The dates...

Right then, we have now decided when to go, 27th June to 1st July and time has been booked off work. I will be cycling over 5 leisurely days with maybe the odd detour, this should roughly follow the c2c guide.

Day 1        Whitehaven - Keswick 31 Miles (Scenic, chance of a swim)

Day 2        Keswick - Langwathby 28 Miles 

Day 3        Langwathby - Allenheads 28 Miles (Hilly)

Day 4        Allenheads - Rowlands Gill 31 Miles (Hilly start)

Day 5        Rowlands Gill - Tynemouth 19 Miles (Lemon squeezy)

I will be riding on my bike below. It was a £99 pound bargain 18 years ago after some low life took a fancy to my existing bike, which I needed for transport to work. It's still pretty much original, I made a pair of mudguards and then hadn't touched it, up till this year when I stuck a gel seat on and finally changed the tyres before they fell apart. At the same time I bought new inner tubes with gunk in to heal punctures. Don't bother wondering about gearing sprockets or chains they all work fine and it free wheels pretty well, that's it for technical.

I haven't done any distance on my bike as yet, it's normally 10-20 miles, so I do intend having some longer rides in the spring and build myself up to being able to complete more challenging rides in the future.

After spending some time searching Ebay we have bought a tandem so Bernie can join in and get more involved. I must say I had never ridden a tandem before but soon got the hang of it and although still learning would recommend it to anyone. It's great for company, gets plenty of attention and can make you laugh out loud. We've had it about a month and so far I've been on 2 or 3 short rides with Bernie. Nathan and I go out 2 or 3 times a week in the evenings, great fun and have clocked 36mph on  a roadside monitor. A bit hair raising at that speed in poor light so well done Nathan on the back. I will sort out a photo on a later post.

It began with a blog post

Hi, Just to introduce the family and myself, I am 43 married with two children. I enjoy Clay shooting, fishing, kayaking,(leisurely river running) walking, running, swimming and cycling, basically anything outdoors. A master of none just enjoy doing them and maybe setting small personal challenges, all should be possible but there's always the unexpected. I'm married (21 years) to Bernie aged 21+. Bernie prefers to watch Nathan and myself get on with our various activities rather than take part herself but she has been known to get involved. Laura 18 on new years eve, happy go lucky and tends to let us just get on with things. Nathan about to turn 15 likes the same things as myself apart from running and cycling unless it's flat or downhill. He's a lot better swimmer than myself and the kayaking seems to be more natural for him than me. The idea of the blog came after deciding to do the coast to coast cycle ride next year. I thought it would be a good way to get Bernie and Nathan involved. Bernie has the job of ride manager ( booking hotels and so on) Nathan the one with the computer knowledge. The intention is to have 1 or 2 training rides yet to be decided on and also post maybe the odd swimming or kayaking trip, for family and friends to follow. I have included a short video of Bernie not wanting to miss out when we went to Black Moss Pot the day we were suppose to be entering the Great North Swim in Windermere that was unfortunately cancelled do to algae.