DAY SIXTY TWO

Off to cycle around Benelux - back in two weeks.

Let's see how life on a bike goes....

xx

DAY FIFTY FIVE

Fifty five days? Already???!?!!

I know you can never tell how things would turn out if you had taken another path BUT I'm sure all of the training side of things is having a massive effect on everything. At the moment things are winnings.

It's always dangerous to say that I know and obviously touch wood etc but getting out of living life underground in the sprawl makes suddenly makes you feel like this place is home.

Anyway...am planning a 2 week mini-tour to Amsterdam in a couple of weeks. I suppose it'll be like having one of those free pizza samples or using a computer in safe mode. Let's face it there are very few stories of armed gangs roaming the planes of western Europe and it's very flat. Should be easy...yes?

Why have I still not bought a touring bike??

DAY FOURTY THREE

"Hey man, slow down"

Much of what we do is routine and often for good reason. Understandably this begins to become mundane and we stop to bother to take a look around and we try to cut as many corners as we can. It just becomes about getting from A to B as quickly as possible. 

Part of the idea for this trip is about trying to take things slower. With everyone working as many hours as they can keep their eyes open for and having fewer holidays (gone are the 6 week summer holidays unfortunately) getting away seems to become ticking as many boxes as possible. Yes I've been away. Yes I went there. Here is a photo of me here and here and here. Tick, tick, tick. 

All of it though is on borrowed time. There's that niggling feeling that you know you have to get back. Most of us, me included, live on someone else's time. 

What do you want to do today? Is that something that you can really answer alone?

There's a great Bob Dylan quote that I've probably got wrong - "A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do." 

I suppose I'd caveat that by saying that I'm not trying to cut myself off on this trip. Lots of people have expressed an interest in joining me for legs of the trip and that'd be amazing if they're able to - the more the merrier. I'm just saying that I can't wait to get up and go wherever my legs will take me. 

THE ROUTE - 

It's beginning to take shape. Ushuaia, Argentina to Cartagena, Columbia. 4572 miles as the crow flies. 

The FCO Travel advice for Columbia - 

"There are a number of illegal armed groups operating throughout Colombia. Because they are mobile there are many parts of the country where it is not possible to determine in advance whether they will be unsafe at a particular time. In general, the more remote the area the greater the threat to your safety. If it is essential that you travel to areas that are remote or reported to be dangerous, you are advised to seek professional security advice and make arrangements for your security throughout your visit. 

Kidnapping remains a serious problem. Whilst levels of kidnappings have fallen off dramatically since peaking in 2000, Colombia continues to have a high rate of kidnapping for ransom. 201 kidnappings were recorded in the period January to September 2010 (Source: Fondo Nacional para la Defensa de la Libertad).  Most foreign nationals are potential targets for kidnapping, including backpackers and those working for foreign organisations. There remains a significant risk of attack or kidnap in many more difficult parts of the country."

Sounds like fun!!!

DAY THIRTY SEVEN (2)

Forgot to mention - I got some great advice from Alistair Humphreys the other day about surviving in South America and keeping costs down. 

It's so helpful to hear from people that have "done it" and removes some of those mental barriers in thinking I'm not "that type of person".

Al's books documenting his trip around the world are certainly worth reading. I'm half-way through the second book at the moment and need to finish it soon. He completely captures the human side of things which is surely the most difficult part.

It's also made me re-think my trip slightly. I've been umming and arrring about whether to start north and go south or the other way around but his description of Columbia suggests that it's worth taking the risk on (another thing I've been unsure about) - however I'd rather not start there. It'd be good as well to end it amongst people rather than the wilderness.

Al has some great quotes including -

"If you're not hurting you're not riding hard enough

If you're not hungry you've eaten too much

If you're not cold you're carrying too many clothes

If you know you will succeed it's too easy."

Alistair Humphreys

DAY THIRTY SEVEN

Must update this more. Must do better. Must push myself harder.

Argh...exhausting stuff. I've always found it hard to focus on several things at once. I can get very obsessed by one thing and push myself in that direction but trying to balance work, training, eating, socialising is hard to get right. I'm not going to get all self-pitying because it could be a lot bloody worse but I just need to rebalance things and work out my priorities.

At the moment I'm doing about 50 mins in total commuting on the bike each day and three big weight and cardio sessions a week (well - I'm trying to. Bank holidays and other commitments at weekends are distracting me.) Must do better.

I shouldn't get demoralised at all because it's still early days but getting into a solid rhythm is proving difficult. It's getting to the stage where I'm a bit pissed off with myself for drinking unnecessarily or being lazy with food.

My aim by the end of the week is to get into the habit of carrying on with cycling to and from work, a cardio session at lunchtime and three times a week gym. This shouldn't be hard to do and I should want to do this. I keep hearing stories about people dying in the Andes so I need to push beyond what I'm doing now. I've made progress but I need so much more.

I still need to work out what to do about weekends...

Anyway! I've got a two week mini-trip from London to Amsterdam via Belgium booked with a friend in a month or so. It will be the perfect initial test to see not just cycling stamina but to test what little I know about expedition living. Tent, sleeping bag, water, food - done.

DAY TWENTY NINE

Weekends. They are the enemy. Or maybe it's weekend me.

Weekday me can eat nothing but healthy stuff (and be happier for it), get his 5 a day and drink 3 litres of water. He can resist the temptation of 3 pints after work and will cycle to work in the rain.

Weekend me listens to the other shoulder. He'll try to be the last one standing, get up at midday, take the bus and look for materialistic thrills to pass the day.

At some point one side will have to back down...

DAY TWENTY FIVE

What a day!

Absolutely smashed the ride in and felt completely on top of the world by the time I got into work. It just shows what an effect early morning exercise can have. I remember people going on about it and always thought - can't be arsed - but it certainly does something. The last couple of weeks at work have been a hell of a lot better so perhaps it's had an effect there - who knows?

The ride home though was borderline comical and certainly made me less cocky again. Whilst setting off, sorting my footing and trying to pull down my t-shirt to avoid flashing I managed to fail on all three counts and hit a curb at very slow pace, almost going over the handlebars. Luckily I had a big audience but I laughed it off and carried on.

Dinner....chicken, ham or prawns?

DAY TWENTY FOUR

Another day, another dollar.

Half-way through my second week of London cycling and no deaths so far. Plenty of close calls and I have an acute case of bike rage but on the whole - so liberating.

After two weeks I know the city far better than 6-8 months of life underground. The metaphors about moving from one means of transportation to the other don't even need to be stated. It's the case with everything, the first step is the hardest. Everyone should do it...just avoid left turning lorries!

I've had a few ideas about the trip itself. I really like the concepts of connectivity and isolation. With most travelling experiences people do the trip and return, write a book and speak on the topic (nothing wrong with that at all)...BUT...would it be interesting if the audience could connect with the traveller in realtime?

I have a few ideas up my sleeve but I'll keep them to my chest for now. This could get interesting....

DAY TWENTY-ONE

Ok – it’s been a few days and I realise that if this idea is going to get any traction then I need to be on top of trying to share it. The excuse I would give is that I’ve just moved house and have no regular internet access but, as I live in one of the tech centres of the world, that’s clearly a feeble attempt to mask laziness. And that goes against the purpose of the blog.

Speaking over the last couple of days with the few people that have taken a look at this so far I’m feeling slightly more content with accepting that - yes this idealistic but I shouldn’t be too conscious about trying to avoid clichés as the feedback so far has been positive. But, quite reasonably, I don’t get the impression that many quite believe that I’m going to follow through. Equally, a year’s worth of gym updates and so on is going to provide extremely boring reading. The balance with sharing the progress is to be honest enough to allow people to connect with the themes of the idea but without sharing too much and it all getting a bit self-helpy and awkward.

So…

I hope it’s pretty obvious that this blog is going to be all about the “journey”, not just the transformation from novice cyclist to continent beater or the trip itself but also the progression of someone excusing why things aren’t a certain way to someone doing something about it. 

A caveat to all of this is to say that in no way am I trying to say that things haven’t turned out extremely well for me and, although it’s probably impossible, I don’t want to come across as an ungrateful, relatively affluent, twenty-something doing the whole post-materialistic identity crisis thaaaang (I think I did that earlier this year with 3 weeks in Thailand). The core of this idea is more than just a long bike ride; it’s about being open to shunning the easy and conventional path in search of something else. And yes, I should be grateful that I’m able to do all of this without fear of starvation (except for somewhere in South America) but I don’t think it’s something to be apologetic about.  

Ultimately doesn’t everyone’s dream to please both the 10 year old and 80 year old inside them? I remember reading one of those wise quotes recently (I’ll find it later) that you’ll regret the things you didn’t do far more than those you did. That sums it up better than I could.

I’ve probably covered this already within the first two rambles but anyway…

What I want to do is to try to express coherently everything - from the training, equipment and nutrition (the boring side) to the feelings of doubt and frustration as well as the elation from seeing progress (the human side). Obviously I haven’t got a clue how this will turn out and whether there will be any coherency to it but if nothing else hopefully it’ll be fun for you to read about a bloke giving it a go. I think so far it’s sided more on the boring side – so let’s try and address that over the coming days…

DAY NINETEEN

I'm still going. Just moved house so have no internet...will do a full update soon!

Day Eleven

Trying my best to keep this updated as best I can...I realise there are probably about three people regularly viewing but hey - maybe one day looking back I'll wish I caught more of the early days. 

Last few days have been pretty manic as I am currently moving flats and my family are moving house too so I've had a couple of days off work packing and unpacking. Nightmare. Anyway, the biggest issue with this has (I know it sounds lame) been keeping on top of my diet. I've been stuffing my face with packets of ham when I have the chance but I really need to get back into the habit I built up for the first week. The light at the end of the tunnel should be tangible by the end of the weekend. 

Gym work is going alright - had to do back to back sessions Monday and Tuesday which meant the latter was pretty poor as my muscles hadn't recovered. I pushed through most of it by thinking about epic inspirational speeches (...it's the inches...) but left a bit pissed off with myself. Although I left my gym shorts at the family house I will somehow force myself into the gym tomorrow to top off the weekday sessions - even if I have to wear boxers a la primary school. 

In other news I managed to get a bike - which obviously helps. I also managed to split the crotch of a pair of trousers eagerly getting onto it (an omen?)...It's a Specialized Langster (off eBay for £160), not a touring bike at all but I need to get into the habit of cycling to work and breaking free from the tube. 

I still haven't decided on a touring bike. My Dad, who's a cycling geek, has suggested either a Roberts Rough Stuff

...or a Thorn Raven...

But since both are over £2000, even with begging, borrowing and stealing either of these will put the whole tour at risk really. I think off something off the shelf will do for now but I don't want to rush into anything yet. 

Off to eat some plain chicken. Yummy. 

Day Five

I'm going to try to be more concise for a bit...

I've received my training and nutrition plan. Apparently I was generally eating only around 2000 calories a day, which probably explains why I wasn't seeing results. For the first 2 weeks that's been upped to around 2700 which basically means I seem to be eating for most of my waking hours. My request that the meals be ridiculously simple has paid off - it's less cooking and more preparation. Although tonight's baked sweet potato left me scratching my head...I went with; step 1 - peel, step 2 - chop up (saves cooking time), step 3 - put in oven. It seemed to work...

The training plan is by far the most intense plan I've had, making me realise how little effort I generally expend there. For instance my cardio has been upped from 20 mins cycling fake hills at about 70rpm to 30 mins of 2 mins at 80% of my limit followed by 1 min recovery. By the end of that I felt like I'd climbed Everest and may have punched the air. But whatever - looking like a twat in a gym comes naturally. 

Oh and the weights stuff is pretty intense and mainly new exercises to me so I had to google them first. The added problem with that is that the weight you can put on to start is laughably small so you inevitably begin by overloading before doing one, wincing, and slyly taking some weight off. 

Right...the promised photos...

...here's Venezuela - the start point. 

and Patagonia (somewhere near the bottom) - the end point. 

Separated by around 5000 miles of life-changing adventures. 

End. Was that succinct?

Day Two

Somehow I've managed to stick at this for more than just Sunday night's crazed decision to get things going online. 

Since I last posted I've...

...started a twitter page: http://twitter.com/endofexcuses

...started a Gmail account: theendofexcuses@gmail.com

...and had my first session with my nutritionist. Yes - really. Both people I spoke to about this told me I was wasting my money and that it was obvious when to eat. I understand the principles - Maccy D's is probably not going to get you a six pack and green stuff is good for you but beyond that I'm fairly clueless as to what a "nutritionally balanced" diet is. 

This whole thing is about trying to minimise, as best I can, my ability to gradually lose motivation and find something else to interest me (think of an excitable dog as the perfect analogy). I can make excuses to myself but I think I'll find it harder to make them to someone else. 

Anyway...after Googling "sports nutritionist london" I got in contact with Michelle at www.thesportsnutritioncoach.com to have an initial consultation. Just writing down what I generally eat made me realise that I have no chance if left to my own devices. After a questionnaire and a few measurements she's going to put together a meal plan for me to follow and a training plan. I told her to make it as simple as possible because let's face it, my kitchen skills are severely lacking. I both burnt and undercooked chicken fajitas the other week. Yes it all sounds like I'm taking it far too seriously but if I end up seeing results faster and feel healthier then win. 

The same applies to my knowledge of the gym. I'm sure many people will have read the odd fitness article at some stage and decided that we're experts - well I have - but really I have no idea. At some point when I was about 17 I took up going to the gym over the summer holidays every day and saw some very minor results probably because I was trying to push everything everyday. Whatever the reason I'm sure having a plan organised will really help push things along. 

All of this sounds really positive yeah? 

Well after my rambling first post on Sunday I didn't make it out for a run. I could make an excuse now but I'm not going to - laziness. 

Gym today though went well. Sitting on the exercise bike for 20 mins on intermediate level doing some fake hill thing made me realise how tricky this whole thing is going to be and of course this was all inside an air conditioned gym. I don't expect I could survive 5 minutes of an altitude climb in humid conditions. 

Oh and that brings me onto the last thing. 

Someone told me that they knew someone else who decided to do the same and cycle South America - obviously I was keen to hear how they got on so I asked enthusiastically how they got on. Apparently they're dead. Yep - their lungs gave up half way up a long climb. Great. With that news I'll bugger of to try and work out what to eat before my nutrition plan comes through...

I'll add some pictures and other stuff soon to hide the rambles amongst other visual delights. 

Adios. 

And so it begins...

I've never written a blog before. I've read many. I would hate to think how much time of my life that has taken up but I'm sure it's far more than is healthy. That's really what started this whole idea - procrastination. I'm sure I'm not the only one that spends far too much time sat in this spot, or one similar, aimlessly skimming websites while the hours tick away. At some point it has to stop, surely?

I'm sure everyone has thoughts, once they've ticked off school, college, possibly university, managed to settle into a job with "good prospects" (if they're patient for a few years) and they begin to have visions of mortgage repayments, their friends pairing off and settling down and the biggest adrenaline rush of the day being that moment when you think your boss has caught you on the BBC News website again and you suddenly think - is this it?

I'm aware that that sounds like a big cliche and I expect most of this blog will read that way because whole idea is essentially a cliche.

This is The End of Excuses. A blog about my decision to stop telling myself I will change things tomorrow and actually get up and do it.

What am I going to do?

As the subtitle of the blog suggests - I am going to cycle the length of South America, approximately 5000 miles, in (approximately) a year's time with a guitar on my back.

Why not today, doesn't that undermine what I just wrote?

I wish I was able to! I've never been an "outdoorsy" person. I haven't ever been to scouts (or beavers or whatever they're known as), I didn't do Duke of Edinburgh at school because it looked like far too much hard work and unnecessarily cold and wet. The only camping I've done in the last 5-10 years is at music festivals. The only cycling I've done in the last few years has been on a pub crawl around the New Forest for a friend's birthday and I don't even own a bike at the moment. I go to the gym once or twice a week but generally just sit on the machines, taking far too long between lifting the bare minimum I will let myself get away with before spending 8-10 mins on a treadmill/bike, getting bored and leaving. I did manage to do 8 weeks of solid exercise and healthy eating last year but then I lost the motivation and gave up when Christmas came along.

Why cycling South America, can't I just eat less/move around more without sounding like I've finally lost it?

Probably but no. First of all I've never been. I've never been to lots of places but I've always wanted to go and I've realised that, having started living the 9-5 dream, I don't want to wait until I'm 40, bitter and look back wishing and regretting. I want to achieve something far beyond what I can achieve at the moment and I want a challenge.

Those that know me will confirm that I'm not a particularly patient person, I never read instructions (being male and naturally overconfident in my abilities to assemble Ikea furniture) and I tend to get bored with things very very quickly. A friend of mine recently said I should start a blog called "should-a, would-a, could-a" (I did try that but it was taken) because every time she sees me I have a new crazy idea.

[As an aside, in the past year, in no particular order I've wanted to - write a book, finally write that album, become a documentary filmmaker, become a computer scientist and web entrepreneur, become a social media analyst (that was an odd one...), become a journalist, become a circus performer, go to Thailand and tour with a fire diabolo, become a festival booker, be Lady Gaga's guitarist, become a photographer... I'm sure there are many others but aside from some moves in each of those directions I don't see any of them happening soon.]

Another friend, after hearing this idea, said that he thought I was having a mid-20s crisis (probably true but doesn't everybody?). However if I spend the next X years continuing in this fashion I'm sure I'll regret not doing something sooner and I can't think of a better way to kick myself up the arse and do something epic that 10 year old me would be proud of.

If I'm impatient and unwilling to read instructions I will probably die somewhere along the trip and the only way I can think of mitigating the risk that I give up this idea next week is to just commit to writing a blog and telling everyone I know. They are free to rip the piss out of me endlessly if I give this up.

So...

I'm going to spend the next year going from novice cyclist and an extremely averagely healthy 23 year old with slightly greying hair (is it alright to try Just for Men yet?) to a super-keen, healthy nutcase man living by the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People or something like that without losing my friends, my mind and, of course most importantly of all, my job.

I know I'm not the first person to do that and many have similar done things far more impressive (Google: Mark Beaumont) but this is my goal. If it inspires others then that'd be amazing but I don't have delusions (yet).

I told myself I would write this and then triumphantly go outside and run around for a bit so I suppose I should go and do that now since this has already taken about 45 mins to bloody write.

Here's a link to a Nike advert to inspire the world, I'm sure you can embed these things easily but I've never spent enough time working out how...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxCUGhIqrMc&feature=related%20http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxCUGhIqrMc&feature=related


ps: I know the layout of this blog is absolutely shocking so I promise to update it soon.