Long rides are physically demanding. To keep going hour after hour after hour does need some strength of muscles, capacity of lungs, hardiness of limbs. Preparing for the physical challenge is quite straightforward: cycle, cycle a lot, train your fitness, the earlier you start the better. Your progress is measurable in the number of hours …
Continue reading “How to prepare psychologically for a long ride”
The tales and travails of another long distance ride shall be described here. This one was a very different pace to the very-long-and-exhausting Land’s End to John O’Groats ride of the previous several writings. Rather than race over as much distance as possible, my wonderful friend Kate and I decided that we’d much rather lean …
Continue reading “Tales and travails of two touring travellers”
That’s 13 days on the road, from one end to the other. It looks like a really long way on that map. It all seems a bit like a blurry dream now though… The countryside certainly morphed a lot on the way, as did the accents and architecture. I spent enough time in the sun …
There are all different flavours of incentives to get something done. On a long ride like this, there absolutely is the incentive to get to the end and say that you’ve done it, but I find that particular thought too big and distant to get me though a tough day. Instead, I tend to call …
What day is it? Everything is blurring into one… the extremes stick most firmly in my memory, and so I’ve decided to write on the theme of opposites on the journey from Carlisle. Where England felt warm and quaint, with golden hay, red brick buildings, and sunburnt legs, the Scotland that appeared after that belt …
Today was a Hard Ride. I was going to write a nice nostalgic post about all the memories I have spending time in the Yorkshire and Cumbria landscape with friends, getting drenched in low clouds and missle, drinking tea to make it all better… I certainly felt very much at peace with the world for …
Conquering things. Doesn’t that sound a bit lighter than the last two posts? There’s been a little lapse since the last one because conquering things is exhausting. From the last three days of cycling, I’m now close enough to Manchester to watch the planes taking off as little lights in the distance. Manchester. From Cornwall! …
This blog post will be on the theme of fear. Although there would be plenty to write about describing the last two days of cycling, I shall get bored relaying it all. So, this will be a thematic tour of the UK and the first theme I have chosen is ‘Fear’. Fear covers the first …
To fail or not to fail, what a question is that? Failure is one of those horrible, dirty words that leaves tremors in its wake and a foul taste in the mouth. I only have a couple days left before leaving on my longest ever cycling trip, planned months ago with dreamy eyes and hopes …
A bike, for all it’s roaming abilities, is a terrestrial creature. Wheels are only useful with a ground to roll against. With no ground, a bike will flounder. And yet, I believe it is possible to cycle on water. Think of cycling, and I’m sure you’ll have a image of a bike in your mind. …
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