Preparation and a little technical stuff.
Train hard, fight easy. So goes an old martial arts saying. Well, of course I had to do it my way, which went, train hard, get achilles tendonitis three weeks before the off, and miss ten days of riding in the crucial run up to the ride. With the leg feeling easier, a couple of fifteen mile commutes still brought on some twinges, and paying attention to my pedalling action I realised I was pointing my foot on some down strokes. (Thanks to Dr Mike for confirming this as a possible cause.) My seat height was OK, but I had put on a new saddle, a Terry Liberator gel which was so blissfully comfortable I'd done 180 miles that weekend without any complaints from the butt. Moving the saddle half a centimetre forwards cured any tendency to toe-down and today, four days before the off, the leg seems fully recovered.
So why end-to-end? I found myself 42 years old, too heavy and in need of something to focus my training efforts. Hadn't done any serious cycling for 13 years and didn't even own a bike. So I gave myself 6 months till the ride, and picked up a second hand 531-framed tourer with a triple chainset (curiously with very narrow wheels and 20c tyres) with turbo trainer, panniers, racks, 6V lights (I've had dimmer on motorbikes!) and trip computer thrown in. A bargain I thought, but I'd never seen 20c tyres before and I didn't trust them. And had a blow out, thankfully not at high speed, but bent handlebars ensued. Now the quill stem happened to be seized in the headstock, and my local shop Bike City in Wells couldn't free it but directed me to Argos Racing Cycles of Bristol who deal with heavier jobs (and some beautiful resprays). They also recommended a 10cm reach on the new stem instead of the 13cm one. The guideline was that sitting on the saddle with your hands on the crossways part of the bars, your view of the front hub should be obscured by the bars. This cured some occasionally vicious shoulder pains, which had been my only other real problem with starting riding again.
So I've been pretty pleased with how the old body has coped with training, and the key seems to have been firstly start gently and build progressively. My 180 mile weekend three weeks before my start date was scheduled to allow time for changes before the trip if there were any problems with me or the bike. This seems to have been a godsend given what happened with the achilles: I don't know how I would have been if that had first started during the trip. (Lets see how I'll be if it comes back during the trip...) And the other key feature of training was getting the bike properly set up. Weight loss has been good, thanks to sticking fairly religiously to the Atkins diet for the early stages of training. Later as training increased it was a case of eating whatever I could fit in (shovel in?). I know the Atkins gets some bad tabloid publicity, but it works and does seem to be based on sound simple physiology. If you're interested I'd recommend reading the book as the diet is quite involved. (This is a personal opinion and not an osteopathic one. Always consult a physician!)
Kit.
I've been very lucky with clothing. I would highly recommend Altura's Inter Base long sleeved base layer, high wicking & fast drying, which I combine with Endura's race jerseys which are only for hotter days on their own. Lusso's budget "race cape" showerproof jacket keeps wind and showers out, and having worn it in torrential rain I don't know if its letting rain in or sweat builds up, but it doesn't really matter as the Altura acts like a wet suit when its damp, keeping everything warm and comfortable. De Marchi Aero shorts are fab, very comfy. Not so lucky I'm afraid with shoes. For training I got Shimano road/race shoes. The first pair nearly crippled me, the sole has a dip across the ball of the foot. I think these were SH 70's. The shop, Ralph Colman's in Taunton who are excellent, replaced them with a model from higher up the range, SH 125's I believe, which were better but still had a similar tendency and I ended up putting a little cork padding under the insole which sorted the problem. Much is made in cycling circles of the "v" factor, the height of the foot above the pedal shaft, but I couldn't feel any difference for a couple of mm of cork. Eye protection is essential for cycling, and Bloc do polycarbonate wrap arounds with three interchangeable lenses for 40 quid! I've just done about 1400 training miles in all the above kit so I think I've given it all a fair old testing.
Daily log.
So if any of this has whet your appetite to find out what its like out there on the open road, just me and the elements, one lone heroic figure existing only on cream teas, then I'm going to attempt to upload a daily log. Starting Saturday 17th July, click here. And don't forget the sponsorship!
Thanks to everybody who's been so supportive so far.
Cheers, Paul.
Loch Ness evening. Just one reason to do an end to end.