That's one LOOOONG cycle!

At the time of writing this, I am extremely frustrated, but I just had to write this to share. 

I had this lovely motivational idea of plotting my entire (draft) cycle route for Lands End to John O' Groats on AA road maps, then sticking all the pages together in a long line. The idea was to be able to stick the entire route on my staircase wall for five reasons: 

• A visual reminder that "ohmygoodnessthisisreallyhappening!" - I need constant motivation.
• A reminder to get out and do my training because some of the hills on this cycle are going to be a LOT bigger than what I'll be used to from my Kent cycling
• A way to draft routes - add different routes in different coloured highlighters 
• Could add post it notes for points of interest for Will, my bf and support driver, to visit along the way
• Adding places to stay and other relevant notes. 

Firstly - why is there not a ready made map available of this section of the UK? Wouldn't it be nice if I could walk into Waterstones and buy a map of "End2End"? But no. Not available. So I thought I'd take matters into my own hands with AA maps. 

Anyway... so I managed to plot on a route, taken from the Cicerone Guide by Nick Mitchell. He has broken his route down into 14 sections or days, but I am aiming for 8 or 9 days, so the route will probably need some adapting anyway. It was good as a starting point for the first steps in planning, though. 

I then copied the route into an identical AA map, and then cut it all out, lined up the route and stuck it all together. 

The end result was about 5 metres of map.

That was all fine. 

Then. THEN. Then I had to recruit Will to help me to stick the map up the staircase wall. But the cello tape wouldn't stick and neither would blue tac. When I finally started sticking the map to the wall with climbing tape, we realised that the entire map was at the WRONG ANGLE and therefore would not fit. 

After another few attempts, and a minor tantrum where I swore and almost ripped the whole damn thing apart, we decided to have a break until the morning.

Will spent some time peeling the cello tape off the map so we could start a fresh with it tomorrow. 

I very much hope that we work out how to stick the map up in the morning...

This entire exercise has, however, taught me one important thing: 

This is going to be a LOOOOONG cycle! Eeek! 

Thank you for reading - a problem shared is a problem halved and all that! :) 

TRX training

I returned from a weekend in Bournemouth to find that my boyfriend (Will) had bought this gem! The  TRX is a great way to do a bit of toning. I don't particularly know what I'm doing on it yet, but there are hundreds of instructional videos and photos on the net to help. Tonight we just had a mess around with it. The TRX is basically a couple of loops on some adjustable straps, that you can then use to do various body-weight exercises. This should keep me busy until my bike is ready to pick up.  

As you can see, we have just used the 'over the door' attachment, but it comes with a loop that you can attach to a tree in the garden or a pull up bar. It's fun to use but harder than it looks! https://uk.trxtraining.com

Paddleboarding fun in Bournemouth!

This weekend I went to visit the fabulous Tamsin. A seasoned blogger, she helped me to set up this website. She is training for the London Marathon this year, so we swapped notes and thoughts on training... then promptly headed on a big night out in Bournemouth! This ended in us watching a beautiful sunrise at the beach and prancing about taking silly photos (see my Instagram - @saraoffinland). 

Just a few hours later we hired a coupe of paddle boards and spent the next two hours playing in the sea. This video (link below) shows just how much fun we had. If you haven't already tried it, I would recommend going to your nearest paddle board hire place and having a go! It is so much fun, and a good core work out too. We loved it. Thank you Bournemouth, I had a great time. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6ZNpjXGPvs

Many thanks to Tamsin for putting this video together. You can find Tamsin at http://www.littleglitter.org

The Challenge - Land's End to John O' Groats

A few weeks ago, some of my friends and I completed the National Three Peak's Challenge. We scaled the three highest mountains in Great Britain, and raised over £1400 for Macmillan Cancer Support. For most of us, this was a massive challenge. Perhaps I will write a post about the challenge soon - but first let me introduce the whole reason that I have started to write this blog. 

The Three Peak's Challenge was an amazing experience, but one that we could not all fully appreciate until our tired, sleep deprived and aching bodies had had the chance to recover after the night in a hotel. I remember very clearly hobbling down to breakfast in the morning (I had injured my knee), sitting down with a well earned fry-up and looking across the table at my boyfriend, Will. Suddenly the magnitude of what we had achieved hit me and it was with glassy eyes that I said, "This is amazing. Can you believe that we have actually done this?"  I remember feeling incredibly proud of our whole team. 

As we were on our way home from Wales on the mini bus (affectionately nicknamed "The Bin"), I decided that I was ready for the next challenge. I thought back to when I was 16 years old, and how I'd heard about some people who had completed the End to End challenge. I'd wanted to do it too. Imagine how much you'd see! At the time, I just didn't believe that I could manage it. Over the years, I had other priorities and never really imagined I would be able to cycle the gruelling 930 miles across the length of Great Britain. So I put that dream away in the proverbial box and hid it away until that day on "The Bin". 

I thought about the next challenge almost obsessively for most of the journey home. By the time we made it back to Kent, I had categorically decided to cycle Land's End to John O'Groats next summer. My wonderful boyfriend Will agreed to be my support driver. And here I am. Blogging my progress! 

I have fair basic fitness but I am not a cyclist. Apart from a few spinning classes and days out on my mountain bike, I have never really done any proper cycling. 

In this blog I will log my training, thoughts, feelings, observations and progress. I will post about all the things I learn on this incredible journey. And, occasionally, I may also post about other fun things that I get up to! 

Happy reading!