Easy so far...

The good news is that I think this whole cycling thing is easy-peasy. I have sat down (fortunately on that blasted bike) and created a to-do list of things that need to happen in order for me to have cycled the length of the country. This can be summarised as:

1) Buy a book (“The complete guide to long distance cycling”)
2) Read book
3) Buy bike
4) Check I can still ride the bike
5) Buy cycling clothes
6) Check clothes fit
7) Buy bike accessories (lights, computer etc)
8) Fit bike accessories
9) Choose dates of the cycling
10) Train
11) Plan route
12) Do the actual cycling

It looks like a long list right? Well I have actually done numbers one to nine already. That means we are 75% of the way to having finished, and I have all the way until the summer to do the rest. That 850 miles isn’t sounding so far when you put it like that now is it?

Disappointingly the book described in step one isn’t the first to disagree with my analysis. Most notably, the book has many many many pages talking about training, fitness and worst of all …… cycling! I took part in some of these activities last night, and I have a couple of key findings.

When you first set off, cycling is very easy. In fact, pedalling is almost not required, and yet I reached a good speed. I haven’t learnt how to use my cycle computer yet, there isn’t many buttons and this scares me. So I am running with (or should I say cycling with?) qualitative descriptions of speed for the time being. My speed was good, it was good alright, and I won’t have anything bad said against it, and yet pedalling was no effort at all. But once I got to the bottom of the hill, and attempted to cycle back up, it was a lot more like hard work! I use the word “like” rather flippantly, because it was actually hard work. To overcome this, I might stick with cycling where you have just set off, that was much easier.

I order to do all of this easy “just having set off” cycling, I have learnt that you need to do lots of eating. This eating is to make sure you have enough calories for all that free-wheeling. Mister book says that eating is a big deal. In fact Ed Pavelka’s reply to “What’s the hardest thing about riding so far?“ was ”Eating”. I am not sure if he knew which question he was answering, but in my limited experience so far, the hardest thing about cycling was that bit near the end of the cycling before I got to the top of the hill. Although I may not be a cyclist (yet), unlike Ed Pavelka, I have plenty of experience in the eating department. I have done it pretty much every day of my life. Even better, is that I can now consider every meal time as training. Maybe Ed was talking about the difficulty in getting all of the calories he needs whilst cycling, but I prefer to imagine that he hasn’t learnt how to use cutlery yet.

Now useful informations!!! Dates of the cycling is planned, it will be the first three weeks of August. If you are free visitors and hangers on are welcome to join us in the evening as we ‘recover’ from a day of cycling. More info of where we will be and when closer to the time.

Also, we have broken the all important 8% mark for sponsorship! My thanks go out to all of those very generous people that have given money, keep it coming! :-)

Thanks again everyone!!!!

Will

What are we doing?

Hi blog readers!

I am new to this blog writing so please bear with me. As some of you may be aware, I have decided to act on what may be the most foolish statements I have made. This is to cycle the length of the country from John O Groats to Lands End (or the other way around, not decided yet). For his sins, I have convinced my brother to join me.

The straight line distance between the 2 points is 603 miles. However, without a flying bicycle we will have to travel by road. Wikipedia, in its great wisdom, informs me that the "distance by road is 874 miles (1,407 km) and takes most cyclists ten to fourteen days". Not being "most cyclists", I think an extra week would be more than reasonable, after all, much of my time will be spent updating this blog so that you all can remain well informed on how much saddle pain we are experiencing. I also plan to give you regular photographic evidence of the cycling, and hopefully meet some locals along the way.

Although attempting a long distance in what appears to be a slow time, it will still be a significant effort each*:
- 20 days of cycling
- 80 hours on a saddle
- 4800 minutes of pedaling
- 19,200,000 individual pedal strokes (that means pushing the pedal down with my foot, not gently massaging it like a cat)
- 81,600 calories burnt

Given the relative pain and discomfort we have chosen to engage in, I would be most grateful if you could partake in some discomfort on a much smaller scale i.e. open your wallet (or purse, or pocket if you can't afford a purse or wallet) and give generously to a good cause. A justgiving website has been set up to allow you to give your hard earned (or borrowed/stolen) money to our chosen cause in a safe manner. But should you disagree with the use of the Internet (bit rich from someone reading an online blog, but hey who am I to judge) feel free to give me the cash (dosh/wonga) and I will pay it in for you! Alternatively, give some to your preferred charity. If you are "too poor" to give something in compensation of my foolish desire to do all of this cycling, why not spend your time convincing your more well financed friends to give on your behalf!

I plan to update this on a relatively infrequent basis prior to the event, but with daily updates when we are actually cycling!


Thanks for taking the time to read this and giving to charity, be assured, future posts will concentrate more on my impending plight associated with bike riding!

Love, Will

http://www.justgiving.com/Will-And-Dan-Do-Cycling

*Especially for me! For those all to keen on numbers, my assumptions used the following: 1000 miles, 20 days of cycling, 4 hours per day, 4000 pedal stroked per hour, 17 calories per minute!