Saturday 6th September

Rick and Tom have driven up to Greta on the Scottish border today in preparation for the first day of cycling tomorrow. Spirits are good and it looks as though the weather may stop raining soon (not holding my breath on that though). Rick is fed and watered and having a chilled evening in anticiaption of what lyes ahead tommorrow.......

The calm before the storm...

Well this'll be my last update, we're heading up to Scotland in the morning and hopefully by better half Sophie and my dear mother will be taking over blog editing duties on my behalf.

Took the bike out for a quick spin last night to give it the once over after all the maintenance and it's running beautifully. It's super smooth and the new gears are an absolute joy to use. The new tyre pressure will take a little getting used to as the bike now jarrs over every single imperfection on the road, but they should offer a little less resistance than they did at 40psi.

Just got off the phone to Tom who's buying up half the stock of his local Tesco, I don't think we'll go hungry on this trip! Tonight I'll be mostly packing (groan) and ticking off my ridiculously long list of essentials I absolutely musn't forget, ready for the trip up to Gretna in the morning.

I fear the weather may not be on our side on this trip. Its absolutely peeing it down at the moment and the weather forecast doesn't inspire me. What's more, I can't seem to find my waterproof jacket and I only have 1 pair of (non waterproof) cycling trousers. Well, the ride wouldn't be as much fun if I had every eventuality covered would it!

The actual 'ride' will start proper on Sunday going on for 5 days until Thursday. I'm already looking forward to Friday.

See you guys soon, over and out.

The bike's finally ready!

Another night of DIY on the bike last night and I think its finally ready. The new gears arrived on Tuesday and with lots of help from Barry (cheers mate!) they went on without a problem. However Barry couldn't help himself and in the process decided to strip the rear axle and fit new bearings and grease. He also tweaked my front forks which had some play in them, and pointed out my tires were only at 40psi rather than the recommended 100+!

Last night I finally took the panniers off (less weight!), fitted some (poor) night lights, a map holder, new brake pads... I think it might be finally ready.

Taking it out for a steady 30 miles tonight just to make sure the gears are absolutely spot on, then tomorrow I'll be packing up ready for the drive up to Tom's Saturday morning.

What a difference a week makes!

I've just got back from a 90 mile ride and I have to say I feel really good, which is saying something since its been raining ALL day. Knees feel fine, and although I took it really easy I still got back in 8:15 which is brilliant (well, for me anyway).

Didn't do the Audax today, the new gears didn't arrive in time so I arranged another route with less hills. I suspect my knees are probably just not used to doing 70+ miles really fast, if I take it easy and don't try and storm up hills then I might even enjoy doing this Scotland ride.

I think I'll do a couple more rides this week, leaving plenty of time to recover completely before the first leg in Scotland. I'll hopefully get all my stuff fitted tomorrow night (if it all arrives) then a couple of rides to check out the new gears and I'll be ready!

More new kit!

Following my weekend's riding I've decided something needs to be done about my gears to give myself the best possible chance of doing this. After some research I've found my rear cassette is a 12-23 which apparently is very long, so I've invested in a 13-28 which should basically give me 2 or 3 LOWER gears with which to battle the hills! I was going to grin and bear it but its clearly not doing my knees any good so I decided to take the plunge. If all goes well I'll be able to get them fitted for this Sunday's 150km Audax.

I've also bought a 2L saddle bag, which should give me enough room to carry essentials and I can take my panniers off to save a little extra weight. Also bought various medical supplies to help me in case the going gets tough. Training this week should be Wednesday and Friday, and the new kit should be going on Saturday for Sunday's ride.

Update Mon 25/08/08

Done 100 miles this weekend, 30 on Saturday and 70 on Sunday. All went well and on Sunday I felt I could have quite happily done another 20 miles. However, it seems my ITBS has come back. Its basically pain on the outside of my left knee. Haven't felt it at all this year, but doing 100 miles in 2 days I really noticed it. Its not too bad at the moment, but I need to try and fix the problem before I get to Scotland.

I'm particularly concerned because this is what stopped play for Mike and I last year. I've been doing special stretches which has probably helped but obviously not cleared it up altogether. After reading up on several forums I've opted to move my seat down and forward a few mm, we'll see if that makes it better.

To give myself the best chance of recovery I'm also going to skip some of my training this week. I've planned to do a 150Km Audax over the peaks on Sun 31st so I need to be in good shape for that and not nursing an injury.

Update Thu 21/08/08

42 miles after a day at work, there's no danger of that becoming a habit! Was dreading it but actually went very well. It'd been raining all afternoon but it soon cleared up. 3h15, not too bad for me that.