Day 11: Take me off my bike

So that's it, I haven't anything monumental to say before signing off so hope you've enjoyed reading, genuinely thanks again for all your support and see you all soon.

11 days 909 miles

Wingman, cameraman, riding buddy and generally listening to my moaning all day man...

Day 10 was a 93 miler up the A9 and A99 to Wick.

17 miles to the top

Day 9 was tough, not even Nessie came out to wave.

Passing Loch Ness on the A82 to Inverness

On the edge of Loch Ness stands the impressive Urquhart Castle

The B&B last night only accepted cash payment and I didn't have enough on me. "Don't worry", said the B&B lady, "there's a Tesco cash point just over the bridge"...

This the Cromarty Bridge north of Inverness

You know those National Cycle route signs, I found no 1 somewhere near the Moray Forth

Day 10: One of the things I've thought about on each day's stages is food. I'm pretty rubbish at eating the right food before playing sport, I'm normally in the Usain Bolt camp of pre-match meal (he famously admitted eating chicken nuggets before winning Olympic gold) and would rather have a mars bar instead of a protein shake Davina Mccall might drink. Then again I haven't seen the Swedish womens handball team anywhere soon so maybe the chicken nugget routine isn't all it's cracked up to be. Suffice to say I had a mars bar for lunch today.

Day 9: Tough day today, very windy, very hilly, very long 83 miles to Inverness.

I notice everyone's back at work today, blog page views have rocketed!!
Don't worry I won't tell Vince...

I think only about 120 miles to go :)

Today was also a sad day as I bid farewell to my shorts in an attempt to lose some more weight. We always knew this was the end of the line for them but nevertheless I was still disappointed for them as I know how much they wanted to get to the top.

                    

Day 8: Which is quicker, car or bike? 

Today's Top Gear Bank Holiday special was for my best mate Owen (who drove up from Peterboro to Loch Lomond to wish me well, two days after flying back from Sydney) to drive the 86 miles to Fort William while I cycled. Surprisingly Owen won by 7 light years (I still bought him a cup of tea)

You know I talked about Everest the other day? I'm now above it.

On the A82 to Fort William

Glen Coe provides a stunning backdrop

It's not just the courtship that's confusing....Gretna Green's 'Courtship Maze'

The tickly south-westerlies that have been pushing me up the country so far have given way to the tricky north-easterlies blowing me right up the trossachs

Navigation has been a combination of Garmin and as seen here a torn out page from the AA road atlas (2010 edition)

Thanks for all your comments and messages so far. Keep them coming its really keeping me going and in response to some of the questions people have asked:
-Sore but I prefer standing up anyway
-Thurs 24th is the planned finish time
-Matt I'm not answering that cheeky boy
-Only fallen off once so far but I'm not going to admit that
-No nothing special, just normal gaffer tape (£1.99 from B&Q I think)
-Not the toughest thing no, that comes in May when I spend 10 days in Zambia with Susan. Susan I love you!!! (and I hope you've left a Freddy Frog for me in the tuck shop...?)

It's now less than 4 weeks before 20 of us from BGL set off for Zambia.

If I've inspired you to get on your bike why not join Build It's Nightrider team and cycle 100km past London's iconic landmarks at night.
There's a registration fee of £39 per place and you'll need to raise £500 sponsorship to take part.
More details at: http://www.nightrider.org.uk

Day 7: Just the one minor breakage today when trying to fathom out the coffee percolator at breakfast. I didn't break the percolator itself but while pushing the top down it slipped knocking over the salt pot and it was in my rush to grab that I managed to knock the sugar bowl on the floor shattering it to pieces. Not sure if I was more worried about the broken bowl or sugar all over the floor.
They were still clearing it up when I bid a hasty farewell half hour later.

WARNING: SCENIC HOLIDAY PHOTOS ALERT!!!

Top of Shap Fell looking back towards Kendal

Hills over Haweswater in the background (look carefully and you can see snow on top)

A long long way along a long long road, the A6 to Carlisle

A fitting destination at the end of a long long day, Longtown, 10 miles north of Carlisle

Today was tough but rewarding as Andrew J had told me...

Full route from Preston to Carlisle

Profile of today's stage. The big hill (Shap Fell) not only looks like Everest but felt like it

Keeping to my average 12mph

(I couldn't go on any longer without showing you a graph could I?)

Day 6: Now I'm not a man obsessed with roads and I'm not one of those blokes that turns up at BBQ's or weddings discussing the merits of the A442 versus the B917 or whether the A485 is quicker to get to Bobsville than the B265 but clearly this trip needed some planning and deciding which route to take and which roads to use has been quite educational.
You might know the A1 between London and Edinburgh is Britain's longest road at just over 400 miles but did you know the A15 that runs from Peterborough to Kingston upon Hull provides the straightest stretch of road in the UK (between Scampton and the M180)? Or that the shortest road in the world is Elgin Street in Bacup, Lancs at 17 feet long? Or that in a 2006 survey Britain's 'bendiest' road was proved to be the A3081 between Cann Common and Tollard Royal in Dorset/Wiltshire?
However the A6 from Preston to Carlisle certainly felt like the longest road in the world today to which my backside will testify. It also appears to have more potholes than the moon and more swearing drivers per mile than the average.
Like I say I'm not obsessed with roads...

You know what it's like when you ask someone a question. Next minute they've put up a road sign to answer it.

I thought I'd left Wales behind?

Briefly entering again on way to Preston

Michael, Gemma, Cat - do you remember this road sign? Admittedly it wasn't 5am and pitch black but I managed to find Oulton Park without looking!!!!

Day 5: I was joined unexpectedly today by about 100 fellow cyclists on the way to Preston. However they all very quickly disappeared into the distance and I was left on my own. 50 miles up the road someone tried to hand me a medal for completing round 3 of the Tarporley Cycling Time Trial I'd apparently just finished last in. I turned their offer down on account of snorting a Vicks inhaler earlier which would obviously have disqualified me. I thanked the confused marshal anyway who was still running alongside trying to pin the medal on me as I sped off after pinching a 'finishers' bottle of water.

On the way to Shrewsbury, right for a history lesson in Hereford Cathedral or left to carry on...?

Cycling with Andrew to the Build It International office in Shrewsbury

Just before my bike was eaten by a Stegasaurus, Shrewsbury's very own slinky

The A team

Alison, Lucy, Adam and Andrew at the Build It office. Andrew Jowett CEO at Build It joined me for a 2hr bike ride on the way to the office.

Great surprise when my bro Tim turned up on the way from Shrewsbury to Ellesmere to wish me well...

Day 4: Feeling a bit better today after a good night's sleep although have developed an annoying sniffle and sore throat but a quick stop at Boots in Monmouth and I now have more drugs on board than a 7 times Tour de France winner (I'd normally have said 'allegedly' at that point but I think David Walsh was the first journalist by a long long way to prove I don't need to).
Anyway libels apart I'm off once again.
Next stop Build It International office in Shrewsbury...

Next time it rains I'm taking my boys to the butcher. (On the A370 to Bristol)

Things to do in Avonmouth. Yes this man really was taking photos of lorries. I stayed a safe distance in case he engaged in conversation.

View of the Second Severn Bridge, not to be confused with the Severn Bridge into Wales...

I'm going in...

Last view of England for a couple of days (and indeed Internet connection)

Day 3: it's hard to imagine that most of the 200 or so miles I've ridden so far were submerged under water not two months ago due to the worst flooding the south-west has witnessed. In fact the rail line at Dawlish only opened a week before my trip after the storms battered and broke it. I'd been keeping a daily check on the repair works to make it was going to be ready in time for my trip. Amazingly after 8 weeks of painstaking work, both day and night, the line re-opened on Fri 4th Apr, 10 days before my trip.
Unfortunately I was still asleep in my cabin when the train passed Dawlish on the way down so I missed it...

Aha! I now have Internet connection after a couple of days without. Apologies for that, O2 not great in Wales. I'll try and recap the last couple of days so just imagine you're watching ITV+1 +1 +1 +1...

Day 2 and the gaffa tape was called into action for the first time, not for my mouth but for an annoying click that's developed on one of my pedals. Of all the tools I've brought with me, ok a hammer, gaffa tape seems to have done the trick.
You'll also be pleased and amazed to hear my chain hasn't come off again since the first 10mins of leaving my house.
Continuing my success of nearly breaking things I nearly broke the bathroom door to the B&B I was staying at last night. It was one of those concertina doors which I'm sure is simple for the experienced concertina door user but being a novice and in my eagerness to get to breakfast I nearly wrenched it off its hinges. It was one of those concertina doors you have to pull ever so slightly to open, not push with all your weight.
I took a photo of it in case I come up against this version again.

Destination Wales today which promises quieter roads than I've been using so far.
For the statto's out there, just over 200 miles covered so far in about 18hrs which I think is around 12mph...

As if I needed any inspiration a photo of Sir Bradley Wiggins after his 9th place in the Paris-Roubaix race yesterday.
Hopefully I won't look that bad after finishing LEJOG...

Get set go!

I arrived at Lands End in good time and eager to start. And that's where it suddenly dawned on me the hours of training, those long days in the saddle, the early starts, all those painful hours in the gym, all these things I should've done instead of loafing around wondering what colour tops to take.

Lejogers, Joglers, End to Enders, many thousands of people have cycled this historic and famous route. At a guess most of these I assume knew what they were doing which is why I think I'm getting more odd looks than most as a result of looking the least likely bloke to ride 50 miles let alone 950.

On yer marks...

Getting to the start proved tricky on several counts. I'm generally a pretty positive person but the start did make me wonder.
I'd planned to cycle from home to Huntingdon station for the train to London KX then the overnight train from Paddington to Penzance before cycling the 10 or so miles to Lands End to the start.
The 6.6 miles to get from home to Huntingdon station went something like this...
Leaving home and biking 5 mins down the road I realized I'd forgot my sunglasses so had to go back get them. Garmin told me it was a mile but I think it was slightly less and another 10 mins down the road when my chain came off. While fixing that I dropped my helmet in the road causing a driver to swerve to avoid it. A mile short of the station chain came off a second time. Despite this I was still early for the train which leads me to the most unfortunate part of getting to the start - waiting at Huntingdon station for 30 mins. It has to be one of the places not worth going to unless you're travelling through it, preferably in a train and preferably very fast.
That said the overnight Riviera train was fab & 9hrs after leaving Paddington I was woken up by the waitress with a bacon roll & coffee and we were in Penzance. Time to go...

Send off

BGL Group HR Director Catherine Lynch with a great send off for me ahead of my trip.

Welcome to Jono's LEJOG Blog!

Welcome to my blog!

I'm planning to cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats as part of my fund-raising activities for Zambia.

Build It International, my work's charity partner, is currently funding the building of a new school in Kabaka, Zambia.
In May 2014 myself and 19 colleagues are taking part in a 10 day trip to experience life in a rural Zambian village and witness the impact this project is having on the community.

For more information or to donate please visit my Just Giving page:

www.justgiving.com/jons-zambia-challenge/

Below is the planned route for my bike trip. Hopefully I'll be posting to this blog along the way so keep an eye out from when I get started on Monday 14th April...