“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” Benjamin Franklin

When planning a big sporting trip there are many aspects to consider…

Safety in numbers

I announced my plans to run a marathon and cycle London to Paris to my folks and the first thing they asked was “who’s going with you?”.

So for the Brighton Marathon, which I’d signed up to with 3 friends, ended up just being me and trusty Paula! We’d run a total of about 6 miles together all our lives but that was not going to put us off!  We agreed that we’d run separately on the day as we had trained at different speeds and Paula had experienced some injuries but we’d stay in contact via Mobile phone for emergencies and our hotel was a short walk (have you ever done a marathon?  It was about 100 steps up from the beach to the main road… walk?! Hobble, limp crying more like!) from the finish line where we planned to meet up should we loose contact .

Marathon partner Paula

For London to Paris I recruited a male friend.

He was “just the person I’d need” I thought smugly! Yes, he’d made a nearly successful solo attempt at Lands End, John O’Groats and it was only down to equipment failure that he did not complete.  Not only that, he also had a fancy new Garmin (sat nav for bike) and I wasn’t about to spend £350 quid on such an item myself! Perfect… !(?)

Transport

Ok smarty not the bike, I mean transport to the London start line, then the Ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe, and then home from a Paris finish!

Simples?  Not so.. the overnight sleeper was about £300! Not an option on the ‘Lorna, post house renovation on a budget’.  So we looked at all the options and opted for an early start with a train down to London and then that would allow us to start our cycle early afternoon.  London has a lot of stations and I had no idea so many were so close together!  Also, most trains require that you pre-book your tickets and reservations for bikes which also get charged extra.

Then there was the Ferry, I made the assumption that, like Scottish Ferries, you buy a foot passenger ticket and your bike goes free…  so booked us the 11pm Ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe one way!

And for a luxurious return home we booked the Eurostar train from Paris Gare du Nord to St Pancreas…  Where’s Gare du Nord… who cares!  I’m sure we’ll be fine to finish the 190 mile cycle navigate straight there to go home?!   hmmmm

Then, the return journey from Kings Cross to Glasgow was going to have to be the next day so that demanded an overnight stay at a local hotel in London.

Training

Well I was really committed to my marathon training schedule – I had it worked out, printed out and updated on my wall every week (yes, you are right, I’m good at planning but in reality I only completed 60 % of that training!!).

Cycling was a secondary thought.  Anyway, if you train for a marathon you really will be at your peak fitness, right?   So I started training for the Brighton April 2015 Marathon at the end of September 2014 and built up to around 20 miles a week by the end of November.  Then I got hit with a couple of colds grr back to square 2!   In total I managed around 7 training cycle runs between January and May! Yep that’s all!  Highlights were

1)  a 40 mile cycle around 2 islands (Great Cumbrae and Bute) and back to Largs to finish then a train home to Glasgow.

2) a 72 mile route down into Ayrshire and back up through Largs, over the hill to Greenock and back to Glasgow.

Does a week snowboarding in France count?  Hmm thought not!

All the Gear…..  (but no idea!)

So I mentioned in my last post about migrating from a Trek 4900 hard tail mountain bike to a Decathlon Triban 3 road bike…  well you know what its like… (or maybe you don’t?!) I used to slag off those MAMIL’s (Middle Age Man In Lycra) I’d see on their REALLY expensive bikes which weigh absolutely nothing!  I’d say, “yeah but if you lost your 5 bellies you might be able to ride faster?!” and laugh so heartily at my wit!  And yet, there at the start of 2015, with some annual benefits choices for work, I was faced with the option to buy another bike!

And since its Rule 12 states the number of bikes you should own will always be (N+1 ) where N = current number of bikes owned, I had to go ahead and start looking for a new stead worthy of #L2P24   http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/

A friend owned a Cannondale Synapse and they get amazing reviews on line for their comfort over long distances… so I contacted my local supplier and put in my order for my first ever FULL CARBON bicycle!!  (yes it was FOUR TIMES the amount I ever spent on a bike before! And it will not be paid off until April 2016 but hey ho!  It’s because I’m worth it!  I have to keep telling myself that!).

2014 Cannondale Synapse full carbon

Rucksack? Yes really!

In short after spending A FORTUNE on a light weight full carbon bike…  I then packed all that saved weight into a backpack which consisted of:

• 1 pair of spare cycle shorts
• 1 spare vest
• 1 spare pair of socks
• 1 spare cycle top
• 1 waterproof jacket
• 1 wind jacket
• 1 microfleece
• 1 shell cycling jacket (heavy as – wore it for the first 5 minutes from Shawlands to Glasgow then needlessly carried it to Paris!! ARGH)
• 1 bra (normal variety to get home )
• 1 pair of pants (no pants required under cycle shorts as they chaff badly!)
• 1 vest top for return journey
• 1 pair of leggings
• 1 pair of flip flops
• about 20 gels (High5 various flavours, some with caffeine)
• about 20 hydration tables (High5 Zero, some with caffeine)
• Battery pack portable phone charger
• Phone charger plug and USB
• iPod & earphones (Thank the Lord for the earphones…   read on)

On bike equipment

• 2 x 700c inner tubes
• toolkit
• 2 water bottles
• Front Moon light- fully charged
• Rear Moon light – fully charged

Finally, and most importantly – Route Planning

As previously mentioned, Sean Conway inspired me to do this route, and on his blog he actually provided the Garmin downloadable route.

http://www.seanconway.com/blog/cycling-to-paris-route-gpx-files-for-download

What could possibly go wrong?