Day 8

Let's get rid of the negative stuff first.  I had a mild girlie strop after cycling slowly for 60 miles into the wind, having a sore bum, being covered in flies and my piece of flapjack falling apart.
After that I improved a lot by meeting the jovial Mark in Jack Davies Cycles in Wem, having lunch and coffee, and by applying Vaseline in the appropriate places. No rain today, and the temperature was great although it was cold (8 degrees) when we set off.
Thanks again to Tim at Audlem Cyclesport, Mark in Wem, and Kieran in the Venetian Marina Cafe for signing my log book.
Thanks to my super domestique (Steve) for riding with me all day, and putting up with me being unjustifiably unhappy at times. 
136 miles today, and 1071 miles in total.  Eight days in and I've now done over a third of the minimum total which I must complete in order to set the record.  Overall I am really pleased with how far I have gone especially given the weather for the first few days.  Some parts of my body are starting to complain, but I'm trying to ignore them until I see physio Glen on Monday.
Short blog today due to technical issues.  Why does it take so long to upload to Dropbox? I've given up.  Having to find another backup method.

The Rules

Apart from the need to collect evidence to authenticate my record that I described in a previous blog, there are a few rules that Guinness require me to comply with.  Some are obvious others less so.

I am not allowed to slipstream or get any other physical aid from anyone else.  This is pretty obvious when you think about it.  I could simply have a team of ‘lead cyclists’ and sit on their back wheel all day.  Slipstreaming requires about 20% less effort than being the lead cyclist.  It is the reason breakaways in bike races such as the Tour succeed so rarely.  So when I am riding with my super domestique he is hardly putting in any effort and I am doing all the work.

I have to start and finish the event at the same height.  In other words I can’t go to the top of a mountain every morning and coast down for 20km or so, and repeat this numerous times in the day and every day.  For me this really means I have to start and end the ride at home to avoid getting caught out with an overall net downhill ride.

I have to use the same bike throughout the attempt.  I can only change bikes if I provide photographic and video evidence that the bike is not rideable.  I can replace components on the bike at any stage, so this really means using the same frame.  I must admit I am not too sure of the reason for this, but who am I to argue?

I have to get the written authority from Guinness in advance if I intend to get sponsorship or provide advertising for any other alcoholic brand.  Obvious really!

Day 7

The weather has improved, but it had a very low starting point at the beginning of my attempt.  Obviously I'm obsessed by the weather, but it has such an huge affect on the level of enjoyment of cycling.  At the start of today the roads were wet, and I was rained on.  In the afternoon it was dry and partially sunny, but there was a strong West wind.  Cycling from Weaverham to Kingsley was a real grind into the wind.
I cycled on my own in the morning.  I really enjoyed listening to the cricket commentary on the radio.  I can't think of anything better, cycling and listening to Aggers, Boycott, Blowers, Vaughnie, etc.  Of course it helps that England are winning.
I had the pleasure of cycling with my friend Andy in the afternoon.  He's doing Lands End to  John O'Groats soon, so I hope today's miles helped his training.  It makes such a difference to me having someone to cycle with, especially when it is hard work like it was this afternoon into the wind.  I am looking forward to having my own super domestique (husband) with me for the weekend.
My very kind log book signers today were Tim in Sideways Cycles in Alsager, Andy, and Paul in Rick Green Cycles in Handforth.
When you're trying to clock up as many miles as possible, it really does not matter if you go wrong with the navigation.  Yesterday we went down a wrong road and finished up on someone's gravel drive.  Great, it added a couple of miles. Those who look on Strava may see that I got a 3rd place Strava badge on that segment.  I guess everyone else recorded on that segment made the same mistake as us! The segment is called "the lane to nowhere".  Note to Cheshire Council, I suggest that you put a No Through Road sign at the start of the lane.
133

miles today, and 935 miles in total from 7 days.

Day 6, feeling chirpier

The weather has improved a bit today.  There were wet roads in the morning, and a few light showers in the afternoon, but the sun did come out for a while.  Strong west wind, but you can't have everything!
In the morning I was on my own and went to Frodsham and back.  I used to think that Frodsham was quite a long way away.  Today I was there before the bike shop opened.  Thanks to Joe in Twelve50 Bikes for signing my log book again.  Went back home for lunch via Rick Green Cycles, and Paul kindly signed my log book.  I followed a Team GB cyclist and a Team Wiggins cyclist through Wilmslow.  One was showing off by standing stationary on his bike whilst we were stuck at the lights.
I had a bonus this afternoon.  Richard, who I met whilst doing the Marmotte, came to ride with me.  We had a good ride out, soaking up the sun in Bunbury and enjoying the wind behind from Cholmondeley Castle to Wrenbury and Ravensmoor.  Steve joined us about 10 miles from the end.
Today was 138 miles.  I've done 802 miles in total.  That's 25.7% of the minimum which I have to do to set the record.

What evidence do I have to collect?

A surprising amount!  In some ways it isn’t so surprising that Guinness who administer the world records take this seriously.  After all, the whole world record concept would lose credibility if it was possible to cheat.  The main evidence I have to provide is a file containing my route downloaded from my Garmin (cycling GPS) and converted into a standard file format.  This is absolutely essential, so to ensure I can comply with this I take with me a second Garmin and have access to a third at home if one of the two Garmins fail.  This proves where the GPS has been, but this could be me being driven round in a car!  To be certain I am cycling I provide video and photographic evidence of me with my bike from various points on the route such as town signs.  I also have to keep an old fashioned paper log in which people I meet on the way sign to confirm they have seen me cycling.  This is why you will see from previous blogs I am referencing various bike shops and other businesses I have visited.  I video all of these encounters, to provide confirmatory evidence.  I have also got kind neighbours who are videoing/photographing me setting off and returning every day.

I have to compile my own log of where I have been and who I have met so that if questioned I can personally substantiate where I have been and who I have met on every day.  This needs to be absolutely consistent with all my other records.

It all takes me about an hour every night to compile the daily evidence and load it onto Dropbox, then do another backup.  This allows my two independent scrutineers to check the evidence.  At the end of the ride they will need to confirm the authenticity of my record claim.  Everything then gets submitted to Guinness who will conduct their own review of the evidence for the record, checking that I have complied with the rules (more on that in a later blog) and the evidence backs up the record claim.  This review is likely to take a few months, and no doubt they will contact some of the people who have signed my logbook.

Whilst compiling the evidence is a chore, especially when I would prefer to be cycling or sleeping, I am pleased this is taken seriously.  I must admit to a little paranoia about failing to collect sufficient evidence or forgetting to switch on my Garmin when I set off.  I think the greatest risk of me having an accident at the moment is when I'm videoing myself whilst I'm cycling.

Day 5 (Grumpiness alert)

It was a tough day and I had sense of humour failure on several occasions.
There were 4 very heavy downpours where I got drenched.  At one point I decided to hide in a bus shelter, only to find it full of other people with the same idea. Also, the handlebar mount for my camera got loose.  I got v grumpy.  I videoed myself having a big moan about the cycle paths in Crewe (you have to stop every 20 metres for pedestrian crossings, or get abuse from drivers if you're on the road).
Things improved a lot when Tim in Audlem Cyclesport fixed my handlebar mount in about 10 seconds.  Thanks to him for log book signing, as well as Paul in Rick Green Cycles and Elaine in PhysioFit.
The afternoon improved - it was dry, but windy.  All went well until my front derailleur stopped working.  The chain came off, and when fixing it I stood on a huge slug.  Messy cleats.
The day ended well with a visit to Glen in Physiofit in Alderley Edge for a massage, which was painful but worthwhile.
Despite the challenges I still managed 132 miles bringing my total up to 664 miles in 5 days.
When will the weather improve?  I am trying to remember what the weather was like on St. Swithin's Day.

My Cycling Background

I had a pretty inauspicious start to cycling; I didn’t have a bike as a child.  I got my first bike when I was about 22.  I was visiting my brother in Cambridge and he forced me to buy a second hand bike, because that’s how you transport yourself in Cambridge.  It was a real gas pipe job, but it met my main requirement, cycling to and from the pub.  I don’t remember how I learnt to ride a bike!

After joining a small engineering consultancy in Epsom I discovered some like-minded beer loving people including my future husband.  Friday nights in the summer we would cycle from work to a pub about fifteen to twenty miles from the office and then stop off in about five pubs on the way back to the office and then somehow get home.  Not the safest or healthiest form of cycling.

After a couple of summers of pub crawls we thought why not extend the crawl to a whole weekend?  Hence long weekends in Brittany and Normandy, although the mileage went up including cycling to and from the ferry in Portsmouth and carrying all our clothes.

In 1989 the cycling got a little more serious.  Myself and nine of my work colleagues decided to do a charity cycle ride, but wanted to do something different to Land’s End to John O’Groats.  Instead we decided to visit every county in England, pre boundary changes in the 70s.  The counties included my birth county of Westmorland.  After 1000 miles in seventeen days and countless visits to charity shops we eventually raised over £7,000 for Imperial Cancer Research.

From this point on I became a committed touring cyclist.  I did some Audax rides and we regularly went on two week cycle touring holidays in the Alps, Pyrenees, Dolomites, Vosges, Jura, Black Forest etc.  Most weekends I would go out for 50+ mile bike rides.  Our honeymoon was cycle touring in New England.  On one day it rained so hard our camera got completely trashed.  No honeymoon photos.

In 2012 I was contacted by a friend from university, who on reaching fifty was keen to have a go at the Etape du Tour.   He asked my husband Steve if he’d join him, and Steve said that he would, but only if I did it as well.  Is this emotional blackmail?  I had to say yes.

For the first time in my life I embarked on doing some structured training to make sure I could avoid the broom wagon.  I enjoyed the training, although we had some tough days in the saddle especially when it was windy and wet in the winter.  I successfully completed the Etape, but I sensed this had whetted the appetite of my husband who was keen to do more continental sportives.  The Maratona in Italy, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, along with numerous UK sportives followed.  This year we did the Etape du Dales (gale force winds) and La Marmotte (extreme heat).

So as you can see I have no background in time trials, road racing or any form of competitive cycling.  We’ve never been in cycling clubs.  I am a social cyclist at heart, but I have discovered I have pretty good endurance and it is this I will need for the 30 day challenge.