I treated myself to a head unit (a small, bike GPS computer thing). When it arrived I took it for a test ride. The idea is (for me) that you can import GPX routes to it and it will guide you, turn by turn on a map, like a normal satnav. It also picks up your other sensors so it can monitor pedal cadence, speed, distance, time, etc, but the main thing for me is the satnav feature. If I’m doing LEJOG I am going to need a lot of guidance. Especially if it’s along trails and small country roads. The reason I bought the unit instead of just using my ‘phone satnav is battery. The head unit will run for 15 hours on gps, I doubt I’d get an 8 hour ride out of my ‘phone. The ‘phone screen is a lot better quality and burns through battery.
As I had the cycle path route for LEJOG I needed to test it out on a cycle path. I chose the Transpenine Trail. I got the GPX, loaded it onto the head unit and set off. It’s a bit of a learning curve, working out how it does things. On the way out I took a few wrong turns and lost the course a bunch of times. I eventually made it to Stockport but was too discouraged to go any further. I worked out how to reverse the GPX and came home. I think I only made two slight errors. I’m getting the hang of the unit. It was all but 25 miles each way, but because of the condition of the paths and tracks it took me 2 hours riding out, 1.50 back. And it was hard work. It was a very nasty wake up call. The course is nearly 1,200 miles. I wanted to do 120 miles a day to get it done in 10 days. That just isn’t going to happen. 100 miles is 12 days, but over that terrain that is still a big, big ask.
I looked around and there was a cheap (£4.00) ‘book’ (really just a bit of a route description, it’s mainly a way to sell you the link to the gpx files) of some guy who’s done LEJOG 3 times, the first as short as possible along all the main roads, the second an attempt to plot a safe route, and the third ironing out the kinks from the second attempt. It contains cycle path sections but the main idea is to use the shortest safe route. So it shadows the main roads, but on smaller roads to the side, wherever possible. And it’s 945 miles, instead of 1,200!
Just looking at the first section it looks like I’m on to a winner.
You can see the dotted line of the cycle path on the second (new, road) course map. It comes from low, goes up through Truro and Newquay, before dropping down again into Indian Queens. The blue line is way more direct.
In other news, I took my poorly achillies out for a test run, after 2 weeks off. I shuffled out 10 miles at 8.30 and nothing went pop. That’s the end of the good news though. I was so hard. And my achillies was still noticeable afterwards. I am doing small runs (after lots of warming up) this week and I’ll try again this weekend. I don’t think I’ll be doing Blackpool marathon in 2 weeks though. The other good news is my knee alignment tech is doing the job. My knee isn’t collapsing in and it seems to be training my leg.
I’ve been smashing the training. I did that 50 mile ride one day, that 10 miles run, followed by 90 minutes of blocks at near FTP on TrainerRoad another day, today I got back to swimming, did a 1k swim, 30 minutes rowing, then 5 miles on the tready. Without a fan. In a cool, but not cold, gym. Near killed me.
I’m not having any luck selling my motorbikes. I’m going to have to stop splashing out buying everything for LEJOG. I don’t need it for another year, but I do love the process of tracking down exactly what I want and buying it for the best possible price.
Last bit of good news. I blew my diet and troughed out for a few days. I went from 10st 4 3/4lbs to 10st 7. With battering the training I’ve managed to drop it again. Today I was 10st 3 3/4lbs! Getting there!
Right, bed. Work nonesense ruining my training and loafing time tomorrow.