We did it!

After all the build up it was simple! We made it back to Cardiff this morning at 3.30amafter a 120 mile pant from Fishguard

This is it - we are off.

26th July Bags packed no more excuses! We leave 6am tomorrow morning from Cardiff Bay. We? my two sons and I. Do we really know what we are letting ourselves in for?

Let's now link a map http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=51.463214,-3.165092&spn=0.000919,0.002151&t=h&z=19&om=1&msid=111223758503055881162.0004362b011d7ea40d600

Theres a history to this stuff.

Met local cycling king Reg Braddick today. http://www.regbraddickcycles.com/History.htm

Reg is not only a keen cyclist but knows his stuff when it comes to electric vehicles. I took my fathers Raleigh c1938 for him to see and check whether it would be possible to restore it. Turns out it is possible - despite its age, the adoption of imperial measurements in the US and far east, means that components are relatively easy to swap.

The comparison of excellent 30's technology with that available today is eye opening. With disc brakes, hydraulic brake pipes, 28 gears and made from modern lightweight materials, today's machines are produced to a much more consistently higher standard (abroad) but will not last 80 years!

It turns out that this cycling trip was undertaken by Reg's father and Wynford Vaughan Thomas in the '60s and filmed for TV!

Still Here

A number of days have passed since my last entry but that does not mean nothing is happening. There are a swarm of fat man ... programs emerging on television. One involved a 23 stone teenager who went to the US to have his stomach pinched another was about a fatties group trying to live/hunt in Africa. Cycling Wales is tame by comparison. Even the weatherman has walking Wales program. At this rate its entirely possible that all of the TV crews will accidentally meet, one day, and fuse in a mass meltdown.

Ian has purchased a number of £800 bicycles - with hydraulic disc brakes. He brought some magnificent deer that he shot and we had a wonderful lunch (cooked in brandy with spring onions, mushrooms and broccoli). So much for any diet!

My knee continues to ache. I climbed 'the Garth' last Saturday with Ian and Ffion. Climbing is fine - so long as my knee does not flip to one side but I had to take a farm track to come down. I have no trust in my left knee - this is exactly what Julie believed she had!

Happy Hugh turned up today also claiming to have had an operation for the same problem.

Breconbus

Some while has been spend browsing maps and deciding the exact rules for this cycle. The rule is likely to be to ride the road closest to the border/shoreline (even if this means crossing into England occasionally). An option is Rule 2 - to take the train when the track is closer than the road allowing me to ride a beautiful length of railway.

I'm using the excuse that the inside of my left knee is bruised to avoid any training for a while but my son Bwyts is keep to exercise and cycle with me (as this is a route to me buying him yet another bike).

We did loan a mountain tandem for a while but this was death on wheels. Unfortunately, the bus to Brecon, which was starting to form part of the training, does not resume until May.

"Going places" today is about folk who took to the road on a cycle and never came home - now there's an idea!

Forbidden reading

Children tend to be highly tuned into adult sensitivities, particularly those of their parents. This was proved when, in the rare occasions I started to browse books in the main bookcase at home, I moved to the extreme left-hand end of the second shelf. Like a game of "hotter-colder" I tried to work out which was the forbidden book. Then bulls eye - it was the A-Z of Home Medicine. Subsequent unaccompanied visits revealed images of women - breastfeeding (even with nursing bras the images contained a certain appeal).

Faining innocence I asked my mother why the book was 'restricted' (must have been aged eight at the time). It was not the breastfeeding section that caused the sensitivity but the fear that my mother thought I would think I had every disease in the book were I to read the symptoms. Exactly that problem has now occurred. My electronic blood pressure/heart rate monitoring gadgets have arrived today(Friday). Their displays confirming the sorry state of my carcass.

My lipstick camera is a sore disappointment. Example video.

Way over the limit

I'm dying to see how these electronic heart meters and more especially blood pressure meters work (or perhaps I should reword that?). Both are on order as is the small head camera.

Yesterday, by chance, a friend (Ian) left a conventional blood pressure meter and stethoscope for me to try. My readings were off the scale well 115/165 but it was fun getting to learn how to get a good reading as I did from Julie, my wife, and two friends that visited yesterday evening. With care very accurate readings are possible. Mine worry me.

Others who have heard of my idea are now sending inappropriate links viz http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=7501957955247099892&q=wales

Time to lay down again.

Catching my wife "at it".

3rd January 2007 and I have caught my wife "at it". There's no real evidence but I'm sure she is replacing my complete wardrobe with duplicate clothing two sizes smaller! Worse still she is in cahoots with the bathroom scales, which despite being brand new, confirm my weight as being a little over 20 stones. (OK - 8lbs over 20 stones). As my size diminishes (to 5' 11") this confirms my status as well in the range entitled "morbidly obese" (thank you Drs Hurle).

For most people this would probably represent some kind of crisis but the simultaneous achievement of 20 stone and 50 years of age has to be noted as one of the very rare, recent, intended achievements, in fact the only only, bar having a happy Christmas.

I have to confess that I've not been trying to curb my weight - I have tried three diets - I'm still on them all now (there being insufficient food on just the one) but now the time has come to make the decision as to whether to enjoy growing old and fat (which I do - it is a real option - my life is already completed) or take an active alternative to return to some semblance of fitness.

Losing weight should not really be that difficult - forget all the faddy stupidity, just eat less and do more! OK so lets do it! The decision - made! So how much weight would one lose cycling round Wales - dunnow - so let's do it and find out.

I'm not going back on my decision but there are always reasons to delay - such as the Christmas left overs including the remains of a barrel of Brains Rev. James still in the kitchen. I need a quiet build up to this otherwise the sheer thought of all this effort will kill me.

Let's also have a little fun and scientific investigation in the process. I'm going to order a blood pressure meter and heart monitor and film all this stuff.

That's enough for day one, I'm all worn out now, with this typing. Refreshment time.