First Aid

About 15 years ago my job at the time required that I attend a first aid course, all went smoothly and I passed at the end of the eight weeks. When leaving the course on the final day the instructor told us to 'be careful' on the way home as it is not uncommon for people leaving first aid courses to witness some sort of incident in the coming days. A bit of banter or scaremongering I thought but the following day...........

After the course I had a few days off before returning to work, on the journey home the unfortunate happened, a horrific motorcyle accident! The car driving infront of me decided to turn right at the same time as the motorcycle was overtaking. Luckily I was on hand to put my new training to use.

What does all this rambling have to do with our Lejog???

Well, our Lejog support car driver Cathy attended a first aid course yesterday. Hmmm, don't worry there is no bad news coming up but the post first aid course gremlins tried to get us on todays group training ride but only in the form of mechanical problems.

Left to Right. Simon, Jonny, Sonja, Shelagh, Gary and Ashley
At Wall End, Langdale


A good 70 mile or so hilly training ride was the plan for our group Sunday ride taking in Broughton Fell, Coniston, Blea Tarn, Elterwater, Clappersgate, Hawkshead and then back to Ulverston via Bouth.

The day went well but those aforementioned gremlins tried to get us in the form of mechanical problems......so here you go the following happened:

• 2 broken chains - one was mine and resulted in me kissing the tarmac!
• several dropped chains
• 1 broken derailleur cable
• 1 minor collision with a horse box

Nearly all of this happened in the first half of the ride so it was little surprise that most of us had two pieces of cake at the halfway coffee stop.

We are all safely at home now with some of the bikes in need of maintenance before the next training ride tomorrow!

Shelagh and Sonja next to a sign that makes you dread what is coming up!

Simon

The Lunchtime News

Earlier this week we had the wonderful news that our local Booths in Ulverston will be supporting us by providing supplies for our lunches each day during the Lejog ride.

For people not in the North West of England, Booths are a food store/supermarket. The aim of their founder Edwin Henry Booth was “To sell the best goods he could buy in shops staffed with first class assistants” and that vision is still true today.

On the day our Lejog journey arrives in Cumbria we shall finish the day at the Booths store in Ulverston, the home town of the charity we are riding for - Alice's Escapes. We are planning to have quite a party atmosphere on this day, further details will follow.

http://www.booths.co.uk/

It's training now, not exercise!

Earlier this week a quote from the famous online encyclopaedia caught my eye, it goes like this:

'Training differs from exercise in that people may dabble in exercise as an occasional activity for fun. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, and performance'.

Whilst it may sound a bit of a serious quote the key word here is fun. Getting out on our bikes a lot more than we normally do and exploring the many lanes Cumbria has to offer is fun. Although the fun is now turning into hard work, I guess we have reached the stage were the fun exercise has become proper training. Don't worry though we are still having fun too!

A few people have asked what the training entails and when we find time to fit it in. Each of us lead busy lives with our jobs, businesses and families all vying for their own attention along with the cycling. Some of the team manage to get out during the week for a few hours ride together. Others will commute to work and some will take a spinning class at the local gym or turbo train at home. The main focus of the week is our longer group rides each Sunday. These started back in November 2011 at around 50 miles and each week the distance has steadily increased with us now covering 60 - 70 miles. We do of course have the important cafe stop along the way to refuel with coffee and cake!  With lighter evenings approaching we shall no doubt all be putting more miles in before April.

One piece of training advice that keeps cropping up is that when we are all comfortable to do two consecutive days of around 70 miles cycling then the Lejog itself should be more enjoyable and achievable.

Here's hoping!

The Long and Winding Road

The route for our LEJOG has been drawn from many different resources - various books, blogs, CTC , Al Pewsey and other cyclists who have completed the journey. It has taken many hours to put together, endlessly trying to avoid major roads to help keep us away from large amounts of traffic. The use of the route planner Ride with GPS along with Google Earth has been extremely helpful in putting it all together.

Where possible the use of the National Cycle Network has been incorparated into parts of the route. One that looks of particular interest is The Granite Way which runs from Lydford to Okehampton for the final 11 miles of our first day in the saddle, should be a nice end to the day!

Other traffic free highlights to look forward to are The Port Way and Bur Way in Shropshire and then in Scotland the scenic route to the east of Loch Ness.

John and Paul sung about a 'Wild and windy night', on day two we're hoping it won't be as we are crossing two historic bridges, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge and later in the day the old Severn road bridge taking us over to the Welsh borders.

'The long and winding road that leads to your door'

Sorry but we can't live up to the Lennon & McCartney lyrics and visit everyone but if you live nearby to our route please feel free to come out and cheer us on when we are in your area. We'd love to see you!!