Lloyd Biddell

Post JOGLE I had already planned to have some down time as I've learnt that the body may superficially recover quite quickly, but beneath the surface it takes far longer.  The plan was to take a couple of weeks off, do a bit of cycling and gradually build things back up for an event I have planned for October.  Well, things have not gone to plan at all. The cycling I was doing to let the issues with my leg heal went ok, but it felt far harder than it should have done.  My heart rate was sky high and I thought it would sort itself out with a bit of time.  The leg soon recovered but my body wasn't.  A month after JOGLE and I was struggling to run more than 5km and anything much more than 10km just about finished me off.  I originally put this down due to the exertions of covering 440 miles in a week and a half, but I was concerned that I wasn't really recovering.  Something just didn't feel right at all. Around this time a rash started to develop around ...

The short story: I didn't finish JOGLE; indeed I barely made it over half way.  It wasn't for the want of trying but ultimately my body let me down and I'm not sure I could have done much about it even with the benefit of hindsight.  Most people tell me that it was still a huge achievement and perhaps over time my view of it being a failure will change.  The stats: 361 miles in 7 days 442 miles in 11 days (after 2.5 days of forced rest) 881,403 steps. 6,480 metres of climb. Scotland covered in 6 days 9 hours 30 minutes What could have I done differently?  I talked about this with my wife at length, and we have both come to the conclusion that physically/mentally etc. I was fit enough to complete it.  The issue was that the timetable I had allowed was too aggressive for my body.  I had worked on a minimum of 52 miles a day, but the issue with such distances is that every additional mile required has an exponential effect on the body.  For instance the d...

After taking on the 190 mile Coast to Coast last year in under 4 days I vowed never again.  Since that time there have been further lockdowns and any prospect of 'normal' road racing has been a distant dream.  It made me appreciate all the more that the Coast to Coast wasn't just a trip, but a real journey with some massive highs and lows crossing the best terrain that England has to offer.  Since that time there has been a sensation growing inside me to do something else, but the problem akin to an adrenaline junkie is that the next 'hit' needs to be bigger than the last one.  What better than attempt John O'Groats to Lands' End by foot?! John O'Groats The rules are fairly straight forward - the start and end points are Lands' End and John O'Groats but other than that there is no fixed route.  Google states the shortest distance avoiding motorways is 874 miles, but it is possible to cut this down a bit further as a pedestrian to about 815 - 830 ...

For anyone interested in seeing the suffering endured whilst completing the Hadrian's Wall Path my wife has put together a compilation of the journey.

Although it has been a month since I did the Coast to Coast I am still recovering from the exerts.  Superficially, my feet are more or less back to normal, except I'm still shedding dead skin!  Deep down though I know that I'm still recovering; my resting HR is about 10-15 bpm higher than normal and just jogging on the treadmill has been much harder than it should be.  I haven't even been able to think about some harder sessions at the moment. As competitive racing appears to be as far away as its ever been, there has been the itch to undertake another long distance path whilst the weather and daylight is still on my side.  This time I selected the somewhat shorter Hadrian's Wall Path at 84 miles long, but the nub of this challenge was to complete it within 36 hours.  Whilst on paper this is nowhere near as hard as the Coast to Coast both in terms of length and elevation, I didn't want to do anything much harder as my body just isn't ready yet. Hadrian's Wal...

So how did I feel upon finishing?  A sense of accomplishment? Happy?  My initial thought was that I was just glad that it was now all over.  I think the sense of accomplishment will come in time. I failed in my initial goal of 3 days, but adjusted the target and to do it in 3 days 15 hours and 50 minutes is not too shabby. The big high for me was how the first day went - clearing 62 miles in the Lake District over that terrain showed I have the fitness, but it came at a cost that I felt for the remainder of the trip.  If I had set out with the intent to do it over four days at the outset then maybe the wheels might have come off much later on and would have made it a much more enjoyable trip.  On the other hand my accomplishment on Day 1 shows that I probably have the fitness, just not the feet to match. Do I regret doing it the way I did it?  Short answer: no.  It was always going to be a voyage of discovery. Could have I gone faster?  Without do...