Hello! I'm Dick Glaves and I’m 60 years of age. I had open heart surgery in 2005 to repair my mitral valve which apparently had been leaking all my life, but had only been “ picked up ” when I started flying some fifteen years ago. Cycling was recommended after the operation for me to regain my fitess level and I cycle regularly on average 50 miles a week.

I decided to do this trip around Christmas 2008 and began training in February 2009. The training schedule can be found under the Schedule tab. I built up first from 15 miles to 30 miles and finally concentrated on 2,000 miles in 60 mile stints. The ascents on these 60 mile routes ranged from 4,000 ft to 6,500 ft. I usually had a stop for 5 minutes at 15 mile intervals and lunch which consisted of a hot meal at 30 miles. Lunches were planned at pubs, which only open at 1200hr, so most of my rides began at 0930 in the morning to allow 2.5 hours of cycling before arriving at the pub at 1200 hr. Usually I was a little early. It doesn’t sound very fast 12mph, but it is hilly around Matlock where I live so it’s a reasonable average. On some of the runs I was able to average 13 mph or 14 mph, but for planning purposes I stuck to working on 12 mph.

You’ll see that at the height of my training I did four 60 miles trips, then a day off, and then a further four 60 mile trips on the next four days making a total of 360 miles a week. This meant I in effect completed half of the trip in nine days and knew that I was fit enough to do the whole trip. At this point I booked all the hotels. This was then the basis of the trip to John o' Groats. Four days cycling, a day off and so on. Each ride 60 miles long with a good hotel at the end of each day.