3 weeks on.. My thoughts

Hello!
So it has been about 3 weeks since we cycled to Paris and I am fully recovered! However I'm still not in any great hurry to get back on my bike! I'm often asked if I enjoyed our 'holiday' and my response has consistently been 'It was the worst thing I have ever done'. Yes, this was mostly down to the terrible weather conditions as if it hadn't have been so rainy I think the whole experience would have been far more enjoyable. Plus in stark contrast, the weather was absolutely stunning during our England day; that's not how it's supposed to be! I remember repeatedly telling my mum when we were planning the trip that 'Camping will be fine, it won't rain in France - it's France!' I was under some delusion that the whole of France had a Mediterranean type climate..
But beside the cold, the wind, the relentless rain and being in a permanent state of soggyness I can still say that I am 100% glad that I did it. It was one huge crazy adventure and the sense of exploration and excitement was well worth the pain. I saw some beautiful parts of both France and England and explored little towns and cafes that you would never normally care to explore on your standard holiday. One memorable part for me was diverting off of our path around 9am on our first day in France in order to take shelter from the rain. We stumbled upon a quaint little cafe type place (although I'm sure it was actually just someone's dining room) where we poorly put our GCSE's in French to use and managed to order two wonderful hot chocolates. It was a little bit of salvation from the cold and wind even though I think we were interrupting the owners breakfast!
The experience was very strange and surreal and I'm still confused as to what actually happened during our trip. We met some great people along the way and I saw many animals (highlight for me) to whom I yelled 'Bonjour' to as we cycled past. I wish I could say arriving at the Eiffel Tower was the best part for me... but our campsite was at least a half hour cycle back the way we had come from the tower. So once we arrived at the tower all I could think was 'I've still got to get back on the bloody bike! It's still not over!' However I was highly impressed with how big the Eiffel Tower is, I wasn't quite expecting it!

Would I do it again? Yes, on the condition I had a racing bike and a support car to carry all my stuff in. Oh, and hotels to stay in. No more camping - ever.
Would I reccomend it? Yes! Okay, I know our blog won't inspire confidence in anyone but honestly it is so worthwhile and such a good experience that you can gain so much out of!
Best moment? Very occasionally beasting up hills past Jamie..oh and nearly causing a crash on the cycle track around the Hippodrome de Longchamps by blindly turning down it the wrong way into the path of an incoming peloton! It was funny!
Worst moment? Waking up in the middle of the night to realise my arm was in a puddle and the rest of me wasn't too dry either.

A very surreal experience

One of the first things I was asked when I got back, was did I enjoy it? The truthful answer to that is no, not at all. It was by far and away the hardest thing I've ever done physically, and that is before you add in other circumstances such as the weather. Cycling through France for two days with the wind and rain driving in your face is not fun, especially when you can't even take refuge in your own tent (and everyone else seems to have support vans and warmth). I think I've been put off camping for life! It already seems like a lifetime ago, and even during the journey, it didn't always feel as if we were actually doing it, it was a very strange few days.
Having said that, I'm extremely glad I've done it, and it was definitely a worthwhile experience! It was ultimately relief that I felt when we arrived under the Eiffel Tower, but knowing that we had made it made the pain and rain (mostly) worth it. Despite everything, there are still good memories to take away: meeting people along the way was great, we got to visit Paris, and I still can't believe our only puncture came on Amy's mountain bike tires!
Add to this that we made our £500 sponsorship target (thankyou so much to everyone who sponsored us!) and it is definitely an unforgettable experience,  that I'm glad I had, even if I will be in no hurry to do anything like it again soon!

The video of the trip!

Le Coudray St Germer - Paris

Our first night of camping was in short - horrific. I woke up after a few hours of sleep to discover I was essentially lying in a puddle. The constant rain had caused the outer tent to stick to the inner tent and consequently a lot of rainwater had leaked into the tent. After a freezing cold and sleepless night, we woke in the morning to realise the full extent of the leak. The inner tent was practically flooded, our blanket and panniers and our sleeping clothes were all soaked too. And to make things better, it was still raining. We then had to spend over an hour trying to separate the soaking wet stuff from the drier stuff whilst inside our tiny tent.
Our mood was not good. We were shattered, cold, soaked and everything was aching. Nonetheless we made a swift but well behind schedule start. Soon however the wind and the increasingly heavy rain and hilly terrain took its toll and we really began to slow. Conditions were poor and we were in bad condition after the horrible night. As we pulled up around 35 miles later we were surprised to be met by a familiar face..more than 70 miles since we had last seen him. As the guy rolled up next to us, he proceeded to fall off his bike and we realised it was the same guy we had met way back in Dieppe. We rested and chatted for a while before setting off on a supposed shortcut. This shortcut actually ended up in us getting lost for an hour before finally finding our way back to the route. By this time it began to dawn on us that due to our late start and time lost due to conditions and losing our way, the number of hours left to go compared with the number of hours left in the day were not in our favour. Our tent was also soaked through making it uninhabitable and we had no plans or ideas of where else to stay in Paris. The prospect of wandering around Paris at night looking for somewhere to stay did not seem like a good idea.
However we ploughed on and eventually managed to reach the Seine. Not long after we bumped into that same guy again (making it the 5th time on the trip!) and after chatting about what was best for us to do next, we decided to stop for the night in a local hotel. This was a really difficult decision to make but in reality we didn't really have another option. We checked in and hung all the wet stuff out to dry in the hope that our tent would be habitable by the morning.

For the first time since we had arrived in France, we finally saw blue sky! We woke up to find a sunny morning and that our stuff had (mostly) dried. We set off on our final 25 miles a little bit more encouraged after the nightmare of the previous day. Cycling through pretty forests and making a short visit to Versaille (before we were promptly kicked out by a security guard) eventually led us up the steepest hill we have ever seen (yes, we walked up it) to the outskirts of Paris; Parc de St Cloud.
The Eiffel Tower was now in sight and after navigating across the busy roads over the Seine we found ourselves on the cycle race track around the Hippodrome on Rue de Longchamps. Winding down through the city we eventually arrived at the tower where we treated ourselves to a well deserved ice cream and relaxed on the grass, relieved that we had finally made it!

Dieppe - Le Coudray St Germer

As we queued for the 11.30pm ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe, a large number of cyclists began to join the line. We spoke to a few and discovered that we were far from the only ones who were planning this trip! There were large groups and individuals all attempting the same thing (though a few were trying to do it all in 24 hours!!) The main difference between us and them was they mostly seemed to have support vans and nice lightweight racing bikes as opposed to my pannier laden mountain bike!
After a four hour ferry crossing we arrived in a rather rainy Dieppe at about 4.30am and soon set off, slotting in behind a group of guys who sped off through the town (and we somehow managed to keep up!) As they stopped for directions we eagerly cycled on towards the Avenue Verte. Along the way we met a guy who had just casually decided the night before to cycle Dieppe to Paris and we had a little chat before he proceeded to fall off his bike. We continued on in the dark and onto the long tarmac strip of the Avenue and into the French countryside.
As the sun began to rise we began to take in the stunning countryside and the quaint little towns that the path intersected. We were soon overtaken by others who had been on the ferry with us including the guy who had fallen off his bike. Then it started to rain and we quickly became soaked and hastily shoved our clothes and tent into plastic bags in a small attempt to keep them dry. The rain and cold soon became too much and we sought shelter in a tiny cafe just off the avenue where a lady (whose breakfast i'm sure we interrupted) provided us with a wonderful hot chocolate to warm us up.
A while later the rain stopped but our problems had not. We came off the cycle path and onto a road and I instinctively cycled onto the left side. Jamie yelled 'RIGHT' at me and I swerved onto some gravel. Somehow I managed to get a puncture from this despite having mountain bike tires and my front wheel was soon completely flat by the time I had reached the top of the road. Although we knew how to repair a puncture (by we I mean Jamie has made one repair before) it would have taken us hours to get the wheel off alone! By some miracle a group of english cyclists came past and saw our evident trouble! Three of them spent the next 20 minutes or so repairing the puncture and we could not be more grateful to them for pretty much saving us from wasting hours trying to do it ourselves!
After a delicious lunch from a patisserie in Forges-Les-Eaux we set off again. The rest of the day pretty much blurred into one increasingly painful haze. The route became increasingly hilly and we really began to tire. Legs ached with every pedal and we literally felt empty and zapped of all energy. As you may imagine there were a few tears! After 14 hours or so since we began cycling we finally arrived at our campsite in Le Coudray St Germer.

Then the rain started...

Day 1 London to Newhaven

It was an early 5.30am start for us today as we caught the early train into London. After waiting about 2 hours to be allowed our bikes onto the trains, we arrived in Croydon. Immediately upon leaving the station, we got lost. We got so lost it probably took us about an hour and a half to actually get out! Two successive giant hills probably had a lot to do with this, the latter of which made Amy cry.
Our first moment of excitement was a bit of an odd one..cycling over the M25. It was something of a landmark meaning we were finally out of London! The second moment was realising we were finally in Sussex!
However cycling through sussex proved to be a rather trying experience. We constantly seemed to be going uphill and these hills were either pretty steep or stupidly long-although the majority of them seemed to be both! We seemed continually faced with hills that we'd never experienced before! Eventually we rolled (up a hill) into Lewes and then a long windy road down into Newhaven.

We're currently on the ferry looking forward to a very early 5amish start! Yay! There are lots of other cyclists on the ferry with us..majority of whom seem to be heading to paris. Some are doing it over a few days like us but a few are attempting to do the whole trip in 24hrs!
Just shows how popular a trip it is becoming!

All your support on justgiving/twitter/facebook is fantastic and is really keeping us going!
Thanks!

So we are off on friday!

So unbelievably, we are setting off to Paris this friday! It seems a long time from when we first decided to do this back in january! We will be setting off from Croydon on friday morning and hopefully arriving in Newhaven in the early evening! I am super excited to be going and looking forward to what will definitely be a memorable experience!!
We did cycle to Cambridge but I just forgot to write about it! We managed a decent 65 miles overall and there was no case of 'shaky leg' which used to plague us after our very first training rides once we got home. I think we can take that as a sign of improvement!
It will be interesting to see how carrying a load of stuff on the bike will effect our speed and hill climbing abilities but I'm hoping we will still be able to get up any big hills!

Just to say a huge thankyou to everyone who has sponsored us so far, we are at £350 which is amazing and will really encourage us to keep pedalling! Your money is going to a great cause and we will definitely get round to thanking all of you personally for your support! We hope to update this blog whilst on our ride so keep checking this page out to see how we are progressing!

Less than 3 weeks...!

So just less than 3 weeks till we set off! Our leaving date is the 23rd of August and we will hopefully be arriving in Paris on the 25th! After a bit of a palava in sorting out how exactly we were going to get home from Paris (Eurostar is not cheap) we have finally booked our ferry crossings and homeward trains. The train company have informed us that there won't be a problem with taking our bikes on the french trains but I have heard several stories which suggest otherwise! Let's just hope they do...

The next two weeks are going to have to be pretty training intense as I am not feeling fit enough at all. I have plans to do a few 30-40 mile trips and one big 70 odd miler to Cambridge and back at some point this week (hopefully in successive days!). If I can survive all that then I will be able to stop worrying. Though, I am finding it difficult to make myself go out on the bike. The terrain around here is pretty hilly which can make rides quite demoralizing as after tackling a few hills in succession it's easy to become knackered. Then I realise I've only managed to cycle 10 or 15 miles overall and although this has all been done at a reasonable pace, it is still a bit of a downer to be so tired after cycling so little! 

Please continue to show your support by reading/commenting on this blog, following our twitter or if you can, sponsoring us on our justgiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/AmyJamieLondonParis. For those of you who have already donated we are so grateful for your support and it really encourages us to keep going! It makes us feel that we won't be half killing ourselves in vain! (;

I will post an update on my cycling later this week!

We are still training...honest!

After a bit of an exam and holidaying hiatus we are back in the saddle with earnest. And a good thing to, since we plan to go in 6 weeks time!
We have really noticed an improvement in our cycling (especially now I've nearly learnt how to use my gears properly) and are finding climbs that would previously grind us to a halt are now far more manageable.
We concede that we aren't quite in the cycling elite yet but we are still averaging a pace that is more than enough to get us to Paris in one piece. Our session today took us around Bramfield and Tewin including a category 5 climb and was far more successful than our last time on this route!
We plan to be out on the bikes most days now even if just for a little bit to keep our fitness up. Next week we plan to cycle around 68 miles to Cambridge and back (with lunch inbetween!). This is about the distance we will be cycling per day on our trip so if we can do this then this should be a real confidence boost of our capabilities! Just hoping there aren't millions of hills to tackle!
If you want to be a bit nosy on our training then you can check out our MapmyRide profiles. I know there isn't much on them but that's only because we've only recently started using them and don't always remember to turn the app on when we cycle. We plan to use the app everytime we ride now so you can see just exactly what we are up to!
http://www.mapmyride.com/profile/30617896/
http://www.mapmyride.com/profile/JamieS1011/

I'm still looking for a ladies road bike if anyone knows of one for sale but if I can't find one then I think my little mountain bike might make it although it's not  ideal!
We are about to book the ferry and eurostar now that we actually know who is going (sadly has resulted in only the two of us) so it's all getting very real now!

Easter not quite as planned...

With two weeks off for Easter, we saw it as a perfect opportunity to get out cycling regularly and really make progress (in and amongst A Level revision, of course).  However, it hasn't quite worked out like that. The issue we forgot with Easter is the large quantity of chocolate that is given, and this, coupled with the traditionally poor English weather, left us out on the bike a lot less than we would have liked. Before today, the first time we made it out together, a sum total of three times. Not quite Paris standard!

This isn't to say that no exercise has been done, however, and this morning we set out on Amy's ambitious route to and through the Pelham's, and hopefully back again. With Michael joining us again, we hoped our group of three could survive the longest trip we had yet aimed for... and it was going well at first! Despite demoralisingly hilly terrain, and dubious navigation at points, we were making a steady pace and getting through the miles. The quiet countryside, with nice scenery, made it much more enjoyable than earlier distances down the river towpath!

Unfortunately, we then thought Michael was dead. On a long uphill section not too far from home he was suffering, but told us to go on and meet hime further on, rather than lose momentum on the hill. So we did, and we waited. And waited. And waited some more. And waited even more. Thankfully, just as we were considering going back to look for him, he made his way to us. Despite the suffering, we consider today a good day, though. Cycling further than we have done before, making 35 miles in one trip,

feeling vaguely comfortable throughout and without much training for a while, not too bad!

Some cooperation from the weather would be appreciated...

I think we have decided it is not allowed to be windy come the journey in August. Or rain. Or be cold for that matter. Still trying to do an extended ride every Saturday, we have been taking in roads with hills recently and sort of making progress, so braved the damp looking weather to go out early this weekend. We fell out with the wind immediately with at least the first 5 miles straight into a headwind, uphill, rain blowing in our faces. We thought it was bad when we saw even someone in proper cycling clothing (therefore must be good) struggling, and realised the full extent when on our way back we barely had to pedal as the wind did all the work! We came back wet and cold, my light had shattered after an altercation with a pothole, and so this evening we decided against another ride, as it was just too much wet and cold for a few days. I suspect we will have to get over this as we are training in Britain...
Despite this, it seems we are improving, beginning to average above 10mph on our journeys despite hillier terrain and one of us still on a child's bike! However, since starting in January, we have still trained less miles than the whole journey to Paris... a depressing thought but we do at least feel fitter!

Just an update...

I think in the last post we may have got a bit carried away. The fact that we actually did a cycle without dying, and overtook some people out for a leisurely cycle led us to claim 'we're getting there', which is a little wide of the mark perhaps. Since then, I have been on holiday so haven't cycled much, it turns out Amy's bike it too small and she can't cycle, and far too many cookies have been consumed. The result of this is probably worse fitness than a few weeks ago, and the realisation that so far, in now almost a few months training, around 90 miles have been cycled, some way short of the total near 200 miles we're aiming for... still some way off!

We are getting there...!

Firstly, we potentially have a new team member! Michael joined us for our Saturday ride today and is hopefully going to be coming to Paris with us! We nearly have enough people for a peloton..!
We repeated last weeks 20 mile ride and miraculously, our fitness levels have soared over the last week of training! We maintained a steady but decent pace for the entire journey, and improved on last weeks time by over 45 minutes! We were even overtaking other cyclists as we went! And when we arrived back in Hertford we still felt like there was still something left in the tank!

Despite us each having several near misses with falling in the canal, I think we could be as bold as to say that today may have been a success...!

Good news! (followed immediately by some bad...)

The good news - Jamie has a bike! Amy found an old road bike in her garage and spent hours getting covered in oil so that we could attempt the 20 mile round trip to Broxbourne, which we also managed, further than either of us have ever cycled before!
However, we've discovered just how unfit we are as we struggle to stand after finishing, as the wind decided to drive in our face the whole way back, and we watched better cyclists disappear into the distance.
Still, we have two working bikes and have done an actual training ride!

Day 1 - Take Two

7am - cold, tired, icy; perfect conditions for our first day of training. We decided that this week snow would be no obstacle so set off on a planned 20 mile round trip to Broxbourne along the Lea Valley tow path. However, we soon realised that the combination of the heavy child-size mountain bike, the treacherously icy surface and general lack of stamina may be a slight problem. Instead we (somehow) managed 10 miles to Stansted Lock, even speeding up as we went along!
We've realised that Paris is actually quite a long way away and we are pretty much incompetent and useless, but we are still going to give it a go!
Bring on day two...?

First day of training...

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that its been snowing. The plan was to get underway with around 20 miles starting early this morning, but weather put pay to this. So, as anyone else would, we made a snow cat instead. We're on our way.

Hertford to Paris, 3 days. Simple, Right?

What better way to celebrate your A-level results than a weekend in Paris? Or, if you're us, subjecting yourself to a three day cycle in order to get there. Never mind that one half of us doesn't own a bike, has zero sense of direction, a knack for ending up in hospital when on holiday (naming no names) and both of us combined aren't exactly in peak physical condition, we are convinced that this is a fantastic idea.

Whilst this will inevitably be an extremely enjoyable experience, we don't plan to do it for nothing. With your help, we are hoping to collect sponsorships to try and raise as much money as possible to help our chosen charity, Cancer Research UK.

We have set up this blog to prove to all of those who don't think we are quite up for this, that we are going to take this very seriously and hopefully reach Paris by the end of the year! We will be setting up accounts on JustGiving.com soon and will appreciate any support we get!

Amy + Jamie