03/05/09 Formula 1

Sun - 26km morning ride. Still hotter than usual S wind. Eyes and nose started watering (again) despite wearing ski goggles, so decided I am allergic to Bahrain! Got some antihistamines which seem to do the trick. Office quiet with many folks F1ing either for real or on the big screens. 30 mins row on new Concept2 in compound gym in evening. Stoker had pilates class and 30 mins bike in gym.
Mon - 40 lengths swim. Still reacting to Bahrain, so more tablets taken. Stoker did 60 mins bike intervals in gym.

Tues - 30 mins row (6250m) and 40 lengths swim. Need to swim more and faster if I am to more-than-just-survive the sprint Triathlon on 22 May. I have co-opted Craig from work to be part of a team for the run as I am useless at running and have no intention of doing more than walking the 5km at the end.
Wed - better start at 5:15 just after sunup. No traffic, cool air (at start!), bright sun, and the trees shade the road through AlJasra. 5 laps for 31km at a good speed. Followed a Course on the Garmin 605, its neat. Curry night at Embassy in evening.
Thur - recovery day after night before!
Fri - 6:15 start, tandemed to Awali, picked up Seana & Richard, 15km loop into "desert" i.e. oil field, then breakfast stop at Riffa Golf Club. Yummy real bacon & egg butty. Then reversed back home via Zallaq. 39 C when we got back - it felt it and we needed lots of water. 65km altogether.
Going too fast!

Riffa back to Awali

Zallaq to Malkiya, with wind


Sat - 53km to Riffa Fort (2 hills) Awali to pick up Seana and Richard, Zallaq, Hamala for breakfast snack, then across highway to Camel Farm for pictures) Wind was strong N and the going was tough coming back, but at least it was about 5 degrees cooler. Drove S&R back with their bikes.

25/04/09 Crew back on board

Sun - Clear blue sky, sunny & cool air to start, getting warmer. Soon it will be summer and hot hot hot. 29km around Avenue 2/Al Jasra. Crazy drivers, overtaking coming towards you at a closing speed of 120kph, leaving just a metre spare or a decision to go off the road. Betty's birthday party at Embassy in evening. Landlord has bought a Concept 2 rowing machine for the gym, and finally has said he will repair the pool heater/chiller.

Mon - 41km to Hamad, up to Awali and back. 3 headon overtaking incidents. Sports diver lecture in evening.

Tues - 31km AlJasra loops. Tried higher cadence, varying pace. Only 1 headon incident. Choir in evening - Alistair has decided Verdi sacred pieces are too difficult for us (!) so its Haydn/Handel (Zadok etc) plus Puccini Mass.

Wed - Glorious day. 28km. Must get up earlier to enjoy the bright start before the heat kicks in.

Thur - 40 lengths in pool. Stoker arrived. St George's Society White & Red ball.

Fri - Amazed we surfaced in time to tandem to Fuds for breakfast. F1 activity starting, BBC Sport staff around. Back up to Awali, hill to Riffa Fort, back down Zallaq highway and home. Hot, sweaty and lots of water drunk. 63km @ 35 C in the shade! After a shower the jetlagged stoker crashed out fast asleep. We did too much unprepared for the heat

Sat - Seemed we fitted in a lot today - 22km tandem, 40 lengths swim, spin/abs in evening then went to Adliya and saw new pedestrianised area and snack at Coco's.

Activated Garmin 605, not much different in operation from 305 apart from maps. Loaded OSM UK maps and a detailed Bahrain.img from http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/. As long as I can connect to a PC, I can swop between these additional basemaps. Awaiting final LE2JOG routes before loading them on as daily Courses.

New Shimano open sandals fit nicely. Can't tell if they are cooler than shoes as the sweat just pours down my legs over them!

18/04/09 Easterless

Sun - day of rest and recuperation.

Mon - Massive thunder storm last night, v. exciting, so day dawned bright, very clear and cool air, getting warmer quickly. Got out at 6am for 36km through Hamad Town. Bought and drank 1.5 ltr of water halfway. Lesson reinforced: hydrate or die.

Tues - dawdled 26km down to Kazzakan, exploring roads towards sea, into an increasingly strong N wind.

Wed - Good ride. 42km to AlAreen. This is about the max I can fit in between sunrise and before going to work. Lesson learned: porridge before ride. Spin/abs in evening.

Thur - unusual gusty SE wind, so played locally for 22km

Fri - Overcast & humid. Hamad, Awali, Riffa Fort, Zallaq, AlAreen, end of AlJazerar beach then back via the black flag villages. Increasingly strong N wind (up to 15knots), so slow plod back home after refuelling at Fuds for 85km. Here's the route covering the centre/west of the island:

Sat - same weather as yesterday, so decided to go north on MTB, Seef, airport, Amwaj Islands, Hid Bridge and back for 88km, then round Al Jasra to make it a first 100km! Ski googles work well against the dust. Then spin/abs in the evening. Here's the route:

11/04/09 Down to 1

So kiddies left on Saturday night, and Cherry on Tuesday night but she is back in 2 weeks. New resolution is to get up early and go for a ride before work.

Wed - Set alarm for 5:45, but only managed to get going at 7:15 for an easy 21km around AlJasra.

Thurs - Pool training for rescue diving on Wednesday evening postponed so early night meant got out for 32KM ride at 6:15. Lesson learned: Argh, horrible traffic despite early hour. Don't cycle past BDF and along pipeline road on a weekday morning.

Found a great site http://www.instamapper.com/ that enables the BB Bold to send its GPS position at intervals and get plotted on Google Maps. If the battery life survives this will be a cool way of seeing where we are each day on the ride. Put a widget for displaying this on this blog roll.

Friday - started out with Awali Wheelers and soon ended up in a back group of 3. Wet road, but did 75km.

Saturday - new route to Riffa Fort, through Riffa, down Zallaq highway, Al Areen and Banyan Tree. Breakfast at Fuds, then home for 70km. Gusty wind and blobby rain, good training! Lesson learned - need to refuel every 2 hours. Spin/Abs in evening and off to Andrew's picture launch at Lina's.

04/04/09 BahRAIN

I had planned a long ride down to the end of the island (Dhurat) for Friday, but my stoker revolted, and the Marshall peleton (Jonathan, Lucinda and Hannah) refused as well, so we decided just to do the usual F1 coffee. Luckily for them Friday was wet with drippy rain, so instead we drove to Fuds for breakfast and met up with the Atkinsons. Breakfast was variably receievd by the peleton, but we went back to Seana's for tea and paintings..

Saturday was back to normal with some high clouds, but warm and sunny. The stoker and I went out for a 'technical training' ride of 23km around AlJasra, exploring the quiet new tarmac at the back of the BDF camp with a number of left turn, stops and starts. No panics and greater confidence from the rear as to the captain's competence and care.

28/03/09 Hardening the bodies ...

Now the hard bit starts. I cycle at weekends which at this time of year is pleasant - the heat starts next month, and try and do gym spin classes at the Ritz Carlton. Cherry came out for 3 weeks on 19 March, so we immediately went out for a ride to the F1 circuit Costa Coffee (45k). On Saturday we went as far as could down the west of the island past AlJazeyer beach and clocked up 75k. Friends Seana and Richard have the only tandem in Bahrain and they kindly lent it to us for practising, so last weekend we went out on the tandem for 45 and 56k rides.

We need to do more as the LE2JOG days are between 60 and 80 miles.

Now lets see how we progress.

28/03/09 Getting organised

First things, the bike. Lots of wiggling (http://www.wiggle.co.uk/) produced mudguards, a rear rack, rack bag, handlebar bag, cateye computer, padded grips. These got fitted when last back in UK at beginning of March.

Bikeadventures provided their trip notes, and I plotted these with http://www.bikehike.co.uk/ to save them as .tcx files for loading onto my Garmin Edge 305. But as you do, I decided to upgrade to a 605 to get the basemaps. This was ordered last night, and I should get it in a couple of weeks. Having the helpful garmin insights from http://frank.kinlan.co.uk/ should allow me to load up openspacemaps, and save the daily courses to the Garmins microSD card.

Train booked down to Penzance for the start (got in early so cheapest advanced fares) and Easyjet booked back from Inverness. Flights booked from Bahrain to/from London around the dates of the trip.

So thats the hardware. What about the wetware?

28/03/09 The challenge..how it started

For a number of years I've wanted to cycle LE2JOG. I cycled the Sustrans C2C in 2002, then moved to Saudi Arabia and now Bahrain so such holidays took a back seat. I said to myself "when I retire". But there is no deadline for that, so last year I hinted that I was going to do it myself in 2009. Without being prompted Cherry said she was coming as well, well thats her decision so I won't be held accountable for the weather or pain!. Then jetlagged over Xmas I was browsing the internet as you do at 4 in the morning and bought a Viking Saratoga tandem for 300 quid for fun. It arrived 3 days later, and we said "hey, lets do it by tandem". We decided that we didn't have the time (and not being in the UK) to handle the logistics so after more Googling decided on http://www.bikeadventures.co.uk/. Their trips had good reports, and we booked on the 5-20 June 2009 group. Feeling we were being self indulgent to date, so we looked to raising some money for charity, and Watford Mencap is close to our lives and location so we are doing that through www.justgiving.co.uk/le2jogtandem.