Lands End to John O'Groats, Day 19 - A Big Fat Black One.

Day 19 Morning

After 61 miles you would have thought I would sleep like a baby. I very nearly did sleep like an actual baby, waking up every few hours balling my eyes out! I didn't cry but bloody hell my ribs were letting me know that 61 miles wasn't their favourite thing to do. My legs were protesting too. I still have almost normal feeling and some use of my legs which puts me at a disadvantage in wheelchair athletics. My legs weigh more than other athlete's legs and they hurt after a while in the chair - they are tucked up in an aerodynamic position, not a position designed for comfort.
After the alarms went off and everyone got their morning jobs done Ed and I sat down with the maps, we knew with a 61 mile push on day 18 I had a chance of finishing on day 20. The problem was throughout the challenge each time I had pushed a tough or a long push I had then struggled the next day to get much further than my 33 mile target. I was still 90 miles from John O'Groats. We'd been tipped off by a few different people that there were two very steep hills climbing out of gorges at Berriedale and Helmsdale which were around 40 miles from John O'Groats. We both felt like I would need to get them out of the way on Day 19 because starting on two very steep hills on day 20 would make it very tough for me to finish that day.
Getting these two climbs completed would need me to push past the 50 mile marker on Day 19, a tough ask after completing 61 miles the day before. I knew those final climbs were going to be tough after 50 miles of pushing.
I did have a carrot dangled in front of me to get off to a good start, I'd been offered a free lunch at the Royal Marine Hotel in Brora.... 30 miles away from my start point! The carrot of free food couldn't have come at a better time. I set off with the firm target of getting to Brora for lunch.

A traditional before picture

Ready to go!

The first 5 miles of the day's push were undulating but nothing to worry about, I made pretty good progress. I even delt with the first hill at 5 miles pretty well, much better than I had coped the morning after a big day so far in the challenge. Towards the top of the Hill we passed a village called Tain, I asked dad to drive through to see if there was a vets that could remove Bonnie's tick. Ant, Ed and I stayed on the A9 and dropped down the steep hill towards Dornoch Firth Bridge, again I dropped the lads on the downhill. On the way over the Bridge I just couldn't believe the beauty of the place. It's so stunning it has its own facebook fan page! Unfortunately I didn't have anybody with me to get any photos of me crossing the bridge. We'd been passing signposts for Bonar Bridge, Ed seemed very interested in the place - I did wonder if he'd took Ant on a detour just to get a comedy photo for facebook. As with the journey the whole way I didn't want to set up a photo of me on the bridge, all the action shots were as it happened so I just kept pushing.

Dornoch Firth

Stunning!

There were a big group of cyclists on a layby on the bridge getting ready to set off and I got a big cheer as I passed by. There was a big old climb as I came off the bridge and headed for loch fleet. On this stretch of the journey I somehow found myself in the centre of a vintage tractor rally! There were lots of photographers out and every now and then a 50 year old plus tractor came trundling past. Pretty odd, but I guess they thought the same about me!

Holding up some traffic on the way to Brora

After 20 miles we pulled over for a brew in a Layby. The group of cyclists I passed earlier pulled in just a few moments later. They were also on a Lands End John O'Groats record bid. One of their group was in his 70's and aiming for and age group record. They said they had followed my progress all the way from Bristol and had hoped to pass me somewhere. That's why I had got such a big cheer from them on the bridge. It was nice to know people involved in a completely different sport to me were following what I was doing and were impressed by it. We wished each other luck and they got on their way.
 I was starting to feel the previous days Mileage when I got back on the coast road at Golspie there were two short but nasty hills between there and Brora but the call of a free pint and free food kept me going. In true Lancashire style I love 'owt fer nowt'! We made our way to the Royal Marine Hotel, I think we all felt a bit out of place in a swanky hotel in our sweaty kit! It took us a while to find our way through the hotel to the restaurant but once there the manager came across and offered us anything from the menu. I fancied a pint, steak and followed it with apple crumble and custard - the best custard I have ever tasted. I was made up with my free lunch!

A tad under dressed lads?

Being a fool in the hotel.

Day 19 Morning Stats

Miles: 28.90
Time: 2:44:05
Average Moving Speed: 10.6mph
Top Speed: 31.4mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 24 - 10:31
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 18 - 2:37
Total Ascent: 1167ft
Average Heart Rate: 137bpm
Max Heart Rate: 157bpm

Day 19 Morning Progress Maps

Day 19 Afternoon

 After lunch we posed for photos with the manager and then got on our way again.

The top custard man in the UK.

At the first hill just after 3 miles I was already struggling, I'd eaten too much and had a cheeky pint, my stomach wasn't best pleased with me. From mile 3 to 11 I managed to keep it ticking over, I didn't feel great though and just as we got to Helmsdale we had rain so it was time for a brew.

Some flat!

Helmsdale.

I was hoping that the rain would blow over but it didn't so after half an hour or so I had to get back out in the rain before I started to cease up. In the first few hundred metres the main rubber pad on my gloves came off. I tried a set of soft gloves instead but my hands were too battered to put any useful effort through them in soft gloves so another few hundred meters down the road I had to put my damaged hard gloves back on and Ed Gaffer taped them together. Yet another few hundred meters down the road we had to stop again, the tape was too tight so we needed to loosen them.
The 5km climbing out of Helmsdale was awful, it took me over an hour, my PB is just under 12 minutes.

A Hill

This hill was a nightmare, luckily there was plenty to look at as I climbed it. Including a memorial for the Highland Clearance victims. I found myself a bit choked by it, statues of a family being forced from their home. Ant and Ed hadn't heard of the clearance so giving them a geek fest history lesson passed some time. When we finally got to the top we celebrated big hill number one being conquered by having a brew. Dad was already in a layby with a family who had stopped to have a chat as they had seen me a number of times last few days. The dad of the family warned me about the second climb, he said it was very steep and had some bad bends on it.

Memorial

The family that stopped to chat.

I decided to set off before long as it was getting quite late. There was a smaller hill between Helmsdale and Berriedale and that was hard enough. We decided to phone the campsite to check if there was a time we needed to be there by but we were told not to worry. So on we went, down to just a few feet above sea level before tackling a bitch of a hill.

More rain on its way!

  On many parts of the hill I struggled to keep moving forward, Ed had to keep catching me from rolling back down the hill. Ant was fantastic at keeping me motivated. Dad shouted me on from wherever he could. I'd tried edging my way forward just using the tyres on not the push rims to give me more leverage but with the gaffer tape on the gloves it wasn't as effective as it was in Cornwall. I resorted to zigzagging across the road and back again. It was such a slow way to move forward but it was the best thing I could think of so Ant and Ed were checking for traffic and when it was safe I was cutting across the road and back again, inching my way forward.

Hated this hill.

 I was knackered, the closest to tears I had been on the trip. I was falling asleep and absolutely goosed. It was starting to get towards twilight and there was an invasion of slugs onto the road. It was a strange sight hundreds of slugs crossing the road. Ed then came out with one of those lines where you really had to be there for. I still giggle about it now. My best gay mate suddenly said
"do you know, its been years since I've seen a big fat black one!"
Just to clarify, he was talking about the slugs. There was a moment of silence after he said it, almost as if all three of us were waiting to see who'd be the child first. Then all three of us were in hysterics, I was crying so much I couldn't see where I was going, I even bloody dribbled! Ed was performing his ridiculously loud laugh at the top of his voice, Ant was struggling for breath, we were all like a group of high teenagers! We eventually calmed down and carried on climbing but every few minutes one of us started giggling and we'd all end up in hysterics again. It made it even more difficult to climb, crying with laugher at the end of 110 miles in two days whilst having two broken ribs hurts like hell! That mile climbing out of Berriedale took me 42 minutes, probably the slowest mile of my life.

Knackered.

When I finally got to the top of the hill I Wanted to get out of my chair as fast as possible so at the first semi safe place I could get in the motorhome I did. I'd done what I needed to do, I still had 40 miles to do on Day 20 but barring anything going wrong I should get to John O'Groats.
  The campsite for the last night was a bit shit, it was the back garden on a house on the main road. It was the first campsite that charged us on the whole challenge and it was the worst site too. The owner was rude to Ed, she'd also left snotty notes around the shower block. "Remove shoes, I don't clean for fun" and "This door is here for a reason: Close It!".
I'd got quite used to doing my short video interviews by now but it took so many attempts to get this one out. I kept forgetting where I had been and I kept giggling about black slugs. Myself and Ed were stood outside filming it and we were getting eaten alive by the famous Scottish Midge! I was in that much pain with my ribs I couldn't even sit in my day chair to film it!

Day 19 Afternoon Stats

Miles: 21.84
Time: 3:19:41
Average Moving Speed: 6.6mph
Top Speed: 36.4mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 21 - 41:53 (By far the slowest of the challenge)
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 10 - 2:21
Total Ascent: 1905ft (OOOOOOOOuch!!!)
Average Heart Rate: 135bpm
Max Heart Rate: 157bpm

Day 19 Afternoon Progress Maps

Total Daily Mileage: 50.74

Lands End to John O'Groats, Day 18 - Pelted by Drawing Pins.

Day 18 Morning

I'd slept much better on the night of Day 17, which meant I woke up on Day 18 in a better mood. I was still tired, I'd woken up a few times during the night with rib pain but waking up a few times is far better than being awake all night! My target for the day was to get to Inverness or just beyond as that would leave me a good chance of finishing after another three days pushing which would be 21 days and a whole week ahead of schedule. Looking at the map over breakfast to check the route and where we thought might be a good place for lunch and where we might need to book a campsite. Whilst looking at the map it suddenly clicked why Inverness had its name, I like to think that I'd fairly bright and pick things up quite quickly. I have to admit that I didn't even know that Inverness was near Loch Ness until I was looking at the map that morning! I'd been noticing  places with the 'Inver' and 'Firth' prefix anytime we got close to the coast in Scotland. The penny finally dropped that an Inver was an estuary or river mouth and a Firth was a narrow area of sea between two bits of land. So Inverness was where the River Ness which runs through Loch Ness meets the sea. I'm not sure if Ed already knew that but he humoured me as I told him my discovery anyway.

Getting underway on day 18!

  We were going to be on the A9 all day again which made us all a little nervous especially getting closer to Inverness. The A9 was a really busy road. We were pretty sure all the traffic must have been heading to Inverness as there is nothing much north of the city in terms of built up areas. When we got going on our push I was actually surprised how quiet it was.

Quiet A9 climb during the morning push.

I had a nice start to the day with a one and a half mile downhill, the Scottish tarmac was vibrating the chair like mad so instead of pushing to try and get a fast speed I decided to put weight on my handlebars which helps keep the front wheel on the ground and allows the chair to work properly. I didn't want to be fighting for speed in the first mile of the push. Despite not even pushing my wheels the descent had gotten me over 30mph which is always a nice figure to see on the speedo.
After that initial drop I was then climbing for 15 tough miles. Ant seemed to have a new confidence in shouting me on. He was brilliant all morning, I'm not sure what had made the change, maybe it was just learning from Ed but I think maybe he was just feeling more confident we would both get to the finish line. If we did make the finish Ant would have cycled around 350 miles which is not easy from someone who really isn't sporty.

On another climb

  The long climb was followed by a nice 5 mile long downhill section that was broken by only one short flat and one half mile climb. The long downhill took me past the tiny village of Tomatin which is home to a famous distillery of the same name. Its an odd little place, surrounded by beautiful but rugged hills and mountains but Tomatin sits in a picturesque green valley, it looks like the grasslands of the south of England not the Scottish Highlands! Two bridges cross the valley, an old railway bridge and a modern road bridge. The views were great from the  road bridge.

The green valley at Tomatin

I wanted to have a geek fest over the views with Ed and Ant but unfortunately I'd just dropped them both on the long descent and they didn't catch me up until I was working my way through the undulating climbs over the next mile or so. We were soon back in rugged countryside and passing pine plantations near Loch Moy.

Just keep pushing.

Ed being special.

  I decided to stop for lunch at almost 26 miles so 3 miles over my target for the morning, I was happy with that in the Highlands as I thought going too far over target up there would be a bit difficult with all of the hills. I was 10 miles from Inverness so I might be able to get myself 5 miles past my target by evening time. As we didn't have anything other than beans on toast on the lunch front I opted for cereal instead. There was no way I was going to be able to stomach more beans!
 My dad got chatting to some old guy in the layby about his antique bike that Ed was riding, he kept coming back and knocking on the motorhome window to start yet another conversation with dad. Ant, Ed and I were in stiches laughing at my dad being stalked by the most boring man on earth, he was a right Norris Cole wannabe. I didn't rescue my dad though, it'll teach him not to talk to strangers in laybys! haha!

Lunch Break.

Day 18 Morning Stats

Miles: 25.9
Time: 2:27:39
Average Moving Speed: 10.5mph
Top Speed: 35.7mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 14 - 9:28
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 20 - 2:29
Total Ascent: 1026ft
Average Heart Rate: 143bpm
Max Heart Rate: 160bpm

Day 18 Morning Progress Maps

Day 18 Afternoon

I had made sure dad had the shopping list before we set off on the afternoon push in the sunshine. We had looked on the map for the closest retail park and given dad instructions to head to it as early as possible so he would be back with us before too long. Ed and Ant put extra supplies in their bags so we could perform minor repairs without the motorhome if we needed to. We then got on our way to Inverness.
The afternoon push started with a cracking downhill on normal tarmac for a change! I hit 44.7mph which is my fastest ever speed in my wheelchair. I left Ant and Ed trailing behind me. Ed had a go at sticking with me for maybe a quarter mile, Ant didn't bother trying, he already knew his legs wouldn't go fast enough. There was a big climb after 2.5 miles so Ed was soon back on my tail. It took Ant a good 3 or 4 minutes to catch us but we could see him in the distance gaining on us. I may have worked a little bit harder on the climb to keep Ant chasing us, I'm cruel like that! I think it's the coach in me that likes making people put effort in!

A nice wide berth from a tanker!

 It didn't take long to conquer the climb and get my self going down the amazing hill that leads in to Inverness, again I dropped the lads pretty quickly. My speed was building up well, I was tucked down low to make me nice and aero dynamic. I crept up to 42mph and had lots more hill left to gain more speed, I was easily on for 50mph before the bottom, I was loving it. Then a tosser in one of those Hymer motorhomes from the 70's that look like a giant VW camper but with tiny wheels pulled out in front of me. The most annoying part of it was that he pulled up to the edge of the layby, stopped, looked straight at me and then decided to pull out on me. If he hadn't stopped and just carried on driving there wouldn't have been a problem, he would have accelerated and got away from me. His acceleration from a stationary position was nowhere near fast enough to pull out when he did. I managed to slow enough not to hit him but I got close enough to tell him what I thought of his driving skills. Slowing down so quickly had torn a big chunk of rubber out of my gloves. A 50mph opportunity well and truly ruined.
Not long after it was the junction that dad needed to take to go shopping. I was now pushing on the hard shoulder so I didn't need shielding by the motorhome anymore. I pointed at the road sign and the exit and tried waving him off the dual carriageway but he was having none of it and carried on driving with me. I managed to get the message to him that he had to leave at the next junction or we would not have any food for dinner. At this junction he did leave but I was worried now because he would have to find his own way to a retail park and not follow the directions we had given him for the previous junction. The A9 was almost gridlocked at Inverness, it's basically a motorway but it didn't feel too dangerous because we were on the hard shoulder and the cars were only moving about 10mph.
We crossed over the Moray Firth on a bridge with some serious views and then the hard shoulder disappeared on the Black Isle. Some of the drivers shouted abuse out of their car windows at us here. I think they were frustrated with being sat in the road works traffic for so long.

The bridge over Moray Firth

Whilst climbing over the Black Isle it got really cold and started to rain. I could have done with stopping here but dad wasn't back yet so I just kept going. I had another belting downhill to tackle to get onto the bridge to leave the Black Isle by crossing the Cromarty Firth. This downhill wasn't fun, the rain was hurting my face as I was descending at 40mph again. It felt like I was being pelted with drawing pins, My hands and forearms were so cold they were hurting. I was also worried about Ed and Ant and how they were feeling. You could never have guessed it was the first day of July, it felt like November. Ed Caught me up when I was just leaving the bridge but Ant wasn't even in sight now. It took a long time for him to get back to us.

The Cromarty Firth Bridge

The busy, wet A9.

 I really wanted to stop so when we crossed the bridge Ed phoned my dad to see where he had got to. He was stuck in traffic. I was struggling because of the cold so sitting and waiting in wet clothes wasn't really an option. I'd already done 21 miles when I left the Black Isle. That was 48 for the day. The A9 was hugging the coast now we were back on the mainland do it was much flatter, another 40 minutes later it had dried up so I warmed up slightly and managed to work my was back to a respectable speed. After clocking 32 miles for the afternoon push I was ready to find a layby to wait for my dad but we were in a huge area of road works and we didn't find anywhere suitable to stop until over 35 miles.

Not looking too bad to say we'd pushed and cycled 61 miles.

 Ed phoned my dad again to find out where he was and direct him to where we had stopped. It took him another 20 minutes to finally get to our finish line I'd done 61 miles! I couldn't quite believe it. Part of me wanted to phone all those trustees at 'that' meeting where they had spoken to me like I was an idiot for thinking I could push 33 miles in a day. I wanted them to know just how wrong they were! I hadn't gone out that day with the idea of pushing anywhere near that far but circumstances had almost forced me into it. I was just happy my body was capable of doing that even with two broken ribs! If I had a good day on day 19 It might be possible I could finish on day 20, just a few hours earlier I had been hoping I could manage to get it done in 21 days.
There was fruit and veg in the motorhome!!! At last something healthy to eat. We had pasta with a tomato and herb sauce with mince beef, peppers, onions and mushrooms thrown in to bulk it up a bit. I was so happy to eat!

Day 18 Afternoon Stats

Miles: 35.62
Time: 3:01:17
Average Moving Speed: 11.8mph
Top Speed: 44.7mph (Fastest yet)
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 16 - 11:07
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 7 - 1:24
Total Ascent: 1175ft
Average Heart Rate: 141bpm
Max Heart Rate: 161bpm

Day 18 Afternoon Progress Maps

Total Daily Mileage: 61.52

Lands End to John O'Groats, Day 16 - Dad's New Positive Vibes.

Day 16 Morning

 The alarms went off on the morning of Day 16, I felt like I'd not been to sleep at all. I had really struggled with my ribs all night, I couldn't get comfortable. Even lying on my good side was hurting the ribs. Moving my arms hurt my ribs. Bloody breathing hurt my ribs. It was not a pleasant night. On my way to the shower block I passed-by a cyclist who we had bunny hopped the day before, he overtook me on the road but somehow we had finished ahead of him and got to the campsite before him. I was going to go and have a chat with him but he was stood in the middle of the campsite naked. Everything hanging out! After the night I'd had I wasn't in the mood to stand talking to some bloke with his todger out in the middle of a field. Maybe the granddad had tried charging him to wear clothes!
   Having seen all the mountains surrounding the campsite I was convinced I was going to need to climb lots during Day 16. I didn't have much confidence that I would be able to climb that day but we made our way to the start to give it a crack. Dad was in his cycling gear again, I didn't try and talk him out of it, he seemed ok so maybe the cycling was doing him some good. I did say he would need to let Ed have a go cycling soon as he hadn't had chance yet. Ant was starting to feel a bit sore but he wanted to be cycling with me which was really cool of him. He could have been sat in the motorhome, in the warm with Ed but he was out with me.

At the start of Day 16 and already in pain.

The start of the day's push was better than I thought, it took me a good few miles before I reached my first real hill so I was nicely warmed up when I needed to climb. I was still in pain but I did ok on the climb.

On the first downhill

We passed through a steep sided wooded valley whilst following the path of the River Farg. I loved it, I felt like we were miles from anywhere It was one of the few areas we travelled through that had a natural woodland and not a pine plantation.
  Shortly after the valley I started to suffer from boredom again, Ant was saying well done every 15 minutes or so but I needed a bit more. Dad had gotten in the habit of telling me how big and steep the hills I was about to go up were. Then as I was climbing them he'd be pointing out how hard work they were and how they were slowing us right down. I was trying to distract myself from the pain and how much I was struggling on the hills today but my dad was reminding me every few minutes. I know looking back that he was actually trying to point out I was doing well climbing these hills with my broken ribs but that's not how it was coming across at the time.

I really wanted to stop at the motorhome!

Approaching Perth

We passed through Perth centre, it was the first built up area in Scotland that I thought looked nice, some of the buildings were amazing looking. We passed a church that had had a stone crown on top of its tower and we travelled along side the River Tay for a while. Although it was beautiful to look at it was a busy place and it was the first large built up area we had passed through without a single donation. On the outskirts of Perth we picked up the A9 which was a busy road and one we would be spending the afternoon on.

The beautiful church in Perth - I was really captivated by it.

Passing through Perth.

 It wasn't long before the ribs and the boredom had me looking for somewhere to stop for lunch, it was another layby. I'd only managed 22.7 miles more than 10 miles less than yesterdays morning mileage tally. We were low on supplies so we had to have beans and cheese on toast again followed by us trying to eat our way through the mountain of cake that had been bought for us on Day 13. I was starting to struggle getting food down, probably due to exhaustion, I wanted something light and healthy but we didn't have anything so I forced the beans on toast down so I had some fuel for the afternoon push. Over lunch I asked Ant and dad to give me more encouragement on the climbs and to have a chat with each other whilst riding. I couldn't hold a conversation when pushing but hearing them chatting and me joining in with the odd word or two would help pass the time. I also asked dad to stop pointing out how big and steep the hills are and how slow we were going, I already knew all that! haha! I didn't want to upset either of them but I needed them to distract me from the push, the pain and the slow speed.

Ed getting arty on the A9

Looking at my stats for the morning push I wasn't actually that slow, it's strange what a bit of pain and negative thinking can do to the way you perceive what you are doing.

Day 16 Morning Stats

Miles: 22.67
Time: 2:05:24
Average Moving Speed: 10.8mph
Top Speed: 28.4mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 12 - 8:51
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 5 - 3:03
Total Ascent: 807ft
Average Heart Rate: 135bpm
Max Heart Rate: 156bpm

Day 16 Morning Progress Maps

Day 16 Afternoon

The afternoon push was all on the A9 which is an extremely busy and fast road, it is the main route to Inverness which is the biggest city up in the highlands. The road has many HGV's using it to supply Inverness with all the goods it needs. It seems like a lot of dickheads also drive on this road. We had dozens of cars get way, way too close to us whilst travelling at 80 or 90mph. Lots of people beeping at us but not in the cheery way we had been beeped at in the rest of the UK. It was only car drivers acting like this, every artic lorry that passed us did so with a really wide birth and many drivers mates gave a thumbs up out of the window. We were all thanking the none dickheads as they overtook us with a wave. There was never any point where traffic couldn't get by, people seemed to be angry at me for some other reason.

Heading for Inverness on the A9

Dad and Ant were making a real effort to keep me entertained during this push. Dad must have been cursing inside at the drivers coming too close and beeping. Even with me at 32 years of age he was still over protective and he loves a good rant with lots of swearing thrown in. He definitely listned to me asking him to be positive because he didn't shout fuck off at a single driver! Anybody who knows my dad will know that was a miracle. Dad's new positive vibes and Ant's now more frequent 'well done ant' helped me to 18 miles which was a good effort for an afternoon push considering how tired and sore I was! I'd got myself to a place called Killiecrankie, another place name that made me giggle. The place name and exhaustion had got me imagining Janette Krankie being killed in all sorts of comedy ways. Giggling at my own internal jokes was not good for my ribs, I was on the verge of crying due to the rib pain but I was laughing like mad about the Krankies being twatted in the face with a plank of wood on a builders shoulder as he turned around. It's not even funny, I'm not much of a fan of slapstick comedy so exhaustion must have played a part! I should probably talk to Dave the sports psychologist about why I found the place name and the thought of an old woman dressed as a school boy being killed so hilarious.
 We weren't very far from our campsite Milton of Fonab, yet another freebie. I was a bit down about the day as a whole; I was in a lot of pain and I wasn't happy with the 40.5 miles total for the day. It was 7.5 more than my daily target but I felt like I should be able to do more.

Beautiful but tough.

We had three lots of campers come up to us in the campsite to chat to us about the challenge and they all donated to the charity which cheered be up a bit. It was the first day that we hadn't had a single penny donated on the road so it was nice to get something in the bucket for all my effort. It meant I could stop grumbling about the tight arse Scots! Dad was in his element talking to the people who donated. He loves chatting to new folk when he isn't upsetting them.
Dad had spotted that there were baths in some of the wash rooms so he helped me over the deep gravel roads and I went for a very long soak to ease some of my pain. I was in bed by 7pm that night hoping for some better rest.

Day 16 Afternoon Stats

Miles: 17.97
Time: 1:38:30
Average Moving Speed: 10.9mph
Top Speed: 30.0mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 17 - 7:06 (fast as a slowest mile)
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 3 - 3:09
Total Ascent: 531ft
Average Heart Rate: 138bpm
Max Heart Rate: 154bpm

Day 16 Afternoon Progress Maps

Total Daily Mileage:40.64