my 1st jogle, if i did it..you can too!

[greenskies]

Hi all, i completed my 1st jogle tour...Yeaaaaahh!!
Had an amazing trip and can't wait to do my next tour!
This is how i did it

There were 2 of us and we did the yha route with an excursion into the lake district. It took us 13.5 days

Bike, tifosi ck7. back pannier rack with a ortlieb dry bag attached by bungee leads on top. My mate had pannier bags which i experimented with before but found it too bulky and it changed the feel of the bike too much. I also didn’t like the slight rattling when going over bumps, but my mate was happy with it so it’s a personal thing.
Tires, schwalbe durano 25’’s No punctures the whole trip, or mechanicals. Had bike serviced 1 month before trip and put new tires on 2 weeks before.

miles coverered 1,038
max miles in day 103, mostly 80/90
max hrs in saddle 7.5 mostly 5/6 hrs, least 3 hrs

One of the best decisions we made was to not pre book anywhere to stay apart from 1st night.
The main reasoning was that we didn’t know how we would cope with the daily mileage and it allowed us to see how we were feeling on the day. We had no problems finding anywhere, at weekends we would just phone in advance but didn’t really need to. We got chatting to a few other joggles/lejogers who had pre booked everything and they all looked totally knackered and stressed out. It allowed us to really enjoy the trip, yes there were hard days but it just took the extra stress away. I don’t want to do 120 miles head down everyday and miss all that beautiful countryside passing me by, not my idea of fun.

Training is essential if you want to enjoy it as much as possible.3 things I found important.
1) Use a hr monitor. I used a garmin edge 500 and found it really useful. I was considering leaving it at home but so glad I took it as I could really gage my effort. There is a tendency to go a bit too hard sometimes so it keeps you in check. Just make sure you find out your hr zones before you go.
2) Miles and lots of them. There is no getting away from it. Increase the mileage each week by 5/10% With a rest on 4th week eventually hitting your target daily mileage at least 3 weeks before ride. When you get closer to ride start doing back to back rides to get your body used to being on the saddle for consecutive days. ie Fri 3hr, Sat 5hrs, Sun 2hrs. but mix it up and change the sequence. I found this really helped.
3) Start loading your bike up for training rides so you get used to cycling with the weight on the back of the bike. I just stuffed towels etc in the bag. That way you will find out what works for you. Doesn’t have to be the exact same weight as you will be taking.

Gear I could not do without; 2 large water bottles, recovery powder drink, recovery tights (maybe not essential but made me feel like i was helping my body recover better, might be in my head though!) Hr monitor, Light weight waterproof jacket (gore tex paclite), Cold weather top, Brookes B17 saddle (well broken in before ride), chamois cream, 2x Assos ft uno’s bib shorts (What ever you do don’t skimp on the shorts), and finally make sure you have enough gears to get you over the hills. That’s why point 3 is so important. If I hadn’t loaded the bike up and practiced on a few steep hills I would never had known I needed a triple and I would have really suffered. I like to spin the pedals so for me was really important.

So hope some of this has helped someone out there. So Just go and do it and have fun.

chris

[soaysheep]

+1 on the shorts. Good shorts make a tremendous difference!

[dai_t75]

Hi,

Congrats! Glad you had a good time.

I personally disagree with you about not booking in advance.. I would have been stressed if we didn't book! I remember getting into the towns (particularly Scotland) and seeing all the B and B's with signs saying no vacancies. Knowing we had a shower and bed waiting for us was a weight off my shoulders. We did however go during the summer holidays so I can see that this might not be a problem for other times of the year. We did it in 14 days with the average of around 72 miles a day so it wasn't a case of head down and miss everything. Just my 2p worth, but each to their own!

Never used a HR monitor so can't comment there. Agree 100% about the training with a full load though. I had a few trial runs with towels packed in, but the weight didn't come near the actual final weight of the panniers so that took a bit of getting used to.

Where is your next tour going to be?

[greenskies]

Not sure where my next tour will be but can't wait where ever it will be.
Totally understand that that you wanted everything booked in advance.
originally this is how i wanted to do it, but my mate persuaded me otherwise,
and im glad he did. For me doing my 1st tour i wasn't sure how i would cope with
the daily mileage. I think i was referring more to those who want to complete it in quickest possible
time and doing 120+ miles each day, but it's each to their own, and im sure those who complete it in fast times
get a huge sense of achievement just like us.
.

[LollyKat]

Glad you had such a good time! What time of year did you do it? Like you I don't like being too tied down but at the same time would hate to find myself with nowhere to stay because everywhere was booked up. I'm not prepared to camp.

[boink]

I'm still incredibly proud that I made it (in 15 days) 5 year on. Well done! The climbs in Cornwall are tough for most people I'd say, as are a good few others along the way. I met a couple of ladies en route who were regular marathon runners, but struggling a bit at times, and asked them how it compared. "Like running a marathon every day."

[LindaB]

Glad you had such a good trip! Can you tell me more about your Lake District "excursion"? I'm working on the LEJOG route for 4 of us in June, 2014, and hope to go through the Lakes. So far I've done our route from Lands End to Ironbridge, and from Edinburgh to JOG. Just need to fill in the middle!

[lostgeordie]

Planning my first lejog for April 2014, accommodation booking was one of my key concerns so thanks for your feedback on that.

Question to you on the CTC YHA route - any busy roads you would recommend to avoid, or was it 'quiet' all the way?

[greenskies]

We went from carlisle to kirkby lonsdale via windermere over the kirkstone pass. I dont have the gps files as
friend has those. But was a pretty tough day and weather was bad as well. But if you like some climbs and are lucky with the weather then great scenery. Most roads were fine. The A82 up loch ness is busy and between fort augustus and drummadrochit especially the road is quite narrow and and fast traffic whizzing by you as it's the only main route, isn't nice for cycling but it's not that long so you should be ok. Try and go up via Lairg great yha in a casle and the road then is just stunning upto bettyhill, stop off for a swift one at the crask inn great pub stuck in time and in the middle of nowhere. Ohhh i want to do it again. You will have a great time.

[bogmyrtle]

Try and go up via Lairg great yha in a casle

Carbisdale Castle is currently closed and there hasn't been any mention of it opening again this year.
There have been other closures as well so if anyone is doing the youth hostel route make sure you check the hostels you want to use are open.

[Gearoidmuar]

Try and go up via Lairg great yha in a casle

Carbisdale Castle is currently closed and there hasn't been any mention of it opening again this year.
There have been other closures as well so if anyone is doing the youth hostel route make sure you check the hostels you want to use are open.

As far as I know it's not going to re-open. Would cost too much to get it in order.

One point. I've gone on 75 tours and I've never trained with a load. If you're going bike touring and want to enjoy it, you need a triple. You adjust to a load on the bike in 5-10 minutes. It's therefore pointless training with a load.
The idea of a HRM is excellent. I used one for years but no longer do because I became really good at keeping my effort on the conservative side.
The numerous times I toured with one, my average HR while touring was 112bpm. This was when I had a max pulse of 178 and an anaerobic threshold of about 157. With several hours a day at this apparently low pulse, you still get hellishly fit. Of course this went up and down during the day but I would never let it above 160.

[TangerineGray]

I did JOGLE in 13 days in June this year with 2 friends. We pre-booked all our accomodation,but on occasions it did prove stressful and caused a bit of conflict between us all!
However, it was a cheap way of doing it because if we had gone to B&Bs or hotels at random it would have cost a small fortune.
We used 8 Travelodges, 3 Youth hostels,1 hotel and 1 converted vintage train! Because we booked the Travelodges a few weeks in advance most of them cost less than £30 a night(Bath was over £40 though)and split 3 ways it was less than £10 each,which was tremendous value! People knock Travelodges but at least you know what you get as like a McDonald`s they're all fairly standard. Good sized comfortable room,bathroom en-suite,TV and tea and coffee facilities. For the money you just cannot beat it. Most of them let us store our bikes in the room,but we did have to put them in the hotel plant room on one occasion and in a conference room on another and the occasions where we had to use the small lift with the bikes this proved a bit of a challenge! The youth hostels were all pretty good...apart from the SYHA one at Crianlarich which cost a fortune and was run by what we called 'the camp commandant at Stalag 15'. She really was that bad and the whole place was gloomy,with guests not hanging around too long if they could help it. We laugh about it now,but at the time it was appalling as the woman seemed to go out of her way to actively discourage guests!
The train accomodation, at Rogart in the north of scotland(sleeperzzz), was fabulous though and extremely quirky and the guy who runs it is a keen cyclist himself.
On another note when oh when will the British railway system get it`s act together regarding the transport of bikes???!!! We ended up having to get 3 cardboard bike boxes from Halford`s and send them by courier up to our hotel at sinclair bay near JOG and then follow them up there on the train 2 days later! For the return journey from Lands End we had to cycle back to Penzance and then hire a transit van at the railway station for our 9 hour drive back to Blackpool!
Planning the trip was a logistical nightmare,but I was surprised how it all came together and went quite smoothly without too many hitches.
In total I reckon we spent about £600 each and that included all our accomodation,transport to and from JOG and LE and of course pub and restaurant meals,coffee shops en-route...and beer in pubs!
I had originally looked at going with a company,who would carry our luggage and provide accomodation,but when I saw that it would cost £1750, you would do it in 9 days, and you slept in tents at night, I quickly abandoned that idea!!! We saved ourselves over £1000 I reckon and probably had a far better time too,as it wasn`t just a mile-munching excercise...

[bazzo]

Thinking of doing le jog in spring next year; any chance you could post the YHA route .