Saturday, September 18, 2010

Day 4 JOGLE Sept 8th Part 2 by paul0010 at Garmin Connect - Details



We woke up this morning to a damp, wet and cold Northumberland. It was a bit of a rush this morning due to the late night we had last night. 2 Panics started in that morning before setting off on the bike.
The first one was needing to dispose the contents of the wonderful food we had last night pretty quickly. The only problem here was that the farm was closed up so no toilets in sight! I remember bringing some toilet roll so headed to the most remote place I could find (even though I had cows watching me!) and did what I needed to do. First time I think I have ever had a dump in a field first thing in a morning and I found it quite liberating!


The second “Panic” was like every morning getting everything ready for the day ahead. I got into a good routine of getting everything ready for the next morning and this morning was the same. I got the bike all ready but was missing my Garmin Computer for the bike. I remembered seeing it on the floor of the tent that morning so was convinced it couldn't’t have gone far. With 5 minutes to go till departure I still couldn't’t find it. I asked Ben if he had seeing and he hadn’t and he hadn’t either. I set off that day feeling like I had been rushed and the signs that my Garmin had been lost where all to visible with the vacant space on the stem.


On the flip side I was so looking forward to this day. Before the JOGLE ride itself I looked forward to this day and the following days the most. I knew there would be a great feeling of doing this JOGLE through your home county of Yorkshire and familiar roads which would give me a good sense of time and mileage in how far we to travel, and I wasn’t wrong.


Northumberland and the Yorkshire Dales where our host for one of the toughest days we had climbing, (even more frustrating that we couldn't’t see this on the Garmin!). Our first stop off would be at a place near Wear dale, a wonderful little village with a fantastic coffee shop making homemade pies, cakes and coffee to fuel and warm us up. To this point we had navigated our way out of Northumberland and Barnard Castle, the A66 and to Wear Dale through some tough little climbs, but nothing that we would experience later on that day.


The stop at Wear Dale allowed me to rest my Achilles but also my right knee that was starting to become really tender. Going uphill be painful and I felt every movement. Downhill was great to stretch it but then trying to get back into a pedaling routine would be agony. On the flats I seemed to be able to get into a manageable routine but this was proving difficult with the vast hills in the distance that seemed to be ever ending as you can see by the pictures below.




The Yorkshire Dales and a very happy me to me the sign.

Our next stop off in 40 miles was a welcome pub lunch of homemade Steak and Ale Pie. I remember this 40 mile stretch really taking its toll on my body. My tendons where tightening, my right knee was getting worse and I was starting with a chesty cough and bringing up lots of mucus.

As soon as I got to the pub, James Dad was there and I think he could see I was in pain. He checked over my Achilles and right knee which I knew about when he touched them! I had it fully supported and felt I was managing it with the pain I had. My big concern was would this worsen? No one knew that. I kept it strapped up, put some ice over it during lunch and focused on the sign in the distance that said 19% hill which was visible from the pub I the distance.
Looking back, it’s amazing how “In Tune” you get with your body. You learn every little part about it, whats going feeling great and not so great. When your body needs fuel, when your ready to step it up, when you need energy,when you fluid. It really is a great feeling understanding and managing your body to get the most out of it in situations such as this where you are pushing harder than normal. I really did feel I was managing this side of it well.
I love this picture for a number of reasons. The satisfaction of me climbing the hill we have just climbed can be seen in my face. (You know its a tough hill when we stop at the top which didn't happen very often). The sweat on my Nike top shows how hard the body has been working. Ian next to me is still getting his breath back. Oh yeah, like the spikey hair? Helmet causes this look!



It felt like all down hill from here to Keighley. At the next stop I knew we where not far away from our stopover place at Keighley Golf Club. People knew i was familiar with this area so i led the way through the busy market town of Skipton and into the G.C.

Here we where met by the site of the 19Th hole and our base. There where two things that stood out when we completed today. The first one was that we where now 50% of the distance completed,a major step in the right direction and we all felt on a massive high, high fiving each other, hugs all around, it really was a great team spirit we where creating. The second one was the time we had arrived into camp. It was about 7:30pm which was great because we didn't feel in a massive rush and we managed a beer in the club house. We held a team talk over a beer and look at the day,what went well, what could have been done better and what we would do differently the next day.

The great people who made this trip happen in the first place, Tom, JB and




Our tents for the night above.

Day 4 completed, what will day 5 hold..............

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