Ed's 'Land's End To John O'Groats' Blog

Performance Nutrition One of the highlights of the visit to the HSBC UK National Cycle Centre was actually the nutrition advice.  I know that sounds a bit unlikely  and to be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from the session. After all, I’ve successfully managed to get to 50-odd and know how to eat healthily – what could I possibly learn? It turns out, quite a lot. The nutrition session was run by Lauren Delaney @LaurenVeronaD – it took me a few minutes to work out that she is one of the two Performance Nutritionists employed by British Cycling. She has a serious level of expertise. So, in the morning she’d have given advice to Laura Kenny and Ed Clancy – in the afternoon she was telling Ed Thompson to cut down on the pies. I learnt a few really important things. Firstly, I shouldn’t lose weight on LEJOG. I need to eat enough of the right food to maintain my weight level. This was a real surprise as I’d expected to be like a rake when I finished – apparently not....

The Route Lots of people are interested in the route that we will be taking. Apparently it makes sense to ride from Land’s End up the country as you get the prevailing wind behind you, literally pushing you up the country. Sorry, it's a bit blurry but a  few things really leap out: Day 1 is an absolute pig – all that climbing doesn’t seem a great way to start! The fourth leg is basically Birmingham to Manchester. Intuitively that feels like a long way but is only a tenth of the distance across the whole of Great Britain. You reach Scotland on day 6. Again, intuitively you think you should be nearly at the finish once you cross the border. In reality you are barely over half-way. As you can see, it’s all cheap and cheerful – we will staying in Premier Inns and sharing rooms. The short straw obviously goes to my roommate - wisely they haven't decided who get's that particular pleasure.

A visit to Maggies From the HSBC UK National Cycle Centre we rode out to the Manchester Maggies centre. Maggies is a new charity to me but it was hugely impressive. They have a network of support and drop-in centres and provide support to people with cancer and their families. All Maggies buildings are designed by top architects and it is considered a prestigious thing for an architect to be involved in– in the case of Manchester it was Sir Norman Foster! It is worth looking at the other buildings – they are all amazing:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie%27s_Centres Maggies has always had  strong connection with architecture and the ethos is that a beautifully designed building has the ability to uplift people. It certainly works in the Manchester Maggies centre. The thing that struck me was the calm, peaceful atmosphere. Manchester is a really bustling city but stepping inside the centre was like entering an oasis of calm. And I absolutely love the plywo...

The day I met Chris Hoy (and the other cyclists) On 13 May I met up with the other riders for the first time at the HSBC UK National Cycle Centre in Manchester. I’ll do a couple of posts on this as it was such an amazing day. The thing that really hit home was how much effort HSBC and Fuse are making. Fuse are a PR company that HSBC are employing to handle the PR and the logistics and support for the ride. We all got filmed, photographed and interviews – the output will be put on the internal HSBC website and on the internal Cycle Hub app. The highlight of the day was obviously meeting up and riding with Sir Chris Hoy. I know it is a bit of cliché but he seemed a genuinely nice bloke. If I’d won 6 gold medals, I’d probably not be as grounded. I’m not sure what he thought of the bamboo bike but everyone seemed genuinely interested in it. Fortunately, it functioned well on the 15 mile ride and I was pleased that I’d fine-tuned the gears (as best I could). Me and Sir Chri...

I have been lucky. I managed to get a place on the HSBC Land's End to John  O'Groats cycle ride in August 2019.  OK, cycling 950-odd miles over ten days might not  be everyone's idea of a small lottery win, but I am chuffed to bits. I have to pay £1,500 myself and also have to raise £3,000 in sponsorship. Initially, I thought this might be harder than the cycling. However, I've just done my first 70 mile ride (round the Isle of Wight) and the cycling is really going to be tough. After my first 30 mile test ride, I took to my bed for an afternoon nap. I'm not sure that is the kind of 'full support' that HSBC are going to dishing out on the ride. I plan to do the bike on my home-made bamboo bike (see my blog https://bambooshkabike.blogspot.com/  on how I made the bike).  It held together well during my IOW ride but the gears need some attention. Although I learnt loads when I built the bike (and had to set up the gears from scratch), I think I might need s...