TV's current golden explorer boy, Mark Beaumont's cycle around the world, a mere 18297 miles took him 194 days.  That achievement looks distinctly poor when you compare it to Tommy's achievements.

I guess the key learning objectives I take from this are that I should just stop looking at what the weather is doing, stop hoping the conditions will improve and just get out there on the bike.  A big sarcastic 'Thanks' must go to Ben Saunders for posting in the first place - I now feel even more guilty sat on the couch with my cup of tea and a pork pie in hand !!!!

A good week

All in all - a good week on the training front - here's the stats

Monday - 4.5 miles to work
Tuesday - 23 miles to North Queensferry
Wednesday - 47.5 miles to Linlithgow
Thurday - 4.5 miles to work
Friday - 50 miles to North Berwick
Sunday - full day out climbing Ben Lomond.

so that's 129.5 miles and a day in the hills - Not bad for the second week of training.  And a quick jump on the scales shows a 6lb weight loss - not bad at all !!!!

having done a couple of 50 mile days, I have a little more confidence of being able to do the daily distance, although with the tiredness I've had, less confidence on doing this for 2 weeks solid.  Something to work on !!!

Ooooohhhhhh my arse hurts

Had a chat with Andy on Monday night and we discussed the possibility of starting the adventure a month earlier.  We've tentatively agreed to head down to Lands End on the Thursday before easter and start the tour on Good Friday. 
I say tentatively, as I now have far less time to try and find the finely honed athelete that lurks within.  I haven't seen him for many years now, I know he's still inside, but he'll be stubborn when it comes to revealing himself.  In fact that leaves just 11 weeks.  FECK  11 weeks !!!

It's sort of scared me a little.  We've been working on the basis of taking it reasonably steady on the ride - maybe average 70 miles a day.  It doesn't sound a lot, but don't forget we'll be dragging all out own kit along with us. 

I'm weighing in at 14 st 4lbs, much the same as when I was playing rugby all the time, but now just a little more rotund !!!  hopefully I'll shed a stone or so before the ride, which will make up for part of the weight of the towing of the the trailer, but I need to be able to comfortably stay in the saddle for about 6 hours a day doing a reasonable speed.

Jury service was for me cancelled - my name was fortunately not picked out for two of the court sessions, so it gives me an opportuntiy to get a few rides in.  So Tuesday was a 23 miler out to North Queensferry after I got back from the courts.

Today was just shy of 50 miles as I headed out to Linlithgow.  I chose to cycle along the Union Canal which proved to be a slow and rough journey - not only was the path just a mud track, but it was scattered with the branch and twig remnants from last weeks storms.  I had to even negotiate 4 trees that blocked the path.  Under, over and around !!!  Progress was slow and very bumpy and clearly the reason for my very sore arse tonight.

It leaves me with a bit of a sense of dread though.  I'll have to do about half of that journey on top of todays slog on a daily basis for about 15 days. 

Is 11 weeks going to be long enough - that's what will be playing on my mind

Training fully underway

The training is now on track - even if I'm not putting in huge miles yet.  The plan is to build up slowly over the first month to get the legs back into the motion of doing more miles.  So here's the stats

Weds - 12 miles
Thur - 4 miles
Fri - 4 miles
Sat - 15 miles
Sun - 8 miles

so week 1 down and 43 miles under the belt.  OK - don't laugh, it's a start and 35 miles more than I normally do.

Next week, I hope things will improve ( a lot depends on whether I'm actually called for jury service !!).  The improvement will come from all the shiny new kit I've bought though.  New helmet, long winter tights, bib shorts, new overboots and most importantly, I have a new set of cycling shoes all set up for the bright red Look pedals that now adorn the mountain bike.  The shoes even have carbon fibre soles for lightness and strength - watch out Thatcher - I'm hunting you down !!!!

Training begins

Hit the road for the first time today - I faffed around all morning waiting for the weather to improve, but it just got steadily worse - more rain and the wind was blowing a gale.  In the end I just went for it - much to the shock of Ann "you can't go out in this weather".

Just a quick ride along to Crammond and back, and then repeated.  12 miles in total.  On the way out the wind was in my face - I'm sure I was only averaging about 8 mph but coming back the speed was up and the going easy - hopefully we'll have the tail wind for a thousand miles, or I'm in trouble !!

High Altitude training

Well - me and Ann are just back from the Alps - the intention was to do a bit of ice climbing in Chamonix along with a bit of snowshoeing.  Cham had an unexpectedly large dump of snow when we were there which pretty much completely curtailed the ice climbing, but we did get out every day for long walks in deep powder.

So while away, the training plan was developed.  January was to be pretty much alcohol free, we'd get out in the hills more and cycling miles would be pounded out with regularity.  OK we're only 2 days into the new year, but there's been no cycling miles, there's been beer every evening, a whole large peperoni sausage has be eaten and the weather forecast in the hills is quite frightening. 

I guess I'll be playing catch up !!!!  I hope Andy's not keeping up to date with this blog :oO