JOGLE – Reflection Time

Well, where do I begin…

What a week, it all seems like one big blur when I look back and reflect on the week that has just been. Within the space of 7 days I came so far, starting with day 1 morning sitting in Florence on the way to John o’ Groats realising that I had forgotten my Garmin, to cycling those final few miles on Saturday evening. I can’t believe it was a week ago that I did the 146 mile ride and was settling down for my final evening and preparing for my last day. This post looks back on the journey and experience every cyclist must have on their bucket list.

I think I must have cursed myself on the morning of day 1 with the blog post a few days before about planning. Setting off without a Garmin device and feeling the panic and stress of starting this epic challenge. Getting to the sign post and still having to prep a few bits for the days ride, rushing to have a picture taken as I see 3 van load of runners head for the sign post. In my rush I had missed out on applying the chamois cream and I think that first 45 miles without the cream is probably the reason I suffered throughout the week with the saddle sores. For those interested, the skin has ripped between my hamstring and glute on my right leg, its fresh and pending to have some new skin grow over. I am sleeping every night at the moment with a scoop of sudo cream smeared around the area! Biggest test will be this weekend when I get back on the saddle for a cheeky 50 miles and brick session!

I think the highlight of riding through Scotland for 3 days was the beautiful scenery! Spending the best part of 2 whole days riding along the Loch’s was a great experience and one I will not forget. What I wont miss about Scotland are the midges! My head was bitten soo much and the scratching was relentless for days!

Once south of the Lake District the riding was very similar day on day, riding through the towns and not seeing much countryside. You could tell that I had started going through busier towns as the state of my arms and legs at the end of the day. The dirt was unreal, you can only imagine what I must have been breathing in!

The final couple of days saw the scenery return as I cycled through Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and the weather taking a turn for the better.

Looking back on my route, I have to say I think I nailed it. Planning the route based on some previous JOGLE and LEJOG 9 day rides, picking a route that looked to have less elevation. Apart from the detour on day 6 due to the cycle path (I don’t do cycle paths), and the major roads that I probably should have avoided, the routes were pretty straight forward. Made even easier by the use of my Garmin 1030 Edge navigation, that was worth every penny!

You may have noticed that during my blog posts last week, I didn’t mention any punctures. That’s right, my tubeless tyre’s did the job. I actually had no mechanical issues, just a very very dirty chain throughout the week. I made sure that I gave Camilla some TLC most evenings, a little clean of the chain and twice oiled.

I cannot thank my support team enough! Mum and Dad were awesome! Apart from Mum being a nervous wreck for the week, I sort of think they enjoyed themselves. I really could not have done it without them. Well I probably could have, but not in the way that I did. I wouldn’t have been able to cover that many miles in a day and refuel on the go. Would have had to be a longer trip with more stops and all my gear in panniers again.

Not only did I have great support from Mum and Dad during the ride, but the well wishes from friends were all appreciated and well received. At times where I needed a little pick me up, a nice little comment would find it’s way onto my Facebook or Instagram posts and get me through a days ride. This was also evident to see when I returned to work on Tuesday, very warm welcome from the team, throwing several cushions on my seat and celebrating with a cake. I gave myself the Monday off work to go get myself a nice Thai massage, just what the doctor ordered!

As it stands today, I have managed to hit 86% of my target with over £5k raised. I have to say a thanks to everyone that has donated over the past few weeks. Every little helps and the support you have all shown has been touching. A special mention has to go to Avis Budget Group, Mum works for them and not only did they support by providing Florence for the week, they made a large donation of £1000! Amazing, truly amazing, thank you soo much!

So for those of you that are the stat fans, lets take a little look at some of the numbers.

Total Distance

I rode an impressive 878.06 miles through the week, when you compare this to the sign post that suggests 874, my OCD couldn’t handle it. I blame Dad for 2 of those miles over as I was cycling up and down Penzance promenade looking for him! Including the detour on day 6, I reckon I could have come under the 874 if I tried!

Riding Time

I spent a whopping 58 hours 14 minutes on the move! When I look at how long I was in transit each day, the total is 71 hours 48 minutes. That means on average I only stopped for around 2 hours each day. It shows just what a difference the small gains can make, had I increased my average mph during the week by 3 mph, I could have shaved around 8 hours off the week!

Maximum Speed

Since I bought Camilla I have seen my personal best top speed move up to 49.2 mph. During this week I had a maximum speed of 39.8 mph, this came when cycling between Carlisle and Warrington. It was pretty tough to get top speed with some high winds and busy roads.

Average Speed

I started the week off strong with some 15.6 mph days. As you can imagine this was always going to decrease throughout the week. However when I average the days out for the week my average was 15.1 mph. Pretty happy with that across 878 miles.

Cadence

Cadence follows a similar story to my average speed, 91 was consistent at the start of the week. The average though ended up being 88 rpm. Again when you think what that means and how many times my legs were going round per minute across near 60 hours of cycling.

Climbing

There was me thinking that JOGLE as a direction would be easier as it’s all down hill. Tell me that after knowing I climbed 40959 ft in 7 days. When I think that Alpe D’Huez Triathlon will be a quarter of that climbing in only 60 miles, it makes me gulp a little! I put the increase in my leg size down to this climbing!

Calories

I burnt a total of 34035 calories, roughly 5000 a day! I think I am still trying to eat my way back through them as I have been on a eating frenzy all week! I didn’t track how many calories I was putting back in during the ride, but I still think I had a major deficit through the week.

Hydration

Before we set off I had thought that I might need around 50 litres of water for the week. I ended up going through 44.3 litres, this was just the water drunk during the day, I didn’t track any evening drinks. So a lot of water which increased as the days got longer and weather improved.

So for now this brings to the end of my JOGLE adventure, making my overall cycling across Europe a whooping 3259.76 miles.

Guess it’s time for me to sit back and be proud of what I have achieved, that and start to think about what’s next?

Thanks for following me and hope you enjoy the last JOGLE post!