Day 5 - 4th September 2008 - Defeat (Alexandria - Moffat)
The day started off easily enough, with about 30 miles along Glasgow's great cycle paths that follow the river in from Alexandria. These are generally really well labeled and a joy to cycle along. Although I did say generally, but more of that later. The day started off with some frustration, as Jenny had managed to source the plates that I needed to combine the cleated cycle shoes and pedals, but we couldn't get them both fitted. By now I was totally used to this set up, and really wanted to continue, but the trouble was we couldn't get both pedals off. The first one came off in the shower of swearing and grunting, but we gave up on the second after my fist had gone straight into the cog wheel of the gears and cut me open enough to use the first aid kit. Nothing serious, but a frustration none the less.
Eventually I got going with the old style pedals and my trainers instead of biking shoes, as the latter had been causing a numbness in my toes when combined with the tie straps. Off I pedaled, very upbeat after a good nights sleep and the ache in my legs now gone, little did I know how I would be feeling in 9 hours time. The initial 30 miles was simple enough, although it was quite slow as there we no straights to get up a head of steam. I also found that I would often have to stop and figure out where I should be heading, if a sign was vandalized or missing. Because of this the whole morning was taken up, without a real break, in crossing Glasgow. I had plotted my route using Memory Map and OS maps, but at this point realized that when following the cycle lanes I hadn't been as careful as I thought. In fact at one point I even found myself, on my ultra slick road tyres, riding through a wood that I would have been nervous on my mountain bike. Puncture number two, not surprisingly, happened shortly after. But on the plus side, I had found a cycle shop who fixed my gears for the princely sum of £3.
After the calm of the cycle paths came a big hill and some 'A' roads, along with the now almost ever present rain. It was at this stage that I started to feel really unwell, and found I had to stop almost every two miles to get my energy back. Although I had been tired the whole time on the trip, this time I was really feeling like I had a flattered battery. With no choice but to continue I carried on peddling, setting myself small, manageable targets, and kept my head down. Now the rain was really coming down and I was climbing higher and higher, as I started approaching the English border. With 20 miles to go I made my final mistake, which was to start heading north, rather than south along the A702. I had given myself a 5 mile target, to my next junction, and started to really try and pump myself up. After six miles I figured something was a miss and got the GPS out, which was on its final legs, due to being used constantly to follow the cycle paths. Checking and double checking, I couldn't change the facts, and this meant I would have to do over 85 miles today, and on top of this I was feeling rotten.
Eventually I reached my destination, but by this point I knew I would have to take the next day off - I had scheduled in a maximum of two rest days in case of such an emergency. Luckily we were booked into the fabulous Auchen Castle, and I would be able to plan my recovery and subsequent route. Well as most of you will already know it took 3 days before I could even contemplate cycling again, and by this point the north of the UK was suffering from floods and gale force winds. I was defeated and my JOGLE was over.
Food Eaten (5102 calories burnt):
Breakfast: Full Scottish Breakfast
Lunch: Maltloaf
Snack: banana
Dinner: Blood, sweat and tears!
Bike Status: New pedals and cage attachment.
Ollie Status: Death warmed up
Day 4 - 3rd September 2008 - Climbing (Glen Coe - Alexandria)
Today was an incredible day, starting off with a marathon climb up through the pass of Glencoe, with a slight hangover! Oops. Well the 4th glass of wine was wroth it! The campsite in Glencoe is lovely, right by the river, and they are happy for you to have fires, which of course keeps Jenny happy. It was this ambience that made the 4th glass of wine irresistible ....
Starting the day was a slow process, particularly as today was the day for the second highest number of feet to be climbed in a day, and all of these were in the morning. I took the decision to have the bike in the lower range of gears and steadied myself for the climb of a lifetime. The scenery was great, but unfortunately the sweat in my eyes meant I didn't appreciate it all. Because of the amount I ate in the evening yesterday, caused by Jenny's great cooking and my wine intake, I decided to start today with just a banana, which meant that halfway through the climb I was already dreaming of a lay by with a breakfast caravan and some friendly staff. All I saw at this point were huge cliffs and wild moorlands, with the occasional dark menacing pool.
Having climbed for a combined total of about 4000ft, I eventually had to come down, and this was when the day became more than a libation. It was also halfway down this decent that I found the miraculous breakfast caravan. Not only did they have the required sustenance, but they also donated the fee to VSO. On top of that, there was a friendly stag nearby, that posed for photographs. I left this lay by in top spirits and ready to take on the world. Or at least the road to Alexandria.
From here I followed Loch Lomond all the way into the outskirts of Glasgow to an area called Alexandria. Loch Lomand is another beautiful part of Scotland, and the scenery is not only stunning but generally flat. Brilliant! I could enjoy the ride and the view at the same time. I arrived into Alexandria at exactly the same time as Jenny, and it took both of us fifteen minutes or so to find the B&B. By the time I had ridden this initial 15 minutes in a city I picked up puncture number 1.. The B&B itself was a simple affair, with not a lot of room, and paper thin walls, so we ventured off for a pizza. Shortly afterwards I was snoring into my pillow whilst dreaming of the Glasgow flatlands.
Food Eaten (4865 calories burnt):
Breakfast: Banana
Lunch: Breakfast roll and tea.
Snack: banana
Dinner: Mixed Italian starter, followed by spicy salami pizza. 2 pints of coke
Bike Status: No lower gears, cleat ed shoes no longer attach to pedals. New pedals and cage attachment.
Ollie Status: Cough and sore throat. Numb fingers, and now numb feet due to wearing cycling shoes with new cage.
Day 3 - 2nd September 2008 - Mechanical Breakdown (Drumnadrochit - Glen Coe)
Today started off a very slow day, as my legs felt like they wanted to do everything very slowly. Helped by this I had a brainwave - move my bikes gear chain from the large cog to the small one. I decided to spend the day in the lower gears, and never move up to the bigger ones. This meant that I never had to get off and walk and and the only sacrifice I had to make was to give us going really fast downhill, a winner.
So, the first 20 miles were along the shore of Loch Ness, with some stunning scenery and only occasional small hills. my type of cycling. As I said above I took it nice and easy, and stopped after 18 miles in Fort Augustus, just passed Loch Ness. After an additional pot of tea Jenny came and joined me, finally catching up in Dino. to give her her (over) due credit, she has the job of packing up camp in the morning whilst I swan off for a cycle.
The weather was sunny all morning, but I never really warmed up because I was in the shade for most of the morning. It wasn't until I hit a nice big hill did I start sweating, and most of you will know that I normally have bit of sweat on just getting out of bed. At the top of today's big hill was a memorial to all the commando's who fought during the war. Apparently when the Commandos were first dreamed up, they trained in these hills. Here in tribute to our heroes I ate my lunch of a banana and caramel bar.
Shortly after this I arrived at Spean Bridge which seemed like a nice town. My legs were starting to move nicely and for the first time I was getting a real pace on. This was short lived unfortunately, as a couple of miles out my foot came flying off the pedal and would no longer properly attach. It seems that in all my adventures in my early training (mainly falling off in public, whilst still attached to the bike) I have ripped off most of the tough plastic that clips into place. Oops. So I took a moment to inspect and realized that this was most definitely a job for the professionals. So I called Jenny. Jenny phoned ahead and found a bike shop in Fort William, ten miles or so ahead, who could help. All I could do was limb through to there, and hope they would help.
On arrival I fond a rather unhelpful shop who wouldn't do anything to help, no matter how much I asked. I tried explaining to them that it was actually quite dangerous, but still they seemed uninterested. All I had left was my long practiced sulky face, used to obtain mars bars from unsuspecting parents since I was little. Again, this worked a treat and soon I had the assist and putting on new pedals with 1980 style straps. not as good as my clicking in cleating pedals, but would certainly get me the remaining 25 miles to base camp - Glen Coe.
So, now I am sat in the unbelievably scenic campsite, chosen by Jenny for this very reason, updating this, whilst Jenny is preparing steak, sauteed potatoes and something green. MMMM
As a final note I should add my mood is now confident of completion, as my legs seems to handle anything thrown at them, and if I turn the radio up loud enough I can drown out all the negative comments coming from my brain. See you at Land's End :)
Food Eaten (4609 calories burnt):
Breakfast: Bacon Bap
Lunch: Banana and cereal energy bar
Snack: caramel shortcake and scone and 3 apple turnovers
Dinner: Steak, boiled potatoes and greens. 4 glasses of wine (!!!)
Evening Snack: Steak Sandwich
Bike Status: No lower gears, cleated shoes no longer attach to pedals. New pedals and cage attachment.
Ollie Status: Cough and sore throat. Fingers on left hand gone numb.
Day 2 - 1st September 2008 - Real Rain (Brora - Drumnadrochit)
Well today was really a mixed bag of everything. To start with the roads were fast, with very smooth surfaces, and plenty of room to let the traffic by. Because of this I made great progress and was ready to have lunch at 11:30, having completed another rewarding and satisfying 40 miles. I gave the good wife a call and she was only 2 miles away and so we had a great lunch, in the sunshine, ahead of schedule. I had a very yummy fish and chips whilst Jenny had a wasp spoilt banana sandwich.
The roads and views have been a real positive so far on the ride, and I am almost non stop looking around at stunning scenery, amazing views and unusual architecture. Without doubt the first two days have been rewarding enough to make it all worth while.
Whilst eating lunch I took the precaution of putting on some sun block, and Jenny mentioned that he was it would be a curse. It certainly was. Within ten miles the rain came down like, er, Scotland in September. It poured and poured for two hours non stop. Luckily my pacamac is waterproof for about 5 minutes, and so I was soaked to the skin, and facing me was the biggest climb of the whole trip, 8 miles and 1000ft on the approach to Loch Ness. This was a huge challenge, and one that I almost completed without getting off. But this was the only time I left the saddle today.
So all in all I am very optimistic, although I do realize there is a massive way to go. But two days are down and tomorrow morning brings a gentle 20 miles along the shores of the Loch , Nessy spotting.
Food Eaten (5091 calories burnt):
Breakfast: Granola with lots of fruit
Lunch: Fish, chips and peas
Snack: Banana, biscuits, crisps
Dinner: Amazing haggis in a coarse grained mustard sauce as starters, followed my chicken in red win sauce. 2 large glasses of wine.
Bike Status: No lower gears
Ollie Status: Cough and sore throat.
Day 1 - 31st August 2008 - The Loosing of the Flag (John O'Groats - Brora)
As most of you will know we have been planning this little mini adventure for many months, and although I have been talking about it as if it is normal, underneath I've been quite concerned about how ready I really am. The usual temptations that I find so hard to resist have been popping up, and making a mockery of my well planned training schedules. But this morning it was too late to care, I had no choice now.
We had planned to start the Jogle two days after Roger and Tina's wedding in Darlington, which according to the Chris Hoy training manual is perfect preparation for a 1000 mile cycle. Obviously both me and Jenny ignored the free cocktails, champagne, sambuka and 5 litre bottle of Vodka and arrive in John O'Groats in perfect health! It took us another 10 hours to travel from Darlington to JOG, and so we arrived in darkness, at out campsite right on the cliffs, by the start/finish line.
After a terrible nights sleep we both got up at 7am and fumbled our way round in a half sleep, not really believing that the day had really come. After an hour of faffing I was finally ready to set of on the big cycle.
The day's cycling itself went well, with plenty of beautiful sites to see. The only real drama was my chain coming off during the first big hill. This was the prefect excuse for me to push the bike up to the top of this hill, a technique I also utilized on the biggest hill of the day after lunch. .Although I did find myself an excuse, as always. Before setting off Jenny took the bike in to the local bike shop for a servicing, specifically to get the gears looked at as they wouldn't change down to the small easier gears. Apparently this problem was fixed, but because of the wedding and traveling home from Ireland I never got a chance to test this out. Well within 30 seconds of setting off, I knew the problem hadn't been fixed, and I would be stuck with only half my gears. At least I had an excuse to walk up the big hills now!
Jenny caught up with me with ten miles to go before the planned stop at Brora. By this point the only rain of the day was coming down, and the only place she could find to park was halfway up a long hill. The chat was brief :) But she did notice at this point that I had lost my prized posession, the Cornwall flag. It most probably came off when I had to make a smart exit from the cleats when my chain came off. Either that or stolen by a jealous Scotsman! Jenny has promised to buy me a new one, but I get the feeling that it may be over 900 miles before they are readily available in the shops.
Well the day is done, I is feeling in good shape, having just eaten the best plate of pasta ever, cooked by Jenny. The next big question is 'How will the legs go on day two?'.......
Food Eaten (4507 calories burnt):
Breakfast: Granola with fruit
Lunch: Two plastic sports bars
Lunch Two: Yummy Pasta
Dinner: Super Noodles and two slices of bread
Bike Status: No lower gears
Ollie Status: Sore throat
* The average speed is the days average speed, so includes all stops
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