The final piece and moving on

We'll it's been a while.... The few weeks rest has turned into quite a lot of months rest. The enthusiasm to get on the bike, with no longer a goal, drifted and the week's turned into months and half a stone in weight back on! No one can prepare you for the dip you take after completing such an achievement.
But now there's a plan...  next year  May 2015...the return trip Lands End 2 John O'Groats.. the sequel!! . In celebration of my first ride, I have had my very first Tattoo, the bike shape spells  JoGLE  ( of course John o"Groat Lands End 2013)  :-)

A few weeks rest

So...what is it with the weather and me and the bike? Glorious sunshine for days ( here in Portsmouth) but the morning I plan to go for a 30 miles knee test ride it pours down with rain!
Anyway The ride went wet.. I mean well.. No knee pain and did 32 miles with a few good hills. So fingers crossed no lasting damage . I looked at a cycling injuries book when I got back ( yes sadly I own one) and discovered what I think I had. The pain in the knee started as an ache as was specifically the inside edge of the kneecap , nowhere else and Plica Syndrome perfectly fits the bill, as is quite an unusual place to get pain. If you really want to know about it I have attached a scanned piece from the book.
Still plan to post a map of the whole route on the blog along with some more final thoughts, things I might do differently, reviews of items etc.
So what now? you might ask. Possibly doing a 101 mile Wiggle ride round the New Forest over to the IOW and back in a month. The plan for next year is currently a 3 day London Paris ride with Scott coming, as he's said he'd like to do something. Although Colin did say yesterday and I quote ........" We 'ort to do it the other way round, you know just to see what its like !"
Watch this space

Redruth 2 Lands End update.

Having arrived in Redruth the day before, we spent our evening separately with family, re telling the stories of the trip. Liz asked how my bike had been on the rough roads? I told her I had been amazed,  I'd had no mechanical issues and no punctures at all!
At 09:30 we gathered back at Redruth to complete the final 30 ( I worked out the shortest route the night before) we stepped outside only for me to discover I had a flat rear tyre, serves me right I guess. We set off in glorious sunshine, the weather gods now clearly having given up trying to stop us. We chatted, laughed and cycled through hilly B roads towards Marazion, where we planned to do the last bit of the route on the A30. As we came over the last of the Hilly B raods, there we saw St Michael's mount, a truly spectacular sight in the sun. We had 12 miles to go and pulled in on the beach for a drink and pasty. We were also to call the families and friends to give them an ETA for Lands End arrival, none of which were answering their phones!  Eventually we got hold of them and set off again.  With 7 miles to go the emotion of it all was really getting to me and I kept crying, regularly wiping away the tears, thinking of mum and how proud I was for both of us. This wasn't helped with mine and Colin's families passing us in their cars waving, beeping and cheering. For the first time on the whole trip I dared to believe we were going to make it. As we approached the hill at the top of the final run in we stopped, to just take it all in for a few seconds. As we did the 4 Devon boys were just coming up the hill having finished, which great to see. Colin had been fantastic company and I couldn't have made it without him. Mutual thanks completed we coasted in to wonderful welcome from all the friends and family who had gathered to meet us. We had made it. 1015 miles in 12 days neither of us really able to comprehend what we had done. There was Champagne and a fab chocolate cake made by Sara our friend with a map of the route, brilliant. For me it was, I guess more of a pilgrimage. Has it changed me? I guess it will have but still processing it at the moment and of course I will share my thoughts with you at some future time. There will still be a few more blogs, I intended to do a full map of the route, I'm sure there are bits missed and we plan a list of favourite roads, days, B&B's etc. I guess I will also post a picture of the tattoo! A final thanks to you all for your messages and support, we loved reading them in the evenings and they were a great help. X

Day 12 Redruth 2 Lands End.

Arrived safe at 13:04 and 1015 miles.Amazing. Full blog later x

Day 11 Great Torrington 2 Redruth

We were very gloomy at breakfast unsure of what the day will bring. It was to be a planned dash diagonal across from Great Torrington to meet the A 39 and then A 30, the route to the A39 I had in the bike computer but from then on it would be main roads and sign post readings as we had planned to go to Mawnan Smith today. The day started ok with manageable pain from both of us but slow as was quite hilly. We started in warm short sleeves and quite hot, the river looked beautiful at Great Torrington. Cautiously working our way up and down the hills, quietly passing into Cornwall at some point on a back road, no signs or fanfare just a flag flying to confirm our location. As we approached the A39 black clouds started to close in and the temperature dropped so much you could see your breath! Again , this is May right? Then the heavens opened, thunder lightening, we pulled in at Wadebridge for a hot drink, already drenched. We headed back out again into torrential rain more thunder and lightening and cycling up stream as, not for the first time, there were rivers running down the roads. I thought at one point I was hallucinating, as I saw a motor boat drive by! It really was one. Some sort of boat/car conversion, Colin saw it to, you just couldn't make it up! As we fought our way ever closer to Redruth, the weather began to give up trying to stop us and with only a few miles left to go the sun came out, as if the weather gods were saying, "ok you guy's, I give up, you're going to make it regardless of what I through at you, aren't you?".
I look skyward and shout out loud "HELL YES".
Just 35 ish miles tomorrow. I think Colin said we've done 985 miles so far. Again we can't thank you all enough for your messages of support, it's meant so much to us . X

Day 10 Cheddar to Great Torrington Belated

A hill too far!
Ok sorry for the delay. This day didn't start well, we we're both really tired even on the Somerset levels, which is how all roads should be built by the way, flat! We did see a great windmill and it was sunny. We did meet, on and off, a group of 4 MAMIL'S on a quest from Bristol to Lands End over 4 days and were able to take mutual "welcome to Devon" photos.  After that the problems started Colin's thigh was complaining, a lot! He was really struggling. Most days we have reached 30 miles to go and they have always been tough. Today the last 7 miles felt like 30. We came to a sign 15% downhill, use low gear, same going up the otherside. Tough. Shortly followed by the same again but 20%. Very Tough. Unbelievably less than a mile later 25%! First he downhill, which was terrifying! It was like the moment you go over the top on a rollercoaster, brakes on full hardly slowed you down, which we needed to do as the road was wet and in poor condition too dangerous to just free wheel. The uphill was a hill to far. We managed 3/4's but were beaten. We pushed the last 50ft or so, which was really hard and the only time we'd had to do this the whole trip, gutted. We arrived at Great Torrington totally dejected not sure if Colin could continue. It was a very somber evening.

Day 10 Cheddar to Great Torrington

Hideous hills, exhausted. Can't write any more right now.