Route planned and start of ride accommodation sorted

Last weekend Aaron and I started doing some planning on how we would tackle the route. It looks as though it breaks down logically into 4 or 5 days of riding. The last section is about 16 miles of easy riding so could be pegged onto the end of the 4th day if things are going really well. Although this would take the total mile for the day well into the mid 40's. All indications at the moment are that is extremely unlikely and that some of the other days will spill over into the 5th day or maybe even a 6th day.......

We also found a B&B for the first night in Whitehaven that looks after cyclists. They have secure storage for the bikes and will make a lunch up for us on the first day which will be great.

The B&B is in the town and only 10 mins from the railway station and a couple of minutes from the "official" tyre dip in the sea that marks the start of the C2C ride.

It's all starting to take shape now and seeming a bit a bit more real.

No train home and a hard week of training

It's been a very busy week. Last weekend Aaron came over and we got a couple of 2 hour rides in. One on road and the other some fun off road on back to back days.

I didn't feel too bad although Aaron did suffer a bit.

Since then I got a ride in Monday morning and was beginning to think that would be it for the rest of the week until last night. I got to Cambridge station to come home to find out my train was cancelled because of signal failure. The information desk said they didn't know if the next train would be running which was in another hour. So I decided to take the next train to Ely and ride home from there.

Once I'd got on the train I fired up google maps to discover that would be a 20 mile ride in my work clothes and the sun :( I dropped into Tesco at Ely for a couple of bottles of water and a snack and set off. It was a lot further than it seems in the car but I rode on and did it in about 90 minutes with a couple of quick stops for a drink.

Today I ache a lot. Riding without cycle shorts and trainers/cycle shoes and gloves over that distance made it a much less pleasurable experience than it could of been.

Still I've got in a long unplanned training ride so it's not all bad. I'll try to get out tomorrow.

All in all training is not going too bad but I still feel like the C2C is going to be a big ask.

Date change and travel plans

No posts for a few weeks then two at once, just like buses hey !!!!

Apart from the training the other thing we've been lacking is any form of organisation and planning. So Aaron is coming over this weekend and we're going to do some training and planning !!!

We've had to push the C2C ride back a week which is not such a bad thing at the moment.

We've also got our outbound travel sorted. We leave Huntingdon around midday on 15th September heading north by rail on the first of 4 trains we need to catch to get us to Whitehaven. We've got bike spaces reserved between Peterborough and Leeds. The others cannot be pre-booked so we're going to have to hope that there is room for both our bikes and luggage. Cycle policies for these say they will do their best to accommodate us. We'll see......

As we don't know how long the ride is going to take we're not booking any return travel. We can do this on route or play it by ear when we want to come back. Worst case scenario would be us hiring a small van in Sunderland and dropping it in Huntingdon when we get back.

So it's all starting to get real now!!!!!

Long morning ride, blood and white deer

It's been a while since I've posted an update. I've been plugging away at the training.

This morning was notable as I saw two white deer on my route which is very unusual. I also got hit on the helmet by a bird of prey carrying something that used to be alive and fluffy. It left a streak of blood on my arm. Urgh !!!

On top of all this I rode for a full hour covering more miles than ever before in an early morning session. Details here.

Plus I've done the daily 6 mile round trip to the office. I'm definately starting to feel stronger now but need to get some longer road rides in.

Still got a few more pounds to lose too.........

Route overview

I'm still plugging away at the training and am starting to feel a bit stronger. It would be nice if for just one ride that the sun would come out!

I've attached a picture of the basic route and profile. It doesn't make the challenge ahead look any easier :(