C2C

2 months cycling later, I'm in shape, aerobically fit and ready for my trip! What trip? Surely I've blogged about it at great length.. *reads recent blogs* Erm.... Appears that I haven't actually.

Well then, starting next Wednesday I'll be cycling across England with my brother and Dad with Mum providing travel support and hooking up with us in the evenings for beverages, tasty dinners, some World Cup action and more tasty beverages.

The Route itself is called the C2C aka "Sea to Sea" and runs from West to East across the North of England. I could write a lengthy description of it here, but other people have already made a nice website about the whole thing.

I've been cycling to work for a while now, which at 10m trip 20m total for the day is a nice stretch for the legs, just the right amount to deal with each day and yet still get a workout in with the HR somewhere in the 140 range. Although, truth be told, after cycling from Beijing to England, my brother is going to laugh at my baby steps rides. My Dad is no slouch either. That's ok, I'll take his head off when we get offroad ;-)

The route is made up of approximately
4% Main Roads - mainly short sections thru urban areas
50% Minor Roads - quiet, country roads
46% Cyclepaths/Off Road - disused railway lines etc

The route is best ridden from West to East to take advantage of the prevailing winds (supposedly!) from the West as well as having the gradients in your favour i.e. short uphills and long downhills!

Anyone want to bet we have a head wind the entire way? There's also some fairly meaty hills 6miles in length. Now that's a fucking hill. OK, so it's a mountain range. The Penine's, to be precise.

Should be a good Clan Smythe trip. I'll be back somewhere around July 13th with photos and tales of daring from the mountains.