Neil & Pete - death by pedal.

So today we decided to get a good long ride in before the weekend.
We rode to Harlow and back - a 66 mile round trip with a break for a MacDonalds in Harlow (it’s surprising how motivating a Chicken Legend with salsa and fries can be).

No major issues, so we’re feeling comfortable for whatever the weekend is going to throw at us.

An interesting biological anecdote: on this ride I drank 1.5 litres of orange, plus a large Coke at Mickey D’s, and didn’t need a pitstop once (in fact…..2.5 hours after the ride finished and another pint of orange and I still haven’t). Pete on the other hand, drank a little less and needed an erm……”comfort break”…3 times. Regretably, I think this has less to do with being a biological phenomenom and more to do with one of us (”hello!”) finding the ride harder going than the other.

There is a huge difference in our abilities to cycle up hills at speed: Pete - who has run marathons and has far stronger legs than yours truly (that’s how I explain it to myself anyway) has far more in the reserves department and can dig in and get up hills way quicker than me.

That said though, we both actually look like a couple of filmstars whilst cycling up any incline:

You know that scene in Mr Beans Holiday when he cycles past the Tour de France riders?…….well that’s Pete……

You know Casey Junior - the steam train from Dumbo? (”I think I can…I think I can…”)…well…….that’ll be me………

I digress…….

So tomorrow it’s a 300 mile drive North ready for the Coast 2 Coast which starts the following morning.

So we had a crack at the 52 mile loop…….oh dear. After 30 miles I started to struggle, after 35 miles it was getting bad - there was nothing left in my legs although weirdly I didn’t feel tired. At the 46 mile mark (yep - 6 miles from the end) I had to give up as I couldn’t pedal for more than 10-15 seconds without my legs just giving out.

So what have I learnt from this?

Don’t go and buy a Nintendo Wii Fit and try doing the muscle workouts (especially the lunges) when you are trying to ramp up your cycling efforts.

After this …erm…..hiccup……like true serious athletes we took a 3 week (yes 3 weeks) break. Not exactly planned - I had a week off in the US for a conference, but then we both had a lot of work on and couldn’t find the time to do any cycling.

2 days ago we got in a 25 mile ride, and are planning on getting out tomorrow (Monday).

Not too concerned though as next weekend we are doing the ‘Coast-to-Coast’ (C2C) as a practice run for the main event. The C2C is a 150 mile route from the West coast of England (Whitehaven) to the East coast (Tynemouth). Doing the route over 3 days in 3 nice 50 mile chunks should be a nice way to test things like riding with panniers (never done it), what to pack, blah blah blah. We can also make sure we can update the map on the website, get photos uploaded, and update the blog while ‘on the road’.

5 weeks from now we will have started the JogLe (gulp)………I guess I should think about buying some waterproofs and (God forbid) cycling shorts. The cycling shorts will be worn under a regular pair of shorts/cutaways………..otherwise it just wouldn’t be pleasant for anybody.

Then there’s the trivial matter of working out the route. So far, this is the level of detail we’ve gone to:

Scotland……..down a bit…….let’s do some of the Welsh coastline…….Devon….Cornwall……job done.

We’re now getting rides in on a regular basis. 100 miles a week is being achieved and we’re up to 40 mile rides. Tomorrow we are pushing further and going for a 52 mile loop.

Yesterday on a “quick 20″ I got a puncture on mile 10. No repair kit, no spare inner tube. I guess there’s something to be said for being prepared.

I took that as my cue to replace the tyres (more money spent - this is getting serious) and we both now have our pannier bags.

We’re starting to form a bit of a preparation plan now with various “special” rides that increase in length between now and May: London-Brighton (60 miles), the Painters Trail (72 miles), Mersea Island and back (80 miles), “coast to coast” (Whitehaven to Sunderland - 150 miles).

We need to revisit our plans for getting to John O’Groats as the van hire company we were going to use went into receivership today - ARGH!

Next on the list is sorting out the sponsorship process for our chosen charity: Macmillan Cancer Support.

It’s probably pretty obvious that we are both very serious athletic types, and serious athletic types have serious, expensive, high-end equipment.

Below is a photo of the bike I will be attempting the ride on. It could be argued that “vintage” and “classic” are over-used terms in the cycling world, but in this instance they simply do not apply.

The bike is around 17-18 years old. The tyres are the original ones (better do something about that before we go), as are the brake blocks and cables (ditto).

Money has been spent however: a handlebar-mounted GPS, bar ends, a second water bottle holder, and a pannier rack. So there’s no turning back now.

So…..a bit of a false start really.

We manage one ride then get 2 weeks of snow and very icy roads. Not a lot we could do about it really but sit it out and wait for things to warm up a bit.

Went out yesterday for a 17.5 mile route, did another 15 today, and hoping to do a 25 mile route the day after tomorrow.

Not really working to a plan (yet) beyond getting the distance of the rides up, the time it takes for the breathing and riding to ’settle down’ (currently around the 7 mile mark), and losing a bit of weight (down 1.5lbs). Doing 100 miles a week around early March feels about on course (for no apparent reason).

Heavy snow and freezing temperatures were due to hit Eastern England in the afternoon, so we did our 11.5 mile ride in the morning.

We avoided the snow, and only had to contend with sub zero temperature and a biting cold wind (note to self: fingerless gloves are not appropriate attire for winter).

Still, the ride was completed without incident. No heart attacks. No aching limbs. No punctures.

The 4-month preparation “plan” is off and running.

So Pete and I have found a 3 week block beginning at the end of May where we are both free. The football season will be over, nothing on TV, no gigs to go to………what better time to cycle the length of the country?

For the record, I have not sat on my bike since September last year, have done absolutely no exercise whatsoever since then, and have put on too much weight to be prepared to state here how much I currently weigh.

Petes preparation to date has been almost as impressive.

We tread water with our first ride this Sunday.

It’s only going to be 8-10 miles…………..what can possibly go wrong?