Insufficient preparation

In July, I'm planning on riding my bike around a hundred miles a day for four days. I've done virtually no riding, other than my short commute, this year so this is possibly a Bad Idea. But, I quite like bad ideas.

I've got a few rides in over the Easter break so far: I borrowed my brother-in-law's bike while we were staying with them, and have managed three consecutive days of shortish local cross rides since we got back. I've been reasonably quick on these rides, and don't feel too beaten up despite riding rooty singletrack and rough tracks on an 'inappropriate' bike.

'New' commuter

Having commuted on my X since I got it, my Yuba Mundo want being ridden, so it's been sold to a worthy local cause. But the committing was taking its toll on the X and I was getting bored of needing to wear waterproof trousers because of a lack of mudguards.

So, my Solitude has been converted to commuting duties. I splashed out on some less fugly forks, plus sensible tyres, mudguards, new rear brake, and a bag/basket; and played musical handlebars.

Route recce - Darlington to Thorpe Thewles

My sister recently moved to near Aviemore, so I'm going to ride up there in the summer. My plan is to follow the Sustrans Coast and Castles route up to Edinburgh over two days, then take two days to ride up into the Cairngorms.

So, I rode the first part of the route I'll take from home to Newcastle, following NCN14 toward Stockton before turning north toward the Castle Eden walkway. I was surprised at how much was off-road, and most of the continuation to Newcastle will be the same. Hopefully, it'll be a bit drier in the summer...

Next step is to ride the rest of the way to Newcastle, then get the train back. And buy some bike luggage and a GPS :)

Not blogging

Apparently, moving to Blogger hasn't magically made me blog more but at least I'm not paying for not blogging.

Exercise summary... Still riding to work, still not riding much otherwise. Started running in December, broke myself, stored running, restarted more sensibly in January. Did a few weeks of 100pushups programme. Started doing a circuits session after work on a Friday, but my muscles haven't arrived yet.