London To Cumbria Charity Ride - 380 miles in 3 days

Cheers lovers! It was really good fun. My birthday was pretty awesome too. Combined with the wedding and the ride it was a truly heavy week or so.

Jess, your mpd is totally realistic. You must be really excited.

I'm going to be off the bike for a week of two with a touch of tendonitis but I should be fine for riding to Folkestone for your breaking out of the country...

I'm totally shitting it! Mainly because I'm building the bike as we speak. ha. I mapped out the route yest and I think London to Calais is a much nicer journey (and I really want to go on the ferry), be good to have you with us looking at this!!! Rest up.

Day 1 on my ride was the hardest because I only got about 2 hours sleep because I was so worried about route etc. You'll be fine. Seriously.

Fire it over if you'd like a second set of eyes to check it out.

Jess, please listen carefully when I said this; you will do wonderfully well.

If I can managed to keep up with Dan with little exercise and training, you can easily do the Berlin ride, and most of all, really enjoyed it, it'll be an experienced you'll love.

keep checking the Touring Equipment topic for information about lightweight tour.

I forgot to press start on the Garmin for the last 14 miles of day 2. I blame pasta overload.

End of the day result;

363.4 miles, add the missing 14 miles: 377.4 miles.

27.5 hours on the saddle.

Great write up Ed.

Chapeau!

Drinking champagne from a tea cup outside a yurt. Thats how men drink.

Peacock Dan, is it possible to combine the three Garmin map together into one whole map?

I really want to sleep in that Yurt.

I ended up sleeping under a car at one point of the weekend...the yurt would have been a more sensible choice.

Sure, I'll have a go.

Any chance you could dump all of your photos into an online account for me to DL? I even want the crap ones...

Doing that now.

Good work gents. Chapppppppppoooooooo to you both.

377.4 miles.

27.5 hours on the saddle.

13.7 avg. Pretty decent.

although that makes me think 2 days might be doable with a careful route. What do you think? Would you have made it if you'd aimed for (say) 200 on day 1 and the rest on day 2?

as I understand they could have saved on distance but had to do a lot more hills.

Henry is right about the distance/hill compromise however in retrospect, having had a ganders around the lakes after the event, I reckon the direct Ambleside route wouldn't be too bad with a bit more training.

In terms of doing it in two days of equal 188 miles, I think it is doable under certain circumstances.

I'd like to have a stab at it with full support i.e a team car full of proper food and fluids. I reckon if I trained towards 12hr races, I'd be in with an outside chance of making it within 48 hours. It would be incredibly tough though.

I'd like to have a stab at it with full support i.e a team car full of proper food and fluids. I reckon if I trained towards 12hr races, I'd be in with an outside chance of making it within 48 hours. It would be incredibly tough though.

I'd love to be part of this. Whether it was riding along with you guys or driving the support car. At least that way we could probably camp as well.

Good job you two. Looks like you had an ace trip, and Ed your write up is brilliant.

Fantastic work gentlemen. Excellent writing Ed.

Any lasting after-effects (apart from the smug sense of achievement which is obviously deserved) or have you both fully recovered now?

Just seen this!

Awesome write up, ed, sprinkled brilliantly with that unique ed magic - the scoblism. I've read it twice an chuckled all the way through it. Such an inspirational piece, it honestly makes any ride feel achievable. If I'd known I would have ridden out to rendezvous with you as you tackled the northern reaches!

Good snaps too. Great work all round.

Any lasting after-effects (apart from the smug sense of achievement which is obviously deserved) or have you both fully recovered now?

For me, the after effect is a numb feet, methinks a poor choice of footwear as I think my shoes were a tad too narrow (Mavic MTB) despite the cleat being in the right position, so ordered a Sidi Dominator Mega to see how that feel.

I'm riding to Dunwich and back this weekend, I'm at the point where I can't stay still, even if the saddle plagued me during the whole ride.

As far as I know, Dan's feeling perfectly fine, minus his ankle which he need rested, otherwise he'd be doing the DD as well.

Funny thing is, we don't really feel that achievement, we done it, we actually covered over 600km across England, it was hard, was challenging, but at the same time, looking back, it feel achievable, in a manner that anyone can do it if they put their mind to it, everyone keep telling us how impressed our ride was, how it look impossible, how they couldn't do such mileage, etc.

But in retrospect, it's just everyone never realised their potential, in our modern society we're constantly putting ourselves down, constantly telling everyone that we can't do this or that without a motorised vehicles, constantly being told we need to have certain materials in order to be safe, being told that the world is too dangerous for human.

But in the end, human are capable of so much more, that summed up the ride for me.

This come to mind actually;

Awesome write up, ed, sprinkled brilliantly with that unique ed magic - the scoblism.

I'm glad to hear that my misaligned grammar doesn't deterred an aspiring author to read my entry, I recall you lived in Leeds which is over half a century away from our ride, would have been great to ride with you.

Dan is thinking of doing London to Glasgow, and I'm tempted, so will let you know about that.

Never thought I'd admit this but I reckon you're right Ed - particularly the part about human achievement.

I'm supposed to be doing the end to end next year...

Stonehedge & Squabs
Chapeaux bas!
Wonderful write up ed, I like the mention of primary position on an 'A' Road.

Really bloody well done fellas. You're right Ed - Yes We Can!

But in retrospect, it's just everyone never realised their potential, in our modern society we're constantly putting ourselves down, constantly telling everyone that we can't do this or that without a motorised vehicles, constantly being told we need to have certain materials in order to be safe, being told that the world is too dangerous for human.

But in the end, human are capable of so much more, that summed up the ride for me.

Ed if you ever become famous (outside the forum!!) this would be the quote your remembered by.

I think your completely correct Ed. Most people are happy to be doing what there doing not pushing themselves, if it wasn't for the people that pushed themselves we'd still be living in caves.

Any lasting after-effects (apart from the smug sense of achievement which is obviously deserved) or have you both fully recovered now?

Two things for me. Firstly, I've got a touch of tendonitis in my left ankle from stupidly staying on the big ring for so long in the hills. I've learned to leave bravado at the start line. Its getting better with rest which is a relief.

Secondly, I've only just lost the numbness from the ends of both my ring fingers. I'm not sure what caused this but it hasn't been a problem on up to 159mi rides on this bike setup.

Ed if you ever become famous (outside the forum!!) this would be the quote your remembered by.

I think your completely correct Ed. Most people are happy to be doing what there doing not pushing themselves, if it wasn't for the people that pushed themselves we'd still be living in caves.

I think this ride has reawoken the part of me that is addicted to pushing myself. Its such an amazing feeling to win out when you think you aren't going to finish.

I used to be with this with my climbing but that has become a secondary interest behind my cycling. I'm glad I've got that feeling for cycling now :)