Reflecting on this challenge I can honestly say that it was as hard as I expected it to be but actually for different reasons than I had expected at the start. I must admit that whilst I had trained hard I always had my doubts about whether I had done enough to do the miles day after day after day, but the reality was completely different. In fact I've been really surprised at how that aspect was never in doubt. Having the underlying fitness to do the miles each day was never in question during the challenge (that's not to say that I wasn't desperate to get off the bike by the end of each day! But it wasn't through exhaustion). Being able to finish in the daylight was a concern a few times and finishing some of the middle stages as a direct result of the knee injuries were a definite worry, but other than that I felt pretty strong during the whole thing. In hindsight I could actually have knocked off one of the days and added a few more miles per day in the second half without too much bother. Similarly I feel that after 14 days solid riding I was certainly ready for a rest day, but given that, I do believe that I could have carried on doing similar mileages for more days. No idea how far, but there was more to give.
That leads me to the thing that was much harder than I had ever expected. The mental strength required to keep getting up each day and follow the strict nutritional routine, to ignore the weather and road conditions and to get on the bike and go through yet another day of torture (especially for the first few hours with the knees as they were). I guess different people deal with this in different ways but for me the days of the challenge ended up blurring into one. Certainly when I was cycling on my own I found myself almost in a trace-like state of almost being on autopilot. Certainly when the weather was at it's worst and all you are focussed on is the piece of road a metre or so ahead of your front wheel it's amazing how a few hours can pass without any recollection of where you've been or what you've been passing! For me the hardest part mentally was dealing with the reality of the secondary effects that need to be dealt with. Downing a litre of energy drink and two energy gels at 6am is remarkably hard on any day, challenge or not, but by day 5 or 6 I cannot explain how hard it is to get that into you. The fact that after a few days the constant vibrations from the handlebars cause your fingers to go numb which makes doing any detailed things almost impossible (it took me about 20mins to do up one screw on my rear light when I finally needed to fit it as I couldn't manipulate the screwdriver properly!!)
I was lucky that had some support to help with the basic things like setting my tent up and finding some food for dinner. Trying to do that and wash clothes to keep the saddles sore at bay as best as possible etc after 100+ hard miles in terrible weather doesn't bear thinking about so I was glad for the help and it's things like this that has made me realise how I would approach this sort of challenge in the future if I were to do something similar again. I guess you only really know these this from trying and there were definite reasons why in this instance things had to happen as they did, but for future challenges I would definitely:
1) try to do the challenge at a time of the year where the daylight problem isn't such a constant worry
2) pack a lot less stuff, or at least invest in some seriously lightweight items as weight really is the killer over large distances especially when there are steep hills involved
3) Do slightly less miles per day. I'd say that 80-90 miles per day is a good distance to keep up progress but also keep it enjoyable. 110+ is really too much for anything other than short blasts of a few days at a time.
4) as a result of the above take the time to look around more and enjoy it! Stop and have lunch at a cafe, stop and take those photos etc. I certainly didn't feel like I could do any of that.
5) use a bike that's comfortably up to carrying the weight but also that it's not too heavy that the overall weight is too high. For me I was in fear about the amount of flex in the front fork, especially on the first day when the bike was fully loaded. It really didn't feel safe and the last thing you want to do is to worry about whether the bike can hold itself together on a long fast downhill in the middle nowhere! I had pushed my bike's strength to its limit but I'd want a bit more of a comfort zone next time.
6) rely more on natural food and less on energy products. The lower daily mileage would help with that but it must be said that huge volumes of high protein/carb/caffeine products every day over many days doesn't do your digestive system much good at all!
7) do it with friends! The days when I had company made it so much more enjoyable. Yes progress was slower but if you're doing 80-90 miles per day instead of 110+ it's fine. Being able to share the experiences both good and bad is so much more satisfying.
8) train hard. Yes it's possible to do this sort of thing with no training for some people, but it's surely better to remove the worry and feel a lot more confident that when a huge hill appears at 90 miles that you can definitely get up it!
9) accommodation - camping is definitely a viable option and a lot cheaper that staying in hotels or b&bs every night but it is important to rest each night and when it was barely above zero degrees sleep was often hard to come by. In summer I'd say go for it but outside of that I'd definitely recommend hostels and bunk houses just so that you stand some chance of getting dry, warm and a good nights sleep. They are cheap too and have the advantage that there's a lot less weight to carry on the bike.
10) planning the accommodation in advance - I would definitely do this again. Having a definite target to achieve each day keeps you focused and makes everything click into place. It would be too easy to just stop halfway through a tough day and drag things out otherwise. It also makes the overall logistics of meeting up with friends/family enroute much easier.
11) technology - having an iPhone and a battery extender was an absolute life saver, and as this was a charity event having live tracking was one of the best things to keep people engaged. It's not simple to set up though so some time is needed to get it working but with a bit of patience something simple can be created and published using free tools.
Navigation- well having the routes in a Garmin edge 800 made everything easy and I didn't get lost once but there a lot to be said for simply having a paper map on your handlebars. Th garmin was great for immediate directions and distances until turn points (and 101 other things) but the map allows you to quickly see where the next town is or where the nearest shops are likely to be etc. that's almost as important as it allows you to get yourself small targets through the day.
There's probably lots more I could write and I might add more as things come to me but I hope that gives a fair summary of my thoughts on this sort of challenge.
I'm definitely glad I did it, it was hard and the total amount raised is still increasing but likely to be close to £5500 which is way beyond anything I dreamt could be possible. Thank you to everyone who helped me with this challenge either directly when I was doing it, through support and very kind messages or even the very generous donations that people have made.
Take care, and once again thank you.
Rich
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:On a train somewhere
