All publicity is good publicity

I woke up on Sunday morning feeling pretty good considering Saturday's mileage. Once I dragged myself out of bed I gave my bike a liberal soaking in GT-85 and gave it a quick test ride to find the creaking noise had gone.

I wolfed down a quick breakfast and headed out to Dundry hill and Chew Valley Lake. I must have still been hungry after Saturday because I was already eating my food rations not 15 miles from Bristol. By the time I'd climbed the huge Highfield Lane, leading from Compton Martin, I was hungry again and the dreaded bottom bracket creaking had come back.

I was only 25 miles into my ride but I knew I couldn't continue on a big ride with my bike making such a worrying grinding sound. Unfortunately I still had a 25 mile ride to get back home. I rode down through Cheddar Gorge (taking a video as I went), and then came home via Shipham Hill, Congresbury and another fearsome hill called Providence Lane in Long Ashton.

I rode a frustrating and slow 51 miles, knowing I could have ridden further and faster had my bike been in perfect working order. Still, I did manage to get a video of the first half of the ride, which I pieced together with Windows Movie Maker.

On Monday Bike UK managed to fit me in for a quick £10 bottom bracket strip down and re-grease which has hopefully solved the problem. I'll have to take it on a quick test ride tomorrow (Thursday) to find out for sure.

In other news, Bike UK donated a prize for a charity sweepstake this weekend (thanks Paul!). I'm still on the look out for other prizes. I'm hopeful that Howies might come through. We've got about 40 people coming round this weekend for a fund-raising BBQ. So for all the business-owners reading this, that's 40 people you could turn on to your products - all donations very welcome!

Also my story made the local paper. Well not exactly. The journalist I spoke to chose to focus on how I'll be turning to fast food and beer to get me through my ride. That's not strictly true folks. I'll be relying on high carb and protein foods - a beer in the evening might be a by-product of being on 'holiday' (if you can call a LE-JOG trip that). And for all those looking for those references to 'food porn' - on Saturday I ate a deliciously creamy chicken and artichoke pie and followed it with a whole Easter egg. Anway, I'm not complaining about the tone of the article - all publicity is good publicity I guess. I've already received a £10 donation on the back of it.

Finally, Helen and I went out to buy a new bike today. It's a Specialized Vienna which cost the princely sum of £300. It's not a bike suitable for Lands End to John O'Groats but it is a beauty nonetheless. We especially love the white tyres (a manufacturing mistake apparently)!

The ton!

Phew! 104 miles today (Saturday), which took 5hrs 44 minutes (that's an average speed of 18.2 mph). I rode from Bristol to Tewkesbury (via Gloucester), then turned to come back via Cheltenham and a hilly final 40 miles via Stroud and Wotton-Under-Edge.

I'm feeling pretty good right now. My throat's a bit sore but my legs feel fine.

I wish the same could be said for my bike. After 70 miles a terrible creaking sound started coming from the bottom bracket (the bit inside the frame that the pedal arms are connected to). I stopped to ask a mechanic for some WD-40 which didn't help whatsoever.

I rode the final miles very tentatively, worried that something was going to snap. I think I'll have to take it to a bike shop tomorrow morning if I'm going to do any riding at all.

Tewkesbury seemed like an attractive market town and I stopped for a doughnut and a banana. I got lost around Cheltenham (I hit the dreaded inner ring!) and I stopped for sandwiches and two cans of Rubicon in Stroud.

I ran out of water 5 miles from Bristol so had to go, cap in hand, to a pub and ask for some tap water. The weather was beautiful today, warm enough for two short sleeved t-shirts and a pair of shorts - and now I'm sporting a lovely t-shirt suntan.

So it's no surprise that today's song of the ride is T-Shirt Suntan by the Stereophonics (although I Told Her On Alderann by Neon Neon comes a close second).

Good eating = enjoyable riding

Fueled by today's mountain of food I rode an easy 20 miles this evening and feel good for it. My legs still feel a little dead (there's no zing left!) but it was good to get out in the sunshine. I rode straight from work to Clanage Road and a killer hill called Rownham Hill, which led me to the gates Ashton Court. I continued down through Abbots Leigh and towards Easton in Gordano (just before the M5). Then I turned left and headed for a quiet uphill lane back to Bristol. It was a much gentler way to go than my usual lung-buster back home. Plus it was quiet enough to record a quick video.



From there I came into the back of Long Ashton and rode up Providence Lane, which is another lung buster, before coasting home. It wasn't a particularly fast ride (16.4mph) but I guess I just wasn't in the mood for hard riding. I did enjoy myself though - it's so nice to be riding in the sunshine, even if it was getting a bit chilly. Hope this weather lasts for LE-JOG.

Tune of the day: Autumn Afternoon by The Crocketts. Some songs from your youth grow old, others remain timeless...

Food fight

How can I cycle 80+ miles on the weekend but feel so dead on the 3 miles home from work?

I thought about going for a ride this evening but after slowly crawling uphill all the way home I thought I should stay in and eat. It was a mental battle to not go and exercise but I thought it best to let myself recover (I think I'm still getting over the stag do.)

I cooked la puttanesca pasta sauce (anchovies, olives, courgette, capers and tomatoes) and ate a double portion (200g) of pasta, followed by a whole Easter egg and the remainder of my Cadbury's Creme Egg ice-cream. I am definitely no longer hungry!

Also tonight I watched the last episode of The Man Who Cycled The Americas and I'm currently reading The Man Who Cycled The World. Really inspiring stuff. I'm already thinking about adventures after LE-JOG...

A super furry state

... which isn't a reference to having hairy legs but a nod to one of the bands that got me through yesterday's riding.

I listened to the whole of the Super Furries' Dark Days/Light Years album and very much enjoyed it. I didn't rate the album when I bought it last year but listening to it on yesterday's ride to Clevedon gave it a new lease of life.

I even stopped to replay Inaugural Trams, which has a great German spoken word section by Nick McCarthy from Franz Ferdinand. It seemed quite apt after my weekend in Germany (where I barely spoke a word of German).

My flight from Berlin came in at 11.30pm on Sunday, which meant that I didn't get to sleep until 2am on Monday. On top of three days of heavy drinking and going to bed no earlier than 5am, Monday's riding was a real struggle.

In the morning I rode 10 miles to pick up a new steering wheel for my van and it was incredibly tough. I felt so sick with tiredness! After a lot of water and food I rode 38 miles in the afternoon, including two killer hills (Wraxall Hill and Naish Hill). By the 25 mile mark I knew I was on a recovery ride so I coasted home the final 13, spinning fast up the hills and pedalling gently on the flats.

Today (Tuesday) I rode 11 miles after work but still didn't feel right. My legs and body felt tired and mentally I was shattered too. My average speed was horrible (16.4mph) and I think my riding will all be at that pace this week. I'm looking at two 100 mile rides on Saturday and Sunday so there's no point trying to prove anything with fast sprints this week.

This is my final weekend of long distances before my training tapers off, which means that my start date is now only two weeks away (gulp!).

Almost all my accommodation is booked, all my maps are printed, my bike is working well and hopefully the van will be sorted at its MOT tomorrow. All that's left now is to pack my things and draw attention to the ride with a press release... which reminds me. Yesterday I asked Helen to take a few pics of me in my Cancer Research t-shirt (see right). Watch out for this appearing in a newspaper near you soon...

First feel good ride of the summer

It's a balmy 15 degrees in Bristol and it felt like summer on my quick 28 mile ride.

It's Thursday afternoon and I've got the day off work because I'm flying to Berlin for a stag weekend later this afternoon. I'm going to try hard not to embarrass my country but a small part of me wants to walk down the street waving my arms around and singing 'stag do, stag do, stag do, stag do' like a football chant.

I hope you'll allow me this one indiscretion, for some bad news befell young Benjamin this morning. I was all set to take my van for its MOT at 8.30 then get out on the bike for 2 or 3 hours. I got into the van and realised something was missing. Some swine had broken in and stolen the steering wheel. The bastard STEERING WHEEL! Who steals only a bastard steering wheel? Clearly Helen's driving glasses and a tin of travel sweets aren't the sought after property they used to be.

I spent the morning ringing a combination of insurance and breakdown companies and garages and second hand dealers instead of riding my bike. In the end I settled on an ebay steering wheel and a re-booked MOT and then got out on the bike for an hour and a half.

The ride itself took me on my time trial route, along the A38 towards the Severn Bridge, around in a 10 mile loop, then back to Bristol. I felt good for the first eight miles of the TT but a nagging pain in my thigh made me slow up for the last two miles. I clocked 26m 40s, which is two minutes off my normal pace. Nothing to really write home about but it did feel great to be out in the sunshine, forgetting about thieving scoundrels and second hand car parts.

Once again a case of life getting in the way of cycling. Best laid plans and all that.

Song of the ride: pretty much anything by Modest Mouse. Start with Paper Thin Walls, Gravity Rides Everything or Float On and continue from there.

Auf wiedersehen for now...

Performance anxiety

It's Easter weekend, which meant two days off work and two extra days to go riding. I managed three days in total, riding 170 miles between Saturday and Monday. I had a day away from the bike on Friday to sort out some things at home and prepare for my Cycling City talk at Howies.

This weekend was supposed to be my biggest with x3 80+ mile rides before LEJOG.

As ever, life got in the way. On Saturday I managed 72, in spite of the heavy rain and a hole in my front tyre. I got 65 under my belt on Sunday, riding the last 30 into a stiff headwind, before arriving at Helen's auntie and uncle's near Yeovil. And today I could only get 32 in before meeting my family in Raglan, near the foot of the Brecon Beacons.

Part of the difficulty of a ride like this is being single-minded enough to fit in the training required, and I'm weak when it comes to turning down requests from friends and family!

So over the last seven days I've ridden 219 miles.

Tuesday: 5 miles commute + 10 miles at the gym (PB! 22m 33s)
Wednesday: 2.5 miles commute + 27 miles after work
Thursday: 5 miles commute
Friday: 0
Saturday: 72 miles to Gloucester
Sunday: 65 miles to Stoke Sub Hamdon
Monday: 32 miles to Raglan

That's more than I've ridden before but somehow I still feel like I've cheated myself out of some miles. I should have done further today (Monday) and I should have gone out on Thursday or Friday had work and rain not got in the way.

This Thursday I'm going to Berlin on a stag do so I won't be doing much riding between now and next Tuesday. Then I'll have 15 days until I leave. As ever, there's too much to do and not enough time to do it.

To end on a positive note though, I rode my fastest gym 'time trial' this week (taking a whole minute off my previous personal best), my 3-day riding weekend was generally good and I've felt few aches and pains, and I found some stunning Somerset countryside around Norton St Philip and Kingston Deverill. It's not all doom and gloom...