Training (including 2 changes) and Preparation

"Next time we do Le-JoG, we won't stay out late drinking the night before" I said to Dan as I lent forward and rested by head against the seat in front. The subtle swaying of the train didn't really help my sensitive stomach's recovery, particularly as there was still another 6 hours of travelling before we got to Penzance. After this there was still another 12 miles to Land's End to cycle too!

It is safe to say I was not as well prepared for today's cycling as I could've been. My statement of "There will be plenty of time in the morning to pack" was met with ridicule by Lucy on Thursday night, and after a somewhat hurried morning of breakfast, packing, and catching up on birthday presents and cards, I can now see why. Then my slightly disturbed stomach didn't encourage me to do much eating on the train journey down, leaving my legs rather tired and heavy once we reached the second hill towards Land's End.

With a stop here and there, I plowed on, and made it eventually. Albeit, today (day 0) was meant to be a short easy ride to the start! We are staying in the Sunybank Hotel, a friendly B&B that appears to be full of end to enders. Or at least their bikes. The name comes with a certain sense of irony however, a Sunnybank it is not! The weather looked great as the train went through Bristol, but for every mile we got closer to the sunny bank, the skies greyed slightly more. Once we got within 5 miles, the heavens opened, and visibility fell drastically. There is nothing like a bit of driving rain to motivate you to get up the next hill! Dan claims there was a spurt of hail too, but I can't say I noticed any.

Our soggy clothes are now hanging over the drying rack on the radiator, and we just need to decide who gets the double bed, and if it is really a good idea to stay up and watch Star Trek Generations. The computer is too slow to get a photo sorted for you tonight, but I will have a good one of Land's End tomorrow I promise!

All our love,

Will

Does size matter?

Evening all,

Today's question: What does cycling the length of the country do to a man's body? There could be a lot of answers, some of which I am not looking forward to. What I want to know is, will it turn me from a Slim Jim to a Chunky Hunk? Or will I go from Slim Jim to Slimmer Jim? According to one of those great measuring machines in leisure centres and gyms I clock in at 11st13lb (76.2kg) and 6' 4.6" (195cm). This gives me a BMI of 20, firmly bottom of the ideal range. Ideal all the same though. The word was chosen carefully by professionals i'll have you know. However, if I lose any weight on the trip I will be officially underweight. There is plenty of excuse to pack away puddings wherever possible.

At current, my fat index is a mere 6.7%. The average is 20.8% and 10.2% is described as excellent. I'll let you decide on what that makes me, but one can infer I would be in a "better than excellent" box.

Further vital statistics to watch;

Left upper arm 11 1/4"

Right upper arm 11 1/2"

Waist 31 5/8"

Chest 37 3/8"

Right thigh 22"

Left Thigh 22"

Boffins estimate that I will be burning around 8.50 calories a per minute of cycling. Roughly speaking that is 20 minutes to burn off each pint I sampled the night before. I suspect that this will have an impact on at least one of the statistics above. We will see at the end whether I am right.

Thanks again to everyone that has donated thus far. The total has shot up recently and looks to keep going. We are only a couple of days from Land's End now and the support has been fantastic.

Clipless pedals

This is my first entry, about time too. My task is to transform myself from a lazy student to a cyclist. Thankfully I can still stay in bed until lunch, but now activities involve less maths and more cyling.

It has come to my attention that all top cyclists use clipless pedals. In my opinion they have been named very badly. The pedals have clips on them... My shoes attach nicely so I can pedal without all that wasted energy of slipping around. Great! But what about when you don't want to pedal anymore and would rather stop at a junction say, or local point of interest (pub)? Unclipping seems almost vital. I had been warned that it takes some practice. So I did some practice. When I got my bike home and in one piece I put my left shoe into the clip with a very satisfying click. It felt stable and, more importantly, comfortable. A few minutes later I took my foot out of that shoe to leave it hanging on the pedal. It is fair to say that unclipping wasn't as satisfying as clipping had been. I continued to spend an afternoon in the garage cursing and falling over as a man-cycle hybrid. A couple of days and one youtube video later I have the technique sorted.

I will start to make more frequent posts from now on in the run up to our departure so watch this space! Route planning is in progress, as is the search for sponsorship. If you have not done so yet please give what you can at
http://www.justgiving.com/Will-And-Dan-Do-Cycling
Thank you for your support!