Planning our Outer Hebrides Tour

Easter seems to have snuck up on us (might have something to do with the fact that the weather is still behaving as if it's January!) and with it our first tour of the year, to the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. We always knew it would be less than ideal weatherwise so early in the year, but the current circumstances go beyond anything we had planned.

Yes it is late March! (source)

London received a dusting of snow yesterday, but further north there were blizzard conditions and pretty much the entirety of the UK has been going below freezing every night this week, with no sign of it letting up any time soon. The entire Isle of Arran in the Inner Hebrides--which we are fortunately not going to visit--has been without power for about 24 hours. Fortunately temperatures in the Outer Hebrides are always slightly warmer due to the gulf stream, but at the moment it doesn't look like we'll get highs above 8C (46F) at any point during our trip.

The tour must go on, however, so we will be packing several layers and hoping for the best--and of course writing down the locations of hostels in case it truly does go pear-shaped!

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We've planned a rough route and given some thought to likely stopping points. The main questions remaining are whether we'll make it from Glasgow (where our train will leave us) to Oban in one and a half days to make the Friday ferry or catch the Saturday one instead, and whether we'll leave the Outer Hebrides via the Tarbert-Uig ferry and take in a bit of Skye, or continue a bit further north and catch the ferry from Stornoway to Ullapoo. Either way we'll be headed to Inverness, from where we'll have a direct train back to London (taking virtually the whole day!).

Our packing list is complete (though not packed!) and we are making last minute adjustments to my new Long Haul Trucker.  I've also bought some new Neoprene overshoes in hopes of solving the cold feet conundrum.

Callanish standing stones (source)

We are really looking forward to seeing the stunning scenery that the Outer Hebrides have to offer, and some of the cultural sites like the standing stones at Callanish. We're unforunately likely to miss the Stornoway Piping Competition by one day but we're hoping we'll catch some Easter festivities--we'll mostly likely still be in the Catholic part of the islands on Easter sunday.

Assuming we don't blow away and/or freeze to death we'll be back on Sunday 7 April. Hopefully with both character and leg muscles built!

All ready for our Audax 200

Not long ago Lucy and I were completely unaware of the term Audax/Brevet/Randonnée. But recently, and especially after all our long (well, should I say "short" for Audax standards?!) rides we came across Audax UK. As they say on their website: 'Audax United Kingdom is the internationally recognised long distance cycling association in the UK'. That sounded pretty cool, and soon afterwards we were doing some research into it.

A couple of weeks ago we entered our very first Audax, and last week we got our entry package. A lot of information came with it, all in different fancy coloured A4 sheets. We even got a personalized letter from Dave regarding our insurances (a post on this will follow soon). I thought that doing a PhD, in a foreign language, was complicated enough. But understanding the Audax terminology (again, in English!) proved a bit tricky for us newbies! The route is not shown on a map, but on Audax language:

So, here we are Lucy and I trying to make sense of 4 pages full of this. It became very obvious that if we had to follow this sheet(s) as they are on the day, we may end up in Birmingham. We don't even have a map carrier and we both know how crappy we are with directions - we always, always get lost, be it in London or wherever we happened to be. We were not granted with a very bright sense of orientation, unfortunately. But some bright minds (I think americans? Lucy's dad can surely confirm!) invented the GPS a while ago. And now the devices are small enough to be carried on bikes. And because we love technology, we have got two of them! So, let's get started with the mapping. Looking at google maps and street views (it is truly amazing how you can see every single road in the UK as if you were on it!) we followed the instructions and plotted a line that would then be transferred on to our GPS devices:

SO @ X (Busy A31)
$ Village Centre (Berry Hill)

Ok, so stratight on (SO) at crossing (X) which apparently will be the busy A31 (A roads are usually dodgy for cycling in England, the less numbers the worse!). Then signposted for Village Centre (Berry Hill, I guess there must be a hill). Easy. The places in bold are to be cycled through, possibly because there are hidden controls or something. The rest, you can either follow or make up your own route. We're sticking to Dave's for now.

After 4 sheets of this, we've come up with the four different stages of this 213 km audax. And we've created 4 separate .gpx (the GPS's language!) files. We will be given a 'brevet' card, which we need to have stamped in all the controls, manned or unmanned. In the latter case, we need to obtain proofs, such as ATM statements or receipts. Looking interesting. And then we have the time limits! They get relaxed as the km pass. The clossing time for the last control is at about 22:00, which should give us 14 hours to complete. That should be pleeeenty of time...right?

This is stage 3 of the audax

Ok, so if we rode at an average of 22 km/h, which is quite doable, we would invest nearly 10 h of riding time. That is non-stop. So, we have about 4 h stopping time, which includes food/water feeds, pees, mechanicals, and lots of resting atop the Surrey hills. It seems achievable, but we should keep an eye on the timings!

Riding for 10 h in October means that you're very likely to have to ride into the dark. It's good that we have been doing loads of night rides this year, otherwise I would be frightened! Some good lights, bright rears, and high-vis vest are in order. And backlit GPS!

The rest of the preparations include:

• Some pre-training in Richmond Park (that's for the hills!)
• Servicing the bikes. I will be changing my summer brake pads for the wet ones, in preparation for my Wales ride
• Food, food, food. Audaxers say that as long as you're well fed and hydrated, your legs will keep going
• Get tools ready, inner tubes, arm/knee warmers, batteries full of juice, GPS loaded
• Let your beard grow (mine's already 10 days) so that you can fit in

Despite all this, I personally feel a bit nervous, kind of similar to when I did my first night ride. Something new, certainily challenging, awaits for us this Saturday!

So we are looking forward to getting up at 5:30 am, cycle to Waterloo, training it to Guildford for 7:30 am, ride 8 km to the start, ride 213 km, 12 h later be back for the train into London (after another 8 km), ride back home from Waterloo ( at about 22:00)...and all this with a good chance of getting soaked! Yep, we do this for fun, but hey, we all sit in the office (or write thesis) for the same amount of time (and 5 days a week!), which is much much more boring! The good thing is, after we hand in our brevet cards and assuming we dont mess up any stamps/times etc, we will officially become randonneurs! That is exciting!

My Microadventure in York

Alastair Humphreys, one of Alberto's favorite cyclist authors, has this concept called the microadventure. The idea is that you don't have to travel to exotic lands to have an adventure. His examples include things like cycling after work for as far as you can go, then camping and cycling back to work the next morning.

I didn't set out to have a microadventure last Friday, but it ended up meeting all the criteria of one!

First, a little background. Alberto and I wanted to join the FNRttC group on their York to Hull overnight ride. We thought it would be convenient that I had to go to York on Friday for work, so I could just bring my bike--and also save on train fare! In reality, having to sort out the logistics of it all proved quite challenging. It turned in to quite the microadventure in a lot of ways:

• Navigational challenges: I brought my bike with me to York on the train in the morning (with my work clothes in a backpack). Several of my colleagues were coming up to York as well as we had to run a workshop at the University of York. When we arrived, they got in a taxi and I told them I'd see them soon. The university is only 2.5 miles from the city centre so I figured we'd probably arrive about the same time. Little did I know that the city of York has very few street signs, and google maps directions are not always that clear! I didn't actually make many wrong turns, but I had to get off the bike all the time to consult the map. On the last turn of the route I actually did completely go in the wrong direction, ending up in a completely different area of the University (which is quite spread out). All this time I was stressing out about not being there to help my colleagues prep for the event. All in all, it took me almost an hour to get to the right building!



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• Travelling alone: After the event finished, I said goodbye to my colleagues and headed back into the city centre. Once I arrived (it only took 20 minutes, I might add), I suddenly thought to myself, "what now?" I was alone in a city that I don't know very well, it was 5:00pm and Alberto's train wouldn't arrive from London until after 11pm. I felt the same way I feel whenever I travel alone... this feeling of being in charge of how I spend my time but also the responsibility of looking after my stuff and making sure I take care of myself.
• Sleeping outside: Sleeping outside is an integral part of the microadventure and I attempted to do just this after making my way back to York. I went to the park next to York Minster and found a nice bench, which I then locked my bike to and laid down on, hoping to get some sleep before the all night ride. This didn't really work out too well as there were tourists walking through all the time, the bells of the Minster ringing periodically, and it started to get cold after I laid still for too long a period. I think I probably got about 20 minutes rest though.





This is a picture from the University of York website, but I'm pretty sure that's the exact park bench I tried to nap on!

• Eating alone: Eating alone is kind of a caveat to travelling alone, but I honestly don't think I have gone to a restaurant for a dinner by myself since travelling on my own to Barcelona two years ago. After finding a place to lock my bike, I went into a restaurant and sat by the window so that I could look out on the bike at all times (I've never left it alone before!). I didn't even have a book with me so I basically spent two and a half hours in the restaurant eating carbs and drinking caffiene. (While wearing lycra and carrying my front wheel I might add!). I then moved to the pub across the street, which also had a view of the bike, to drink (Coke) alone for the remainder of my time. It can actually be very nice to just sit and think, rather than havingy the TV, computer, ipod, or book to distract you. 

It was difficult to make sure I took care of all my needs before the ride in an unfamiliar city, alone and with a very valuable piece of equipment to look after, but I actually did enjoy the challenge of it.

After all this, 70 miles through the night to Hull seemed positively mundane! But we'll put up a blog post about it soon just the same :-)

Quick Rides in the Neighbourhood

Ever since I have first gotten in to cycling, I have viewed it as a day-long activity, usually done on a weekend. From the beginning, when it would take most of the day to cycle along Regent's canal from my old flat in Shadwell to Alberto's place in Kentish Town, to two weeks ago when we completed our 100 mile ride, I've always needed to set a day aside in order to have fun on the bike. Of course, I do commute on the bike (though not every day), but it just isn't the same, especially now that I had my Boardman -- which only ever comes out on the weekends.

However, I've been reading a lot of cycling blogs recently, and they are showing me that it doesn't have to be this way. One of my favourites is Bike Noob (probably because I'm such a newbie myself!), and there the Noob always talks about going for rides after work in his neighbourhood. Now, I'm sure his residential area is a lot bigger than ours, being in Texas while we're in central London, but I started to think about the hills in our local area which I sometimes have the misfortune of having to tackle when just riding around town.

Today, I needed to do a short ride to see whether my shoulder would give me any trouble while cycling (it's been bothering me since I took that clipless fall two weeks ago, but I haven't been able to see a doctor yet). So I decided to head out into the residential streets to the north and west of our flat. The roads are relatively quiet, but there are a fair number of intersections so it is difficult to build up any kind of speed, since I want to be ready to stop suddenly if a car comes along. However, there are several short streets with relatively steep climbs--not a problem the first time around, but I can imaging I could tire myself out if I kept going round them!

According to Map my Ride, I can do a series of three small concentric loops (each loop has a climb) with the whole thing adding up to 2.5km. So, my new goal is to make time to do 6 of these loops--a total of 15km--at least one night a week to start with. This is not much, but setting such a low goal makes me more likely to actually get out on the bike when I get home from work. This will probably take me an hour to complete due to the low speed I mentioned above, so at least in the summer months it should not be a problem to do in full daylight.

My hope is that this will help me stay fit between weekend rides (especially when we don't get a chance to ride every weekend!) and maybe I'll improve my hill abilities as a bonus! But really, I just don't want to have to leave my Boardman behind 6 days out of the week :-)

Cycling the Suffolk and Norfolk coast

We have always wanted to cycle the Suffolk and Norfolk coast of England, but never found the right time to do it. Although the route has no difficulty gradients-wise, I have planned two relatively long days on the saddle that will at least build up some strength ...in our butts.

We will be taking the train to Ipswich, East Suffolk, from Liverpool St. Buying the tickets in advance we have got four one ways for about £20, including bicycle reservation. Apparently they are a bit funny with bikes on the East Anglia trains, although I doubt they would bother on a Saturday 7 am train!

The route out of Ipswich visits some nice beaches along the Suffolk coast, which I am very much hopping to swim if weather is not too bad. I will be carrying my Carradice with swimsuit in it, just in case. I have also put in Dunwich just to see the beach we will be cycling to on the 16th of July with the Dunwich Dynamo machacas. Apparently this tiny town was once upon a time a major port in the East Anglian coast. The sea coastal erosion has eaten the old bustling city, but there is some ongoing projects that will maybe reveal the lost city.

The route on day 1 will cover 100 milles from Ipswich to the coast village of Mundesley where we found a bike-friendly B&B that gets great reviews. The climb is about 600 m which is as flat as it can get on a bike and that is why Lucy was always attracted to this route!

The route on day 2 continues on from Mundesley heading west along the north coast into King's Lynn, where we will catch the train back to London. First Capital Connect is the only company that links this town with the capital, and so the discounted tickets are still fairly pricey to buy in advance. It is a flat 70 mile route with a slight climb 2/3 of the way over farmlands that rise over 80 m, giving a decent view of the seaside apparently. It totals about 600 m of incline, so overall it seems a bit "steeper" than day 1. We do not expect the last bit to be very nice, but maybe we will be surprised?