This is insane

Saw this in my local bike shop www.raceforchase.co.uk. Lands End to John O Groats in 5 days - that's bonkers. I did it in 20 days which is quite leisurely, but still very tiring, average mileage 50 miles a day. OK on the flat, fatiguing over hills. I reckon taking it seriously and with heavy training I could do it in 8 to 10 days, so double the daily distance, say average 100 miles a day - I can do a one-off day of 130 miles now relatively easily but am shagged for a few days afterwards, can't face going near a bike let alone doing another 100 miles the next day, and the next...

BUT THIS IS DOUBLE AGAIN! Average mileage 180 miles a day, 5 days in a row - and the first day does Cornwall, Devon, Somerset - and they ain't flat, nor is Scotland. The training schedule they put together covers 5,000 miles between Jan and June. I think I've been training pretty heavily for the E'tape, I've covered a mere 1,000 miles so far this year. NUT NUTS NUTS.

Did a really nice ride last weekend, 200k around Suffolk and Essex - this time for the first time ever I managed to hang on to the shirt tails of the front running club riders as they set off in their normal pack and amazingly 199k later I was still there with them, they were averaging 17 to 18 mph which is a lot faster than I normally ride so I was really pleased to have kept with them all day. Every hill they came to they kicked up the hill leaving me & several others plodding along behind - and a few times I thought that would be the last I saw of them - but they were a very nice bunch of guys who then slowed the pace down once over the hill and let everyone regroup into a pack again. So really happy at the end having flown around at an average speed of 17mph - if I can do that in the E'tape I'll be easily home & dry. Funny moment at the end was when I was still sitting on the back of the pack (of about 20 others) and the front 18 or so took a wrong turning, all of a sudden leaving me pretty much on my own, just a few hundred yards from the end - so I finished the ride in third place, out of a start of about 100 or so. A pyrrhic victory maybe but funny nonetheless.

Off to the Cotswold's this Saturday for 160k over some bumpy countryside. hm.