Welcome

Who, why, when, how.

This site is an account of my 2005 Land's End to John O'Groats cycle trip.

Who

Just me, Ian Wallace - I am (was) a 34 year old bloke, a bit overweight, a bit grumpy, going a bit grey.

Why

Sometimes you feel the need for a challenge. Take my advice and keep this to yourself until you are 100% sure you want to do it - once the cat is out the bag peer pressure will make sure you can't wimp out! Many people do it for charity, but I didn't, which in hindsight I sort of regret.

When

Ideally I would have done the ride in May, but as I only decided to do the trip in April that didn't leave enough time to prepare. I wanted to avoid June, July and August as it can get a bit too hot in the south of England for long distance cycling. I also wanted to avoid the school holidays so that the roads would be quieter and finding accommodation would be easier (I hoped). So the first two weeks of September it would have to be.

Route Planning

The web is a great thing - there are numerous accounts out there to give you ideas for your route. I also joined the CTC and sent off for their End2End pack which contains 3 different routes. Another source of information is the Sustrans website which has details of the National Cycle Network.

A couple of road atlases and a pack of highlighters were purchased and numerous evenings were spent marking out the possible routes. At the end of the day I cherry picked the bits I wanted from the CTC YHA route, various web account routes and my own choices and linked them up to give me my preferred route. I left my exact choice of route through the Scottish Highlands to the last minute - I wasn't sure how I would feel on reaching home in Edinburgh.

Training

There are lots of differing opinions about how much training you need to put in - some say you'll get fit on the ride, others prescribe a comprehansive training plan building up to long laden weekly rides. Initially I was planning to average about 70 miles a day, so I knew my daily commute (6 miles each way) would not really be enough. Over the summer I tried to get out most weekends and put in rides between 60 and 80 miles - one day I even managed 102 miles. In the weeks before setting off I also tried to fit in 2 or 3 25/30 mile training runs after work. Was this enough? Well, my average turned out higher than planned, and there were definitely days when I suffered, so I think a few more training miles would have helped. On the other hand, if I had spent any more time on my bike training I would have been sick of the sight of it before I even set off.

Land's End

John O'Groats