Advice needed on long distance trek

[andy_funk]

Hi, I’m new to this forum and have only just begun cyclingagain for the first time in many years. I would just generally appreciate any advice or information that anyonecould have for me to aid me in my plan.

I am planning to follow the Trans pennine trail fromDoncaster towards Liverpool, and then cycle into Wales to Snowdonia to MountSnowdon. I was just curious if anyone has followed the route from Doncastertowards Liverpool before and how they found the route and if anyone has anyinformation or knows where I could find information on where I could work outhow to navigate the rest of the jouney.

Also I was curious as to how muchtraining people believe would be needed for this trek, I belive it is over 150miles and I am hoping to complete this in roughly three days, but don’t knowquite how realistic this is as at my current pace 50 miles a day seems very unlikely!

Cheers Andy

 

[Jim_Noir]

Hi Andy

To be honest 50 miles a day when you are on the bike won't be to hard to do, time seems to just mean nothing on long trips. Think about it, if you do an avrage of 10MPH it'll take you 5 hours... that's not too bad. Though this depends on how fit you are of course... not talking uber fit but I think if you have genral ok cardio it's not a hard task. Training, I'd say get out and do as many miles as you can as, again just my opinion, the worst bit you might find is the pain in your barse if you havn't cycled in a long time... 20 mins on the saddle would be enough to put you off for life! Also not knowing the route, I'd say it sounds hilly, so get out on to them hills
When do you plan to do it?

 

[perplexed]

Andy, good luck with your trip!

One thing I would say is don'y try it without a map. (In other words, don't rely on the signposting, it's frequently rubbish!)

I've ridden bits of the trail around the Sheffield area, and its surprisingly easy to get lost. Even in areas you know well, it's not always easy to tell exactly where you are, because you're often hidden from main roads or landmarks, or are in woods.

I went on some of the trail I'd not ridden before the other week, and it was more luck than judgement sometimes that I ended up in the right place.

For example I crossed a bridge which was part of the trail, but got to the other side to be faced with a choice of three tracks with no indication as to which was correct!

 

[perplexed]

Oh, and I think that the sustrans wbsite has the info you'll need...