4 days to go - mid week bike upgrade.

So in my Monday update I said I was getting some new bits on the bike so here it what it looks like now.

Whilst it may just look normal a closer look at the front and rear mechs (the bits that do the gear changing) might give you a better clue.

These gears are eTap from SRAM. They are electronic and also wireless so there are no mechanical or electronic cables front the shifters to the front or rear mechs.

Each mech has it's own clip on battery (the black unit on the left of the rear mech) which on a full charge is good for in the region of 1000km of riding. The shifters have a CR2032 button cell in them that should last for around 2 years.

To change gear you simply press the paddle button behind the brake lever.

You press the paddle behind the right hand brake lever to go into a bigger (harder) gear and the paddle behind the left hand brake lever to go into a smaller (easier) gear. Whilst this accounts for changing gear at the back you may be wondering how you change gears at the front - the answer is simply that you press both paddles at once and the system changes to the other front chainring.

SRAM have been really clever in that they haven't used Bluetooth or ANT+ which are the main 'sports' wireless protocols but have developed Airea their very own propriety wireless protocol that uses 128 bit encryption. This means that when you pair the two mechs and the shifters and new encryption code is created as assigned to all the components. You can only ever have one front and one rear mech paired with the shifters at any time so you couldn't mess with your friends bike and control their gears from your bike.

The front and rear mechs contain accelerometers so that the system goes to sleep when not in use. Once the bike has been moved the system wakes up and is ready to go so this extends the battery life.

I've not had much chance to try it out in full anger yet as currently I'm full of cold but an initial ride round the block was without incident and the method of shifting very intuitive.

Finally a big thanks to Vanilla Bikes in Carnforth for sorting eTap out for me.

7 days to go - It's the Final Countdown, as Joey Tempest might say.

Well that's it, no more training to be done now as I need to let my legs recover with a gentle rides and rest days this week ready for the 'Grand Départ' a week today.

On my two big training rides last week I finally seemed to get my pacing right and under control but the down side was having really sore legs. Based on previous experiences I know that my legs will hurt more the day after I've finished so I'm booked in for a massage at THE Medical in Portishead next Thursday and am also going out for a ride on the Friday too. Hopefully that means I'll be okay for the Summerset Festival I'm going to Bristol for (and yes it's meant to be spelt that way).

I also seem to have cracked the hydration well and truly based on the warm rides last week but it is a big effort to keep drinking regularly when you don't feel thirsty but by the time you feel thirsty it's too late. On this ride I'll be drinking bidons of water along with bidons of HIGH5 Energy Source into which I'll also pop a HIGH5 Zero electrolyte tablet to replace the salts and minerals lost by sweating. The energy source will provide me with some of the carbohydrate I'll need for the 6-7 hours I'll be riding each day and the rest will be made up with the odd gel and good old fashioned real food.

The bike is in for a bit of an upgrade this week so the gentle short recover rides will get me used to the changes I've made to it - if I get chance I may post later in the week about the new bits as they're a bit special.

This is the kit I'll be wearing on my ride courtesy of Prendas Ciclismo.

I do admit I thought it had more red on it so the black will be fun in the sun.

So that's me pretty much done apart from packing so my next blog will either be about the whizzo new bits on the bike or will be a report from the end of the first day.

Many thanks to those that have sponsored me so far and thank you to those who do so during next week - the details of how to sponsor me are below. If you see me between Lancaster and the Ring O'Bells in Nailsea give me a shout out.

To sponsor me £5 text FLAB48 £5 to 70070
To sponsor me £10 text FLAB £10 to 70070

Or use my Just Giving site.

14 days to - final week of training.

Well the big event is getting nearer and I'm feeling excited and scared.

Excited because it's been a long time since New Year when I decided to do this on a bit of a whim and it's nearly time to go but scared because I know it's going to hurt and potentially be quite grim.

Organisation wise I'm pretty much there. All the kit I'll be wearing is purchased and laundered and ready to go, all the energy food is boxed ready and the bike is booked in for next week for a service and a little bit of an upgrade. One of the main things I need to do now is program the sat nav in the car with all my rest points which will no doubt be fun.

The main things that are a bit of a concern of things I have no control over so I shouldn't really worry but they are fairly big things. What if it rains? What if it's windy. What if it's really hot?

If it rains it'll be a bit less fun and I'll have to put wet shoes on the next day as my cycling shoes take an age to dry. Wind is a bit more of an issue as if it's a strong head wind progress will be much slower and strong sidewinds can be quite scary on the bike. With regards to heat - the BBC said the weather was going to get very hot towards the end of July (so it'll rain) so I really need to make sure I stay hydrated and try not to over heat which may be easier said than done.

This week is the last week of hard training and will mainly involve local loops with a good portion of climbing and then next week will be a very easy week to give my body time to adapt.

Thank you to all that have sponsored me but to those that haven't please do. You can donate £5 by texting FLAB48 £5 to 70070 or you can donate via Just Giving.

32 day to go - it's not been about the bike.

My training has been going well but last weekend was a weekend off the bike for the best reason - the arrival of my granddaughter Lily-Mae and a weekend down in Oxfordshire.

Needless to say I am totally in love with her and very proud of her parents.

I got back home on Monday night and resumed training with way more inspiration than before.

41 days to go - an unexpected appointment with the scalpel

Well the past week has been a bit of a washout after an unexpected trip to hospital last Monday.

On bank holiday Monday I discovered a lump in my armpit and first thing Tuesday I called the doctors and made an appointment to have it checked out. Needless to say I carried on riding for the week and had a really good week hitting the magic 50 mile ride mark which after three weeks of training I was happy achieve. I woke up last Monday with a very sore and very purple armpit so again spoke to the doctors and arranged an appointment for the Tuesday morning - and that was when the fun began.

The doctor took one look at it and told me I had an infection (what a shock) and that it needed draining but that I was being referred to the hospital straight away and that I needed someone to drive me there and back. After a painful drive to collect my wife to drive me we arrived at the hospital and has a brief waiting. After being called in and having by blood pressure etc. done they told me that I was more than likely going to be admitted which wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear.

When the consultant came round she decided that she would have a go of draining it there and then. After the 'sharp scratch' lie whilst being administered a local anaesthetic she far to enthusiastically giggle with glee as she got a load of infection out before exclaiming 'bloody hell there's a cyst in there - if I give you more local can I have a go at cutting it out?'. By this point I was past caring as it really hurt, standing on a Lego brick pain but in my armpit even with the local. After what seemed like an age she proudly showed my the cyst (thanks for that) and then packed the wound and applied a nice big sticky dressing in my armpit.

It was painful and my wife was a bit shocked when I had the shakes in the waiting room afterwards with the pain but a good dose of codeine sorted that out. On Wednesday morning I had the dressing changed/got waxed and had the wound cleaned and repacked and then it was left until Monday.

Again on Monday the nurse took great joy in the amount of hair she removed and I realised that it wasn't the wound so much that hurt but the constant waxing and pulling of the dressing in my armpit that was sore. The wound isn't packed anymore and I just have to have it covered for work but the plasters just hurt.

Tonight was the first time on the bike and I just decided to thrash it round a local loop to see how my form was and the great news is that I was 6 minutes quicker although I was nearly sick at the effort but happily the dressing hurt less riding than normal day to day stuff.

So hopefully I am back on track now although this weekend will be a bit disrupted as Friday night is my night out as I leave my job and then we're off down to Oxford to meet our new granddaughter.

Onwards and upwards.

55 days to go - The Route

So after a really good 2nd week of training with no fuelling disasters and mainly sunny skies, I've spent a lot of time tweaking the route.

The route through Preston has been changed to avoid the shared use paths (combined pedestrian and cycle paths) as these will slow me down, although I expect I'll be using this kind of path to cross both the River Severn and the River Avon on day 3.

I've also amended the route between Hereford and Nailsea to take in the Wyre Valley. Originally I was avoiding the Wyre Valley and travelling down a bit further west but the roads were single track with grass growing in the middle and the risk of a 'get down' was a bit of a worry. Speaking to a friend who had just ridden to Bristol (on his way to Italy from Liverpool), he recommended the Wyre Valley route as a good way to go.

The only other thing I'm really working on is live tracking for the blog. During the Lands End to John O'Groats and Paris to Blackpool trips I used some software called 'Insta Mapper' which was then retired and then bought by another company with no further development. As technology has moved on the software hasn't been upgraded so this is no longer fit for purpose so I'm looking at other solutions so you can see where I am up to in real time (connectivity depending of course). At the moment it looks like I could be using technology for keeping children and the vulnerable elderly safe to track me.

Anyway here are the routes for the three days - anyone is welcome to join me for part of the route by the way.

Day One - Lancaster to Tarporley

Day Two - Tarporley to Hereford

Day Three - Hereford to Nailsea

63 days to go - the wrong kind of bonk

Image ©Paul Smith

Well that's the first full week back on the bike after the enforced rest due to the knee issues and I'm pleased to report it's been a good productive week - well it was until yesterday (Sunday).

On Tuesday and Thursday I did gentle hour long rides (with a bugger of head wind on Thursday) and had no real issues with the knee. It still felt a bit painful pedalling standing up so the solution to that is not to pedal standing up for now.

Saturday mornings ride was literally the first 25 miles of my trip from home to just north of Preston. It was pretty uneventful if I'm honest apart from nearly getting flattened by a reversing farmer on a quad bike and the stench of cow poo on the A6 by Garstang (not pleasant when you're inhaling great lungfuls of air). My hydration for the ride was fine and I didn't take any food as it was only about 1 hour 40 minutes of riding and all went to plan although my legs did feel it but I love that feeling of aching legs. Having returned home I had some late lunch and settled down watching the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) even resisting the lure of a glass of wine.

After the success of Saturday I decided I'd ride the second 25 miles of my trip from Preston to Wigan on Sunday. There was a couple of reasons for this. Firstly I'd not ridden on consecutive days for a fair while and secondly I wasn't entirely convinced by the routing through Preston as it had me going through Avenham Park. All went well (apart from having tired legs) until I hit Avenham Park and there was some kind of 10km run on along with the usual dogs on long leads, kids running about and people oblivious to their surroundings. I know mixed use paths are great and have their place but I generally try to avoid them as you just can't keep a rhythm when riding on them so Avenham Park and the disused tramway on the other side of the River Ribble just helped me bleed time and pace.

Then I bonked. I didn't jump in the bushes with anyone for a bit of adult fun but ran out of glycogen. Basically your body stores carbohydrate in the body in the form of glycogen and when that runs out you bonk - anything sugary normally helps you out but as I was only out for and hour and half (or so I thought) I didn't have any energy drinks (only electrolyte drinks), food or money with me, a real beginners mistake from someone who should know better. In my defence I have been eating a carb depleted diet since October so I suspect my glycogen stores aren't in the best shape - isn't hindsight wonderful? So there I am sat slightly north of Leyland feeling frankly shite and totally empty and thinking about tossing my stupid f**king bike over the hedge and sitting down and crying. Eventually after giving myself a good talking too and growing a pair of balls I thought I'm going to take this a mile at a time and cracked on towards Wigan where I was being collected. A mile is long way when you are empty, have a head ache and feel nauseous and have another 13 miles to ride. Every time the road rises you feel like you are riding up an Alp (I've done that so I know) and sods law dictates the gentle headwind has increased in strength. You feel like you are pedalling squares rather than nice circles and you start running out of gears on the flat and it feels like someone is holding a lighter under each hamstring. It got to the point where I was struggling to concentrate and parked cars were jumping out at me which is probably the scariest part.

Eventually I arrived at the prearranged meeting point and a can of Coke, Subway footlong and three cookies later I felt a bit human again. I'd averaged a paltry 13 mph average speed and taken two hours to do what should have taken me an hour fifteen but had learned a valuable lesson - albeit one that I really didn't need teaching and that I need to tweak my route a bit.

The plan for this week is 1.5 hour rides on Tuesday and Thursday with one session being hill repeats and then 2.5 to 3 hour rides with good fuelling on Saturday and Sunday.

As a final twist of irony below is a photo of a delivery I got on Thursday - idiot.