Essex Castle

I did something today that I thought I would never have to do & that's load 4 bloody bikes onto the roof of my car! It brought back some horrible memories of last year!!

We had a good run today apart from the headwind, which we seemed to have nearly all day. It's worth pointing out that we stopped for a tea after about 35 miles & then 2 people sat in my back wheel for the next 6 miles as I struggled to maintain 20 mph. They are both about 12 stone & I'm 19 stone!! It was bloody hard work & when I couldn't maintain it they then passed me drafting each other............

Our Route!!

London to Southend tomorrow, it's an easier day at only 59 miles!

Another well organised event by www.bike-events.com

Tempus fugit

I know I have said this before, but where does the time go, it does seem to fly by??

All the hotels are booked, checked & double checked. I have bought the supplies, got Neal & Chris on the car insurance & to be honest just want to leave now & start. I know the others feel the same as we have been talking about it.

Looking forward to the weekend, doing 75 miles on Saturday doing Essex Castles & 59 on Sunday completing at London to Southend. The bikes will then go in for a service & the following Sunday I am doing London to Cambridge which is 59 miles. That will probably be all the longish rides I can fit in.

It's now less than 3 weeks to go & am starting to get apprehensive, not about the ride, but more as I've organised it all!!

To give you some idea of the route & more importantly for us, the terrain, I mapped our ride on www.mapmyride.com which is an excellent website.

You can see it's 893.7 miles which we shall be doing over 12 days (just short of 75 miles a day average). The steep pointy bits are awful. Day 2 the big climb is onto Dartmoor, which I am not looking forward too. (on 99 miles). The next one is at 445 miles which is Shap Pass in the Lake District. Another long steep climb. The final long slog of note is the 30 mile climb up to Glencoe at 650 miles. All plan sailing then!!

Folkestone today

Sandra & I are very much continuing our training. Today we cycled the 61.77 miles from mine down the old A20 to Folkestone. Not a bad route, we stopped & had coffee a couple of times & generally treated it as the training ride it is. Good news is I am improving massively over some of the steep hills & I can now sit quite comfortably at 20 mph on the flat with my pulse at about 65%. This is encouraging & I feel that I am a lot fitter than this time last year & should find Devon & Cornwall easier??

The profile of Wrotham Hill & yes I know I somehow managed to turn off the tracking bit on the SATNAV, however if you double click on the image & look at the top right hand side you will see the stats (I must read the manuel to see how things work??!!)

On the way home & we still had to cycle another 7 miles from Orpington station

An inspiring video

Hopefully NOT a portent of things to come?

Sandra & I in our continuing quest for perfection went out on a little ride of 30 miles today which was up & over Biggin Hill & then back through Brasted to mine. I do hope the weather we had isn't a forecast of what will have on the ride. It was a horrible drizzle that started as soon as we left mine.

Biggin Hill from mine is a steady climb of 13.4 miles which is something I still need all the practice I can get at!!

Our route (double click to make bigger)

Monday we are cycling to Folkestone (about 70 miles) for a stick of rock & a kiss me quick hat, hopefully it will be sunny & I will have some pictures to show you?