400km in Hot Weather

It's been a hot hot week in Melbourne...in fact, according to this evenings news its been 10 days straight over 30 degrees. The challenge for me this week was to try and get ahead on the miles despite that. Next weekend, I have a 3 day stag do to attend! So there wont be much training happening there..

So anyway I managed 3 long rides and a bunch of smaller ones, and hit 400km for the week yesterday, so tracking just about where I need to be for the year goal:

Training in the heat isn't easy...I find the hardest bit when you stop and don't have the air moving around you...its almost a nauseous feeling! And its incredible how much water you need to get down.

Yesterday I finished the week off with a 95km recovery ride and had the pleasure of my wife's company for the first 10km over to Altona for breakfast, before I carried on by myself. The whole point being to keep the pace down and "rest" but still get the muscles moving.

 

What I'm excited about next is some definite time off work in May. It's not a lot of time, but I think I can squeeze in an interstate tour. Adelaide to Melbourne is on the cards, so now I'm looking at route options, of which there are several:

The shortest option, that is also least friendly to cyclists is along the highway and is very unappealing, but only 750km. At the other end of the scale, around the coast is a lot longer at around 1100-1200km and perhaps a lot more exposed.  This route includes the stunning great ocean road:

Having been there before and also a little weary of drivers not watching the road, I'm not sure I'll do it again. There are other inland options to look into as well.

I'll probably plan a couple of options and see what the weather is like closer to the time!

Bianca On The Beach

Somehow its been a month since I last posted on here, but the riding has been going great. To hit my January goal I needed to be on 833km. I ended up a bit short of that on 717km but it was the first month of training and the monthly goals are based on an average over the year, so I should be able to catch up. As it stands, 12% down...88% to go!

I've started exploring the eastern bays and have been loving the bike paths alongside the beach....got to watch for joggers with headphones on though! I've also biked into work and back a couple of times, which is a good effort given its 50km each way to the other side of the city. It does make me laugh though...cycling all that way takes about the same amount of time as the train...or even driving.

Its a lot less stressful too and only costs $2 each way for the "The Punt"

 

The punt  ferry's passengers (95 % cyclists apparently) from Newport over to Spotswood and runs more or less underneath the monstrous Westgate Bridge...which if you try driving over after 7.30am you can expect to spend a whole lot of time stationary on:

A highlight of the punt is the banter between friendly fellow cyclists and the equally friendly "Captain" who has plenty of good stories to share.

Once across you can hook up with the paths heading to St Kilda and well beyond:

 

"Bianca" working on her tan

 

  Today, even this ride was tough for me...35 degrees and a dry northwesterly, the back of my throat just felt like burning sawdust! Caught this sunset on the final section to home...awww

LeJog trip Data

Finally got round to doing my trip data for the Lands End - John O Groats tour from June last year . I thought this may be useful for others doing this route

My route was not the fastest and I made a horrendous navigational error on day 8 which added about 50km. I loved this route, Arran well worth a visit and the west of Scotland very pretty. I strongly suggest the "Day 10" route over the central highlands on an amazing sealed D-road.

Journal Link  - Distance - Bikely Route Map

Links have more details:

Day 1:      179.91 km    Lands End - Okehampton

Day 2:      141.88 km    Okehampton - Shipton

Day 3:      166.33 km    Shipton - Ludlow

Day 4:      161.96 km    Ludlow - Wigan

Day 5:      198.63 km   Wigan - Gretna

Day 6:      161.24 km   Gretna - Irvine

Day 7:      171.86 km   Irvine-Arran-Oban

Day 8:      201.17 km   Oban - Drumnadrochit

Day 9:        95.67 km   Drumnadrochit - Lairg

Day 10:     163.3  km   Lairg - John O Groats

Total: 1641.95 km
Average day: 164 km

Trip summary in brief:

• Rode solo and unsupported
• I was riding for 2 charities and raised £1,488.50 for the Mental Health charity Rethink and £700.00 for The Dom Pardy Trust
• I rode on a Specialized Cycle Cross with 2 rear panniers and a bar bag (above) I was travelling light for speed in order to meet a 10 day deadline I'd set myself for the charities. I stayed in B&B's mostly, not camping to save weight. 
• Apart from the multitude of other blogs on Lejog, the other 2 websites that proved to be a goldmine was http://www.xcweather.co.uk/GB/forecast for detailed wind forecasts, and the CTCForums
• Weather: so much debate on heading in the direction Lejog vs Jogle (south to north, or north to south). If you can afford to leave your choice to the last minute, watch the wind forecast website above and go with the flow. For most of us that's not possible due to the remoteness of the start/finish and logistics involved.

Snakes And Fires

I've been getting out on good rides on the weekends regularly now and have set a couple of goals for the year to work towards. Both involve needing to ride every day that I can, so that's my main objective for now...just to be out peddling as often as possible!

On a recent ride the big excitement was My First Snake Encounter. I had my head down riding into a fairly sprightly sea breeze and didn't see it coming at all, in fact, I nearly ran it over. Locals will laugh but I definitely jumped out of my skin...it was a big snake! (To me, anything larger than a garden earthworm is a big snake mind you...).

Whilst I didn't get a massively detailed look as I furiously accelerated away, having poked around on-line it seems most likely to have been an Eastern Brown snake and I think looked pretty much exactly like this:

A bite from one of these, if that's what it was, is not a good thing. Symptoms include: diarrhea, dizziness, collapse or convulsions, renal failure, paralysis and cardiac arrest. Wonderful. Fortunately for me this snake's cyclist eating days were over...for once a car had actually done me a favour and got to it first.

The sad thing is the area I've been using to train around had a major fire near a village called Little River last weekend. Deliberately lit apparently, which seems like a particularly sadistic thing to do. This one wasn't as bad as others around the country but still blazed though 350 hectars of land before it could be contained. I took this photo in the area:

The weekend before. Its so dry and windy out there you can see why they are so dangerous!

Anyway, am trip planning now for this years cycle tour which I'm going to do in Winter time to fit it round work. At the moment it seems heading further north is the best option but we'll see! This time I plan to ride with a bigger load and camp out more, so also thinking about kit list.

Grabbed these Polar Bottle insulated water bottles yesterday:

Which supposedly will keep your drink cooler for longer. Just had the one test so far and am not totally convinced the cost is worth it yet...but next time I'll stick some ice cubes in as well.

83km done today, it feels like I'm heading in the right direction fitness ways. Goal for the year is 10,000km. Or, 833km a month...27 km a day, every day!

Back in the Saddle

So here I am in Australia, and at Christmas my bike cleared customs and I could get out on the road again. It definitely has not been good for me while I waited the 3 months for the shipment to get here and clear customs...but, it's here now, and its time to get peddling again!

I've just done a couple of bedding in rides so far. The heat here after the UK is a shock, especially just now while the heat wave is in town. I've been trying to head out earlier in the day and be done by lunch time, but its still too warm - for me! Also the warm wind feels like a hair dryer when its coming of the warmer interior.

What I do love is the open space. Although I live out of the far western edge of the city and the commute utterly sucks during the week, on weekends I'm only a short ride from terrain like this:

That was my first proper foray out of town, a 58 km ride out along Bachus Marsh road yesterday. Looking forward to seeing much more of this!

In the meantime, today was a more leisurely ride along a mostly traffic free route into the city:

I was checking this out as part of a possible ride to work route.  The the whole distance to work would be close to 70km I think, so would be a big effort and to then have to work a day...so I'll look at that again later in the year I think! A lovely route nonetheless, on a fairly narrow paved path

But passing Altona Beach

And Williamstown Beach

At the moment I'm just trying to get used to being back out on the road and getting fit again - but its great to be in such a wonderful cycling country!

What Next....

Well its been 3 or so months since I finished my LeJog and I've had plenty of time to reflect. The most striking memories for me is the beautiful land and the amazing support from my friends and friends of friends. In the end we all raised £1,488.50 for Just Giving and roughly £700.00 for The Dom Pardey Trust - so thank you for that, and am not stopping here!

The next thing to mention I guess, is a question a few people have asked of: "So how hard was it"? And the first thing that springs to mind is the cumulative effects of long mile days on your body. I had done about as much training as I could fit in around quite long hours at work, and at the end of that I was quite capable of 100 mile days, but wasn't ready for 10 of them in a row! I think the only thing I could have done differently is plan some 3 day weekend rides.  The training rides that paid of the most for me were the York - London ride and Calais to Paris as they got me into the rythym of riding back to back days, unsupported. So my advice to anyone doing the same is: Back to back long days in training...as many as possible!

Fuel

During training, at my peak about a week before I started, I'd dropped 10kgs from when I started training in earnest in February. Sometime between then and a week after getting back I went up a couple of kgs but I was eating massive meals all through that period. On the ride itself I think the calorie count on the ride varied from about 4000 calories on the easiest days though to maybe 8000 on the 200km days. You have to eat small meals, constantly! For me lunchtime was the hardest, I hate setting out on a full stomach, so, lots of small high nutrient meals all day worked for me.

Emotional Reunion

If you were mad enough to read this rubbish all the months back you might recall just weeks before I was due to set off on my LeJog, I found out I had this alarming crack in my frame:

At the time there wasn't enough time to go through Bianchi's warranty process, and I had less then 2 weeks to get a new bike and get used to it. Well, since getting back I finally managed to get this underway...and I must say hats off to Evans Cycles in Wandsworth...and Bianchi - they really went the extra mile for me to get this done before my current imminent departure (more on that shortly) and earlier this week: fresh back from the Bianchi workshops in Italy...a brand spanking NEW frame for Bianca!

It was an emotional renunion...so many miles on this bike! The process took about 6 weeks as the frame has to go back to the manufacturer for tests, but no questions were asked...or reason given for the fault.

So What Next

I'm relocating down under. Australia next week, and was therefor relieved (and surprised) to get this sorted in time. Once the bikes arrive its going to take a while to get "expedition fit" again, but I'm drooling at the open space and new scenery Australia offers. The next challenge I think will be Melbourne - Sydney. Not as far as LeJog actually...but it sounds impressive!

....Australia is an unfeasibly vast place and I am looking forward to what lays ahead.

Day 10 Lairg to John O Groats

The weather forecast for day 10 was really not great. Strong westerly winds, increasing as the day went on. I'd planned to go over the inspiring looking Strath Halladale, the problem being, once you get to the end of that and hit the north coast, one still needs to ride 65 miles east and into a big wind.

With fresh legs I'd be less bothered but my legs were about as fresh as an unpasteurized cheese. So, the "summit day" plan was to get up at 4am, eat, and be on the road as early as possible...as explained:

Being so far north, it was light at 3am so this was no trouble at all and I'd encourage anyone else doing this route to use this time if they need it...check the wind and pick the best time that suits your plans. This website: http://www.xcweather.co.uk/ is excellent for wind forecasts.

This road was pure magic. At this time in the morning, I had the whole thing to myself and a couple of wild deer families who ran along next to my bike when they bolted. The shear vast and rugged emptiness of the place is massively humbling....my little camera phone doesn't do the place justice, but I'll try:

It's about 35 miles over these hills to the village of Tongue on the north coast. I only just had enough warm kit for the conditions, it started raining and the westerly was bitterly cold. So long as I was peddling it was fine but felt a bit foolish and under prepared.

But of course, got there. And as no sooner had I turned east at the bottom of the hill, a bitter struggle into the strong westerly commenced. One saving grace was the land. Who ever heard of the Highlands Riviera?!

But it was just a huge grind to be honest. Legs had no power in them and any stop seemed to make a swollen ankle worse. Lots of hills on this coast too

I

Though it does flatten out near the end.

Finally pulled into the finish with another 100 miler done. Day 1 at Land's End seemed like last year. Never would have got here if it wasn't for the constant support and encouragement from friends, co-workers, and my wife! LeJog is a mental battle, and mainly tests your ability to recover overnight from big days, and then to it again the next day...and the next...and the next...

Thank you very much to everyone who sponsored me! I will post again with all the trip stats, route links etc.