It rained. It thundered. The giant super tent leaked, but only a little. It did however leak on Liz, so that made things a bit more amusing. At 2am I was woken by a flashing light outside the tent - as if someone was outside with a flashing headtorch. If there was someone outside the tent with a flashing headtorch then they weren't moving either. Maybe they were having their own personal rave? At a wet windy campsite near Land's End?
I had to investigate. Jon's bike light had decided to turn itself on and go into flash mode. I put Jon's bike light in the leftover soup. That calmed it down a bit.
Morning. Real, proper, "I'd never noramlly go out in this" rain. We crawled out, looked each other in the eyes, begging for someone to crack, to admit that this whole thing was a silly idea.
No-one cracked.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Day 0 - Near Land's End
Spirits are high. Phill's tent has turned out to be the size of my house, the gazebo and awning by the camper van create a homely living area, and spag bol is cooking on the stove.
It was a bit rainy on the way down, and a bit up and downy too. I'm sure the hills will have eroded by the morning though. The camp is calm for the riders with everyone else rushing round us. We have beer. Currently, Jon and Phill are comparing their shaven legs.
More tomorrow, as there isn't much exciting to report yet!
It was a bit rainy on the way down, and a bit up and downy too. I'm sure the hills will have eroded by the morning though. The camp is calm for the riders with everyone else rushing round us. We have beer. Currently, Jon and Phill are comparing their shaven legs.
More tomorrow, as there isn't much exciting to report yet!
Rendevouz at Whiddon Down
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
T-35 hours
The first mention of LEJOG on this blog was August 14th, 2009. The first confirmation was December 27th, 2009. That's a while ago.
Since August 14th, according to Training Peaks, I've done 197 hours of road riding, covering 7785km. Plus 57 hours of mountain biking covering 718km. Is that a lot? It seems like a lot. I've done early morning pre-work rides, a 100 mile after work ride, several big Saturday rides in the Cotswolds and a couple of sportives. On the road, I've had exactly one puncture. I've fallen off a few times off-road, but never on-road.
We've put a team of five riders and five crew together, planned a route, raised over £2000 for Air Ambulance (so far...) and spent a scary amount of money with Torq. We've got matching bike shirts and custom t-shirts.
Tomorrow lunchtime we leave Newbury for Land's End. Friday morning, at about 8am, we start riding in a generally Northerly direction.
I'm excited.
Since August 14th, according to Training Peaks, I've done 197 hours of road riding, covering 7785km. Plus 57 hours of mountain biking covering 718km. Is that a lot? It seems like a lot. I've done early morning pre-work rides, a 100 mile after work ride, several big Saturday rides in the Cotswolds and a couple of sportives. On the road, I've had exactly one puncture. I've fallen off a few times off-road, but never on-road.
We've put a team of five riders and five crew together, planned a route, raised over £2000 for Air Ambulance (so far...) and spent a scary amount of money with Torq. We've got matching bike shirts and custom t-shirts.
Tomorrow lunchtime we leave Newbury for Land's End. Friday morning, at about 8am, we start riding in a generally Northerly direction.
I'm excited.
Monday, 3 May 2010
The Itinerary
This might be a first for me - an informal, factual post. We'll see how it goes. Just in case anyone fancies coming to say hello, either on route or at one of the stops, here is the route.
Thursday, 6th May - Newbury to Lands End
This should be the easy bit. Get into appropriate vehicle, travel to Lands End. In reality it's a bit more complicated, with Jon getting picked up from a motorway services, Liz working in the morning and Phill somehow contriving to fly to Newquay from Stockport. Tents will be pitched and we'll be starting the great eat-a-thon.
Friday, 7th May - Lands End to Great Torrington (actually Little Torrington), 179.4km, 2605m of climbing
This is a pretty tough way to start - a good distance and very up and downy. Darren will be test riding his new bike, I'm not really sure why he's chosen an 8 day 950 mile ride to see if it fits or not.
Saturday, 8th May - Great Torrington to Slimbridge, 214.7km, 2766m
Through Taunton, Bridgwater for lunch (with Darren's parents), then through Glastonbury, Wells, the gap between Bath and Bristol, Yate (is that a place?), Wotton Under Edge, Dursley and then Slimbridge. Jon and I know some of these roads quite well - part of the Cotswolds training district. Probably a visit from Jem and mini-Jon/Jem. Hang on - did I just type "214.7km"?
Sunday, 9th May - Slimbridge to Winsford (South of Runcorn). Only 204.5km, 1708m
Thankfully an easier day - longish but flatish. Gloucester, Leominster, Ludlow, Church Stretton, Shrewsbury and Whitchurch.
Monday, 10th May - Winsford to Penrith, 181.7km, 1841m
This one almost counts as a rest day. A day of two halves, with some towns - Warrington, Wigan, Chorley, Leyland, Preston - and then up to the Lake district through Lancaster and Kendal before finishing at the campsite Tim, Darren and I rode through when we did our SMBLA Trail Cycle Leader training. We get struck off if we can't find it.
Tuesday, 11th May - Penrith to Ayr, 191.1km, 1823m
Today we enter Scotland, and I've got the Proclaimers and Big Country on the MP3 player to provide an appropriate soundtrack. Carisle, Gretna and Dumfries are on the way, and there's a whole lot of countryside in there too.
Wednesday, 12th May - Ayr to Barcaldine (not many towns around here), 198.5km, 2723m
It's starting to get hilly again. Barcaldine has some marked cycle trails in the forest so we can explore those if we are feeling energetic. We follow a lot of coast today, and have a ferry ride to look forward to - Greenock to Dunoon. Don't worry, we'll ride round and round the deck so we're not cheating. It's not a very long ferry trip.
Thursday, 13th May - Barcaldine to Dingwall (North of Inverness), 177.7km, 2863m
This should be pretty spectacular - up to Fort William then following Loch Ness to Inverness, then up a bit. What's that coming out of the Loch, is it a monster, is it a monster?
Friday, 14th May - Dingwall to John O'Groats, 168.8km, 1847m
We should be there about 4pm. Ice cold beer please, and a Solero.
Saturday 15th, Sunday 16th May - Travel back.
There will be a lot of eating, some sleeping, and a chance of some drinking.
Total riding - 1516.4km (947 miles) ish. Maybe a bit more, we're bound to get lost.
Thursday, 6th May - Newbury to Lands End
This should be the easy bit. Get into appropriate vehicle, travel to Lands End. In reality it's a bit more complicated, with Jon getting picked up from a motorway services, Liz working in the morning and Phill somehow contriving to fly to Newquay from Stockport. Tents will be pitched and we'll be starting the great eat-a-thon.
Friday, 7th May - Lands End to Great Torrington (actually Little Torrington), 179.4km, 2605m of climbing
This is a pretty tough way to start - a good distance and very up and downy. Darren will be test riding his new bike, I'm not really sure why he's chosen an 8 day 950 mile ride to see if it fits or not.
Saturday, 8th May - Great Torrington to Slimbridge, 214.7km, 2766m
Through Taunton, Bridgwater for lunch (with Darren's parents), then through Glastonbury, Wells, the gap between Bath and Bristol, Yate (is that a place?), Wotton Under Edge, Dursley and then Slimbridge. Jon and I know some of these roads quite well - part of the Cotswolds training district. Probably a visit from Jem and mini-Jon/Jem. Hang on - did I just type "214.7km"?
Sunday, 9th May - Slimbridge to Winsford (South of Runcorn). Only 204.5km, 1708m
Thankfully an easier day - longish but flatish. Gloucester, Leominster, Ludlow, Church Stretton, Shrewsbury and Whitchurch.
Monday, 10th May - Winsford to Penrith, 181.7km, 1841m
This one almost counts as a rest day. A day of two halves, with some towns - Warrington, Wigan, Chorley, Leyland, Preston - and then up to the Lake district through Lancaster and Kendal before finishing at the campsite Tim, Darren and I rode through when we did our SMBLA Trail Cycle Leader training. We get struck off if we can't find it.
Tuesday, 11th May - Penrith to Ayr, 191.1km, 1823m
Today we enter Scotland, and I've got the Proclaimers and Big Country on the MP3 player to provide an appropriate soundtrack. Carisle, Gretna and Dumfries are on the way, and there's a whole lot of countryside in there too.
Wednesday, 12th May - Ayr to Barcaldine (not many towns around here), 198.5km, 2723m
It's starting to get hilly again. Barcaldine has some marked cycle trails in the forest so we can explore those if we are feeling energetic. We follow a lot of coast today, and have a ferry ride to look forward to - Greenock to Dunoon. Don't worry, we'll ride round and round the deck so we're not cheating. It's not a very long ferry trip.
Thursday, 13th May - Barcaldine to Dingwall (North of Inverness), 177.7km, 2863m
This should be pretty spectacular - up to Fort William then following Loch Ness to Inverness, then up a bit. What's that coming out of the Loch, is it a monster, is it a monster?
Friday, 14th May - Dingwall to John O'Groats, 168.8km, 1847m
We should be there about 4pm. Ice cold beer please, and a Solero.
Saturday 15th, Sunday 16th May - Travel back.
There will be a lot of eating, some sleeping, and a chance of some drinking.
Total riding - 1516.4km (947 miles) ish. Maybe a bit more, we're bound to get lost.
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Badajapadlegog gets national press coverage
Clearly interest is rising in Badajapadlejog, as Cycling Weekly (almost certainly the biggest selling bike magazine) has devoted some coverage to our training. They tried to disguise it as a general article about the Cotswold Spring Classic, but why else, out of the 350 riders in the event, would they feature a picture of Jon and I?
As you can see, they even annotated it to identify me and Jon.
I think that's pretty conclusive.
As you can see, they even annotated it to identify me and Jon.
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Friday, 23 April 2010
Retro loveliness
We had an idea that it would be nice if we had matching bike shirts for the Lands End - John O'Groats trip. We had this idea far too late to get anything custom, so after a rambling email chain involving discussions about matching shirts to various coloured bikes we ended up chosing something classic, retro and black and while (incidently matching my bike...).
Phill went to Prendas Ciclisimo and picked up the shirts, getting £10 off each one and some free matching socks too! Thanks to Phill and Prendas too, they are very nice people.
So, without further build up, the shirts and socks:
Classy, huh? I think we'll look pretty cool, in a 70s French kind of way.
Phill went to Prendas Ciclisimo and picked up the shirts, getting £10 off each one and some free matching socks too! Thanks to Phill and Prendas too, they are very nice people.
So, without further build up, the shirts and socks:
Classy, huh? I think we'll look pretty cool, in a 70s French kind of way.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
It's General Election time, and I'm voting for...
...whoever promises a ban on road bike lycra in sizes larger than L (for men) or 16 (for women).
It's been a lovely day and I've been for a lovely ride - an 83 mile sportive with about 1000 people riding. A very small minority of these were on the larger size (nothing wrong with that, great to see people enjoying riding) and wearing tight lycra. Please don't, it offends my eyes. There is a lot of great looking "casual" cut bike wear - looser fitting tops, baggy shorts - that would mean that I don't have to have my mind imprinted with swathes of wobbly flesh looking like an overstuffed sausage sponsored by Sky or Saxo Bank. Quite frankly road bike kit looks pretty odd even on professional riders, but on the chunkier people it's a bit silly.
The event itself was excellent in almost every way. Beautiful countryside that I'd not really seen before, clear blue skies and spring sunshine, flapjack and swiss roll at the feed stops and some good team riding. I say some, because Dave managed to drop off Phill, Jon and I briefly, just enough to miss the clearly signposted turning and somehow start doing another lap of the course. We did 83 miles, he did about 95...
Note for LEJOG. Everyone needs a GPS.
It's been a lovely day and I've been for a lovely ride - an 83 mile sportive with about 1000 people riding. A very small minority of these were on the larger size (nothing wrong with that, great to see people enjoying riding) and wearing tight lycra. Please don't, it offends my eyes. There is a lot of great looking "casual" cut bike wear - looser fitting tops, baggy shorts - that would mean that I don't have to have my mind imprinted with swathes of wobbly flesh looking like an overstuffed sausage sponsored by Sky or Saxo Bank. Quite frankly road bike kit looks pretty odd even on professional riders, but on the chunkier people it's a bit silly.
The event itself was excellent in almost every way. Beautiful countryside that I'd not really seen before, clear blue skies and spring sunshine, flapjack and swiss roll at the feed stops and some good team riding. I say some, because Dave managed to drop off Phill, Jon and I briefly, just enough to miss the clearly signposted turning and somehow start doing another lap of the course. We did 83 miles, he did about 95...
Note for LEJOG. Everyone needs a GPS.
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