The Route

The trip is heading east roughly from Los Angeles to just north of Boston. The itinerary including mileage is shown in the bottom right of the page.

Training

Like I said in the prologue, I've always ridden fairly regularly, about 80 miles per week during the summer months, so I was starting with a reasonable fitness when I started training specifically for this about 18 months ago. First gave up playing darts (and the associated 4-5 pints and sausage + chips) on a Tuesday evening. Then stopped the fish + chips after Thursday night's badminton. Also our regular drinking buddies moved away so that was another 4-5 pints on a Saturday night which were largely removed. Without increasing the exercise, these actions alone meant I lost over half a stone.

I did two 'sportives' last spring. These are not races, riders start in groups at intervals, but everyone gets an official time and a medal based on that. The first one was 93 miles around Wiltshire with a fair amount of climbing. The time was 5:39 which got me a silver. I was elated by this, exactly the sort of time I would be expected to do on the ride, I was definitely in the right area. Two weeks later I did the Dartmoor challenge, 100 miles with over 12,000 feet of climbing. This was a disaster, over eight and a half hours, missed a bronze by 30 minutes and suffered all the way.

The intention was to do a lot of miles over the summer and then train in the gym and on the roads a bit during the winter. However by the end of August, with the rubbish weather, I hadn't done any more long rides and hadn't improved at all, it was clear things were going to have to change.

It was then I enlisted the help of a personal trainer. I typed 'personal trainer cycling Oxford' in to google and the name of Goose Dean popped out. I see him for 90 minutes once a week where he encourages, inspires, cajoles and bullies me into pushing myself much much harder than I could do on my own. It's a combination of rowing, cycling and cross training until I'm totally exhausted (that's the first 20 minutes) and then an hour or so of weights. It's been a revelation, part of this challenge was to see if at age 40 I could get into the best shape of my life. I've achieved that, smashing rowing times I set in my 20's. I also see him for a spinning session (which is like aerobics on a static bike). This really is a killer exercise session, my heart rate stays over 160 for more than an hour and I can barely crawl home afterwards.

Over the last few months I've gradually increased the amount of exercise. For the last few weeks the regime has been, Saturday 75+ mile ride, Sunday 40 mile ride, Monday killer spin, Tuesday another killer spin, Wednesday gentle swimming, Thursday getting 'Goosed' then badminton in the evening, Friday rest. That's the perfect week which I've stuck to 80-90% of the time. Have I done enough? I bloody hope so, it's been knackering. Kate's been fantastic throughout all of this but even she is getting fed up of me spending my evenings snoring on the sofa.

Prologue

Cycling is something I've always done. From the age of five, through school, university and then work I've always owned a bike and always ridden it regularly. Other sports, particularly Badminton and Cricket form the corner stones of my social life, but cycling is a largely solitary pursuit. I've never wanted to take part in races, so why cycle? There is a joy to moving fast (well fairly fast) under your own power. Also of getting out there in the countryside, in the fresh air and finding the roads you wouldn't otherwise travel. There's a book called 'The Escape Artist' by Matt Seaton who gives the best explanation I've read about why people cycle for recreation or sport. Other books I'd recommend are 'Rough Ride' by Paul Kimmage, an insight into the world of professional cycling and the constant presence of doping. Also of course 'It's Not About the Bike' by Lance Armstrong, the inspirational text for cyclists and survivors.

So why this trip? For a long time I've wondered whether it would be possible to cycle 100 miles per day over a period of more than one or two days. This cross country challenge is 3450 miles in 31 days of cycling and 2 rest days. I wanted to take on a cycling challenge rather than a cycling tour. I also wanted to see a bit more of the US, particularly the hinterland or 'fly over States', which most tourists don't get to see. I've no desire to carry my own kit, mechanical repairs aren't my strong point and I need a shower and comfy bed at the end of each day, so a fully supported trip was the only way to go.