Wind

I've never really attempted any blogging before but have decided to take the plunge. The main reason for this is so it can act as a nice memoir to my forthcoming John O'Groats to Land's End attempt, while keeping friends and family up-to-date with progress.

For those of you who don't know, myself and two friends, Gareth and Jonny, have decided to attempt to cycle from John O'Groats to Land's End. The three of us met while studying Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. Since graduating in 2009 Jonny has been working in Bristol, Gareth has been studying/working in the Bedford area and I've been working in Norwich.

It kind of goes with the territory of being 'ENVers' but we've always been the outdoors type, travelling (sometimes together), participating in triathlons, running half-marathons and hiking - to name but a few.

So why are we attempting this? This is one question I have difficulty answering. In my head I always think of the famous George Mallory quote 'because it's there'. And without wanting to sound pretentious this really does sum it up quite nicely. It's just a challenge, an experience and hopefully (ultimately) good fun. I know it's going to be painful, sometimes miserable and use up two weeks of annual leave, but there is no substitute for that feeling of absolute elation when you finish something like this. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, IF we finish!

While it's something we've mentioned between us before, we hastily decided to jump in and have a go at it a couple of months back. While I won't bore you with the details we quickly realised that a lot of organisation was required before heading off - booking trains, planning routes, finding places to stay/camp etc. In my case I needed to start by buying a suitable bike...there was little chance that my piece of rust with two wheels attached to it was going to make the grade.

While I still need to buy more bits and bobs, the most pressing concern has been putting in the miles to get myself in the best shape possible. I think I'm aided by a decent underlying level of fitness, but I soon discovered that shift-work isn't too conducive towards extensive training. After a 3am alarm call and an 11 hour shift the sofa is far more appealing than a couple of hours on the bike. Basically this means I have to make the most of my days off. While this sounds like a great opportunity to get in some miles, it invariably means that most of my life at present is spent at work or cycling!

So today and tomorrow are days off and I'm currently on a train home from visiting my girlfriend in London. As soon as I get home I plan to get in a 4-5 hour bike ride, followed by something of a similar length tomorrow. Today is one of my first real tests because there is a fresh southwesterly wind. Wind is by far the biggest annoyance on the bicycle and despite thinking of cunning ways to avoid it I've decided its probably best to tackle it head on, quite literally. After all I can't really expect to avoid a head wind for two whole weeks across Britain!

It's probably best to sign out now as I'm sure this became unreadable after a couple of lines. Before I leave, we have also decided to raise money for Macmillan. I'm sure you're all aware of the work they do and any support would be gratefully received. To give please visit our Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/GarethJonnyJoe

Thanks for reading!