Day 8 - the last day, Lowestoft to Land's End

Well, here you go, it's not the Land's End we started at but is a house 18 miles north of Lowestoft in the delightfully named Scratby, near Great Yarmouth, but hey, it shows up on Google if you search for 'Land's End'. The route's here.

We cycled a total of 500.41 miles including the journey from Penzance to Land's End (and the run down to Cape Cornwall) so an average of 62.5 miles per day but if we take off day 1 and 8 which were primarily travelling days, it's 458 miles in 6 days or 76.4 miles per day, 10% more than when I did Land's End to John O' Groats. Similarly, we were riding for 44 hours in total giving us an average speed of 11.37 mph... pretty cool really.

Day 7 - the, sort of, last day....

from Cambridge to Lowestoft, 92 miles and fairly gruelling really. Both of our bodies are struggling, Tony's knee and the soles of my feet, also, 'look into my eyes' this hayfever, or whatever has been affecting me, has made me look like I've done three rounds with Joe Calzagi... wrecks!

The route's here.

Day 6 - Oxford to Cambridge... another pretty long one...

Pretty long but at 81 miles quite a lot shorter than yesterday... thankfully. The route is here.

It was a bit of an odd day actually, we passed where Spencer, one of Tony's firends, used to live and popped in to see Bibi another of his friends, we then had lunch in Dobby's garden centre in Milton Keynes - 20 miles from where we both live!!

Day 5 - the long one...

Glastonbury to Oxford, at 94 miles is our longest ride.

Today is the day the coincidence of the year happened. It's Birg's birthday at the end of June and I bought her a place on a glass blowing course (hey, she wants to do it!). I didn't know much about the company apart from the fact that they're based in the west country: the course isn't until September so I intended to look more closely nearer the time. Anyway, Tony and I are happily pedalling along these various backwater roads on the way to Trowbridge and I'm just looking around taking in the scenery and admiring a rather large farmhouse set back from the road which happens to bear a large sign saying 'Liquid Glass Centre'. That's it! We're in the middle of nowhere and just happen to pass the place where Birg will be attending her course!! I couldn't get over it. We popped in for a look around.. totally bizarre.

Day 4 Okehampton to Glastonbury

It was a long old slog out of Okehampton with a 4 mile steep climb to contend with. Other than that it was a fairly noneventful day, we got to Glastonbury in time for dinner and spent half an hour walking around town looking for somewhere to eat... they're all closed... apart from an Italian that was so hot I couldn't cope with it... we ended up eating in a curry house... which seems a bit of a pity really as I think of Glastonbury as being the British heartlands... I'm obviuosly wrong!

Day 3 a short one...

The plan was to have a short ride today as I suspected I was going to be suffering from the rigours of yesterday... I was right.

So, it was 48 miles from Padstow to Okehampton or, to be more accurate, Sourton Cross - the route is here.



The first thing to do was to cross the River Camel on the Padstow - Rock ferry which was something I'd been determined to do since missing the last crossing by a few minutes in 2004 when cycling from Land's End to John O' Groats - it was good fun.


While not as tortuous as the previous day, it was still pretty demanding with the first 20 miles being a steady uphill slog. The weather's been improving ever since yesterday morning and I found my long... Hugh Grantesque (well, that's what Birg says) locks, squashed inside my cycle helmet, coupled with lots of uphill struggles and warm weather is making my head feel as though it's about to explode.


We stopped for lunch in Luanceston, Tony got a sandwich and a paper, I went to the first hairdresser I could find... the before and after shots are below...



We went for a beer in the 'most unusual pub in Britain. I will vouch for it, The Highwayman is certainly the most unusual pub I've ever been into, but it was also empty... at 8pm on a Saturday night... it did make us wonder how they made a living.

Day 2... the hard bit...

Today is the one I've not really been looking forward to... the north Cornish coast: 64 miles from St Just to Padstow and very hilly.

The rain was absolutely tipping down as we ate breakfast so an executive decision was made to delay our start for a while... it's silly getting soaked right at the beginnig of the day...

It was still misty as we set off but at least it was just wet air rather than rain but it did mean our view of the coast wasn't that good for about the first hour or so, after which things started improving.

This is the elevation profile for the day, we gained 5914 feet and lost 6235 feet during the day.

To see our full route and the profile etc, click here.

It was just as I remembered it (Hell!) especially Watergate Bay where I took 1o minutes composing myself before setting off, it didn't seem to bother Tony (smart arse!)

Dinner in Padstow was fish and chips at Rick Stein's fish and chip shop. It was nice but, for £25 for fish and chips twice and a couple of glasses of wine (hey we weren't going to drink tea after today's exertions!) I'd have rather gone to Charlie Chan's in Towcester.

Day 1!!

Well, here we go then.... Land's End... it's just unfortunate the guy that owns the plot of land that includes the famous sign post now takes the interesting bit - the top with all the distances etc. - home with him (see the photo of us with 'the post'... as opposed to 'the signpost'. I have to say I find that very petty!!

Well, the train journey was all OK, I ended up working for most of it with Tony asking, 'Are we there yet'... hmm!!

the cycling was pretty hard, considering it's only a relatively short distance, we cycled through Penzance and round teh coast to Mousehole before cutting inland and.... up.... up.... up. It was as I remember it last time... bloomin hard!! Here's the GPS track data if you're interested... click here.

We got a beer at Land's End and had our photo taken with the naked post before making our way to St Just which was pretty flat... thankfully.

After dropping off our kit we headed down to Cape Cornwall where the Atlantic splits to become either the Irish Sea or the English Channel but the water was pretty calm so there wasn't an awful lot to see. The GPS track for this short run is here, it's actually quite interesting to see the drop from St Just down to the coast(ish)

Less than a week to go and...

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I bottled out today.

The train tickets I booked a month or so ago were from Oxford to Penzance with a change at Reading. The change, at only 7 minutes,was pretty tight and I've always been a bit worried about the lack of time to get two heavily laden bikes from one platform to another via stairs (perhaps), a bridge (perhaps), other obstacles (perhaps) on what I seem to recall from one visit a few years ago is a large station.

I'd done lots of research, trying to find out which platform the train would arrive at and depart from (once again frustrated by the lack of information avialble... but don't get me started!) and am very grateful to Martin Joyce who drew a plan of the platform layout... but... today I asked Birg to drive us to Reading rather than Oxford: it was always going to be pushing it, if the first train was delayed by only a minute or two it would have been a real problem, we'd have had to wait 2 hours for the next train and had to pay full, on the day, price for the tickets so... good old Birg... Reading it is please dear.

Well, I've not been very good at keeping this up to date... again... but here we go with, first of all a photo from the Duston triathalon...

Yes, it's the end... I did it in 1hour 38 minutes, 2 minutes below what I expected.... so I'm pleased... but it was so, so, so, painful. When I was doing the run my legs were in so much pain I couldn't believe it: it felt as though my bum had been clamped in a vice and the screw slowly turned, and turned, and turned.... and turned and turned. It truly was more painful than anything I've done for a very long time, which was a surprise as it was the shortest distance triatholn they do... never mind, I just won't bother doing another one!

Anyway, since then I've picked up on the cycling quite a bit, which is a good job really I suppose as now, as I'm about to eventually publish this post, there is less than two weeks until we set off on the bike ride!!! Tony and I have been out quite a few times recently, it doesn't help that I'm working three days a week just outside Dover and so can't get out on the bike then.

I loaded the panniers with three glass blocks each side around three weeks ago. Each block weighs 2.5 Kg so I'm carrying 15kg (around 2.5 Stones) on the back of the bike and my legs can certianly feel the difference. We've also upped the mileage, I've been doing 30 to 40 miles at least once a week and getting at least three rides in (some of them only 10 miles) every week. It's now all about getting the legs used to pulling lots of weight day after day, after day: I did 20 miles today and am planning to do at least 30 tomorrow and 40 on Sunday, then next weekend - the last one before we set off - the current plan is to do 20, 30, 50, 40. Well, that's the plan anyway!

The reason I've been saying 'I', 'I', 'I' over the last couple of paragraphs is that Tony is on holiday in Spain at the moment so we've not been out together for a little while.... I'm sure it will all come together!!

Actually, I'm really pleased. I got home last night to find my copy of Cycle magazine on the doormat. It's the magazine of the CTC - Cycle Touring Club of Britain - and it had a fantastic raving review of the book... I'm recommended by a nationally distributed magazine!!

Tony and I went out for a ride yesterday, 22 miles... my legs ached last night! We've been getting better at the training, doing 15 mile rides for the last few weeks and then a bit longer yesterday but the plans are in place to start upping the ante - getting in some hills... after I've done my triathlon next Sunday....!

Talking of the triathlon... today was the first time I've tried the cycle to run transition. I did 6 miles on the bike (pushing it) unfortunately my high octane training session was punctuated when the sleeping policeman I took with a flourish threw all the contents of my bar bag over the road... thankfully the driver of the car behind was good enough to stop while I collected the spare inner tube, bike tool, glucose tablets etc. then, back home... cycle shoes off... cycle shorts off... running shorts on... running shoes on. 1 minute 9 seconds.

Running was such a strange - and painful - sensation, my legs were like lead, so heavy. By the time I'd reached the pub I wanted to walk, it was as if I was wearing diving boots, so painful, so tiring. I managed a mile round the village and back home but it was a real wake up call, I need to try that again before next Sunday.

Well, the half marathon is out of the way. It was a bit annoying really, it took a minute longer than last year! My pace was exactly the same at 10:16 an hour but I took a slightly longer route by 0.1 of a mile, hence the extra minute.

Apart from all that, I also entered for the Duston 'Sprint' triathlon: 400m swim, 20Km cycle ride, 5Km run which is taking place on the 19th April, it concentrates the mind when I think how little training I've done recently!

Anyway, Tony and I did 15 miles on the bikes on Tuesday, it was nice to get out again... and faster than the last time out. Birg and I did 6 miles on Thursday, I've been able to swim twice this week and also ran twice, so, we're getting there... slowly...

It's just about organised...

Well, here we are again, it's this year's challenge... cycling from Land's End to Land's End via Lowestoft or LELoLE.

Land's End is the most westerly point of England while Lowestoft is the most easterly point of England, it's a distance of around 450 miles and once we've done that, we are then cycling on to Land's End again!!

But, we're not that foolish, the second Land's End is actually located at the delightfully named Rottenstall Lane in Great Yarmouth - 16 miles north of Lowestoft!

I've been talking to good friend Tony for a couple of years about doing another long distance cycle tour but have been preoccupied with my swim and marathon. During last summer though it was agreed we should do something this year (09). There are a number of tours with appeal: Land's End to Lowestoft, Welsh End 2 End (Cardiff to Llandudno... ish) and round Britain (approximately 4000 miles and 3 months).

Round Britain is something I'd like to do when retired, Welsh E2E's appeal is that it is very hilly and picturesque across the Brecon Beacons in the middle but, it's a bit far away really, so LE - Lo was the one.

I started looking for a possible route and was surprised when Google Maps found four 'Land's Ends' for the search 'Land's End Lowestoft'. Apart from the Land's End we all think of there was one near Reading (!!) and one just north of Lowestoft: it had a ring to it - Land's End 2 Land's End (via Lowestoft). Tony agreed!!

It was September when we made the initial arrangements and agreed to go the week before the late May bank holiday, however, come Christmas we got 15 year old son Alex's GCSE dates -which clash with the proposed cycling dates. OK. The weeks before and after were all no-goers for one reason or another and so the final dates are now 11th to 18th June, Thursday to Thursday.

Bearing in mind all the problems I had travelling to Land's End (in Cornwall!) last time, the first day is primarily getting down to Penzance and a short 16 mile run round the peninsula to Land's End and then on to our hotels for the first night in St Just.

The next day is up to Padstow, a fairly short run of about 50 miles (so we can bed our legs in), where we're staying in the Golden Lion pub... fantastic.

Day 3 sees us getting into Devon and staying just outside Okehampton in a Travelodge but close to a pub which is described as 'one of the most unusual pubs in Britain', should prove an interesting dinner venue! (65 miles)

Glastonbury in Somerset is the next day. It's flattening out now and the miles are increasing a bit, this day is 70.

Oxford is Monday's destination. At 89 miles the longest day we do.

Now another cliche as we cycle from Oxford to Cambridge, a distance of 79 miles.

Wednesday is our second longest day with 86 miles to Lowestoft in Suffolk. Lowestoft is really the finish point as it is the most easterly point but it doesn't quite sound as impressive as...

...the final day, Thursday 18th June, is a short 16 mile ride up to Land's End which is the actual finish point!!

The majority of Thursday is then spent getting home - trains from this neck of the wood aren't easy! While all the hotels are already booked and I know the trains we'll be taking down there, the route back is still up in the air: to travel only by train means going into and out of London as good old Dr Beecham closed all the cross country routes and stymied us. The best looking option at the moment is a train from Norwich to Cambridge and get picked up from there but it all needs 'firming up'.

A bit of a problem is that Tony and I haven't really done any training yet! We did 15 miles back in January but our next scheduled ride was snowed off and then things have just 'got in the way'! Still, we have one booked in the diary for next Thursday. I'm dong the Silverstone half marathon tomorrow so hope my legs are still up to it!