So this is the journey that got me thinking of writing this blog. Last Wednesday I was thinking about a surfing trip coming up first weekend in February and thought cycling it could be an idea. Plan is to cycle from my house to Newquay in Cornwall, 258 miles in 4 days. If I was going to do it though there'd be no cycling with a ruck sack bullshit or without proper pedals so I got onto gumtree to sort a few things. Thursday I met a beard face man and bought his panniers for £15 and met another guy after and bought a pair of MTB pedals to go with my MTB shoes that I'll stick on my hybrid sometime. I ordered a rack for the panniers that came on Friday. Road shoes to go with road pedals came Saturday. I ordered a 15mm spanner to change the pedals but by Saturday it hadn't arrived so that was all I was waiting on.
Despite organising buying all them things fairly quickly my fitness preparation was a shambles. I had a race of the running variety on the 21st of Jan and had been off the booze for a week and a half so was fairly fit up until last Wednesday. The only cycling I had been doing was short cycles on my hybrid but it was good practice cause its such a heavy lump of a thing that I do be flying when I get on the road bike, The Tuesday before my race I went for a 30 mile cycle on my good bike with a 10k run in the middle. I had been planning to cycle to the race and back so figured this was the perfect preparation but although it was an easy cycle it did leave my thighs a bit tired for the race and I ended up finishing just outside the medals in (6)4th place.
Then last Wednesday I worked on ruining my fitness levels. I was planning a big sesh on Thursday for Australia day and cause I hadn't drank in a while I had a few cans Wednesday night so I wouldn't be too wrecked Thursday. Feck sake 4 cans is all I had and I woke up at 5 in the morning with heartburn. This is when I started thinking about this blog properly and couldn't get back asleep so went for a run. Headed out to Walkabout for 6 that evening and stayed til half 12 or so. Friday ended up meeting some randomers from the night before and had another big sesh until 6am. I think thats the first time I've been out late enough to get the tube home the next day. Of course I fell asleep on the DLR and woke up when I heard the bing before they close the doors. I didn't know where I was and just jumped off. Then the doors closed and I realised I was had gone 4 stops past my house and was in Stratford and that train was on its way back towards my house without me. Had to wait there on the freezing benches for 10 minutes for the next train home. Saturday stayed in feeling rough and then Sunday out again from 6 til 12.
Monday morning was fairly dazed from the weekends drinking and not sure if I'd be on for the cycle. Also felt a cold coming on. Just looked online and there's a minibus going down to Newquay but thats full up now. I was planning on getting that back and throwing the bike on the rack. Looked at trains and they were a whopping £52 one way Newquay to London. That put a bit of a dampner on things and the spanner still hadn't arrived and I was feeling rough so went to bed. Then a package arrived and it was the spanner and this little pouch thing I forgot I ordered that sits under the crossbar and is handy for leaving your phone and wallet etc. Got to work on the bike changing the pedals with the help of a youtube video. Cycled around outside in my road shoes and it was fairly dodgy. Just feel very vulnerable in them. Then I texted Johnny who's living in Basingstoke 46 miles west of my house. The plan is to stay with him Tuesday night. 46 miles should be an alright first day but its also going straight through London city so won't be an enjoyable days cycling. Got the go-ahead for that now so things are looking up again. Then I have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to do the remaining 210 miles or so. 70 miles a day should be do-able even with taking into account getting lost a few times.
As usual with these things I don't put much effort into the planning stages. I don't have any google maps print outs this time but I do have a smart phone so I'll just figure a route out on that. Also haven't packed yet and I'm not sure how much I can fit in these panniers yet. I think I'll be taking the Phily festival attitude of why wear new clothes if they're going to get dirty anyway and bring as little clothes as possible. I have one spare tube I can bring that I just fixed a puncture in and I'm going to bring my old normal pedals just in case something goes wrong with the new ones. Also have to save space for French Revolutions by Tim Moore. It's a feckin hilarious book about a guy who's not a big cyclist but does the whole tour de France route. It's a right laugh so it is. Not sure where I'm going to stop on Wednesday and Thursday and what type of place I'll be staying in, should probably look into that soon. Exeter looks like the biggest town on the way so although I like to avoid big towns on cycles I might have to go there if everywhere else is absolutely tiny. Not sure about updating the blog either, hopefully I find some internet cafe's cause theres not a hope I'm typing long messages on my phone. I'm sure it will all work itself out.
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