The Long Distance Cyclists' Handbook

Today I bought The Long Distance Cyclists' Handbook to help with my preparation.

Training

I have been out on my new bike a few times and done 2 or 3 ten mile rides. However, in order to get my general fitness and stamina up I have decided to combine this with some running. As a result I have entered myself in a couple of organised runs in order to set some goals in my training.

The first event is a 5km run aroung Birmingham's Perry Park on Sunday 3rd May http://www.wetaketothestreets.org.uk/.

The second event is a 10km run in Sutton Park on Sunday 17th May http://www.cureleukaemia.co.uk/funrun.php.

I am not going to raise any additional funds for these charities (other than my entrance fees) as I want to concentrate my begging and pleading to raising money on this bike ride.

Initial Planning

I did some initial planning work for the ride today. Richard (who is organising the "Ray of Sunshine Event" at BT's Head Office in London) wants us to finish the bike ride there by about 11am on Thursday 9th July. As a result I am proposing to start on Saturday 4th July in order arrive in London on Wednesday with then a short ride to BT Centre on Thursday morning.

After discussing with James (one of the Rockbourne riders) I have planned the route around the idea of visiting BT buildings during the day in order to catch people at work and raise more money by shaking a bucket! We could therefore obviously use the BT buildings as our lunch venues and take an opportunity for all riders to regroup. I have also tried (where possible) to finish at a Premier Inn. This was for several reasons:

• They are the biggest hotel chain in UK so there was more chance of finding one on or near the route.
• By staying at the same chain on most nights there may be a better chance of getting them involved (and giving the accommodation for free or discounted)
• James has a contact within Premier Inns that he could tap up!

The first day is slightly different as there is neither a significant BT building nor a Premier Inn between Edinburgh and Newcastle, however apart from that the plan falls together nicely averaging 77 miles/day for the first 4 days and 40 miles on the Wednesday and just a couple of miles to BT Centre on the Thursday. I have mapped the route on Google Maps here http://tinyurl.com/d7sxyo.

First Sponsorship

The main contractor on the project I am currently managing for BT is a company called Rockbourne Environmental. They were interested in the bike ride and have committed to sponsoring me £1000, providing a support vehicle, paying for accomodation on the journey and submitting 3 or 4 of their staff to do the ride with me.

I will now try to encourage some other BT staff to do the ride in order to create as much interest and raise as much money as possible.

A New Bike

My current bike is a Trek 4300 hard tail, great for mounting biking or short road rides but not built for distance (the suspension forks and fat knobbly tyres just soak up too much energy). My wife wanted a new bike to take out our youngest son (Charlie, 2) with the help of a child seat and encourage our eldest son (Oliver, 3) to ride his bike without stabilisers. So that, together with my comittment to this ride lead us to each buying new bikes yesterday!

My new bike is a hybrid (road and mountain bike cross) called a Decathlon Triban Road 7.

I had now better start thinking about (if not actually doing) some training!