Any other STWers doing this?

when are you setting off on the lejog.

and what route.

Oh – did I mention I was doing the LeJog?? 🙂

We leave from Lands End on 17th June. Route takes a “meandering” course through Okehapmpton, Bristol, Bewdley, Oldham, then Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Colne, Kirkby Lonsdale, A7 to Peebles, Kincardine, Kinross and a rather circuitous route to Dalwhinnie, Aviemore, Inverness, Golspie, John o’Groats. 10 days riding – 1,570km.

http://www.justgiving.com/colin-cadden/

Yep, three others from the office are doing the 50mile, I’m doing the 100. My training has consisted of three or four weekends half hearted hillwalking, two short MTB rides and a couple of sprints to and from work, I’m on fire! 😀

Will poss have accomo free on the Saturday night if anyone wants to stay over (well, excluding folk I’ve never met, its not my deposit!), we’ve booked a six person chalet but everyone else is leaving Saturday night, leaving me on my lonesome 🙁

Riding to Ft William the next day via the hill roads above Slochd/Ft Augustus then just chewing through the wind down the Great Glen.

Colin, will get my finger out and sponsor soon, just between bank accounts at the mo…

you gonna be doing a daily log in to let us know where you are.
might have a drive out to shout you on.

Monk, are you heading down the A82 on Sun? If so, a word of warning that the roads seem very greasy at the moment and the traffic is a heady mix of slow tourists and impatient locals. If your bike can cope with a bit of trail then the grreat glen way would be a decent alternative route (suitable on a cx or a burly roadbike).

Ton – I was gonna look at some Blogging stuff so I could do daily updates. The overnight in Oldham is 20/21 June, so passing Tod/Hebden etc on 21st.

Thanks Stevious, good advice, although I’m kind of committed now, I’ll be on minor roads until Ft Augustus but will just have to time trial it down the A82, Chemical Brothers in the left ear and impatient traffic in the right!

Bump for the evening shift….

Weather is looking good!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/365

Anyone driving from Edinburgh on Saturday morning? Bit of long-shot, but its my flatmate’s 40th on Friday night and I’m feeling a bit guilty for missing it.

Coffee/Bacon butties and petrol money on offer!

That’d be an early start 😯 I was wincing at having to leave our accommodation at 7.30 but that’s a long lie by comparision!

yeah, I figured a night on the town followed by a 5:30 start mighten’t be the best preparation, guess I’ll just have to be the bad flatmate!

have you guys got anything in the mail after you entered? I only got an email confirmation, entered months ago (along with the Bealach Mor, which I keep forgetting…).

You can sit on my wheel* and then sprint for glory up the hill at the end if you like 😉

I’ve not had anything through other than the original email. We are aiming to be there for 8.30 to register and then get coffee in the mountain cafe if you fancy it?

*this won’t work if its windy as i’ll be hiding behind mustard, druidh and you 😀

C’mon then – what sort of target times are we all aiming at?

5 hours ideally, although more likely 5h30. Only big ride I’ve really done with other riders produced an average of 17.5mph over 120 miles and some big hills, so I’m hoping 100 miles of not so big hills will be a tad easier.

I was going to do the stupid’o’clock drive up ,but now have some floor space in Aviemore .

Times are always a bit of a lottery on these things.

Got a few good groups last year and got close to 5 .

Was a lot fitter last year though 🙄

Hope all this wind calms down.

I’ll be interested to see how people cope with the descent into Bridge of Brown, i hit 46mph BEFORE it got steep and the switchbacks started, had my back wheel skip out on me too, I’ll be making sure to sit off people’s wheels going down that one…

I’ll be happy with 6 hours. I’ll likely make the mistake of leaving too much in reserve for the last climb and then kick myself for not trying harder the rest of the day 🙂

yeah, but who cares if you’re averaging 10mph around the whole course, its all about the death or glory sprint on the last climb, in fact, i think thats exactly what I’m going to do 😈

How did you all get on ?

Got lucky with a good group right from the start and managed to avoid any punctures or mechanicals.
Really like that course.
Was looking out for folk with camelbaks and peaked helmets ,but didn’t see anyone 😉

Brilliant, absolutely loved that. Felt fantastic for the first 50 miles, going solo and chasing people. I kind of new I’d end up chasing too much and suffered for it so ended up playing cat and mouse with a couple of groups for the remainder, suffered a bit coming in to Boat of Garten for the final time, then pulled it together to make a reasonable effort on the last climb.

Think eating half a bag of apricots and washing it down with lucozade all day got the better of my stomach though, a night of what felt like food poisoning wrote off my plans to ride back to Fort William, just had to slink about Aviemore and pay through the nose for a train back to Edinburgh, slightly ignominious end!