First group training session

Well what a fun filled fortnight this has been.

We had our first group training session last weekend in Nottingham at Tom's stag do. All of us making double figures on the beers and no reported spews - something to be proud of!!! We also did some knee boarding which is just hell, it was so cold our were like blocks of ice as our wake boards cut through the ice-burgs forming on the lake.

Tom's been suffering with swine-flu, Ross has reportedly suffering from man-flu and I have still got a band of shingles or something across the top of my legs which is making cycling a little bit uncomfortable but not so much that I can't go out.

Have just finished mapping the whole route now and using mostly lanes all the way and just a few A-Roads and B-Roads once in Scotland (where they seem to have very few roads) I have managed to get the mileage down to a respectable 1000 miles. Over 11 days this will be more than pleasant - it should be actually enjoyable!!! It has been a painstakingly slow job this and has taken about 24 hours to complete so I've uploaded it to my GPS and saved about 10 copies on my PC and also a copy on here if anybody has nothing else better to do than look at it! http://tinyurl.com/3x8ddo8

The route generally goes through the middle of Cornwall and Devon to avoid the big coastal hills and then through Somerset and upto Bristol, across the Severn into Chepstow and then up through Ross-On-Wye and then straight up past Brum and onto Manchester then accross North Yorkshire and up to Edingburgh where the route pretty much goes straight up through to Balmoral and Inverness and finally to John O'Groats.

Now, I keep getting asked why we are going from bottom to top and not the other way around. There's a dam good reason for this and it was proven on Friday afternoon as I had taken this off work to go cycling (birthday treat for a geek!) and I cycled out towards Cirencester and managed to average just over 20mph with a stiff breeze (well gale) pushing me along and on the way back getting along at 15mph had my heart rate up to the 80% of my max which wouldn't be sustainable for long so you can imagine we may be down as low as 12mph on the distance we are intending to cover which would be depressing to say the least.

The main problem areas of the route are Bristol, Manchester and Edinburgh where it is difficult to find a route through avoiding city areas. The other problem area is Scotland, they seem to have spaced their towns out really badly meaning one day has to be over 109 miles and the next day just 42 miles or 125 miles so needless to say this has been broken down into the 42 miles and an 83 mile route the day after.

One other problem I have come across is a lack of camp sites for a couple of nights t'up North meaning there might be a couple of nights spent in a bus stop or in a trolley shed in a Tesco's car park

Its also been good to hear that Ross has a joined a gym or four and is slowly working his way around Swindon using as many free taster passes as he can get his hands on.

The training seems to be having some benefits already as I have shed well over a stone in the last 6 weeks or so and the gut still over hangs the trousers so I was fat enough to have appeared on fat families.

Looking forward to getting out on the road again next week when hopefully Ross will have his first proper road going machine - so I'll get to laugh at him falling off trying to get used to the twitchy handling of a 53cm road frame which all seem to come with really short stems... coupled with some clip-less pedals and narrow wheels its going to be a recipe for comedy or being him getting run over by a lorry either way it'll be a 'win-win'.