One Week On - Epiblog

Firstly I can report that this will almost definitely be the final post in the LeJog Blog series of posts.  I have quite enjoyed Blogging these past few weeks so will have to think of a new topic to write about in future.

Following our arrival home last Saturday our bikes and bags arrived the day after via the slightly slower than Easyjet method of minibus.  Somehow our house had become the designated drop off point for all ten Cambourne / TTP bikes so I had quite a full garage / house which luckily no one broke into.

In an earlier post I mentioned how it had become a social norm for LeJog team mates to enquire about the state of my backside during all conversations.  I have been heartened to find that this has extended across my work colleagues, Rugby team mates and people I know down the pub, although I fully expect / hope it will go back to being an odd thing to ask over the coming weeks.

As is usual after a great sporting achievement we were inundated with requests from both local and national media outlets.  In the end we decided to give the exclusive to the Cambourne Weekly News which has a circulation rumoured to be in the tens of hundreds  (as long as you include the myriad copies dumped by the allotments in circulation figures.)

This being the last post I should reflect on what I have learned from the trip, I think the main things are:

- Cornwall is chuffing hilly.

- The scenery in between Bristol and Carlisle (ish) is not all that.

- The scenery in Scotland is all that.

- Scotland is cold

- 30 miles should never realistically be prefaced by the word 'just' unless in a car.

- Cycling is ace.

A little more on that final point.  Back at work on Monday Brendan and I had a chat at the coffee machine and both agreed that we missed being on our bikes, I wonder if we are suffering from some sort of cycling Stockholm syndrome?  

Those readers that are cyclists will be familiar with the website www.strava.com, for those that are not it is a website you can use it to track your rides and see how you measure up against other riders who, both randoms and your friends.  Each month Strava runs an MTS (monthly training schedule) which records you total mileage over the month.  Generally 4 - 500 miles will see you in the top 10,000 out of around 175,000 participants.  During the LeJog trip we made it into the top 500 (the top 200 are generally mentalists who are on Forrest Gump style runs but using bikes.)

Even more impressively Clare was at one point ranked 35th for distance amongst all female Strava users in the world!

Today I went for a ride of 'just' 20 miles, the outing had two purposes:

i)  Make me feel I had achieved something today beyond watching the Japanese Grand Prix and many Rugby matches.

ii) Push my monthly mileage total over 1000 miles!  (previous pb 805 miles last month)

The third purpose which I forgot to mention above was to see if all that time on the bike had paid any cycling dividends when I picked my pace back up.  The answer was yes for the first 14 miles or so my legs felt unstoppable and I set a new PB up a local hill, I say hill it was more of a slight slope but we call them hills in Cambs.  Then the dreaded bottom cramp struck which slowed me down a bit, but overall I think a decent results.

Now the final in the occasional 'you know when you have been cycling too much when' series, which covers cycle gear defined tan lines.  Best shown by the following pictures.  Actually when I remove my shirt before bed the effect is better and it looks like I am wearing a somewhat hairy white t-shirt but I don't think the internet is ready for that picture.

I have also developed sort of an extra bit of leg muscle down the front of my knees which must be bike related as it wasn't there before.  

I thought my new found fitness would help me on the Rugby pitch yesterday, turns out that running uses different muscles to cycling so whilst fitness was up so was massive pain in the legs, we still won 96: 24 thanks for asking.

To conclude this post and possibly this blog a few people have said "oh we meant to sponsor you and didn't get round to it," well it's not too late, the following link to my just giving page explains why I chose to ride for Prostate Cancer Research and why it is a cause very close to my heart:

www.justgiving.com/bigbensbike

Everyone has been incredibly generous and I am very very close to reaching my fundraising target.  If you have not donated yet please do so and help Prostate Cancer Research.

Thank you all for reading over and out!

-The Last Post ?

I am writing this from the comfort of my own home and it feels good to be back on a sofa instead of a saddle.  Sofas aside it is also good to have a decent reliable broadband connection, 20 years ago who knew that would become a basic human need.  It was an early start today which even meant missing breakfast (sorry breakfast detail fans) with the team all meeting outside the hotel at for an 07:00 departure.  Everyone looked a bit confused, but not entirely upset that there would be no cycling today, a sentiment that would later turn out not to be entirely accurate.

 

Next onto the minibus for the one hour drive to Inverness airport.  The stench of the minibus aside, or more accurately the stench of the used cycling kit / used cyclists on the minibus aside, it was a great journey with typically Scottish stunning views for almost the whole route.  Inverness airport is a remarkable place, it features a range of shops and eateries all of which are land side making them more or less zero use when waiting for a fog delayed flight.  Having said that the one air side bar did offer twin packs of Walker's shortbread for a bargain £1,80 per pack.  The same shortbread that was on offer for free in our hotel, should have taken some and offered it for a quid.

The extra £8 that I had paid to secure Easyjet speedy boarding and more importantly the exit row legroom seats delivered at least £10 of value.  Firstly speedy boarding enables you to get on the aircraft some 90 seconds before other passengers and secondly you can sit in the exit row, this is of vital importance to a man of my stature:

On arrival at Luton we said goodbye to many of the group who were 'lucky' enough to live closer to Luton that some of us.  A taxi took seven of us back to TTP (our sponsors) HQ where I had left Clare's car.  The drive back to Cambourne was delayed by heavy traffic, so we passed the time by shouting 'wimps' and 'how far did you go yesterday?' at any cyclists we saw.  The wimps.

During the journey home Dave received a text from his wife suggesting that the family all cycle to the Bourn beer festival that afternoon.  Not having much to do ourselves I suggested that Clare and I also walk down.  The problem with this was Clare was finding walking rather painful, her solution:

Admittedly the 3.6 mile round trip was not quite as challenging as some of the rides of the last few weeks but it did mean an 11th consecutive day in the saddle.  More impressive was the fact our mountain bikes just required a dab of oil and some air in the tyres and were good to go after what must have been a 3 year lay up.  Actually claiming the ride was not a challenge is to denigrate the return ride across fields which were by then pitch black not helped by our lights still being on our other bikes which were still in Scotland!

Bourn beer festival was fantastic as always, but even better than the beer was seeing Clare smile for what felt like the first time in ten days.  Although now I think of it there were a few other smiles, usually when she was in a remarkably similar post to the one above, e.g. beer in hand.

Not quite my final blog post in the series, I still have a bit more to write about LeJog, training and the final push to hit 1000 miles this month!

I know most of you have but just if you haven't how about visiting:

www.justgiving.com/bigbensbike

With donations from colleagues and in cash I am very close to my fundraising target.

Day Ten - Jog jobbed

Day Ten - Tain to John O'Groats - 86 miles +4159 ft / -4380 ft 
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2290862

As some of you know I had pre-written some of the content of this blog to save time during the trip.  The bit I was not cocky enough to pre-write is this.  WE DID IT.  960 miles of riding pleasure.

Anyway enough of that, I have had literally one complaint that yesterday my blog was short on breakfast detail.  Today I had a fry up with two fried eggs but sadly no haggis, but don't worry a lunchtime haggis roll saved me from a haggis free day).  Following on from this we set off at 8:00 for our final destination.  It was not an easy ride as the route was fraught with temptation, chiefly the Glenmorangie distillery being right next to our hotel.  Leaving Tain we saw the first sign for JoG of the day:

This was something of a novelty as elsewhere in the UK signwriters have liked to keep us guessing by having no signs for our destination until we were more or less in sight of it anyway.  The going was good this morning and we made good time before our first coffee stop.  The staff at the cafe were generally supportive but mainly delighted in telling us they had seen 60 year olds complete the trip......

The coffee stop was followed by two very big hills.  Very steep very big hills, the second of which took in no fewer than two graveyards probably full of people who had tried to cycle up them in the past.  Once those were out of the way it was mostly plain sailing to the end and largely down hill.  Frankly it could have ended up an even bigger hill there was no way we were not going to make it at this point.

At this stage I should mention team Cambodia which is the part of the group who live in Cambourne plus Brendan who is an honorary Cambodian.  We have started and finished every day of this trip as a team and in true Tour De France style we have all ridden to support our team leader, Clare.  Clare was the only girl on the trip and probably not as strong a cyclist as some of the chaps but stuck with it and really pushed herself every day.  The team all agree she was the stand out rider of the tour.

The final 2 miles of the trip are all downhill which we rode in team formation.  Earlier in the week Brendan and I had practised our 'no hands bridge arms' finish line pose but thought it would be risky down a steep hill on what was by now quite a windy day so kept it sensible.  Arriving at JoG the first thing that struck me was that it was an utter sh*thole.  The second thing was how amazingly similar it was to Lands End, almost as if they were both designed by the same committee who both had the same 'that will do' attitude.  

As I crossed the finish I was greeted by several members of my family there to cheer us on and join us for dinner at the hotel.  The highlight was the youngest member Torbijorn who was waving a Scottish flag and later let me play with his toy trains.

I have really enjoyed the last ten days of the expedition, not so much that I will be doing it again any time soon, but enjoyed it none the less.  I also think the red kit looks a bit more flattering than it did back at the start........

Finally thank you to all who have donated to Prostate Cancer Research, even those doubters who waited until I had finished before ponying up the cash!  The cause means a lot to me and I truly appreciate your support.

For regular updates follow me on Twitter.

Twitter: @BigBensBike

To make a donation to Prostate Cancer Research and read a bit about why I chose that charity see my page at:

Just Giving: http://www.justgiving.com/bigbensbike/

Day Nine - A Highland Fling

Day Nine - Fort William to Tain - 96 miles +5088 ft / -4858 ft 
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2290816

To paraphrase some sports commentators it was a day of two halves.  This morning we set off fairly early from Fort William and made good early progress.  The first town we came to was Spean Bridge which is where my Uncle Peter (a different one from the day 2 blog) and Auntie Kath lived when I was very young, I can remember visiting them and vomiting in Peter's car.  Spean Bridge offers an outstanding view of the Nevis mountain range, or at least it would do if it wasn't so foggy.  At one point a road sign read 'viewpoint 300 yards,' 300 yards seemed optimistic to me.

As we rode down the hill into the village of Fort Augustus (named after the Roman god of September) I was surprised to see aforementioned Uncle stood in the road taking our picture.  This was surprising as he now lives quite some way from Spean Bridge and indeed anywhere near Fort Augustus.  This meeting coincided with our coffee stop which was good because he could get the coffee in for Clare and I.

Following coffee we crossed the road to have a quick look at Loch Ness, it was a worthwhile detour as it looked really quite stunning.  No sign of any monsters mind you.

After that detour we rode on a bit to Drumandochit scene of the nastiest climb of the trip, almost a mile at a 15% gradient, luckily I chose to ride with Clare which meant I was not under any pressure to compete.  I am still glad of this.  Of course after every up hill there is a down hill section, in this case several miles of smooth tarmac on which I achieved a new all time personal bike speed record of 46.1mph, I don't want to go faster than that again it was scary.

During today's ride I had a bit of time to reflect on the ruined state of my backside following almost 900 miles in the saddle.  Readers of Viz magazine will be familiar with the cartoon 'Nobby's Piles' in which Nobby has killer piles and is looking for somewhere comfortable to sit down and ends up sitting on a spike, or similar.  Point being I now have some empathy with Nobby:

Following a brief lunch stop by our support van we rode on to Tain.  The main thing to note about that section of the ride is it was wet and cold and miserable.  It did dry out towards the end and I was happy to see that the road the hotel is on had been renamed in my honour:

Tain is our home for the next two nights, after we finish tomorrow we will be bussed back to Tain to begin our final night celebrations and more importantly to watch the opening game of the Rugby World Cup (I am sure Tain is home to many England supporters so it will be easy to find a place showing the game).

Can't wait to cross the line tomorrow, it has been a tough 9 days so far.

For regular updates follow me on Twitter.

Twitter: @BigBensBike

To make a donation to Prostate Cancer Research and read a bit about why I chose that charity see my page at:

Just Giving: http://www.justgiving.com/bigbensbike/

Day Eight - Almost a Phil Collins day

Day Eight - Inveraray to Fort William - 72 miles +3483 ft / -3483 ft 
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2290799

In the Tour De France riders would have had at least one rest day by this stage of the journey.  Not so for us, although it is fair to point out that they go a bit faster than me.  Today at 72 miles is the shortest leg of the journey so as close to a rest day as we have come.  Then why do I feel so exhausted?  (the interesting thing about that last sentence is that I pre-wrote some of this post before we left home yet it is entirely accurate, just call me Mystic Meg.  Or don't)

Last night was spent in the Argyll hotel in Inverary, if you are ever travelling in the region and have some time to spare which will give you the chance to pop in I can highly recommend that you don't bother.  Easily the worst digs of the trip.  Still the view out the front was nice.

Today was another short day with a mere 72 miles covered resulting in us actually arriving at the hotel at a reasonable hour and with time to shower for more than five minutes.  This was nice.  We started not too early after some breakfast haggis.  The ride out of Inverary goes immediately up quite a steep, but thankfully short, climb.  Once that was out of the way there was a decent long descent on which I set a new speed record for the trip of 43.8 mph, actually probably my all time bike speed record.  The other good thing was the sun was out.

The sun being out was all well and good but, and this is where the title of today's post comes in, as soon as you hit some shade it got cold meaning it was sometimes close but never actually Phil Collins conditions (no jacket required.)

Just prior to our coffee stop which was at a power station visitor's centre we had our first near miss of the trip when a tit of a van driver decided to overtake a motorhome on a very narrow bit of road with us coming the other way.  We got through this unscathed but drama was added when the two vehicles collided and a big chunk of wing mirror just missed Clare.  The subsequent coffee and cake helped calm us all down a bit.

Today I had a bit more time to think about the Proclaimers, not any of their songs specifically but the Proclaimers themed film 'Sunshine on Leith.'  If you are a fan of either the Proclaimers or really really unsubtly scripted light entertainment then I can highly recommend it.

Just after the Oban turn my team insisted I pose for the following picture, funnily enough it is similar to one I took last time I was in the area.....

Lunch stop was at a coffee house / cafe which offered haggis panini which they claimed were award winning.  They were all right I suppose.  The important point being that today I hope to achieve the trifecta of haggis for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The last time I was in Fort William was a few years ago as part of a three peaks challenge, on that occasion I was accompanied by a few of the same chaps who are taking part in LeJog with me.  Step forward Darren and Dan.  On that occasion we had been celebrating another team member's birthday the night before and I had really really overdone it.  Walking up Ben Nevis, the first of the three peaks, was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life, I could best have been described as a sweaty mess, the shirt I was wearing that day later dissolved. That was then, this time is different.

Well I say it is different.  Off to the bar now nice and early......

For regular updates follow me on Twitter.

Twitter: @BigBensBike

To make a donation to Prostate Cancer Research and read a bit about why I chose that charity see my page at:

Just Giving: http://www.justgiving.com/bigbensbike/

Day Seven - Thank you Ferry much

Day Seven - Dreghorn to Inveraray - 76 miles +2327 ft / -2404 ft
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4656794

The next in my occasional 'you know you have been riding too long when' series is "76 miles is considered a relaxing rest day."

Today should have given a good opportunity for a lie in before setting off, sadly my team mates did not see it like that so we were up and out for an 8:30 start, I have still not really forgiven them for this.  The one thing that did see me perk up (don't worry I don't do this every day) was the hotel breakfast buffet included the following:

I am not talking about the porridge, which is something most hotels offer, rather the bottle of whisky which went rather well with my breakfast haggis.  Once we were all half cut and ready for the day ahead we hit the road heading for our first coffee stop in Largs.  My only knowledge of Largs was my cousin Matt went there on a school trip once and sent me a postcard.  Having been there that remains the case, with the addition of the fact it has an ace ice cream parlour who even let us park our bikes inside:

None of our group entered the place planning on having ice cream, what with it being freezing cold outside and all.  Not one of our group left without having an ice cream what with it looking (and being) delicious.  I had a tablet sundae, for the un-initiated tablet is a Scottish sweet which is a bit like Kendal mint cake, i.e. pure sugar, but tastes a bit like fudge.  Usually a couple of bits of tablet is enough to get you feeling a bit diabetic, the sundae contained about eight........

Energy levels replenished we pushed on up the road where to catch a ferry across the bay.  It was a strange ship, instead of the more traditional warning sounds the horn played a medley of tunes including 1976 hit let's stick together and Slave to Love.  I think it was Brian Ferry.

A 30 mile jaunt then lead us to our next stop of the day which was the brewery at Loch Fyne.  We stopped there for a bit as it was raining and we didn't want to get wet.  So as not to be rude we tried the beer tasting platter.  Very nice it was too and great preparation for the final nine miles.

Final thought today is on the Barrnet funding formula which is used to decide how much of the nation's tax take is spent in Scotland vs. the rest of the union.  The usual argument is that Scotland with its lower population density costs more to run so they should receive more.  On the face of it this does not seem unreasonable.  However, when you cover the 40th mile of racetrack smooth tarmac through the middle of no where and think of the pot holed mess that make up the roads in the South you could be forgiven for thinking the money could perhaps be better spent elsewhere.  Cambridgeshire for instance.

Only three days of riding left.........

For regular updates follow me on Twitter.

Twitter: @BigBensBike

To make a donation to Prostate Cancer Research and read a bit about why I chose that charity see my page at:

Just Giving: http://www.justgiving.com/bigbensbike/

Day Six - Eat, Sleep, Ride, Repeat.

Day Six - Carlisle to Dreghorn - 110 miles +3222 ft / -3233 ft
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2288208

Today marked an important milestone of the ride.  For the first time I became an international cyclist as I crossed from England and into Scotland.  I say first time I have previously ridden between England and Wales so second time would be technically more accurate.  This is still important as although my regular commute to work crosses two hemispheres but remains in a single nation.

Thanks to some quick thinking by our Directeur Sportive, Brendan we managed to get the jump on the pro-peloton this morning and were actually in Scotland a good five minutes before them.  That was the last we saw of them all day as usual they were in bed in the hotel hours before we got back.

We had been expecting a mere 90 mile ride today so got a bit of a shock when we were given 100 mile route cards, that makes it 3 century rides in as many days.  As I believe is normal in Scotland the weather was grey and later started to drizzle.  There was also more or less f-all to see all day or placed to have lunch / rest stops, leading to a marathon 40 miles between coffee and lunch and a further 40 between lunch and the hotel.  Not really so much fun.  Our coffee stop did have this interesting sign:

Sadly our bums are way beyond being saved by a cushion, a point hammered home when after lunch and to the delight of some passing locals we all rode along the (bumpy) road making noises like a monkey entering a hot bath as we tried to ease back onto the saddle.

There were a few bright spots during the day, at one point I spotted a bit of blue sky for starters.  Other interesting spots were an eagle hovering over the road and a few houses with solar panels fitted, surely the definition of optimism given the locale.  

A key part of a long and dull ride is arsing about and today was no exception, games include passing each other in an 'aero tuck' pose even when going 2 mph or the classic trying to keep your feet clipped to the bike until the lights go green.  Darren and Brendan were enjoying a game of the latter when they went down like a very small game of domino rally, upon confirming they were OK I laughed a lot.  Actually I don't think I bothered confirming they were OK first.

During some of the longer bits of the ride and seeing some signs to Irvine I was able to see some signs for Irvine which put me in mind of the Proclaimers hit 'Letter from America'.  Which then got me thinking about their other hit 500 miles, specifically if one brother would walk 500 miles and the other 500 more were they both chasing the same young lady and if so why team up to sing a fairly upbeat song about it when they should be having a fight to the death for their love.  Also 500 miles is much less distance than I have cycled so far this trip.........

Finally a bit about what is keeping me going this trip.  There are actually a few things:

i)  Riding with a great bunch of guys and Clare, even in the rain we are usually laughing.

ii) It is a challenge

iii) Every so often as I ride along my watch vibrates and I see the following image:

Tomorrow is a short day at 76 miles or so so it will be a bit more relaxing with any luck.  Apologies the blog is not up to my usual standard today, I am knackered.

For regular updates follow me on Twitter.

Twitter: @BigBensBike

To make a donation to Prostate Cancer Research and read a bit about why I chose that charity see my page at:

Just Giving: http://www.justgiving.com/bigbensbike/