John Grindley thinks training is like fighting with a gorilla...

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 LeJoG Route

Lands’ End to John O’Groats is 603 miles as the crow flies. In a car it could be done in as “little” as 814 miles - but that involves motorways and other roads that cyclists aren’t allowed on. In truth, even if this route was possible, it would be a soulless way to cycle from one end of Britain to the other.
Far better to cycle with style and travel on quiet roads taking in the more scenic parts of the UK. However there comes a point where style has to collide with the practical realities of life (in much the same way that my hairstyle in the 90’s had to go for the sake of gaining meaningful employment) and so we were forced to take account of constraints such as holiday from work and the fact that some scenic places were well off route.
Wikipedia says most cyclists do it in 10 to 14 days and the traditional (not stylish enough) route is 874 miles – we had about 5 days off work to play with so adding in the weekends at either end gave us 9 days.
Trouble was those days also had to cover travel to and from the start so that isn’t 9 days cycling time. We did manage to stumble across a suitably stylish route that is about 980 miles. This was from Deloitte Ride Across Britain – a fully sported event run by a professional company that takes 9 days!


This route has the added bonus of tackling 3 of the iconic climbs from Simon Warren’s book “100 Greatest Cycling Climbs” in Britain. How could we pass at a chance like that?
I guess the organisers of Ride Across Britain opted for a number of days that mean that the serious cyclists who take on this challenge have a decent chance of completing the ride. Our holiday constraint and the maths meant that we had to compromise on the style or knuckle down and get it done in 7 days – just over 20% less time than a professionally supported attempt would give us.
We’re going to have to be seriously fit to get this done in the time we’ve got. Plenty of trining is a must – I’m off for another dose with the words of new Zealand pro racer Greg Henderson ringing in my ears – 
“Training is like fighting with a Gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the Gorilla is tired”https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/andydavidjohnlejog?utm_term=ne3wXp7xv

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