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

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