Less than a week to go - shopping, catering, and ferries.

So here I sit on Sunday evening, wondering if I've done enough training, and whether I've remembered everything. The answer to the former is definitely "No". The answer to the latter is "Yes" until I realise that I've forgotten something. That's sort of how it works, isn't it? A bit like the old chestnut of "Why do I always find my car keys in the last place I look?"

Anyway, I digress. It appears that Wiggle (that's an online cycling retailer for those of you not in the know) have done very well out of team BLT over the last couple of weeks. According to Joe, Matt has "Bought Wiggle", the amount of money he's been spending recently. Goodness knows what he's bought. I've splashed out on:

• 3 new cycling shirts
• 2 new pairs of cycling shorts
• 40 sachets of energy drink
• 30 energy gels

We also had a discussion on post-ride nutrition, and I've now cleared Tescos out of their "Pot Pastas" for a carbohydrate fix when we arrive at our destination. Slightly embarrassing turning up at the checkout with 18 of the things as well as 20 chocolate squares bars -I was tempted to make some comment to the effect that I do eat healthily, really.

In fact, numbers certainly seem to add up. Taking the formula of "a couple of energy bars in the morning, a couple in the afternoon" has led to the Burnie car probably being rather heavily loaded as it headed West on Friday morning with all our cycling kit, bikes and holiday gear for the Burnies. Not quite as bad as when on the 1989 Whitbread Round The World Race, when we were approached by the Uruguayan Mars Bar importer, offering free bars for the leg to Perth. When we calculated our requirements, he blanched and pointed out that the fleet's order was greater than his annual import. But I digress again.

Matt has been going over the routes, mainly to make sure we know where we're going at the end of each day. Fairly crucial, as it would be a tad annoying to have cycled 117 miles and then spend ages trying to find the accommodation for the night. He's also managed to shave off a few miles, which is good.

Part of the route adjustment involves the revelation that two of the ferries he'd planned in Scotland won't be running. In fact, one of them last ran in 1963, while the other is in Southampton having a refit. As a lot of us know, Matt happens to work in Southampton, indeed for a boat refitting company (Southampton Yacht Services). One lunchtime last week, he wandered over to the yard where the ferry is being refitted. There was the boat, with a posse of workmen busily... eating sandwiches and drinking tea (well, it was lunchtime). The conversation went something like this.

"Is this the Cromarty Ferry?"

"Yup"

"Erm, is it likely to be finished in time for 10th September, 'cos I was rather hoping to make use of it."

"Nope. It was meant to be ready three weeks ago, and we're running late."

Mat returns home to replan route...

Groupies!

We have some groupies -yeah!

I've just noticed, with excitement, that we've got two followers of the blog.

On closer inspection, they're Paul (of 'picking up car from pub' fame from our final training ride) Flint, and Joe Burnie. Sorry Joe, but following oneself sounds either naricissistic, self-referential, or both.

Makes me think - can you stalk yourself? Reminds me of the definition of recursion in the dictionary. It says 'See recursion'. It's a programmer's joke. Sorry.

Final Training Run - James

The Ride
This ride was to be an 80 miler from Emsworth to Dummer an back. Why Dummer? Apart from the implication in its name as to our mental capacity and the potential reason why we decided to undertake the ride, that is. Well, Matt informed me that Dummer:

• Is the birthplace of his great-grandfather
• Is almost exatly 40 miles from Emsworth
• Has a pub.

Therefore, Dummer was the destination.

Choice of clothing was hard for this ride (the usual "Does my bum look big in this?" questions aside). The forecast was for rain, but it was very mild. Matt and Joe had managed to stuff their waterproof jackets into their shirt pockets, but mine's too big. Hence their turning up at my place (having agreed to meet at Matt's) to still find me fiddling around tying my jacket to the crossbar.

As Joe says, we were helped along by a strong SW wind - leading to thoughts of "maybe I should be windsurfing". The ride there went remarkably quickly - arriving after around 2 1/2 hours at an average of just over 15mph.

It was on arriving at the pub that we noticed that Joe seemed to be decidedly muckier than Matt and me. It wasn't only the fact that he was wearing white - in retrospect, not a good colour for a ride in the rain. Seeing as he'd spent about the same amount of time as the others behind (thus being splattered by the leaders) as in front, this was slightly inexplicable (if that's correct English). Post-lunchtime pondering (and believe me, there's plenty of time for pondering on these rides) led me to consider the Pigpen effect. Remember Pigpen in Charlie Brown? Is Joe our very own Pigpen. Now if he's Pigpen, what does that make me?

We performed a controlled trial on the drinking front. Matt had a pint of bitter, I had a bitter shandy and Joe had orange juice. Now, do we swap roles each day and perform a full double blind test? Watch this space. Setting off after lunch, we were definitely less enthusiastic. Probably something to do with trying to digest an extremely tasty steak ciabatta. Helen (she of the degree in nutrition and knows what I should be eating) has commented that this was a 'stupid thing to have for lunch'. Well, it tasted fantastic, and didn't take too long for me to get back up to speed, honest!

I think we probably need some lists for each day's run. So here goes with some initial thoughts:

People We Met (In the strangest of places?)

Andy Hales and Paul Flint - initially pretended they were off for a proper bike ride, then admitted they were just picking the cars up from where they'd abandoned them at the pub the previous night.

Strangest Road Signs

Salad Depot - luckily there were two in succession. I was just commenting to Matt "Did that sign say Salad Depot?" when another appeared. Matt commented, wisely, that we were passing through the watercress centre of Hampshire.

Gay Dog Kennels - yes, really. Sparked off a conversation of "how can you tell?".

Confusing Conversation Of The Day

James (leading): "Turning right at this T junction, Matt?"

Matt: "Yes, turn left."

James: "That'll be the other right, then?"

Matt: "But of course."

FINAL TRAINING RUN

Matt, James and I did our final training run together yesterday. An 80 miler from Emsworth to Dummer and back in the rain. We met two friends in West Meon, Andy and Paul, who were doing an early morning pub run to recover their cars from the night before. Andy had a new set of TT tyres on his bike - very fast and very likely to puncture. We didn't have any punctures but did get very muddy. Our average speed was just over 15 mph not bad given the gale force south westerly that blew us out to Dummer but slowed us on the return. Biggest challenge of the day was leaving the pub - could be a problem on every one of the nine days of LEJoG.

That's all for the moment - back to the carbo loading!

LEJOG RECORD time

According to Wikipedia, the official Road Records Association LEJOG record for a rider on a conventional bicycle is 44 hours, 4 minutes and 20 seconds, set by Gethin Butler in 2001.^[5]

He was clearly a bit fitter than Matt, James or me! Maybe we were all a bit fitter nine years ago.

Help for Heroes

Very exciting news - we are just about to past through the £5,000 mark on our H4H collection. The most recent fund raising activity was at Emsworth SC on Saturday where we sold 90 cream teas, had 20 team entries for the orienteering/treasure hunt and over 50 entries for the Wattbike 1 kilometre challenge. Total proceeds including lots of extra donations came to just short of £700. Matt, James and I were very grateful for the support of our wives, Louise, Diana, Will, Mike, Charlie, Annie, George, Jess, Alison, Lizzie and everyone who came to support us. The Wattbike challenge was won by Mike Miles in 1 minute 11 seconds. The oldest competitor was over 90 and the youngest just 6.

See our H4H page at www.bmycharity.com/teambltlejog

A VERY SMALL WORLD

Just sent an email to lots of friends to tell them about our LEJOG ride and the Help for Heroes fund raising. Got a reply from an old friend from University who says he lives on the route and we will be passing his house on the way to Fort William. Would be great to stop for lunch only he will be riding his BMW GS1200 around Turkey and back so won't be there! A real shame. Perhaps we can meet up on LEJOG 2011 (only joking!).

To anybody in Scotland - what are the chances of no rain for five days in a row from 8 to 12 September?

Must do more training to keep up with James - 17 mph average wow!

Three Weeks To Go

So, with three weeks to go, are we ready? Probably is the best answer.

An Accommodation Dilemma
One development is that a friend, Louise Burnett (Pippa Blake's sister) has very kindly offered to put all of us up at her place near Helensburgh, thus avoiding the need for a B&B in Largs. However - have you seen how much further Helensburgh is? Coupled with the little detail that it's spring tides that day (for the non-sailors, this means the low tide is very low), so the ferry from Gourock to Helensburgh can't dock at Helensburgh, but will only be going to Kilcreggan. Louise assures us that the resulting ride round the peninsular to her place is very pretty, but it's another 12 miles of pretty. Added to with the extra miles to Gourock from Largs, this turns an already long 117 mile day into a super-long 144 miles!

So... can we do these extra miles? Not sure at the moment. If it's a nice day, with a following wind (literally), then it shouldn't be too bad - by that stage in the ride we'll either be dead on our feet or dead fit. But if it's wet, with a northerly wind, and we're already run down? Still considering our options on this one. We've said "Thanks a lot" to Louise, but we need to make a final decision soon!

Training
Training is progressing, I think. I managed to get 100 miles in last weekend (50 miles on each of Saturday and Sunday); I can now do a 50 mile loop over the downs at an average of 17mph. This should put me in reasonable shape for longer disances at a lower pace. Time will tell.

Joe and I were planning to ride this morning but we spent all day yesterday down at the sailing club running a fundraising event (more details to follow), and we're both knackered, so this morning's ride hasn't happened. I might go for a quick circuit but time's ticking. Also, the wind's up and it looks like windsurfing for me this afternoon! Helen claims this is good training but, really, it's not. Good for core stability, leg and arm strength (and kudos and relationship with windsurfing 14 year old son), but not good for endurance riding.

How about Matt? Well, Matt's gone sailing. Pah. No, it's not his fault. The big boat (for big, read 90 feet) for which he's been managing a major refit has to be delivered on its shakedown sail to Portugal, and he's had to go on that little jaunt. So, no cycling for Matt this week - unless he can get up enough distance around the deck?

Food
As departure looms, my thoughts are focussing on some of the details of how we're going to stay well-fed for the duration. Helen's reminded me that when competing in the Polaris endurance events, John Derbyshire and I took some pasta or couscous to have immediately after finishing. Received wisdom is that it's very beneficial to get around 1.2g of carbohydrate per Kg of bodyweight down one's throat in this period. Helpful that Helen's got a degree in nutrition!

Hence I'm planning to take some pre-prepared pasta or couscous to wolf down as soon as we arrive at our destination.

Then there's the matter of which energy bars and how many to take for during the day. Excellent - a great opportunity to scoff bars in the interests of 'research'!