Training

As part of the training for the tour I'll need to get as many big trips done as possible. Part of this will include entering a few Sportives in and around the Highlands this year.

For starters I'll be entering the Etpe Caledonia on 17th May 2009. This is a traffic free event and I'm really looking forward to it.

Then there's the Skye Sportive on 30th May 2009.

Cairngorm Mountain Sportive - 13th June 2009

Ullapool Sportive - 26th September 2009.

I've had a long think about things and much as I'd love to time the tour with the Homecoming Scotland celebrations, time constraints are going to make it unlikely. My wife is still at University and trying to cram in a 3 - 4 week trip on top of juggling childcare and dubious finances is probably going to prove to be too difficult to manage. So the new date will be set for spring 2010. This will give me a chance to properly train and organise sponsorship.

The Route Pt 2

Google doesn't seem to be able to cope with the map that I've made and it has split that map into two parts which is a bit of a pain in the arse! I'm on the lookout for some decent (hopefully cheap) mapping software, so if anybody knows of any, let me know.


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Training.....

20 miles on the bike on Boxing Day started things off. The gears on my currrent bike are shockingly badly indexed and I really need to get that sorted asap, it made the trip a bit more harsh than it needed to be. The route took me from Inverness past Culloden battlefield and the Viaduct. It's 10 miles of almost continous uphill and hard graft, fortunately the wind was behind me most of the way up which helped.....


....However the wind going against me on the way back made life difficult and I ended up pedalling most of the way when I had hoped for an easy cruise back down to Inverness! Oh well, it's not training if it doesn't hurt!

The Complete Route!

Total Mileage: 1535
Total Days Cycling: 19 days (Plus a minimum of 3 rest days)


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Welcome to Cycle Around Scotland!

The plan:

Starting from Inverness in the Scottish Highlands I intend to head East and clockwise round the Scottish coast with the intention of finishing up back in Inverness approximately 3 weeks later. The route will as near as practical stick to the Scottish coast and at my last estimate will total about 1600 miles!

It's currently in the early stages of planning but I've pencilled in Summer 2009 as the time to do this coinciding with the Homecoming Scotland celebrations.

Why?

Partly to raise money for charity, partly for a holiday with a difference and partly to see if I can rise to the challenge. It's going to be gruelling, it'll hurt and the Scottish Weather will no doubt do its utmost to make life very difficult.

In the post below you'll see the planned route. It's still in the early stages of planning and still needs to be completed. A certain amount of fiddling with the route will still to be done depending on where we stay for the night and whether we can get any accomodation.


EDIT: Cycle Round Scotland or Cycle Around Scotland? I think the latter sounds better and grammatically more accurate.

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The Route so far

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