LEJOG Blog 2: Getting in the miles
IN my last blog I said I would write something soon about the gear we’ll be using on our up and coming Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle trip but to be perfectly honest I’m not sure yet what I’ll be taking with me. We’re planning our little adventure for April and I’ve just realised that could still be winter in certain parts of the country, while in other parts it could be blistering hot, so I’m having re-thinks about what to take. I’ve been using a variety of kit recently on my training rides, much of it from the excellent Edinburgh Cycle Co-operative, but more of that in the next diary offering. For the moment let me tell you about my training regime.
First of all it’s important to know that I’m pretty much a novice cyclist. I’ve ridden mountain bikes occasionally, mostly along forest tracks to reach remote hills but a couple of years ago, in a bout of middle-age crisis, I bought a road bike and immediately fell in love with road biking. This new addiction coincided with some problems I was having with one of my feet, a condition that was making walking painful. The bike, I reckoned, would be a good way to get fit until I sorted out the foot problem. More recently it became clear that the foot problem isn’t going to clear up overnight and while I can still walk the hills very happily I reckoned the bike could add a new dimension to my outdoor activities.
And so it has proved. Last autumn, while trekking in Nepal, I had the idea of doing a long bike journey. I had always fancied the idea of walking from Land’s End to John O’Groats but as I’ve become older the thought of spending 3 or 4 months backpacking has become less appealing, but I explained all that in my last diary offering. The long and short of it is this - I decided to cycle between Land End and John O Groats and if I was going to try and do it in a fortnight, at a daily mileage of about 72 miles, I thought I’d better get some bike miles in.
The fat of the matter is I’ve never ridden 72 miles in a day and the thought of having to average that for 14 consecutive days is becoming a bit worrying. The most I’ve ridden in a day is 60 miles, and I only did that a couple of weeks ago - along the cycle track from Newtonmore to Dalwhinnie, over Drumochter to Calvine and back again. I didn’t find it too difficult, in fact I loved it, and tomorrow I’m going to cycle home from Perth and that’s about 65 miles.
I’ve been averaging about 14-15 mph on these rides and I reckon if I slow it down a tad, to about 12 mph, I could reach my daily target with only 6 hours riding a day. That sounds reasonable, and still leaves time for coffee/cake stops and a good break at lunchtime.
From now to the start of LEJOG I need to get the miles in and start building in big rides on consecutive days. The problem is it all takes a lot of time, and I still have to find time to get onto to the hills and write my regular features for TGO, the Scots Magazine and everything else. But hey, I’m not complaining. I’m very fortunate to be able to do this at all…
Next entry I’ll be in a better position to tell you about the gear I’m taking with me and my new touring bike, a Ridgeback World Panorama…