Categories: Ride Diary | July 22nd, 2008 | by admin | no comments
Day 2: stretching and rollercoasters
Categories: Ride Diary | July 22nd, 2008 | by admin | one comments
Day two is over and ive managed to get in to a campsite, so im roughing it
for the night!
Day 2 mileage: 38.1
Overall mileage: 92
A very dissapointing day in terms of distance. It was at 35 miles that i
decided i could no longer carry on and went on the hunt for a camp site.
Luckily i found one very quickly as even pushing the bike up hills was
causing a lot of pain.
Although my mileage was low today, i think i still worked a lot harder than
yesterday, the terrain was very challenging, repeatedly climbing to 600-700
feet then dropping straight back down to sea level. It really challenges
your sanity when you climb up hill for over an hour then the drop the other
side is over in 2 mins flat, before being greeted by yet another 500 foot
climb.
To give you an idea of sort of cycling ive done so far, my gps gives me a
figure for my total ascent, this just how much i have climbed. Currently
it is showing 6665 feet. How acurate this is i dont know, but it shouldnt
be too far out. The gps also gives a graphical reading of the altitude in
the form of a trace graph, after today this looks like the blueprints of an
alton towers rollercoaster!
My knee was the cause for me stopping short, i didnt think i could continue
without doing damage, im stopping and stretching every few miles to try to
keep on top of the problem but so far its not helping too much. Im just
hoping that it doesn’t turn into bursitis as that will imediately finish my
ride. Im now sat in the camp site resting and trying to remain positive.
Hopefully a good night’s rest will allow me to continue tomorrow. As ever,
watch this space.
Day 1: up hill and down dale (but mostly up hill!)
Categories: Ride Diary | July 21st, 2008 | by admin | no comments
Day 1 is over, finally!
Today’s mileage: 54.4
Overall mileage: 54.4
After a delayed start, i finally left land’s end around 11:30. It took
only a few hundred metres for it to dawn on me that im on my own and ive
got to get back home then up to scotland all under my own steam. It was a
comfortable first 20 miles, soaking up the sun. After this though, it a
little harder as my left knee began to give me pain again. The next 10
miles seemed to take an age, at this point i thought 35 miles would be my
limit for the day. I had planned to get to st austell on the first day,
but this looked a long way from achievable. I kept resting and took it
slowly though and managed to keep going. I started looking for somewhere to
stay aroun 4pm. I was looking for a camp site ideally as it was such nice
weather. I passed only one sign for a camp site in the next couple of
hours, come on! this is cornwall, there should be campsites everywhere! I
also struggled for b and b’s as most were full or too expensive (£80 per
night for a single is ridiculous! Especially as i will most likely collapse
in an exhausted heap as soon as i see a bed!)
Anyway, i found a b and b, eventually got in my room for 7pm. After
showering, eating and getting some things ready for tomorrow, its now
9pm.
By the time ive sorted my routes for tomorrow and got my things together,
i’ll be ready for a well earned night’s rest!
Im not sure on my plan for tomorrow, i will plan a route, but my progress
will be determined by my knee issue.
Day low: getting to 20 miles on the first day then having to stop because
of my knee injury. This put serious doubts in my mind. I really hope that
my knee feels better by tomorrow.
Day high: watching a city link van driver force his 15ft van under a 14.5ft
bridge. What persistance and blind indifference to his vehicle he showed!
Pasty country
Categories: Ride Diary | July 20th, 2008 | by admin | no comments
Well ive made it down to Cornwall!
We had a night time drive down through the country. Arriving at 9am this
morning, we were greeted by glorious sunshine. Fingers crossed this will
keep up for a few days.
Im now about to plan my route for tomorrow after feeding myself up on
pasta.
Look out tomorrow for my first days report.
Its time to leave!
Categories: Ride Diary | July 19th, 2008 | by admin | no comments
Well the time has come to load up the car and head off down to Cornwall. I =
will drive through the night to get to penzance for sunday morning. A bed =
and breakfast has been booked for sunday night.
On Monday morning i will begin the ride from Lands End. It has amazed me =
how quick the ride has sprung up on me over the last few weeks, it seems =
like only yesterday when i was beginning the preparations. Well its here =
and its not going away!
Lets get on and do it then!
Watch this space for the next update.
(P.S - it appears that messages sent from my mobile phone, like this one, seem to get spurious = characters put in. This is obviously the way that the site is interpreting the emails. Unfortunately there’s not much i can do about it at this stage, so appologies if it gets annoying!)
Welcome to the ride diary
Categories: Ride Diary | July 16th, 2008 | by admin | one comments
The ride diary will be updated daily during the event. I will also include =
as many pictures as i can.
Training update
Categories: Latest News | July 13th, 2008 | by admin | no comments
The start of the ride is looming and i havnt ridden for over two weeks now!
I seemed to be plagued by knee injuries. It wont stop me going for it, i will be starting the ride on Monday 21st July after travelling down to Lands end on Saturday/Sunday.
I will have six days to return to Northamptonshire where the organised one day ride will take place.
For here, to some extent the pressure is off, atleast in terms of time anyway. I will head north and cover the rest of England as quickly as possible. When i enter Scotland i will slow the pace a little in order to see some of the country. Im looking forward to Scotland as its a place i have spent very little time in, so to cycle through it is very exciting.
Here is the last training ride i did several weeks ago. I stopped near to home where i met up with my dog Sweep who decided he should get in on the photo!
Im now counting the days until the start.
keep visiting the site to see the updates!
Andy.
Training and preparation update
Categories: Latest News | June 29th, 2008 | by admin | no comments
Well its now only three weeks away from my start date. I cant believe things have moved so fast.
Things are progressing well with the planning, although there still seems to be a mountain to climb (or a country to cycle!)
I still have absolutely loads to do, and not very long to do it in. To add to the pressure, i am busier at work now than an period in the companies history so free time is at a premium.
I pretty much have all the luggage sorted, although i still need to find a location for the sleeping bag, i need to test pack everything with clothing too, up to now i have been loading the luggage with false weight purely as a training aid, i now need to focus on whether i actually have enough luggage to carry everything i need!
Another things outstanding is the tent, ive had it ages, its travelled several hundred miles with me on training rides, but i still havnt put it up once! i need to pick a spare few minutes when its dry and learn how to un pack, build, dissmantle and pack away so there are no horrible surprises on the ride.
As for my physical training, its good news and bad news. Training was going well after my knee problem, lots of stretching and much shorter rides and no niggles. I was just starting to build the distances up again last when i have another problem appear with the same knee. This time though i suspect it to be a non-cyling related injury, so at the moment, all training is off. I have a badly bruised knee cap which hinders pretty much everything i do so i can forget cycling. Im hoping that with rest it will heal itself this week so i can atleast get a couple of weeks more training before the ride. I will stop all training atleast a week before in order to make sure im fit for the start.
I will update again soon (hopefully more regular now its getting close to the ride)
Andy.
More Training
Categories: Latest News | May 5th, 2008 | by admin | no comments
Well i had my physio appointment on Friday and i came away with lots of stretches to do and instruction to reduce my ride distances for a while.
From my own research into the knee problem, i believe i started the training by going too hard too fast. I should have kept in my mind that its been atleast 5 or 6 years since the last time i cycled. I have been stretching everyday over the weekend. On Sunday i tried a short ride (7 miles) and got home with no obvious signs of the injury coming back. Today i didnt get chance for a ride, instead i put my bike on the trainer and used that for a while (like a rolling road for cycles). Again no sign of pain yet. I will need to get out cycling more often now, but for shorter distances. I will gradually build the distance until i can again do longer weekend rides. I just need to keep stretching, build the distance slowly and stop if the pain comes back.
It leaves me still concerned about the ride, but with a view that atleast i have a plan to try and overcome it, even if it does leave me with no room to spare in terms of training time before the ride. I just hope i can get back to doing more distance pretty soon.
Join me on a ride through Northamptonshire!
Categories: Latest News | April 30th, 2008 | by admin | no comments
On Sunday 27th July 2008. I will arrive in Northamptonshire on route from Lands End, I would like you to join me on a one day ride through the county, finishing in Market Harborough.
The ride will begin in Silverstone and follow some lovely country roads through the county and heading for Northampton. Once in Northampton we will make our way to kingsthorpe and to the start of the Brampton Valley way. This will also be a meeting point for those who want to do a reduced distance and want to join the ride at this point (this may be a good starting point if you have children riding with you).
The ride will then follow the Brampton Valley way all the way to Market Harborough.
If you would like to join me, please ask for a sponsor form. All moenies will add to the total fund that will be split between Fairfields School and Leukaemia Research.
Training update
Categories: Latest News | April 21st, 2008 | by admin | no comments
I have been in training now for a couple of months, although to be honest, i have cycled less than i would have liked. I began with a few gentle short rides just to get back into cycling, this quite quickly led to me starting time trials, the trials are part of a martial arts target, not to do with this ride, however provide a nice short distance target to achieve.
I then began to increase the distance of the rides, the first being just under 20 miles, then a 30 mile ride. On this 30 mile ride it finished with me being in a lot of pain and unable to cycle any further. This worried me at first but the injury healed very quickly and i was back to normal in a few days.
The following weekend, i went out on a 40 mile ride, after around 10 miles the pain in my left knee that i had experienced the week before started to return. At first it was just discomfort, so i carried on. By the end of the ride the knee pain was quite intrusive and i doubt i could have cycled too much further. Again the injury healed very quickly.
Unfortunately the injury returned again on my next ride and resulted in me having to push my bike home for the last 5 or 6 miles. This was finally enough for me to do something more pro-active and make a physio appointment.
Watch this space and fingers crossed for good news!
Ride date announced!
Categories: Latest News | April 18th, 2008 | by admin | no comments
Today i would like to announce the date of the ride, after careful planning and consideration, i have decided to commence the ride on Tuesday 22nd July 2008.
I expect the ride to take just over two weeks, passing through Northampton by day five (Sunday 27th)
More news will be coming about the ride in the next few days…
Stay tuned!
Online donations now accepted
Categories: Latest News | April 8th, 2008 | by admin | no comments
Today the online donation function has been added.
Its all been tested and is working great. You can pay using your paypal account if you have one, if not you can still use it and pay using your credit or debit card.
Click today and change the lives of some deserving people!
Andy.
Welcome…
Categories: Latest News | March 31st, 2008 | by admin | one comments
to PedalUK, This site offers information on my planned solo cycle ride from Land End to John O Groats. There will be lots of information added to this on a regular basis. As you can see, certain topics have their own pages, which will be updated as the planning of the ride progresses. General ride news will be posted here on the homepage.
During the ride, i will be uploading a daily blog detailing the days riding and my thoughts and musings of thr trip.