The 'we should know better trip' Day 1. 48.4km

Day 1 and we're currently sat waiting for the ferry! We made it across London without any problems and despite Greater Anglia's best efforts to the contrary, managed to get the bikes on train, get a seat and relax.

Once we got to Colchester, we managed to haul the bikes out of the very front of the train and get them down a lift and back up the stairs, and finally hit the road again.

A lovely countryside cycle (well once out of Colchester) was ruined only by the lack of open countryside pubs. Do they not have alcoholics in the countryside? We plodded on regardless and ended up in a cheap chain pub which has done the job.

Now I'm stood looking at a ferry I can't board for another 30 mins but hey ho, inside I have a bed, maybe a pint and I get to get out of the cycling underwear that I've had on for quite a while. It's like a nappy.... Now I know how my kids feel!

Nearly ready, nearly packed & nearly fit enough!

Tomorrow, the final packing will be completed and the only thing left for me to do will be to get on my bike and pedal!

This is gonna be awesome. A reminder of what myself and eatingtrees have planned for our 2 beautiful singlespeeds is as follows:

Tues: Get the train to Colchester in Essex early afternoon for a 30km cycle to Harwich to catch the night ferry to Hook of Holland.

Wed: Approx 95km ride to the Netherlands/Belgium border where a lovely B&B awaits.

Thurs: Around 80km ride following the Albert Canal to an apartment in the middle of nowhere with the only thing close by, being a bar. Liquid dinner then!

Fri: The final long ride will be approx 105km all the way to a place near Vise in Belgium. This is our base for 2 nights.

Sat: Nothing, a quiet day resting the legs before Sunday.

Sun: Take part in the Maas Half Marathon on very heavy legs before getting back on the bike and cycling another 20km back to Liege before getting on the Eurostar from Brussels and *hopefully* getting home at a reasonable hour in Sunday night.

See simple. As long as we don't get lost, crash, have a mechanical breakdown we can't fix, find our places to stay, get injured, find enough to eat, are able to run 21.1km, not miss our train, get the bikes on the train and South West trains still run on Sunday night without engineering works to allow me to make it home. What could possibly go wrong?

Walking and wheeling

With 8 days remaining until myself and eatingtrees get on our singlespeeds and head for The Netherlands and Belgium, the weekend before last, I needed to check I had the ability to cycle 2 consecutive days before I attempted to do it for 4 and run a half marathon at the end of it.

With the in-laws kindly putting me up for the night, I abandoned my parenting duties and hit the road fully laden with everything I'll be taking with me. I've done the route south to Worthing a few times now so I pretty much knew when it was going to hurt and when I could relax so with the weather a wonderful 20 degrees, I made it in a good time despite a detour due to a road closure and feeling pretty damn good. 80km done.

The return journey started around 8:45am after a mountain of breakfast but as I'd decided to go in a completely new direction I'd never done even in a car, let alone on a bike, I was thankful for the GPS showing me the way. That was until after speeding along and making great time, I accidentally hit the North Downs. I say hit because that's how it felt. I just stopped. Going up an 18% gradient on a single speed fully loaded with panniers, saddle bags and a fat bloke ain't gonna happen. I got off top walk and was suddenly joined by many a Lycra clad roadie as a found myself slap bang in the middle of a cycling event. I enjoyed a certain smugness that at least it wasn't only me walking...

Anyway, after that little power walking exercise, I made it home again feeling pretty damn good albeit very hungry! 75km done.

The running training for the half marathon I've abandoned in the knowledge that anything I do is more likely to make my foot worse, not better so I'll just wing it and hope for the best. I certainly won't be setting any records but after all the cycling, that was never likely anyway. Completion is everything!

This weekend was spent getting attacked in Zagreb for Mrs HMC's early birthday trip. I say attacked but I do mean by tree pollen. Being a hay fever sufferer got me worse than it ever has before and it was really tough to get any sleep but, and here's the thing, it was totally worth it. 3 nights spent in Zagreb looking around and seeing the place was great but my absolute highlight was walking up Medvednica Mountain. Just the hiking trail was 4.5km at a 14% gradient so up and down that plus a couple of km either end getting there and back meant we did a 12ish km walk to pretty much the summit through the conservation area of forest. It was awesome... Even if it did mean that we could barely walk the next day. It's the downhills that seemed to cause the most problems with ankles and calf muscles but come next week, I'll be hoping for every downhill I can find.

Telling Tonsillitis to toddle off!

That was bloody horrible! I had no idea how much it makes you ache and how much it hurt. I am a big girls blouse but hardly being able to swallow is a particular worry for me considering my wine and biscuit addictions (I should point out, not together). I was in danger of withering away to nothing. Or at the very least losing my 4th spare tyre!

I spoke to the docs and was advised not to run and expect to get very tired if I got on the bike. Not ideal when training to cycling across Belgium and a little bit of the Netherlands in order to run the Maas Half! Bugger!

On Monday I took to the bike for my commute and although the 'to work' was good, the 'from work' hurt a little more than it probably should. This morning, I ran some of the way into work and a steady 8 and a bit km was done in around 44mins. It didn't hurt too much so I'm either improving or not trying hard enough. Probably both.

None of those things will quite prepare me for this weekends excursions though. Cycling 75km down to the coast where the in-laws are very kindly putting me up before I jump on the bike again on Sunday morning to cycle home again. That's gonna be sore. There are hills and everything. And the bike will be fully loaded as if it were the trip to Belgium in order to make sure I have everything!!

I have pre-warned Mrs HMC that I'll probably be in a foul mood by the time I return and may need excessive amounts of doughnuts and beer to see me through the afternoon. I expect her response will be something along the lines of  'I've been looking after our children while you've been lazing around on your bike. Get over yourself and help me out!' To be honest, I don't deserve anything more.

Me =

Have : Tonsillitis
Training : None
Mood : Miserable
Fitness : Crap
Dream : To run or ride
Ability : Sit on arse in pain
Half Marathon : 5 weeks
Cycle Benelux : 4 weeks, 2 days
Excitement : HUGE apart from
Have : Tonsillitis

arse....