The story of a very ordinary cyclists’ self imposed challenge to complete a 100 mile bike ride around each and every one of the 92 historical counties of the UK. This blog aims to support the amazing work of the Midlands Air Ambulance and with a bit of luck will provide an interesting and amusing insight into all that goes right and wrong on two wheels across our varied and beautiful Isles.
Training week three was always going to be a challenge, a busy work schedule requiring early starts and late finishes would generally mean the commutes take the shortest quickest route, but with motivation still high, the week was planned with longer commutes regardless.
Getting up at 4:45 am is never a joy; pulling on winter bibtights, piling on multiple layers, and checking out lights and kit all whilst the wind-driven rain is drumming against the window inevitably leads to a sense of trepidation about the ride ahead. Had I not gotten this challenge ahead and the inspiration from the MND cause to push me forward, the dry, warm option of the car sitting on my drive would have been too tempting to resist throughout the week.
Dirty Fun
A four-hour road ride was on the training plan for Saturday, but a WhatsApp message from clubmate Gary on Thursday morphed my only daylight ride of the week into an eagerly anticipated bit of urban gravel on canals and bike paths through the industrial heartlands of Birmingham and back via Sandwell Valley Country Park.
In keeping with the week Saturdays ride was moulded by work commitments and the weather. Heavy rain forecast for the morning led to the ride being switched to a midday start and having to be sandwiched between proof pressure tests of a new fuel pump test rig.
I left work to meet Gary and Pete, rueing my forgotten leg warmers but pleased that the rain was beginning to ease. Birmingham is blessed with 100 miles of canal towpath to discover, most of it from the city centre south I have ridden previously. The towpaths to the north were new territory for me from the point underneath Birmingham’s landmark Spaghetti Junction, where the Grand Union canal terminates. Here we picked up the less well-known Tame valley canal. Cut with high embankments and good quality towpaths and completed in 1844, the canal was a late addition to the Birmingham canal network, in effect the waterway equivalent of a by-pass built to overcome delays in other parts of the network.
Views of the Alexandra Stadium, home to Birmingham’s extremely successful hosting of the 2022 Commonwealth Games and Perry Barr locks, were the highlight of this section of the ride before we turned south shortly before the canal passed under the M5, picking up the cycle path running along a swollen river Tame into the Forge Mill Lake local nature reserve.
Located in Sandwell Valley Country Park, the lake is home to many bird species including goosander and lapwing at this time of year. We skipped a visit to the RSPB reserve cafe at Forge Mill Farm and headed on through the country park, formerly home to a Benedictine Monastery which in turn became an asylum then Sandwell Hall Industrial School for Mentally Defective Boys which I’m sure would have plenty of grim tales to tell today if it hadn’t needed demolishing in the 1920’s due to subsidence from the local mining industry.
Swan pool is regularly used for sailing and open-water swimming and in my triathlete days I swam there myself but although it brought back happy memories a freezing cold dip wasn’t a tempting thought.
Formerly a working Victorian farm the cafe was hidden amongst the old stable blocks and we nearly passed it by as despite the open sign on the visitor centre there seemed little sign of life. However a gentle shove on the door proved fruitful and the friendly receptionist hiding in the dark allowed us to lock up our bikes inside and directed us through the labyrinth to the cafe.
With a quick phone call to work confirming I wasn’t needed back for another couple of hours, suitably warmed and fuelled with a reasonably priced and tasty Capuccino and teacake, the three of us headed back through quiet industrial estates into Smethwick, where we again joined the towpath, this time of the Birmingham canal.
We pressed on, and it was only as we skirted Edgbaston reservoir I realised we had traversed through inner city districts like Winson Green, home to the city’s notorious prison, without ever feeling like we were in the middle of a busy, heaving sprawl of urbanity.
Taking the path through Summerfield Park, we entered a little gem of an unknown route. Harborne walkway follows the bed of the old Harborne Railway. The two-mile stretch had served passengers from 1874 to 1934 and continued as a freight line serving Mitchells and Butlers Brewery and Chad Valley toy factory until its closure in 1963.
I finally knew where we were when we popped out in front of the Green Man pub. A short section on road past the hospital and the university brought us to the final canal towpath of the day.
Frustratingly the Worcester and Birmingham canal was bringing me ever closer to home. I fleetingly contemplated finishing the loop with Pete and Gary and then catching a taxi back to work. Instead, I bade farewell to my ride companions at the Horeshoe pub, thankfully escaping the bone-shaking bricks that greet you as you pass under the Alcester road.
This left a 7-mile mid-afternoon commute back to work, where I grabbed a quick shower to rid myself of towpath grime and to bring a bit of life back to my chilled toes before completing the job and bringing a long but rewarding day to a close.
Training goals hit with some wet and wild commutes and a little bit of adventure – I’ll take that.
Another week of Huel nutritionally balanced, plant-based shakes, savoury meals and protein bars kept the hunger away at work, fuelled me for my extended commutes and, more importantly, kept the sugar cravings away. A chocolate and pudding-free week and only a single latte a day has me 4kg lighter than when I started this training plan, happy days.
Oh, and did I say how good bacon, sausage, egg, black pudding and HP sauce taste when you only have it at the weekend!
Too Many Reasons To Live
Having just finished local boy Dan Martin’s excellent biography Chased by Pandas, about life in the pro peloton, I settled down on Saturday evening listening on Audible Books to Rob Burrows Too Many Reasons to Live. Tears were in my eyes by the time I’d finished the foreword and prologue. It’s going to be a tough listen if the first few minutes of discovering how news of this savage disease has affected Rob and his young family and friends are anything to go by. His story will, I’m sure, be a positive influence and motivational driver if, at any time, the training in the next 15 weeks starts to take its toll.
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