Saturday 3 September 2011

JOGLE Reflections and final thoughts...


Well, it's been over a week since we completed the ride and it has given a chance to look back on the ride (and for the pain in the shoulders and bum to wear off!)

The planning all went smoothly, we judged the distances about right and the travelodges and premier inns were spot on. We settled into a good routine of getting up early, eating breakfast that we'd bought the noght before, getting on the road and riding. We stopped when we needed to, with lots of short stops for toilet and snacks and a few longer stops at supermarkets etc. After waiting 20 mins for a £3.50 cheese toastie on the first day, we avoided cafes and stuck to small supermarkets and garages. We would ride all day often getting to the hotel around 6-7 and then getting everything ready for the next day before going for food. I wasn't that hungry in the evening as we had eaten lots all day.

It is really important to look after your body and make sure enough fuel goes in. I certainly didn't lose any weight and prob gained a couple of pounds! Each day I drank around 2.5 litres of Sports/Energy drink and several cokes and lots of water. Buying food and drink was easily the biggest expense of the trip. We got through loads of cereal bars and plenty of Boost bars. Getting enough protein is also important to repair the damaged muscles, so I eat a fair few McDonald's double cheeseburgers, as each one contains 26g of protein (about the same as a large chicken breast), and plenty of calories! In the evenings we tried to eat plenty of meat or fish. I'm not sure its a trip for veggies!

The route we took was easy to follow, although I'm glad we had the GPS to guide us through the city and town centres, as they got quite busy and the signposts often went a different way to the way we wanted to go. We did deviate from the planned route a few times, mainly when Will got fed up with busy roads. We carried a cut up laminated road atlas with us as a backup, which came in handy. The main downside of the route was that some roads were very busy. The A9 from Inverness to Perth through the Cairngorms was pretty busy with big lorries thundering past you. There was a cycle path next to the road but wasn't really suitable for road bikes. The old A74 that runs alongside the A74(M) was a very wide road and totally deserted.  In England the A6 and A49 were pretty good as most of the traffic was on the motorways, but it got busier as we went further South and the A30 and A39 weren't too nice. Because of the busy roads, we were forced to ride in single file, so there wasn't much opportunity to talkin the day, making the days quite boring.



We were very lucky with the weather. Apart from getting soaked through to the skin (twice) on the first day, we only had the odd shower for the rest and mostly stayed dry. We had a horrible headwind on day 3 which really slowed us down and sucked morale, but it could have been a lot worse heading from North to South. Scotland doesn't really seem to have a summer and I only took my leg warmers off once during the whole trip!

I didn't get as tired as I expected to on the trip, my legs felt ok at the end of every day 9helped by lots of protein and wearing compression tights in evening). The real pain was in the butt and shoulders, from supporting the weight all day. I felt I did some good training to prepare, and it wouldn't really have been possible to do any more, as I would have needed to do at least 4 days back to back. Once you get up there and have no other way to get back it makes it a bit easier to get up and get going in the morning.

Flying to Inverness was a great way to do it and logistically everything went well, I think that psychlogically it helped riding towards home. Easyjet were great, despite the horror stories about flying with bikes.

Would I do it again? Not in 7 days, probably not in less, but maybe when the kids are older and if they want to give it a go (the youngest person to do it on their own was 7 I think!) then I would do it as more of a holiday. Having said that, by the time we hit 90 miles we were pretty tired and slowing down so doing it in something like 10 days would only prolong the pain!

If anyone finds this blog and would like any help or advice for their own JOGLE/LEJOG then please get in touch through the Cycle Sport South Hams website.We would be happy to help.

Finally a huge thanks to everyone who supported us throughout the trip, with some extremely generous donations and messages of support, it really did make the difference


Overall Vital Statistics

Total distance cycled: 889 miles (1431 km)
Total ride time: 59 hours 37 mins
Average distance per day: 127 miles
Overall average speed: 14.9 mph (24km/h)
Total ascent: 13,622m (44,692 feet) (Mt Everest is 8848m)
Total number of wheel revolutions: 66,744
Total number of pedal strokes: 286,160 (approx!)
Total punctures: 2 (both Tom)
New bike parrts required: 1 x front wheel (Will)