The Final Countdown

So a little bit later than planned, here begins my first Deloitte Ride Across Britain Land’s End to John O’Groats Bike Ride Blog! Way back when I first got my place on the ride I had vague thoughts of writing a blog to document my training and the build up to the event, but in hindsight, a training blog would have been fairly dull to read and can be roughly summarised as follows:

·         December - February: Start cycling most weekends. Feel surprised at how tiring it all is. Get cold a lot.

·         March - May: Do more cycling. Complete first 100 mile rides. Feel impressed. Buy more lycra

·         June – August: Do even more cycling. Go faster. Sometimes get bored of cycling. Spend lots of money on bike-related things. Develop ridiculous tan lines/rained on a lot (sometimes on the same day)

So, here I am with less than 48 hours to go until I’ll be on the road. Feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement, although probably veering more towards nerves/last minute panicking right now, along the lines of ‘Have I done enough training? Yes, loads! Maybe too much – I feel quite tired. Actually, my throat’s a bit sore. Maybe I’m getting ill. Must get some vitamin C. Need to finish packing. What am I missing..let me check the packing list. Mosquito head net – WTF???* A  mosquito head net! I know there are midges in Scotland but I can’t imagine the locals stick on some sort of bee keeper’s outfit to walk to the pub. I will take some mosquito repellent but that is where I draw the line.

I digress. By now I have a few things to add to my bag but it’s too late to change much else. I’ve cycled over 3,500 miles this year in training which has surely got to be enough. I dropped my bike off with the organisers last weekend and hopefully it is by now safely on its way to Land’s End. So all I need to do is get an early night, hope the sore throat goes away and make sure I don’t miss my train to Penzance tomorrow!

In the meantime, here are 3 excellent reasons to be cheerful:

1.       The weather forecast for this weekend is sun sun sun! It’ll surely rain at some point in my 9 day journey but it’ll be nice to start with a bit of sunshine J

2.       I have large quantities of homemade flapjacks to power me through the tougher moments JJ

3.       It’s a holiday! Not an ordeal, or a race...must remember that and try to enjoy myself and appreciate the scenery as I travel through all sorts of places in the UK that I haven’t seen before. And once it’s all over I’m off to Switzerland for more holiday and to see the lovely Silke Olsen get married JJJ