Milestone 45 (Training day 26)

Significant goal today, achieving 45 miles in the day - the target for this week. I hadn't been sure about this goal, just because of time available for training this week. But got up early today, and managed 17 miles before work. After many meetings, managed to leave early and fit in 28 miles on the way home. So the nest target is 55 miles in a day next week ...

The first day of the tour proper is 56 miles. At least by then I won't have the distractions of work to get in the way of training. It's the end of my penultimate week before redundancy, and I can't wait. The cycling training, collecting information for the goal setting book, and preparing for my future life are all way more motivating than the drawn-out end to the current work. Just got to hang on to the end to collect that final pay cheque!

Training summary: 45 miles today, 549 miles total

Half term interrruptions (Training days 24 & 25)

My girls are staying for half term, so I'm on parental duties with limited time available for training. Found a short route around Brockham and Reigate Heath that gets 15 miles under my legs in just over an hour. Not many serious hills in this, but a few miles to keep up the pace.

At least the sun is shining again - with the bank holiday over, the weather gods have turned off the stop-cock and allowed spring to return. Beautiful days for cycling - wish I had more time to be out on the bike. If the weather for the tour is like this ...

Continuing to raise sponsorshop money on the justgiving website. Currently, the total stands at over £1000. Initially, this felt like a good target to reach, but with the outstanding generosity I've seen from some friends, I am now aiming for £2000. How I can make this total by the end of the summer - the just giving site will remain in place until early August.

Training summary:
day 24: 15 miles today, 489 miles total
day 25: 15 miles today, 504 miles total

More swimming (Training day 23)

If anything, today is even wetter than yesterday - the river Mole has been re-diverted to fall from the sky instead of through the Surrey Downs. At least i have my new over-shoes, so I'm fully prepared for the worst the weather can throw at me. So, after two hours today, my feet are ... just as wet as yesterday. Protective shoes appear to be as much use as ... the original shoes I was wearing anyway. Hmmm, back to the drawing board on that one. Start praying a lot harder for truely dry weather in June.

The Ipod is surviving the weather better than my feet! After fixing this last week (see day 5), the device has been playing well through the rain, sweat and dropping abuse. I've been listening to an eclectic collection of podcasts - mixture of business education, philosophy, science and coaching. One of the most interesting has been the weekly podcast from New Scientist - sadly I discovered today that this is being discontinued. Oh well, I'll need to search out some other interesting sites before the tour proper.

Another 40 miles in the saddle again today - same route as yesterday, so keeping up the hill training as well as the mileage.

Training summary: 40 miles today, 474 miles total

Heavy rain (Training day 22)

Up again at 6.30 for today's training session. Off into the wettest weather I have yet trained in. This isn't just rain, it's a swimming pool being emptied from the sky - constantly. After two hours, the waterproof is still doing a great job at keeping my top half dry, but my feet could just have easily been diving all morning rather than cycling. Press on and on, for my longest journey by far (so far), including some good steep hills in this - Zig Zag road up to Boxhill, Ranmore and Leith Hill. 40 miles according to Google maps.

Cheered myself up at the end of the ride with a few new purchases from Dorking's latest bike shop - Head for the Hills. Lots of interesting new gear that I could have bought, but I limited myslef to a few tools and some over-shoes. Hopefully the next time the heavens open for emptying, I'll be able to keep my feet a bit drier.

On a positive note, if i can keep going for 40 miles in that sort of deluge, I have great confidence that it will be much easier in the sun (hopefully) during the tour. With the beautiful (?) June weather, it must be easier than today ...

Training summary: 40 miles today, 434 miles total

Saturday morning (Training day 21)

Early start again - alarm set for 6.20 - at the weekend. Aim to get through today's training before my children arrive at lunchtime. Head out to my (now) favourite hill (the Zig Zag road at Boxhill) and head for Westhumble, Wotton and Ranmore. The descent from Ranmore Common down into Gomshall is scarey at times, but peaceful on a quiet Saturday morning. From Abinger, instead of going straight home, I take a righ down to Leith Hill and Coldharbour. Finally get home to meet the girls for lunch and a rest.

This was 32 miles according to Google maps, my longest single journey for some years. Probably my longest trip since the London-Brighton event (20-ish years ago). This was a good long trip, but I didn't quite make 40 miles, which was the target for this week. So a bit of work to do tomorrow. At the end of this (third) week of training, I have totalled 147 miles, which brings my overall total to 395 miles.

With my girls staying for the week, I know that training is going to be difficult at times this week, so I won't get up to 50 miles in a day, but I want to get to 45 miles by the end of week 4. That leaves my final week of training to hit 55 miles in preparation for the (average) 65 miles a day on the tour.

Training summary: 32 miles today, 394 miles total (147 in week 3)

Kicking off (Training day 20)

So, nearly the end of week 3 - will I make it to the goals I've set for this week? There seem to have been so many interruptions and distractions. But, whatever these are, I must work through these - it isn't going to get any easier. Next week is half term, so my children will be staying with me - even more distractions to a carefully planned and orchestrated training regime! (?)

Set off the long way to work - 17 miles through Wotton and Ranmore Common. Ranmore Hill is the most difficult part of this - an 18% gradient which is great practice for the tour. The worst of the hills one the tour will only be very slightly worse than this aty 20% - that's a one-in-five for all you pre-metrication readers out there.

Even with my new road bike, this is quite a start to the day, but my legs feel less like jelly by the top of the hill compared to last week. And the sponsorship site is continuing to drive my motivation to complete - with the money pledged online and offline, there is now over £1000 raised for the Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign.

Head for home in bright sunny weather and take the long scenic path. Through Ranmore, Gomshall and Wotton, this 22 miles is the longest single ride for couple of weeks, and leaves me with energy to spare. And that takes the total for the day to 39 miles - close enough to feel confident about my goal of 40 miles for a day this week.

Training summary: 39 miles today, 361 miles total

Getting Serious Again (Training day 19)

Finally time to start the day with a training session. Having not done this for a week, I take the mid-route to work - 11 miles up Ranmore Hill and through Westhumble before attacking the Zig Zag road. This puts two significant hills under my belt before the day has even really started. Chocolate milk on the corn flakes seems to help this, mentally and physically!

The sponsorship site is going from strength to strength - £660 in the first two days it was up. I am amazed by the generous contributions from many of my friends, family and colleagues. I followed up with some more emails to continue the success.

Although I'm in a rush to get home, I use the same mid-route as getting to work. With my new bike, it's no problem to get through the 11 miles nearly as quickly as the direct route used to take me. In the evening, passing round a form at my evening class (wine-tasting if you're interested) generates more sponsorship.

Training summary: 22 miles today, 322 miles total

Too many Meetings (Training day 18)

Hmmm, this working business is really getting in the way of my training. Even with redundancy looming in a few weeks, there still seems to be too many days when I have to be in the office at unfortunate times. Had a full day of meetings today, starting at 8.30, so no time to train before work … and change, shower etc before meetings.

Perhaps I should have taken a couple of weeks between redundancy and starting the tour, to complete the training when more time is available. But then, it seems with any goal, that the time that is available to prepare … that is exactly how long it takes to prepare. So just setting the deadline is probably more important than the actual time available.

Rushed home to train in the evening, but even that was disrupted today, so only managed 7 miles to Brockham and back. Interesting to note that this was the same route I used for my first training session on day 1. But now, with two weeks of training and a new road bike, this took less than 30 minutes and felt like a warm-up rather than training.

Training summary: 7 miles today, 300 miles total

Back to Training (Day 17)

After my (sort of)days off, I finally get to use my new road bike properly. But no time for a long ride into work, take the direct route - just 7 miles. The miles fly by with the new suspension-free design. I'm quite nervous of the new shoes and cleats - always have been since an experience many years ago when I couldn't get feet out of pedals at traffic lights. So I've loosened off the springs on these pedals, so it seems quite simple to pull feet of the bike quickly. And I keep practising at every potential junction.

I've now received sponsorship forms and help from the Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign, and one of their people helps me with setting up a justgiving site. Mail out the link to friends, family and colleagues, and there is already an amazing £410 committed by the end of the day.

The first big test of the new bike comes at the end of the day - an extended ride home. I fly through the journey, as far as Gomshall and Abinger Hammer before returning home - 21 miles according to Google maps. So, after the brief interlude, I'm already back up to nearly 30 miles a day.

Training summary: 28 miles today, 294 miles total

Days off? (Training days 13-16)

The advice you can find on the Internet is generally third hand, conflicting and difficult to find. Depending on how I want to approach training, there is generally some website I can find that confirms my views. So should I be training every day, or every other day? I can't really tell - some sites have suggested the critical thing is to get on the bike every day but others advise that the stamina really develops during the rest days. And other people and sites have suggested cross-training in some other exercise instead of rest days,

So I have a conundrum for these few days - I have no access to either of my bikes - so do I train or take the time off? I settle for a short training session in the morning, and resting for the remainder of the day. With no access to my bikes, I am forced to use a gym. How I hate these places. It's many years since I used a gym, and I had forgotten the tedium of cycling without moving. I manage ten miles a day of interval training of the cycle machine - even with TV to watch while I am exercising, this is all I can manage before the boredom finishes me off. I add a 1km row to strengthen arm muscles and leave at that.

At the end of day 14, I have completed 137 miles in the second week of training - that's 245 in total since I started. I have accomplished 30 miles in a day twice this week, and now aim for 40 miles in a day by the end of the third week. With the new road bike almost untouched so far, I feel this step forward is readily achievable.

Training summary:
day 13: 10 miles today, 236 miles total
day 14: 10 miles today, 246 miles total (137 miles in week 2)
day 15: 10 miles today, 256 miles total
day 16: 10 miles today, 266 miles total

A Day in London (Training day 12)

Frustratingly, I have meetings all day today in central London. I don't have time to train before leaving ... on the train (sorry). So my beautiful new bicycle stays in the shed, and I drive.

Glad to get home in the evening and get out on the bike. Only manage 9 miles to the top of the Zig Zag road and back, but in a record time that makes me feel confident the training is continuing in the right direction.

Meet up with a friend in the evening to plan my sponsorship for the trip. He is closely associated with The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign, and can help with contacts, sponsors, giving website. All will be set up next week.

Training summary: 9 miles today, 226 miles total

My New Bike (Training day 11)

Up at crack of dawn again for another 17 mile cycle to work. It really is a struggle to get up and do this, but this is the last day on the mountain bike, so hoping that all will become easier from tomorrow.

I started talking to some colleagues about my plans for a book today. The intro to my blog mentions goal-setting as I plan to produce a book on goal setting, using some of my experiences from this training and the actual ride as background material. The plans for the book were developing before I set out on the epic venture, but the two have now become merged. This now all links up with my busines plans after the redundancy.

Hurried home the short way - I haven't taken this short way home for over a week and it now feels slightly strange. How different from day 5 when I was struggling to get over Ranmore Common. Collect the new bike but no time to use it tonight.

Training summary: 24 miles today, 217 miles total

Perseverance (Training day 10)

Alarm set for 6.20 again, and managed to drag mysef out of bed for the 17 mile cycle to work. More of a struggle today than yesterday, as I've proved to myself hat I can do it ... but I've got to keep doing this day after day to build up the stamina.

Talked to some other keen cyclists at work today, who have forwarded me blogs and newsletters about long distance cycling. The most useful thing I've found so far ... is the joy of chocolate milk! I hate chocolate ... well quite dislike it if not quite hate. But chocolate milk is just great as an energy buzz when the legs are feeling like jelly. With loads of sugar, fat and protein, it gets the legs going again in minutes. Strawberry milk tastes better, but doesn't seem as effective.

Rush home to get to the bike shop before it shuts. Try out several bikes before settling on a road bike hybrid - another Specialized like my mountain bike. It's half the weight of my other bike, and feels like double the power with no suspension and proper shoes and cleats. It needs adjustment and servicing, so I arrange collection for tomorrow.

Training summary: 34 miles today, 193 miles total

Breaking into the 30's (Training day 9)

Serious training started yesterday, and today I broke through 30 miles in a day. Up early (setting the alarm clock for 6.20), cycled the long way to work (17 miles) and the same way home. This is a great start to the day - currently listening to Tony Robbins on the Ipod for energy and motivation.

Contacted Evans Cycles again today, to book a time for measuring me. If I'm going to be on the same bike for 15 days solid cycling, it had better fit me. They can't fit me in until the week after next ... oh well. I need the road bike this week, so i'll just have to get the best fit I can. The mountain bike is great for training, as it's such hard work. but i need a new bike for several weeks before the tour starts to get used to it. Plan to buy one tomorrow.

Training summary: 34 miles today, 165 miles total

Serious training starts (Training day 8)

Set out for 20 mile ride today - over the Zig Zag hill, Ranmore Hill and Wotton. This is 22 miles according to Google Maps. This is the furthest I have cycled in one go for many years, so quite I'm relieved that there's still plenty of energy in my legs at the end. And I'm still on the mountain bike ... I feel it's going to get much easier when I manage to sort out a road bike.

Training summary: 22 miles today, 131 miles total

Finding a new Bike (Training day 7)

So far I've been training on my old mountain bike - a beautiful Specialized, but more designed for off-road ruts and tracks than road-work. I've noticed that people on road-bikes seem to fly past me, especially up the steep hills on the Surrey Downs. The front suspension on the mountain bike absorbs so much power, I've decided I really need a new bike for the journey.

Nyk, one of my colleagues, pointed out that Evans Cycles have a special offer on this week - an extra 20% off already reduced sale bikes. Of course this means the shop is completely jammed with people searching for a bargain. After a fruitless attempt to get recognised as a potential customer, I give up and head out for some more training to keep up the muscle building.

Struggled with the first few miles (to Ranmore hill), then got in the flow and finally cracked Ranmore Common – home through Wotton and Westcott. Just 13 miles, but I felt great at the end, and could have cycled another 5 miles easily. I know I couldn’t have done this last weekend, so I’m seeing and feeling the benefits of training already, and managed more than 100 miles in the first week. Plan 25 miles tomorrow, then I’m still ahead of schedule.

Training summary: 13 miles today, 109 miles total (total for first week)

Booking the Tour (Training day 6)

Prevarication over! Today I booked the tour - 15 days cycling starting on June 10th. I have been telling everyone (including myself) that it's 850 miles, but that's probably the shortest route you would take, with some form of internal combustion engine propelling your journey. Given the hills that need to be climbed or circumvented, the actual bike ride will be 1,000 miles - nearly an extra 20% on the journey. But hey, in for a penny, in for a pound.

And talking of pounds, Olivia (my partner) is trying to persuade me to raise sponsorship for some charity. Given that I am spending this amount of time and effort to undertake the trip, I guess it makes sense to raise money on the way. I have chosen a charity, one that I have been supporting for about a year in other ways - The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign.

I also reached another goal today - 20 miles cycling in a day - 2 days ahead of schedule. I cycled 11 miles to work and 11 miles home again. The new target for next week is 30 miles by the end of the week.

Met up with some old friends this evening - Roger Waters concert at Earls Court. I boldly told them about my planned epic adventure, and was pleased to get lots of positive responses. One guy (DDST) has cycled LEJOG before, and wants to meet up for a day on the ride. Should be passing near his place in Cheshire.

Training summary: 22 miles today, 96 miles total

Fixing an Ipod (Training day 5)

So I decided to contact Bike Adventures today, having worked through the doubts from yesterday. They have one place available on the tour, as someone has just cancelled. It's staying in B&B's which is more expensive than I had planned, but probably a better idea. Stand some chance of drying out clothes if it rains - I guess there's a strong chance of that even in June.

Another advantage of taking the supported tour and staying in B&B's is that I can take my laptop with me. I want to write about the experience, and capturing thoughts in the evening straight after a day's riding is more likely to record my direct experiences than if I need to recall everything weeks later. And it means I can re-charge (and refresh) my Ipod regularly.

I realised today how important the Ipod is going to be ... as it wasn't working. The 11 miles home suddenly become a long, slow, boring ride without interesting podcasts to keep me going. Anyway, I survived the experience and managed to fix the Ipod. Found a wonderful site (and another) that described dismantling and repairing Ipods, which gave me all the information I needed.

And I had my final consultation meeting with my current boss - agreed my final end date for redundancy. Agreed on the 8th June, so that I can start my epic adventure. I noticed that I started caling the tour "epic" today instead of "mad". Progress ...

Training summary: 19 miles today, 74 miles total

Finding the Right Tour (Training day 4)

Spoke to Ian (my neighbour) about my mad venture, and he suggested a company that runs organised tours. What a great idea - I hadn't thought of that. Someon else can carry my bags, tent and gear. That reduces most of the load on the bike during the day, and there's probably help on hand in case of emergency. Ian suggested a couple of companies, but the ride seemed to be compressed into a very short time - too quick for my available training period. Eventually I found Bike Adventures, who were running a supported tour starting on the 9th June ... the day after my planned redundancy. Now that seemed too perfect to be just coincidence.

Checking out their tour, there are camping places available, so I pan to cycle withthem. But I don't quite get around to calling them, and I recognise some doubts still in my mind about being able to complete this journey. Although I am still telling people that I am going on this mad journey, part of me is delaying committing to the final decision. At least recognising this behaviour is part way to being able to to deal with it ...

Cycled to work (7 miles) and back home through Ranmore (11 miles) to take my total to over 50 miles so far. Wanted to go over Ranmore Common to Abinger and home, to add an extra 5 miles or so, but it was too cold. I was prepared for spring weather, not the sudden return of winter.

Training summary: 18 miles today, 55 miles total

Back to work (Training day 3)

First day back at work after my huge decision. I get up early and cycle up the Zig Zag road to work - 7 miles to start the day. Home the long way through Ranmore to make 18 miles in total for the day - that's 36 miles since starting training. Feels like I'm on the right road (!)

Most importantly, I start to tell colleagues about my plan. i getall the reactions you can imagine - some think I'm mad, others just smile, and some are really supportive. Suggestions for websites to look at and people to contact start to come in regularly.

Part of my thinking is that the more people I tell, the more committed I am to going through with this. Setting the goal in my head was the start, creating a vision of doing it came next, and telling others to build committment is the current step. And I han't realised before now, that I have a clear vision that is helping to drive this on - a picture of me cycling over the final hill towards John O'Groats. That picture of completion is the key driver to keeping going.

Training summary: 18 miles today, 36 miles total

Bank Holiday (Training day 2)

My partner (Olivia) thinks I'm mad. She knows I haven't cycled more than 10 miles in a month this year, so getting up to 850 miles in 2-3 weeks is going to be a steep training curve. I'm still building up the confidence - I used to cycle a lot before I moved to Surrey. I still cycle to work (very) ccasionally, so I'm sure I can build up the training in the next few weeks.

I prove this to myself by cycling up the Zig Zag road at Boxhill, then continue over Ranmore hill and home. That's 11 miles today, nearly double yesterday's ... at that rate, I could easily be doing 50 miles by next week. We'll see ...

Still searching on the web for routes and campsites, I contact CTC for route and advice. They don't laugh about my little time for preparation - quite a relief!

Training summary: 11 miles today, 18 miles total

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