Day 14 morning was very different to the others, Dad was up before the alarms went off, he walked Bonnie and had the kettle on before the alarms woke Ed, Ant and I. We got through the morning routine quite quickly and made our way to the start. At the start line we were quick off the mark, dad has had my wheelchair in bit dozens of times so he was quick to get it set up and ready to go. Ant packed a rucksack with the Myprotein products to keep me fuelled up during the day. I left the motorhome to see my dad in kit ready to ride. I wasn't comfortable with him riding with his back in the state it was. I didn't want him to be in pain, if he couldn't carry on we'd be a man down for the rest of the journey. I told him I wasn't happy with him pushing himself and damaging his back even more. I also told him if his back went we wouldn't have time to take him to hospital so he'd need to pay for his own taxi. We'd pick him up on the way back from John O'Groats. A bit of tough love. He was still adamant he was joining in.
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| My new cyclist Ant |
Ant was looking very nervous, he isn't sporty at all so I guess he had no idea what to expect from the day. He was going to take Nick's roll of filming me from behind to prove I wasn't getting any help. Elouise had lent him her bike, whilst adjusting the seat dad broke a flimsy little clip. We did replace it when we got home but with nothing on us that could replace or repair it we had to use lots of gaffer tape to hold the seat up. It didn't add much time to the morning routine, we started fairly early. The morning push was really tough. I climbed for over 18 miles, it was so much harder than Shap. I had a nasty headwind so I was forced to try and keep my head as low as possible to make me more aerodynamic. The horrible Scottish tarmac was shaking me all over and making my back hurt as I fought to keep my chair in a straight line.
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| The road looks smooth but it wasn't! |
I found the morning push really hard, I was missing Nick, dad and Ant were very quiet. With them having to cycle behind me I couldn't see them, after such a lively day on day 13 this was a bit of a comedown. The hill that I was on was a long dragging one but as soon as I saw mountains in the distance I was pretty sure we were heading straight at them! They looked stunning but I didn't want to have a closer look.
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| Heading for the hills! |
The Scottish tarmac, the hill and the headwind were killing my speed, my average speed was way down on day 13 and the same conditions were robbing me of a break from pushing on the downhills and flats. It turned one down hill what would have been 35mph without pushing into a crappy headwind in to a 20mph downhill where I was needing to push to keep the chair moving. I even got out of the chair at one point to check if my wheels were rubbing on the side of the chair or maybe my wheel bearings had gone, I thought there must have been a reason other than the hill, the tarmac and the wind that was making me so slow. The chair was fine so I just had to get on with the push and grind out what mileage I could that morning. I managed 23.07 before boredom and the conditions finished me off.. We stopped for lunch in another layby, whilst Dad and Ant sorted out the bikes and chair, Ed asked how the morning had been with the new cyclists. I was really honest and said that for large parts of the push it felt like I was on my own, with them being behind me I couldn't see them and as they weren't talking I couldn't hear them. I had really missed Nick wittering on like he'd lost his marbles and the way he would take the piss out of me whilst trying to motivate me on the steeper hills. Ed said he'd have a word with them, I told him to do it gently as I didn't want to sound ungrateful for the help. I just needed to hear that there were people with me.
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| The grey shows the morning hill, the blue line represents my speed |
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| Knackered and bored after the morning push. |
Day 14 Morning Stats
Miles: 23.07
Time: 2:43:26
Average Moving Speed: 8.5mph (slowest for a while)
Top Speed: 20.0mph (slowest of the trip)
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 17 - 12:31
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 7 - 5:15
Total Ascent: 1033ft
Average Heart Rate: 138bmp
Max Heart Rate: 157bpm
Day 14 Morning Progress Maps
Day 14 Afternoon
After lunch I again tried to get dad to stay in the motorhome but he wasn't having any of it. During the afternoon push we reached the mountains I'd been looking at all morning. The route through them wasn't flat at all but it was better than I had been expecting. We met the River Clyde and followed its path through the hills. Even on a grey day when I was missing my best pal and the gaggle of cyclists I'd had the previous day the area was beautiful all be it in a rugged way.
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| Heading north. |
Dad and Ant did a little bit better at keeping talking to me and getting me motivated on all the hills. We had a conversation about the place names we were passing and how they sounded like something from Lord Of The Rings or Game Of Thrones. We passed by Elvanfoot, Quothquan, Biggar Bridge, Eastshield, Ravenstruther and Crookedboat. Each time we passed a road sign we were looking for the oddest place name and having a giggle, I was trying to imagine what Nick would make of the place names. Probably something like 'someone was taking the piss when they made up these names'!
The hills and mountains seemed to be sheltering me from the worst of the wind that had made the morning so difficult, I did keep getting the odd gust which meant my lower back having to work quite hard to keep the chair straight. I managed to grind out almost 24 miles which was the first time my afternoon push was further than my morning push.
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| A bit of sun. |
We then made our way to Helen and Ru's house, we'd been offered home cooked food, a bath and a bed for the night. Helen was my boss's sister in law but I had never met her or even spoken to her but I knew she would be lovely as Liz, my boss's with and the whole family that I had met so far were really kind and caring people. The house was maybe a 5 mile drive from where we had finished I made sure dad knew not to talk politics or anything else he could start an argument over, he promised to behave. When we got to the house Ed went and knocked on the door to ask where to park and Helen said to bring the motorhome on to the driveway. The gate was pretty narrow for such a large motorhome, I was worried Ed was going to hit a gatepost, What a great start that would have been! He managed to get the motorhome on the drive without any damage, I should have more faith!
Inside Helen got the solid fuel fire roaring and brought a tea tray through for us, I was in my element! A brew and a fire in a lovely house! Helen had organised for her sister in law also called Helen to come and give me a massage. It wasn't long before massage Helen had arrived, she set up her massage table and began working on my back, we spoke about the challenge and how I'd only had one massage up until this point, one massage in over 500 miles! I was so glad to be getting a second massage done, especially with my lower back having to do so much work in the wind that day. We spoke about our experiences of working in massage and running our own little businesses. Helen's company Massage Therapy By Helen was quite similar to my own. Whilst 'massage' Helen was working on all of my niggles 'home owner' Helen was in the kitchen cooking our dinner. What total luxury this was! I'd got used to making do in the motorhome not being pampered! After the massage I even had time for a long hot soak in the bath before dinner was served.
For dinner we had homemade cottage pie and home grown veg including chard which I love. For pudding we had home grown and homemade rhubarb pie, my favourite, rhubarb is the greatest. I loved chatting with Helen and Ru, we spoke about all sorts of things. They had even had a look at my route onwards and thought I was going to find a gorge the next day difficult and said that I should head for a bridge instead. As local knowledge had served me so well up until now we decided to take their advice, out came the map! We spoke about classic and vintage cars, Helen and Ru had one and my dad used to drive classics. We spoke about gardening and growing your own, travelling, work, global warming - all sorts of things! We got on the subject of the broken clip on the bike Elouise had lent to Ant; Ru thought he might have something in the garage that might fit so him and dad went to look at the car and find a jubilee clip in the garage. Ru didn't have a spare jubilee clip that would fit but remembered there was one on the car that would do the job. He took it off the car and put it on the bike. These people had let us into their home, made us brews, got me a massage, let me have a soak in their bath, fed us and now taken parts off their beloved old car to give to me! Hearts of gold!
As the company was so good and the conversation flowing I think this was probably the night I was up the latest on the whole trip but I did have a big cosy bed to sleep in! Dad took the other spare bed and Ed and Ant stayed in the motorhome with Bonnie. Helen even volunteered to get up early in the morning to make us breakfast. What an absolute star!
Day 14 Afternoon Stats
Miles: 23.82
Time: 2:23:17
Average Moving Speed: 10.0mph
Top Speed: 24.4mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 23 - 8:22
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 5 - 4:09
Total Ascent: 1100ft
Average Heart Rate: 139bpm
Max Heart Rate: 161bpm
Day 14 Afternoon Progress Maps
Total Daily Mileage: 46.89
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