It's been an eventful couple of weeks since the last post, lots of training, my first 100mile ride and then a chest and throat infection which put me off the bike for a few days. Two rides have resulted in faulty valves on the inner tubes provided with the bike, despite Specialized selling their own brand tubes, these were some cheap chinese rubbish. Along with the dodgy valves I also had another puncture. Not sure that I can afford to have that much bad luck, so may well put my Schwalbe tyres on from the Raleigh, they seem less prone to puncturing. Need to order a few more decent tubes ready for the JOGLE.
My first 100miler went well. I managed to do it at an average speed of 15mph, which is well above the speed that I expect to do on the ride, so pleased with that. The first 50 miles was lovely, nice and warm, slight head wind. However after a coffee break, the weather had changed and I got soaked for the next 50 miles. Luckily i had my waterproof jacket with me, so kept most of the rain off my top half and kept warm. Could have done with putting the shoe covers on though to keep the feet dry..... On the Thursday before the 100miler I had started to get a sore throat, which didn't hold me back for the 100 miler, but after 25 miles on Sunday I was starting to feel weak and found it hard to breath properly. However by Monday I knew that I should go to the Dr., so 8:40 I am sitting in the Dr's listening to him say I have a chest & thorat infection and also high blood pressure to boot. Not happy.... A course of anti-biotics seem to do doing the business though, I went out for a bit of hill training tonight without any ill effects. Blood pressure also seems to be back to normal, so much have been connected to the infection. Onwards and upwards, this time in 5 weeks I shall be on the Inverness sleeper train :-)
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So, 7 weeks today until I start my JOGLE. By this time I will have cycled from JOG down to Wick (17 miles) to what will hopefully be a comfy 1st B&B of the tour. SInce my last post, many days, weeks ago, I have been doing lots of training, managing to actually get outside to ride rather than staying in on the turbo trainer. Most of these rides have been with my Carradice on the back, fully laden as it will be for the JOGLE. As I see it, there is no point putting the miles in if I don't do it with the bike weight and handling as it will be in 7 weeks time. Last weekend a couple of longish rides were completed. A 65 mile trip taking in Seaford, Hailsham, Battle and back to Eastbourne. This was followed on Sunday by a ride over to see Mark in Portsmouth. Riding over to Portsmouth, I must say was a bit boring as once I was in Brighton, the road was flatter than a pancake. This weekend Donna and I are partying big style! Friday night we are off to Brighton to see The Wonderstuff, with Erica Nockalls also providing support, we can't wait. Could be good exercise for the calves, bouncing around to the Stuffies is always good fun! Then on Saturday, we have a black tie do up in Crawley, the dancing might be a bit more sedate, but I'm sure the drinks will flow... As for the riding, I am hoping to get a smallish ride in Saturday morning before we head up to Crawley, then I will ride back from our hotel in Crawley on Sunday. I have booked Monday off for a decent long ride, could well be my first 100miler! Fingers crossed.... Next time I'm here, will be watching the 8 legged groove machine that is The Wonderstuff
Cold and wet week, but 120 decent miles done outside so not all bad. Two training rides during the week over Beachy Head, with an easy ride to Hastings on Saturday and some hilly miles over the Downs today.
I went over to Hastings yesterday to get some Proofide for my Brooks saddle, something that should have been done about 400 miles ago... whoops. Oh well, at least it's done now. I bought the Proofide from Bells Bicycles, which is a lovely shop selling old style bikes with a modern touch, including some Tokyo bikes which look fantastic. I chatted to Meg, who owns the shop for a while and she told me off for not having proofed it already. At least she liked the fact that I had the Brooks on though. http://bellsbicycles.co.uk/ So now I also have my Carradice Nelson longflap on the new bike for the first time, weighted down in preparation for how it will feel in a couple of months time. On the way over to Hastings I went on the "cycle path", this is in fact just some matting put on about 2 miles of the beach. Needless to say, I will not be riding a road bike along it again. There really should be a warning to say that it is not really suitable for road bikes. I can imagine that on a blustery day, it will be covered in the stones from the beach and unpassable on any bike. Live and Learn. Before I say any thing else... thank you soooo much to all the people that have sponsored me so far. I did a 50 miles training ride this morning and got back to find that over £160 had been donated this morning alone. All the money donated gives me more motivation for training and to complete this challenge. Thank you all xxx
Well.... As I said above, I have done about 50 miles this morning from Eastbourne to Brighton and back, to see a friend that I have not seen for about 6 months. Good to see that you are keeping well Jason and the new business is starting to be a huge success, long may it continue! With about 3100ft of climbing, todays ride is about half the distance and ascending that I will be doing each day on the JOGLE, rather daunting. I have also managed to book my train up to Wick this week, although it went with a little bit of drama. I have had to book both a cabin and a seat on the train to Inverness as Scot rails website would not book in my bike on the cabin ticket, only a seat ticket. How stupid! A complaint has been sent and I will be asking for my £36.40 to be refunded from the price! 1 1/2 hours on the phone to people in Asia, it was not fun. With all the millions unemployed in this country, why can't they earn their dole money by being as useless in a call centre as our friends in Asia? hummph. All hotels/b&b's booked, including Mom's house :-)
Suppose I had better finalise my actual route soon..... I have booked my first night accommodation in Wick (23/05/2013), second night if you include the train journey up. So it’s really going to happen this year!
First day is arriving in Wick via train, checking into B&B then cycling up to JOG and back again. I just hope that the winds and rain won’t be too fierce the first few days…. |
AuthorStuart Mole - cycling through Scotland and England. Archives
June 2013
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