Day 2, padstow to okehampton

Great day, a lot easier than yesterday, not so many hills and a shorter distance.  Started off with a short ferry (1/2 mile) from padstow to rock, took us a while to find it, a nice man that worked for the lifeboats told us that because the flag was down, the tide was too low so we had to go a bit further to a lovely wee beach.  From rock headed off for launceston, nice wee town, this was where my phone died.  Had some lunch in a nice wee cafe and the kind staff were impressed by our journey and gave us a couple of pound for the cause.  Now we are in okehampton, relaxing evening. Nice dinner and off to bed early.

Day 1

First day complete, lots of hills but very pretty and sunny the whole day.  Stopped at st ives, then later newquay for dinner, thinking that with only about 12 miles to our final destination we could relax and have a big meal, not realising that we had a good few very steep inclines to contend with.  Now time to rest for more of the same tomorrow ;)

The beginning

Trains

So that's the first journey complete, thanks virgin trains.  Now we wait at the not very pleasant Birmingham new street station for the next train to penzance compliments of cross country trains, thanks

Charity

YAY - we have now raised just over £1500.  It is fantastic to have so much support - the charities will use the money well!  Mental health is an issue that affects all of us, with statistics showing that 1 in 4 people will suffer with a mental health problem.  

If you haven't yet donated, its not too late : http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/lejog_2012 

Thanks to everyone for their support, it will keep us going when are legs are feeling too tired to peddle any more! 

count down

Finally the weather is improving - perhaps this is a taste of things to come - I hope so!!  went for a cycle up the reservoir yesterday - ended up covering 35 miles. http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/74501523   - got a takeaway chow mein on the way home, ate it very quickly and then realised that it wasn't enough, so went to Sainsburys for some dessert! 

Today is going to be my last day of cycling!  Got up early this morning and went for a pre-work cycle in the Glorious sunshine with Rich!  http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/74858786

Tomorrow will be hectic last minute shopping and then Friday packing!  Can't believe its actually here and we are going to be going on Saturday!

Our route

The long awaited route - nothing like leaving it all to the last minute :)

The milage is approx and will probably be more - I've no doubt we will take some wrong turns

• 29th July - Lands End - Padstow (68 miles)
• 30th July - Padstow (cheeky wee 1 mile ferry accross the river camel) - Okehampton (67 miles)
• 31st July - Okehampton - Cheddar (85 miles)
• 1st August(Richards Birthday) - cheddar - abbey dore(nr Hereford)  (71 miles)
• 2nd August (rest day)
• 3rd August - Abbey Dore - Oswestry (80 miles)
• 4th August - Oswestry - Ashton-inMakerfield (wigan) (62 miles)
• 5th August - Ashton-in-Makerfield - Levens ( 69m miles)
• 6th August - levens - Longtown(yay back in scotland - near gretna) ( 65miles)
• 7th August - Longtown - New Lanark (73miles)
• 8th August - New Lanark - Stirling (45 miles) - shorter run and staying at home for a night :) - using this and next short day instead of rest day! 
• 9th August - Stirling - Perth (32 miles)
• 10th August - Perth - Newtonmore (70 miles)
• 11th August - Newtonmore - Rosemarkie(65 miles)
• 12th August - Rosemarkie - Dunbeath (81 miles)
• 13th August - Dunbeath - John O'Groats(Yippeee) - then back to Wick (55 miles)

Total miles 990



View Land End to John O Groats in a larger map

catch up

Well - I haven't been great at keeping this blog up to date - so now I'm just going to have to blab about the last few days in one post! 

So last Tuesday - I went on a nice cycle up the reservoir again - this was to be my last cycle for a few days whilst my bike was getting fixed!  It was very strange driving to work, I actually felt very tired - I think the exercise keeps me alert!

Last Tuesdays cycle : http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/72408048

So I took my bike in to get a service, new cassette and various other little bits and bobs - ended up with a total spend of just under £140 - but could have been more, velocity 44 in Stirling gave me £30 off as a contribution towards my trip!  Thanks :) So, I picked up my bike on Friday - and feeling desperate to get out, I went on the round the fourth route on Saturday - Stirling - Alloa - Kincardine - Forth Road Bridge - Linlithgow (stopped at Linlithgow for lunch at my mums, then Rich came through on his bike and we cycled back to Stirling together!  Total mileage about 65ish - endomondo died a couple of miles from home!

I'm going to do a whole new post for Sunday - ended up finally getting all the bookings done so we can add our route - HURRAH!

not much action

Not been a lot of action in the blog of late! That is probably a fairly true representation of how much cycling has been happening.  Well, yesterday was pretty horrendous weather - rain, rain and more rain.  Many roads in Stirling have been flooded!  So, my bike went into the repair shop for some last minute TLC before the trip!  This results in a couple days rest for me :)

On another note it would appear that the weather is changing : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18868494 - I really hope so, it would be nice after all the rain to have 2 weeks of sunshine and warm feet!

Photo credit: chelle from morguefile.com

non cycling weekend!

Saturday didn't manage to get any cycling done! I ended up dog sitting - so rather than cycling we went hill walking - starting at logi kirk and then off up into the Ochils! Was lovely, Domino enjoyed it, but decided not to go through the fenced off area with the sheep, Domino seemed to be rather partial to the waste the sheep had left everywhere!

Sunday - had great cycling intentions - drove through to mums, with cycling gear on - and bike strapped to the back of the car.  Loaned the car to Richard, so plan was to cycle back to Stirling!  Just about to leave mums - and the rain started.  So, had a cup of tea and a biscuit and got the train home. 

 So - tonight!  I have to cycle, but lucky me it is actually sunny out there!

mmmmm - food!

Went on the reservoir route again - so much better when it is dry!  Covered 31 miles total yesterday and then got home and ate lots! 


Food eaten yesterday :
Breakfast : muesli, strawberries, banana, orange juice, coffee
Mid morning snack : Croissant
Lunch : Beans on Toast
Afternoon snack : yoghurt, sesame bar
Pre-cycle (5.30pm) : scone
Mid-cycle: 1 1/2 natural bars (fruit and oats and stuff)
Dinner: some kind of microwave meal - reasonably healthy (for a microwave meal) 500 cals - then a yoghurt for dessert and an apple

Estimated calories eaten : 2600


According to Endomonodo (http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/71035504) I burned 1463 claories - so I could still eat more than what I ate yesterday! 

dry?

well - it would appear that the rain has finally stopped :)  Hopefully when we are completing LEJOG we don't end up like the guy pictured above!!!

We did go out for a cycle on Tuesday up to the reservoir.  Covered 31 miles in total and when I got home, my feet were soaking! So much for waterproof overshoes.  I really do need to invest in a new front mudguard, ended up with a very mud speckled face - great look!

Anyway the rain seems to have stopped,so going to hopefully enjoy tonights cycle and return home with dry warm feet!

Interesting article in Guardian on cycling in the rain : http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/jun/12/cycling-in-the-rain

So this post is really a test - I've changed the blog so that it now includes a facebook send button.  With any luck after writing this and clicking send, I can send to the facebook group - thus only updating in one place - Fantastic!

Sunday cycle

Cycled to Glasgow yesterday.  Went over to carronbridge, over Tak-Ma-Doon Road (great name for a road) then followed the canal into Glasgow.  Met up with friends for lunch and then cycled back.  Round trip of 58 miles! Following link shows the route:   http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/69804059

Covering 58  miles I burned approx 2500 Calories, so when we are doing LE-JOG we will be covering around 70+ miles a day which means we will be burning about 3000 calories a day, so that means we will need to eat at least a whopping 4000 calories a day! Bring on the cakes and pies!!!

Great evening cycle

Finally we had some nice weather!  Went up CarronValley and then met up with Rich and went off to Dunblane and then Doune for dinner!

TRAINS!

Managed to cover 47 miles yesterday after work!  My bro, cycled to Stirling first so he covered 67 miles - so close enough to what we will be covering on the trip!

Some ACE news.  Virgin trains & Cross Country trains have very kindly agreed to provide us with tickets for our journey from Glasgow to Penzance!  Thanks so very much to both train companies! 

We have done a lot of planning for this trip, but we still have so much to do! We had hoped that the train companies Virgin & Cross Country trains may help with our tickets - but we are currently still waiting to hear from cross country trains.  Virgin had agreed to help - IF - cross country trains helped! So fingers crossed we get something soon! The price keeps going up, and to be honest - if they were going to say no, it would have been best at the beginnning - the cheapert fare was £80 from Glasgow to Penzance.  Now the fare is more than double that!  So, if they now say no, it is a bit of a disaster financially!

Contacted Cross Country trains through their facebook page, and they told me to contact customer relations!  A bit annoying, I have already contacted customer relations!  I really very much hope that they can help us and do get back to us!

Just about to head out in the rain round the resovoir - JOY!