Two days two rides

Lesson for the weekend is not to ride without my padded cycling shorts. My backside is killing. Saturdays ride was 12 miles along the river to Grassendale which has all the Narnia lampposts. Very fancy. Sunday was 16 miles up to Crosby via the gormley statues. It was fun apart for a brief detour onto the sand which my hybrid is not really made for..... Cycling on sand is not reccommended. Did I mention my sore backside?

Anyway I'm off to read the www.TheWesternCwm.com

London

Had a business meeting in London which finished a couple of hours before my train home so I hopped on a Boris Bike and took in the sites. A good couple of hours under my belt and circled from Camden, to Buckingham Palace, to the South Bank/national theatre and back up through the city. All that time cost about £3. Bargain

Marathon

It was, probably still is for those in fancy dress, the first Liverpool marathon today. It is good news for a cyclist as the roads are all closed as as long as you are ahead of the runners there are miles and miles of empty road. Worryingly my right knee did not respond well to the longer trip. Maybe this is just an irrelevant piece of information, or perhaps, something which will come be be significant in the coming months. Next on the shopping list is padded cycling shorts.

Cycle ride

I headed out this morning for a quick cycle and after several stops with a tool kit to adjust the gears, saddle and brakes I have a bike that works. Was on the road for an hour and the lesson today is stay of main roads. The traffic lights are annoying so I ignored them after the first few. The crazy drivers you can't ignore. B roads in future.

Day five - where to go?

This is the easy bit. After weighing up some options which were too short (trans pennine trail), too foreign and scary for a first trip (Bilbao to Amsterdam) and too crazy (Peruvian mountains) I came up with what I think is a good one. Not just because it makes a catchy name for the blog easy to come up with. It is more than that. It is domestic and I am always going on about people who holiday abroad instead of in the uk. It is approximately 1000 miles which is a nice round number. It is a combination of flat and hilly. And I have friends who can put me up along the way. It is Lands End to John O'Groats. So it took five days to come up with a plan, start training and pick up the main bits of kit. Now to see how other people did it. I need a training plan.

Day four - Spinning

Time to train so I sign up o spinning classes at my gym. Tonight I was surrounded by lycra clad fitness junkie led by the rather attractive and shouty instructor. The dark skin hid what was no doubt a very red face halfway through the class. Nothing could hide the sweat. A solid work out and I imagine good training for hill climbs, albeit simulated. Maybe I could get a recording of the instructor for my planned weekend rides. Next class is thursday. Hopefully my lights will arrive from eBay tomorrow and I can clock up some miles in the real world on a real bike. My bike.

Day three - Assemble

Home from work and I finish putting the bike together. Ok, I take it apart and put it together the right way round after the excitement of yesterday which inevitably resulted in the masculine putting something together without reading the instructions. Wheel on the right way round, brakes at the correct tension(?) and handlebars straight. A quick spin around the block on flat tyres. That is plenty for today

Day two - Halfords

Sunday morning sees me standing shoulder to shoulder with middle aged men buying screen wash while casting a sneaky glance at the new range of TomTom sat navs while their wives wait in the car. Not my normal company but as luck would have it I can slide away from a look into my future and onto the second floor. The bicycles. I am going to cycle somewhere. Luke is hung over and has already been told off by his manager for being late but he knows his bikes and he speaks to me like a normal person. "dont buy that one, it weighes too much" he say as I check out the cheaper offerings. These are things I had given no thought to but if I am going to ride my bike any distance he assures me I need to think about weight. He looks at me and the bike when he says this. Within the hour I am carrying out a hybrid bike, a helmet, lights, water bottle, water carrier and a bike lock. I live a major city, the lock will be needed. Where to cycle to?

Day one -inspiration

Scrambling around the floor of a friends apartment trying to find my glasses. Reaching around the empty tequila and leffe bottles, navigating round friends resting heads on each others legs, chests, faces. It is not pretty. Flashbacks of spin the bottle, dirty dancing and singing in the street. I am sure there was worse but I can't remember. Then it hits me, like an alcoholics moment of clarity. I need direction for my newly single life. I need a goal. Something that will get me through the winter and might give some some self restraint to stop me drinking that much again. Something to get me through the winter. Something new and challenging. Something Something Aha!