Starting out (Training day 1)

I'm playing catch-up on this blog ... so I'm going to cover some history.

I decided to cycle from Lands End to John O'Groats a few weeks ago (on May 6th). I've wanted to do this for some years, but there's never really the time ... work, family, holidays and so on. But I'm getting made redundant on June 8th, so I had the sudden realisation that I could use all of June to cycle. Compulsively, I jumped on my (seldom used) mountain bike and began training. Seven miles to Brockham and back, a few minor hills on the way, I got started.

So is it possible to train for Lands End to John O'Groats in five weeks? Looked on Google and my initial searches suggested not - websites were recommending 6-7 months training minimum. This was a bit of a blow to the confidence until I found others suggesting more like six weeks training. Eventually i found a training schedule someone had been recommended for 20 weeks - starting with just 15 minutes cycling at a time. I guessed I could dive into this at week 15, so the serious planning started ...

Training summary: 7 miles