THE DRIVE UP:

Prepare for longer posts, from now on we're going to have plenty to write about, so here goes!

THE DRIVE UP:


After finally getting all the pre-ride preparations done on Saturday night I went to bed with my alarm set for 5am - we were aiming for a 6:30-7:00am departure from Birmingham.

The alarm went off all to early, but I needed no 'snoozes' this morning - my brain switched straight onto the tasks ahead and after fitting the bike rack to the Moggy and my bike to that, I had a teary farewell with Helen and we set off in opposite directions.

I arrived in Redditch to find Lee chomping at the bit waiting outside so we were loaded and on our way before 7am.

So we this was it: we were soon pulling onto the motorway (having only driven the car for the first time yesterday!). I think we were both harbouring a fair amount of anxiety about the drive, but we'd cast the die a long while back. So off we went, at what we thought was a steady 55mph.


It wasn't long before we began to question the accuracy of the car's speedometer as trucks and even caravans started to pass us regularly. With the use of the sat nav we confirmed our suspicions: the speedo was overly optimistic by 5-7mph, nevertheless, we decided to stick with our comfortable 50mph progress.

We had started out with a full tank of fuel (guessing about 25 litres), and by the time we were approaching Manchester we were down to a quarter of a tank. Based on the precision of the speedo we decided to err on the side of caution as far as the fuel gauge was concerned, and from here on in to fill up once we hit the quarter tank mark. So we stopped to fill up (but not before dispatching a bacon sandwich).

We set off again, with our 120-mile range limit (we were getting around 29mpg) north along the M6 to the sound of the 50+ year old engine which, while novel, got a little hard on the ears by the time we hit Scotland (did I mention there is no radio in the car?). However, all these 'quirks' were not going to dampen our spirit as we had enough mileage behind us now for our anxieties to have abated and we could feel confident of making our destination - and indeed the rest of the trip.

We finally stopped around 1pm just north of Gretna Green where we decided to take a lengthy break for lunch to allow the feeling in our bums to return and for Granville (our mechanic) and Marie to catch up with us (which they did surprisingly quickly - our earlier calculations led us to believe they wouldn't catch us until mid-afternoon).

After a bite to eat and a walk around for little Nero (Granville and Marie's pug) to stretch his legs, we got under the bonnet to check oil etc. and headed off to the fuel pump once more, before pushing on towards Glasgow. Did i mention that within about 30ft of passing the 'welcome to Scotland' sign the rain started?

I attempted to take a picture of this landmark sign, but even at 50mph my phone couldn't sort its focus/flash out quickly enough to capture it but as i'd gone to the effort you may as well see it.

Once we'd cleared Glasgow and hit Loch Lomond we joined what will be our cycle route (following it in reverse) so could see what we've let ourselves in for (well, we would have been able to see, were it not for rain which was now falling very steadily). We trundled on alongside the Loch for what seemed an age - the roads had become hilly and the wind had picked up considerably at this point so our progress slowed down somewhat. We were so engaged in our journey at this point that it escaped our notice that the fuel tank was heading rapidly towards a quarter of a tank and we couldn't imagine there was any chance of a petrol station presenting itself to us any time soon! Our earlier anxiety about the journey started to creep back in as we weren't sure a quarter of a tank would take us the final 50 or so miles. So we switched on the sat nav, which informed us that there was fuel to be had in Tyndrum - we headed there and were relieved to find that indeed there was. Waterproofs were needed for refueling at this point - the rain was getting heavier the further north we went.

Happy to be full of fuel again, we left the Loch safely behind us and headed into the hilly bit towards Glencoe. From the little we could see, the scenery around here was stunning - though with rain now falling so hard all we could really make out were the white torrents of water cascading down from the hills and mountains in every direction. Our full attention was now required in the car as its little wipers were really struggling to keep up and the windows were starting to steam. The only effective way of dealing with this was to keep the windows open, but this turned out to be a very damp pastime, so the final stretch of the journey involved a cycle of winding up and winding down the windows.

'Every cloud has a silver lining' so the saying goes, but we couldn't see any clouds - just a wall of rain. However, the rain did help us identify two leaks in the windscreen seals - not that we can do anything about that now, but it will save me a lot of time trying to find them in the future.

With Lee now at the wheel, we were in for a hair raising journey due to his determination to get to the end of the day's 12-hour drive as quickly as possible. He was seemingly now so comfortable in the car that he'd forgotten exactly what he was driving - but despite efforts that brought Stirling Moss to mind (all of this in a car with no seatbelts, I might add), we were once more overtaken by a truck. Shortly afterwards, we turned off the A82 to find the Clachaig Inn.

Feeling very truimphant we unloaded the car (still in the pouring rain), locked the bikes in the storage shed and changed into dry clothes before heading to the bar to find Mum, Jean and Dave (neighbours and close friends of the family). We donned our CMA t-shirts and went for a well earned pint. The t-shirts promptly earnt us a £5 donation from a kind stranger on the table next to us.

Once Granville, Marie, and of course Nero arrived, we ordered dinner. I opted for a venison burger (when in Rome) and three pints of 'Fourth of July' from the Alloa brewery (an American-style IPA full of hoppy goodness, which was a great pint).

We retired fairly early and set about getting organised for the morning's events which involve a 9am meeting in Glencoe for photos and the first sprinkling of Dad's ashes before we wave goodbye to our send-off party and head off into a wet and windy morning.

NEXT STOP BALLOCH: 68 miles of what the BBC weather man assured me would be wet weather.

more moral support with a 1 day cameo

Adrian from Forresters in Abingdon, a good friend of mine, has recently changed from running to cycling as his means of exercise due to lower back problems, and as a consequence he is now the proud owner of a carbon road bike (if I could find a green-eyed monster emoticon there would be one here). 


He's taken up his new sport with gusto and asked if he could join us for a day of our ride. We gladly agreed (and our thanks at this point go to Gemma, his understanding wife, for letting him off his family duties to indulge in his new sport and give us some support).


He'll be joining us to do the stretch from Shrawley in Worcestershire to Stow on the Wold, and plans to do the full 72 miles that day so it will be great company for us both on the road - we'll have had over a week's lone cycling up until this point so it'll be a great source of moral support.


Adrian has also offered to bang the sponsorship drum for us in his salon while we're away, so thanks again Ade and we'll see you in Shrawley!


When he leaves us in Stow, my wife, Helen, will pick up the baton and finish the ride with us. It'll be great to see friendly faces at this point in proceedings - it'll feel like the start of the end and we'll be able to begin to think about the finish line - I'm sure that will give us an extra boost and push us on to Bournemouth.

Printed jerseys, we're the real deal now!

I collected our printed cycling jerseys yesterday courtesy of Colin Berryman of Berryman Fitness fame and  SE Workwear and VERY pleased we are with them too!

Colin has been the instructor leading most of the spinning classes I've endured this year and he has helped  me push myself to (I hope) new levels of fitness, thanks largely to huge amounts of military style shouting - it really does work! It will soon become apparent exactly how much benefit all of these gruelling hours have been as we start the ride in only 5 days now. Look out for the 'Smith-o-meters' on this blog at the end of each day to see if 6 months of spinning classes have helped (I'm as curious as you).


Once Colin learned of my ride he offered to arrange to get me some jerseys printed, which he did via SE Workwear in Abingdon (Ady from SE Workwear also teaches spinning). They took a logo that I designed (which will also be appearing on the Morris Minor) and printed it in reflective grey on the back of each of the jerseys. Lee and I each have one in blue and one in white, so now we should look like official charity workers!

Expect to see some 'action' shots of us in these jerseys soon, right here on this blog (that is assuming that they're not covered with waterproofs the whole time)!

1 week to go!

One week from now we'll be thinking about getting out of bed on what I'm sure promises to be a gloriously sunny summer's day in Scotland, and getting kitted up ready for our first day's cycling (following a hearty breakfast).


We'll be heading a short way up the road to the centre of Glencoe to find a suitable spot to sprinkle the first of Dad's ashes and then, having waved goodbye to Mom, Jean, Dave, Granville, Marie and Nero, we'll ride off into the sunset in the direction of Loch Lomond.


I'm sat here writing this post at such an early hour as I've just been turned away from my usual 6.45am Monday morning spinning session because the gym has had the fire brigade in overnight due to problems with their gas detection systems - so my final week's training schedule prior to the ride has stalled before it got started! Well, I suppose if I'm not in shape now, then another week of exercise isn't going to make any difference.


While I've been spinning now since New Year, two or three times a week, Lee's actually been out on his bike/saddle - something I'd been hoping to do plenty of before now so that I can acclimatise to my seat and get ready for hours on it day after day. However, as the weather has been WET and I've at least been getting my cardio workout, I've not been out on my bike for any lengthy rides for a while now. I know I'll be regretting this before I've even cycled my way out of Scotland but there you go, it's just the way it's played out. I have, however, at least bought myself a new seat on the advice of my mysteriously named cycling guru 'Q'.

Looks comfortable, right? Well supposedly the longer the ride the smaller the saddle - apparently the less of your bottom making contact with saddle the better. I bought into the science and went for the pictured saddle, the success of this decision will be apparent on the 'Smith-o-meter' (see previous post) as the days progress.


By way of a 'combo' I didn't just settle on the saddle (a pun for those that missed it) I also changed my mountain bike tyres a.k.a. 'nobblies', for the narrowest tyre I could get on a mountain bike wheel - again on advice from Q, but backed up with plenty of internet reading. It seems like the biggest improvement you can make to your bike for road riding is to reduce the rolling resistance of the tyres by making them narrower. I opted for a pair of Continental gatorskins with kevlar reinforcement. I have to say the difference these tyres actually make is amazing, I can't believe I put up with my old nobblies for so long.

And to finish off the combo I now also own a pair of 'clippy' SPD cycling shoes so that I can greatly increase my chances of falling off my bike at roundabouts or t-junctions - if nothing else it'll be a good blog post and pictures of cut knees may encourage a spike in sponsorship.

So that's all the bike gear sorted, and the toolbox is now too small for all the tools i have in it so think we can be no more prepared now in this respect. Next job is to turn our attention to packing the clothing.

Welcome to the 'Smith-O-meter'

Here is the Smith-O-Meter!

We thought this would be a good visual daily gauge of how we were progressing so we'll update it each day on the ride (while nursing a pint hopefully) and for anyone interested it will provide an 'at a glance' gauge of our physical and mental well-being.

So let us know what you think or if there's is a meter you think we should add to this.

Great British weather

Will it ever stop raining? We keep hearing about roads being closed due to flooding in almost every part of the country, events being cancelled due to waterlogging, and every time I look out the window it seems to be raining. At this rate the boys and the Moggy will need water wings!

I don't think anybody reasonably expected 12 days of unbroken sunshine for the trip - this is the British summer after all - but I hope it won't turn into a 750-mile paddle (or swim)!


Still, the waterproofs the lads have invested in should keep the worst of the wetness out and there's always hope that over the next two weeks the sky will simply run out of water to dump on them... Start practising  your anti-rain dances!

Game on Moggy!

On Friday, after an early morning spinning session for me and a trip to the doctor about his recent hernia for Lee, we met Granville (our mechanic) at Mom's house.

On the drive up to Birmingham I was told by a weather lady on the radio that there were severe weather warnings in the North and West Midlands and a month's worth of rain was due to fall over the coming 24 hours - an ominous sign maybe?

We (Granville) started by looking the car over and doing a few routine checks. Once we'd found the bonnet release the engine was checked over too (it was at about this point that the month's worth of rain started falling). Despite Granville insisting he needed no protection from the rain, Lee produced a Gazebo from his car boot which we threw up to make the day more bearable.

Having passed its MOT 'with flying colours' we weren't expecting anything too traumatic to turn up on closer inspection, and as I was preparing for the worst I think I can say the shopping list of bits was pretty easy to swallow. It comprised of:

1x new radiator
4x spark plugs
1x set of plug leads
1x bottle of engine coolant
1x can of vintage car oil
1x new spare tyre
1x foot pump
1x bottle of lead replacement additive
1x spare fan belt
1x bulb kit

After a short but wet trip to the Morris Minor centre in Oldbury we had everything we needed except the new tyre (which is being collected and fitted next week) and Granville set to work. Three sodden hours later 'she' was running as well as she ever could and confidence was restored in the Moggy's ability to carry us and our gear up and down the country. Nevertheless, on the advice of the 'expert' at the car centre I'm trying to acquire a spare fuel pump (from eBay), as this apparently is the only other component likely to catch us out.

So overall, despite the weather and shopping bill, it was a successful day - especially as we found that my bike rack fits the back of the Moggy perfectly, so no new acquisition will be required (this could have been a huge stumbling block as none of the rack manufacturers I contacted were happy to sell me anything that would definitely fit a Morris Minor).

The other small job for the visit was to get a photo or two of us wearing the CMA-supplied T-shirts for publicity purposes. I think you'll agree we look like real charity workers!!

Famous?!

As we get closer to departure the fundraising efforts are starting to build, plenty of emails have been crossing the ether between Sarah at the CMA and myself, she's in charge of 'shouting' about this event to all that she thinks will listen in the hope of maximising our fundraising efforts.

The first step to publicise our ride has been to put the event and a picture of Lee and me on both the CMA website and their latest newsletter, so we're now famous, looks like Andy Warhol was right all along.

It's all felt a little like we've been playing at it until now, rides like this are the things 'other' people do, strangers in the local paper that I see from time to time, not me, except now i'm one of those strangers, and in a couple of weeks i'll be packing my bags and gear ready to head north to load the 'Moggy'.


Next stop, the local papers we hope, that will be one for the scrapbook/fridge door!

The reality is sinking in

Right ok folks, just checking my diary and the reality of the bike ride is starting to sink in. I have 6 days off between now and 22nd of July when we drive in the Moggy up to Glen Coe. 5 of those days are this week so I really need to get on my bike sharpish. In the mean time I'll be taking my gym gear to jobs just in case there is an opportunity to use the hotel facilities (not likely but let's be optimistic). I'll soon be ordering some new padded cycling shorts and waterproof trousers so nearly there with kit. I'm meeting Stu and Granville on Friday to look over the Moggy (I'll be just looking, Granville will be working). Me and stu will then be sitting down to fine tune kit lists to take with us...it's nearly here :)

'Moggy' passes MOT!

There was a huge sigh of relief yesterday when a text arrived from Mom saying 'Moggy passed MOT with flying colours'.


The car still had a valid MOT until just after the bike ride was due to finish, but Granville (our mechanic) decided it prudent to get it MOT'd to make sure there were no serious problems with it before he started work on it (and so that if there were any problems, he'd know where to focus his attentions).


As the post subject already gives away, there were no problems, and in fact the 'Moggy' passed without a single advisory - thanks mainly to Phil (long-time friend of Dad's and the family's) having replaced the wiper blades and a mysterious bolt that dad had left a note on the windscreen about. So THANKS Phil, for a huge help in getting the Moggy one step closer to being mission-ready.


This is great news, as taking Dad's old Morris Minor on the trip was always an important part of the plan - it now seems like it's perfectly feasible, though we'll wait until next weekend once Granville has taken his tools to it and given it the thumbs-up before we get too carried away with the next stage of the plan: working out how on earth we're going to carry the bikes on the car.


This news is a huge step forward though, and great news in terms of our original plan. However, it's now just dawning on me that the drive from Birmingham to Glencoe in the little 'Moggy' could be an ordeal all of its own! I'm sure it'll all add to the fun of it, so long as it makes the journey - we must set out nice and early on the Sunday morning to ensure that we arrive in plenty of time to honour the effort our send-off party has made to be in Glencoe to wave us off with dinner that evening.

'Send-off' party gets bigger

Had a text a couple of days ago from Granville, our pre-ride mechanic, announcing that he'd booked a hotel in Glencoe to coincide with our start date on the 23rd July. Granville will be bringing along his wife, Marie, and their pug, Nero, for a little holiday and they'll be there to wave us off at the start of our ordeal - not to mention for dinner and a couple of beers the evening before we hope (only a couple mind).

Thanks for going to such lengths to give us some extra support Mr & Mrs Smith (and Nero).

Moral support

As the newest Mrs Smith in the family, I've decided I ought to lend some moral support to my husband and brother-in-law and will be cycling with them for the last three days of the bike ride. It hardly matches up to the amount of effort the boys will be putting in, but hopefully it will help motivate them to push for the finish (rather than them hating me for being full of energy when they are running on empty!).

I would have liked to have done more of the route with them, but with already having taken three weeks out of work for a wedding and a honeymoon, time off is in short supply (it's a good excuse to miss out on some of those tough Scottish/Yorkshire hills anyway...) :-)

The routes!!

Well, here they are in all of their glory, the ride broken down into 12 days, complete with hotels we're staying at and bike shops en route, just in case we get into real trouble.


Day 1 (23rd July) - Glencoe to Balloch
Day 2 (24th July) - Balloch to Ayr (part 1) (part 2)
Day 3 (25th July) - Ayr to Annan
Day 4 (26th July) - Annan to Middleton-in-Teesdale
Day 5 (27th July) - Middleton-in-Teesdale to Threshfield
Day 6 (28th July) - Threshfield to Holmfirth
Day 7 (29th July) - Holmfirth to Tutbury near Burton
Day 8 (30th July) - Tutbury to Shrawley near Droitwich
Day 9 (31st July) - Shrawley to Stow-on-the-wold
Day 10 (1st Aug) - Stow to Ogborne St George near Marlborough
Day 11 (2nd Aug) - Ogborne St George to Hindon near Shaftesbury
Day 12 (3rd Aug) - Hindon to Boscombe (FINISH)


So that's it...a SINCH! 

4 weeks today!!

Well, 4 weeks today at around this time we should have just finished off a substantial breakfast at the Clachaig Inn and be getting ready to head up to Glencoe to the official start. We'll meet Mom who, along with Jean & Dave Boucher, will make up our small but welcome send-off party.

The first job will be to find somewhere suitable for the first of dad's 'sprinklings' and then we'll head off south into the hills - staring the full 750 miles and 12 days in the face.

Now, at this point, I expect not to be daunted by the task ahead - it will, I'm sure, dawn on us at some point early on, but I can't decide if it will be that morning or a couple of days in (by which time I'm sure the aches getting out of bed will kill any enthusiasm we may have had for the day's ride ahead!).

In preparation for the Scottish summer weather I had something of an impromptu training ride this weekend. Although it was only a couple of miles long in the rain, it gave me an idea of how miserable this could become if for some reason the weather is anything but glorious, wind-free sunshine. Encouragingly, I wasn't beaten by this downpour, although a whole day's worth of it (or more!) may be a different prospect.

'Moggy' maintenance

At a car show with his pride and joy!

Dad's beloved 1956 split screen Morris Minor 1000, a.k.a. 'moggy', is going for an MOT this Saturday, courtesy of Phil, an old friend of Dad's and a good friend of the family.

He's got to replace a wiper blade and fit a bolt that is missing from somewhere (Dad left a note on the windscreen to remind him to do it this spring before he started using it again - it doesn't see daylight during the winter months) before dropping it off its jacks and getting it started. Having tried it last week without too much difficulty (after many months) it shouldn't be a problem, so we're hoping there is nothing much wrong with it - nothing that can't be easily fixed anyway.

We have made arrangements to meet with Granville (our self-appointed mechanic and Mini enthusiast) at Mom's on the 6th & 7th of July to make any repairs needed and service it ready for its 1500+ mile journey...GULP!

tights with science!

While doing a bit of shopping for some cycle gear recently i had a browse on the 'skins' website as my wife had bought some skins leggings for running in and thinks they're brilliant, so in the hunt for a pair of leggings myself for the colder days i'd take a look and see if skins did a cycle range of clothing, they did!

For those not familiar with skins or compression tights (I wasn't either until very recently) they are supposedly stitched in a way that increases blood flow, getting more oxygen to the muscles which helps performance and improves recovery.

Now i'm a little bit of a sceptic but love science so after diving into the many reviews across the net and seeing people like tri-athletes, runners and cyclists swear by them I couldn't help but try some (fortunately it was my birthday very soon after this discovery and my wife duly obliged), so i'm now the proud owner of both a pair of compression leggings for wearing during cycling and also some dedicated recovery tights for wearing during sleeping after exercise.

While i haven't yet tried the cycling tights i have on numerous occasions used the recovery versions and they DO WORK! The morning after a spinning class i'd normally be aching considerably but after wearing the tights, the aching is reduced to almost nothing, no idea how these work despite the science bit on the website but I'm glad I have them and they'll be the first thing to go into my bag in a few weeks.

A200 compression tights

RY 400 recovery tights

Official start of the start tomorrow

Got back from Italy yesterday after nearly 3 weeks off! Next thing in my sights is the bike ride, just over a month now until set off from Scotland on the 23rd July so plenty of training to try and cram in now, no idea how much pre-holiday/wedding fitness i've lost over the last 3 weeks but i'm sure i'll find out at 6:45 in the morning at spinning.

Lee has developed a small hernia recently so high hopes that it's not going to cause us any issues but think he's off to see the doctor very soon.

Phil (Friend of my Dad's) has been to inspect the Morris Minor today, gave the battery a bit of charge as it hasn't been turned over for many months now and would you believe it started straight away!! Very encouraging indeed, was starting to get an ominous feeling about the car but that news from Mom has helped give me confidence, Phil's taking it for an MOT this week as per Granville's (our official team mechanic) instructions, just to make sure nothing serious is going on under the paintwork, so next is to get a date to meet him in Birmingham with his tools so he can fix any problems highlighted on the MOT and give it a good service.

Lee and I also need a photo in our CMA T-shirts for publicity so that needs doing ASAP so the CMA can start whipping up a media frenzy!

Day 2 route map

So here's the elevation data and the route map for day 2 which takes us from Balloch house at the foot of Loch Lomond to the Leslie Ann Guest House in Ayr. Only a little over 50 miles here but it was a sensible stopover for accommodation. 

You'll notice there are two maps for day 2, reason being that we may not be able to cycle across the erskine bridge. The cycling site we used to map this out wouldn't allow us to cross the bridge so we had to break the route into two parts, if when we roll up to the bridge we're not able to cross it on two wheels we'll have to strap both bikes to the car and drive this small section as the next option involves adding a lot more unnecessary miles to cross the water.

Day 1 route map

Well here's the first of 12!

We start at Glencoe on the 23rd of July for day one of the ride after a night at the Clachaig inn and 68.5 miles later will arrive at the bottom of Loch Lomond for a night at Balloch House on the 24th.

Here's the chart depicting the climbs involved on day 1:

and we'll have the map on Google maps soon for those that are interested but here's a screenshot for now.

on-line presence sorted

Now that the route is planned and most of the accommodation is booked we've been concentrating our efforts on setting up some on-line pages so that people can donate on-line, check our training progress, nose at photos or our route - activity on these will be busier the closer we get, but spread the word!!

• Fundraising page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/cmabikeride
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/stuartandleesbikeride
• Blog: You're on it!!