Whim of the week

Welsh Cycling Trip

2009-04-01T20:57:00.010+01:00

Day 0

After a manic day at work and a frantic rush to Mum and Dad to pick up the car and my stuff I finally hit the road at 4.45pm and headed to Wales. Traffic was a shocker with first the M25 backed up and then the M4. Ironically it was only when I reached where we live that the traffic eased and managed to make some progress.

A quick stop for supplies and a pick-me-up coffee and before I knew it I was in sunny Wales.

The bunkhouse was perched just below the ridge of a large hill/ small mountain, at the end of a v. steep minor-minor single track road.

After navigating a rough stone track and parking in front of a large courtyard I stumbled around trying to grab warm clothes, the altitude making things decidedly chilly. Gingerly I made my way through the courtyard to what appeared to be a family home. Through a large bay window I could make out a family. Deciding that this clearly had nothing to do with the bunkhouse I headed back to the car, hoping not to set off the flood lights once more.

With the door code on the original booking instructions I was able to get into the bunkhouse. A new place with a cavernous common room linked to an industrial grade kitchen, it dawned on me that I had the place to myself. Initially exciting then a touch foreboding I decided to go back to the farmhouse.

What followed felt like a farce. I got a tour from the stand-in Warden. Turned out there were some other people staying albeit I never saw them which was a touch spooky. In an effort to let the Warden get back to her toasty house I offered to latch the door. Only problem was once latched and the door click closed the door could then not be opened even with the code. Slight problem as this meant we were stuck outside! After a few phone calls and some head scratching, we popped around the back and lo and behold a door was open. Stroke of luck!

She left, and I pottered about unpacking and repacking my pannier bags ready for an early start. I thought I spotted someone at one point, but no definite spots!

So, a long old drive with an odd bump in the form of a door lock, but I'd made it in one piece and was ready for the ride.

Day 1

Route, distance 68 miles
Ride Time (7 a.m, - 6.1o p.m.)

I woke at 6 a.m. and quickly set about getting ready. After struggling with the kitchen gas, health and safety means the gas only comes on once you've hit a button (buried behind the spatulas should you need to know), twisted a dial then waited for a second or two!

A fried egg, bagel and slug of water later and a cursory look once more at the map again and I started to demob. Still no sign of the other residents! Jamming the door open I emptied the non-essential gear in the car, moved it to the car park and then put the panniers on.

Just before I left I had a bit of a panic attack, realising that forgetting something really was going to be a pain, not least because where I was heading was not exactly user-friendly. The first time I went to lift the fully laden bike I had a bit of a shock too. Used to a stripped bike, the addition of two panniers, two full water bottles, mudguards and a full Bento box along with a full saddle bag meant I found myself amazed the back wheel spokes hadn't blown out.

Spotting what appeared to be the bunkhouse owner we had a quick chat. All was going well until I stupidly asked if hed see the forecast...snow and high winds. I laughed thinking he was joking but he just stared back, and then bid me fair well. Snow and high winds. Hmm.

Choosing a super low gear I edged along the stone track from the bunkhouse, slowly getting used to the weight over the back wheel. As I headed up the first hill it dawned on me that this ride was going to be somewhat different to other multi-day rides. The weight made riding uphill feel like cycling through mud; the impact was incredible. Never one to focus on the obvious I took the only rational approach; ignore the problem and admire the view over to Sugar Loaf Mountain and the valley leading in one direction to Abergavenny and Brecon in the other direction.

Having had to push a touch harder than I would've liked I made it to the top of the hill only to find the ridge road was closed!! Humbly turning around I retraced my steps and flew down to the valley below.

Following what turned out to be just about the only flat road in Wales as I followed the Monmouthshire Canal, a funny little waterway that the Taff Trail joined after a few miles. Riding essentially between the mountains of Brecon Beacons with a ray or two of sun life was pretty good.

The road passed through the picturesque Talbont-on-Usk towards Brecon. Talybont is I guess a familiar place for Welsh cyclists as it's where the North-South route from Cardiff passes through. Following the Taff Trail, an incredibly well signposted route, I joined a canal tow path that neatly avoided the A40 before crossing a bridge into Brecon.

Getting into the swing of touring I swung through Brecon checking out some shops looking for some odds and sods, a lighter and a bit of food for the trip. Having gone in and out of Brecon I ended up in Aldi of all places. It was a great store, wide aisles, a friendly manager that filled my water bottles and of course super cheap food.

Just as I was leaving Brecon I swung back with the idea of buying an OS map and then thought better of it as it felt a waste of money and yet more stuff to lug up the hills.

A little climb out of Brecon across almost English scene of hedgerows and rolling hills, thoroughly pleasant.

Feeling very pleased with myself I spotted the rain coming and quickly changed into my wet weather gear and set off as the heavens opened. It was OK riding once and I slowly arrived at Lower Chapel and then Upper Chapel. I'd got used to the damp.

Once more I was happy as I'd spotted the mother of all hills past Upper Chapel as the road climbed out of the valley, and yea I was turning off left. Yee haa...I thought. Turned out the left turn involved the odd mound combined with a bit of wind too. The landscape was somewhat bleak as the area is the third largest Army training area in the UK. So much so that the Army even have their own pub (of sorts) on the top of the moor called the Drovers Arms. As I rode I learnt all about the Drovers, seems they even took ducks sometimes all the way to London!!

Sweet bike

2009-03-05T22:08:00.001Z

Sweet bike
Originally uploaded by paul.rode

Enough said!

Product Management

2009-01-10T20:50:00.002Z

Understanding how to manage a product is as much about where the product is in its life-cycle as it is about the product itself.

As Geoffrey Moore set out a typical product follows a life-cycle that when understood can provide excellent insight into the appropriate next course of action, and which actions will most likely lead to success:

Early adopters
Standardization
Bundling
Growth
Commoditization

Manufactures take a cue from the ways in which early adopters customize the inital versions of products. Yet, as manufacturers incororate such amendments into future versions of the product, sales levels may fall as some of the early adopters will not be able to make use of the newly standardized product.

Such a shortfall can however quickly be made up as with the standard coming into force network effects take hold and the product may become useful (or even necessary) to a wider audience.

In the absence of patents or even in some cases where patents do exist, manufacturers may seek to bundle the product in order to recoup some of their R&D investment. Moreover, such bundling helps mask the underlying price of the now widely available item.

At this point the product should be ready for growth as the network effects are in place and the price is suitably opaque. Such growth however brings challenges as the product, bundled or not, risks becoming a commodity, at which point price becomes the only USP. In such a situation the product either has to be fundamentally altered, for example by incorporating a new capability that is in the early adopter phase, or the company may remove itself from the specific market through a sale.

Tweetless

2009-01-09T12:26:00.001Z

Twitter is down...again...ugg

Gaining buy-in

2009-01-07T21:50:00.001Z

Adapting Moore’s beachhead concept you need to gain buy in from the early adopters, from those in your office who influence others. These influencers can be identified by those people that others go to in the event of a problem or crisis. The influences are those that have credibility within their teams and likely outside of their teams too; such credibility can come from tenure, their ability to enthuse and excite others, their knowledge or their can-do attitude.

Without influencers the impact of the performance measure will reduce the further it gets from the source, you. You can think of it as the ripples decreasing in size as they get further from where the pebble is dropped in the water. The ripples, the impact, however are distorted by other forces such as wind, a shallow section of the lake bed or an island in the lake. Similarly, the impact of the performance measure can be distorted by other change initiatives, teams that are not on-board with the change or teams that do not receive the message.

Using influencers then ensures that the message’s energy is kept up and the message is received by all. Further, by associating themselves with the performance measures the influencers have a stake in its success if they are to retain their current influence.

SME research

2009-01-06T14:25:00.004Z

The ICAEW's annual Enterprise Survey (sample of 1,020 UK businesses in June/ July 2008 from FTSE 100 to micro-businesses) provided some useful insights:

83% of businesses aiming for increased turnover in next two years
One in nine aiming for 30% increase in turnover within the next year

The number one objective for respondents indicated a strong desire for growth, reinforcing the need for more businesses to be made aware of the importance of growth plus cashflow:
- 50% increased profitability over the next two years
- 20%, increasing shareholder reward
- 12%, improving cash balances
- 8%, paying down debts

It will be interesting to see the 2009 results change given the recent economic events.

Sustainable branding

2009-01-05T14:00:00.003Z

Brands are important as they are the lens through which customers view you. With this in mind, you need to actively manage your brand or it will be defined by someone else. For example, BA is often defined as not being Virgin (fun, creative) as it is by its own activities.

Actively managing your brand requires constant attention.

To sustain a brand you need to actively address the rational (features and benefits, price, service) and/ or emotional view (attitude, spirit, style) that customers perceive.

Negotiation

2009-01-05T13:47:00.003Z

Negotiation is perhaps one of the least understood areas of business, yet it acts as a tipping point for a vast array of tasks and activities from agreeing new contracts to getting things done in a matrix organization.

If your supplier appears to have the upper hand, represented for example by your Queen being under threat in Chess, then you have several options open:

Move Queen – go to another supplier
Sacrifice Queen – take the deal at poor terms
Take their Queen – attack main source of their revenue
Attack bishop – question the deal
Block bishop – ensure the deal cannot go through
Attack king – raise awareness with the individual’s boss

Marketing communications

2009-01-05T13:45:00.001Z

Marketing communication can be broken down into the following segments:

Strategic marketing
Product level
Commercial level
Demand marketing

Setting strategy

2009-01-05T13:37:00.001Z

When formulating a strategy, namely how you plan to build competitive advantage through distinct capabilities, consider the following:

How are your investment priorities different to competitors?
What is the one most significant thing that competitors are doing that will impact us?
How know clients will like what you are planning?
Who is going to do it?
Who is going to do the tasks that will be dropped as a result of concentrating on new tasks?
How plan to take advantage of the firm wide network?
What is the most risky assumption within the plan?
Who developed the plan, who disagreed and who not consulted?
What are dependencies and how incent them to deliver?
What is the plan if the plan does not work?
What are the early warning signs that plan might not be working?

Optimize meetings

2009-01-05T13:28:00.003Z

If you track your time, you will find that meetings, whether formal or informal, constitute a material part of your week. Yet, people spend very little considering how to optimize the time spent in meetings.

Put simply, the goal of meetings is to make decisions, including making a decision not to make a decision. To make a decision you need a problem that has proposed solutions. As such, meetings should have an agenda, whether written or not.

If you are trying to make a decision and are leading the meeting then you need to actively seek feedback. To ensure all views are aired you can ask two simple yet effective questions:

What would you do in my position?
Is there anything that you wanted to talk about that we have not touched on?

Why we buy

2009-01-04T21:15:00.001Z

We’ve all bought things, product, and services. Sometimes its because we want it, other times it's on a whim, sometimes we buy it for others, or because we know it’ll keep others happy or because we’re told to buy it. On occasion we buy an item thinking its something else and we end up returning it. Why we buy is thus intimately connected with how we buy. Moreover, our assessment of a product against its competitors is rarely comprehensive. Time, cost, hassle and limited downside in a regulated market economy all conspire to reduce our propensity to compare. Even when we can compare, for example using the Internet or viewing marketing, we may not take any notice: “I know I can get it cheaper but it’s a brand I trust”, “I know there’s a better product but I’m used to using it and it works pretty much all of the time”. These switching costs mean that customers buy for reasons over and above the features and benefits the product offers.

Lands End to John O'Groats - reportage

2009-01-04T20:57:00.003Z

Christine wrote a diary whilst Spence, Dad and I made our way from Lands End to John O'Groats in September 2006.

.....
The Cycle Begins!

Our crew certainly didn’t pick an easy day to for it either. For those of you not bitten by the UK bug of incessant weather watching, the sun rose to welcome the tail-end of Hurricane Gilbert to the Southwestern shores of the island. However, like the US postal service, not sleet, nor snow, nor hurricane gusts of 70mph halt this team.

In a remote interview, rider Paul Rode admitted that today was, ‘a touch windy’, but otherwise had a good first day of pedaling. The wind did prevent phone calls though from our other rider, Richard, who has been texting with Paul all day, so we know that he too is safely enroute. Coach King has been blazing the trail in the team support vehicle and said to be in high spirits.

The day commences early again tomorrow with Gilbert but a fleeting memory and moderate Cornish weather expected (which translates into some wind, some rain, some sun – sometimes simultaneously). Check in again tomorrow for further breaking news…

Day 2 –

This Oxford based reporter gets a sense that the riders may have quickly shifted from enthusiastic starters to seasoned veterans. Today’s challenge seemed more based on gradient than weather and the word fatigue did enter the vocabulary.
However, tough hills aside, everyone seems to be enjoying the beautiful Cornish scenery and the fast approaching Welsh border.

Tomorrow's plan calls for an early morning start, sometime around 6:30am, with a little over 100 miles to cover before the team settles down for the evening. As the first century of the ride, it's a big day, and a big challenge. To find out about the big ride check in on Sunday evening GMT for an in-depth analysis of the highs and lows. Perhaps by then our satellite link will be connected and we'll have a few pictures too!

Saturday – Day 3 / Sunday – Day 4

With Spencer’s help, Hazel and I were able to meet up with the guys near Chew Valley Lake on Saturday afternoon. Paul had no idea about the arrival of the two fans, and was very surprised indeed as he rode into the rest stop! At roughly the half way point of his 100 mile day, he was looking strong and had a big smile on his face.

Shortly after that break we crossed into Wales. Spencer, Hazel, and I were able to make it to the hostel without too much of a delay, but shortly after we passed through the main road, it was closed down due to a traffic accident. With only 10 miles left to go before reaching the end of his day, Paul was heartbreakingly re-routed around one of the hills adding a few more miles (what’s 5 or 6 more miles when you’ve cycled 100?).

At 6:00pm after a 6:30am start, Paul rode into St. Briavel’s, where the three of us were waiting. We had already checked-in to our castle for the evening (no joke!) so wasted no time in hitting the George’s Inn for a victory pint and hot meal.

Though Paul and Spencer haven't heard much from Richard so far during the ride, they have heard about him. It seems Richard is creating quite a stir among the locals, as Paul and Spencer heard some fellow travellers talking a few nights ago about a man Richard who had come through alone on his way to John O'Groats!

After a restless night, filled with creaky wooden floors, frightening thunderstorms, and a few friendly ghosts, we all met for breakfast at 8am before today’s ride began just before 9am.

With a much shorter ride, Paul met up with Spencer at quarter to 3 today and they spent the rest of the afternoon on the village green watching the local football match. The ride begins early again tomorrow when the guys leave Wales and make their way to Liverpool where they will stop for the evening.

Across the border

Hello Scotland! Paul and Spencer left England today and arrived in Edinburgh early this evening. They are roughly 40 miles away from Richard and the two separate teams will most likely rendez-vous within the next few days and ride into John O’Groat’s together. Today was the third century (100 miles) of the trip but neither the bike or the legs have given out yet!

Tomorrow is Paul’s 30th Birthday, so if you do happen to see him on the road, do wish him a happy one!

Somewhere in Yorkshire…
Last update had our crew just leaving Wales. Since then, they have been and gone to Liverpool – navigating the many twists and turns that accompany the return to the urban road. After arriving, true to form, no time was wasted touring the environs and of course….going to the football stadium for a quick picture!

Next day brought a battle with intense hills and even more intense winds. Paul mentioned that the winds had slowed him down to between 8 and 10 miles an hour and were significantly lengthening the day.

Today, after a start with much of the same, the team made a decision to scrap the attempt to go through the Pennines and instead circumnavigate the beast. Though this did indeed add a few miles to the day’s trip, P. Rode did say that both he and S. King were glad they had re-routed the tour.

The crew is now officially past the half-way point both in time and distance traveled, and are well on schedule to arrive in John O’Groats next Monday evening.

John o ’ Groats!

Shortly before 5pm this evening (2 October 2006) Spencer, Richard, and Paul reached John o ‘ Groats after roughly two weeks of travel. The tail-end of the trip was a rough one with Richard suffering at least three punctured tires in the last 24 hours and chilly, driving rain, but they all persevered.

‘For the record, I’m never ever doing a 12 day bike ride again’ says Paul; and he may even have turned his energies towards more leisurely pursuits -- that doesn’t mean he’ll stop his fund raising efforts anytime soon. He did let slip his plans for a sponsored chess and checkers match during the course of the conversation!

They are currently back in the truck, en route to some dry clothes and a full pint and will begin the southerly trip back home tomorrow (this time with the bikes on the back of the car!)

Congratulations!

Value creation

2009-01-04T20:43:00.004Z

You should have a concrete understanding of the concrete value your organization/ team/ role adds, whether by creating value or sustaining existing value.

If you are not sure, as many organizations surprisingly enough as so few people genuiely question why things are done over and above 'it's always been done this way or because x told me to do it this way', a good starting point is to look at what people buy, leaving why they buy to one side for the minute. If one item outsells other then odds on it will provide insight into where your strengths are. Then break the sales down by who buys and why.

The above steps will provide a quick and dirty insight into what value might be being created and how your team/ role aligns with such value. Customers and other stakeholders of course get value from places other than sales, however sales represents a consistent source of value and hence is a good place to start.

The Art of Business

2009-01-04T20:26:00.002Z

Per the Art of War by Sun-Tzu, preparing for battle is the key to winning. Defending, negating competitors attempts to rise above you, is simple however attacking, aggressively going after business, is much harder.

In a business context, you should thus seek to make your business invincible before even considering how to 'attack' the competition. Rather than seeking to 'attack' your competitors on a one-off, for example when they are suffering from an issue, you should seek to achieve the long term conditions for victory ahead of going into 'battle'. When attacking, attack where the enemy cannot defend to ensure that you remain in control rather than reacting to events.

Texas Chili Eating Contest

2009-01-04T20:21:00.002Z

It's that time of year again when I feel obliged to air my favorite viral story, that of the Texas Chili Eating Contest.

Note - do not read if easily offended.

............

The notes are from an inexperienced Chili taster named Frank,
who was visiting from Canada. Frank: "Recently, I was honored to be
selected as a judge at a chili cook-off.
The original person called in sick at the last moment and I
happened to be standing there at the judge's table asking for directions to the
Coors Light truck, when the call came in.
I was assured by the other two judges (Native Texans) that the
chili wouldn't be all that spicy and, besides, they told me I could
have free beer during the tasting, so I accepted".
Here are the scorecards from the advent: (Frank is Judge #3)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chili # 1 Mike's Maniac Mobster Monster Chili
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judge # 1 -- A little too heavy on the tomato. Amusing kick.
Judge # 2 -- Nice, smooth tomato flavor. Very mild.
Judge # 3 -- (Frank) Holy **** , what the hell is this stuff?
You could remove dried paint from your driveway. Took me two
beers to put the flames out. I hope that's the worst one. These Texans are crazy.
~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chili # 2 Arthur's Afterburner Chili
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judge # 1 -- Smoky, with a hint of pork. Slight jalapeno tang.
Judge # 2 -- Exciting BBQ flavor, needs more peppers to be taken
seriously.
Judge # 3 -- Keep this out of the reach of children. I'm not
sure what I'm supposed to taste besides pain. I had to wave off two people who
wanted to give me the Heimlich maneuver. They had to rush in more beer when they saw the look on my
face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chili # 3 Fred's Famous Burn Down the Barn Chili
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judge # 1 -- Excellent firehouse chili. Great kick. Needs more
beans.
Judge # 2 -- A beanless chili, a bit salty, good use of peppers.
Judge # 3 -- Call the EPA. I've located a uranium spill.
My nose feels like I have been snorting Drano.
Everyone knows the routine by now. Get me more beer before I
ignite. Barmaid pounded me on the back, now my backbone is in the front
part of my chest.
I'm getting s**t- faced from all of the beer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chili # 4 Bubba's Black Magic
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judge # 1 -- Black bean chili with almost no spice.Disappointing.
Judge # 2 -- Hint of lime in the black beans. Good side dish for
fish or other mild foods, not much of a chili..
Judge # 3 -- I felt something scraping across my tongue, but was
unable to taste it.
Is it possible to burn out taste buds? Sally, the barmaid, was
standing behind me with fresh refills. That 300-lb bit*h is starting to
look HOT...just like this nuclear waste I'm eating! Is chili an aphrodisiac?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chili # 5 Linda's Legal Lip Remover
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judge # 1 -- Meaty, strong chili. Cayenne peppers freshly
ground, adding considerable kick. Very impressive.
Judge # 2 -- Chili using shredded beef, could use more tomato.
Must admit the cayenne peppers make a strong statement.
Judge # 3 -- My ears are ringing, sweat is pouring off my
forehead and I can no longer focus my eyes. I farted and four people behind me
needed paramedics. The contestant seemed offended when I told her that
her chili had given me brain damage. Sally saved my tongue from bleeding
by pouring beer directly on it from the pitcher. I wonder if I'm burning my
lips off. It really pisses me off that the other judges asked me to stop
screaming. Scr*w those rednecks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chili # 6 Vera's Very Vegetarian Variety
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judge # 1 -- Thin yet bold vegetarian variety chili. Good
balance of spices and peppers.
Judge # 2 -- The best yet. Aggressive use of peppers, onions,
and garlic.Superb.
Judge # 3 -- My intestines are now a straight pipe filled with
gaseous,sulphuric flames.
I sh*t myself when I farted and I'm worried it will eat through
the chair.
No one seems inclined to stand behind me except that Sally. She
must be kinkier than I thought. Can't feel my lips anymore. I need to
wipe my a**hole with a snow cone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chili # 7 Susan's Screaming Sensation Chili
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judge # 1 -- A mediocre chili with too much reliance on canned
peppers.
Judge # 2 -- Ho hum, tastes as if the chef literally threw in a
can of chili peppers at the last moment. **I should take note that I
am worried about Judge # 3. He appears to be in a bit of distress as he is
cursing uncontrollably.
Judge # 3 -- You could put a grenade in my mouth, pull the pin,
and I wouldn't feel a thing.
I've lost sight in one eye, and the world sounds like it is
made of rushing water.
My shirt is covered with chili which slid unnoticed out of my
mouth. My pants are full of lava like sh*t to match my shirt. At least
during the autopsy, they'll know what killed me. I've decided to stop
breathing, it's too painful. Scr*w it; I'm not getting any oxygen anyway. If I
need air, I'll just suck it in through the 4-inch hole in my stomach.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chili # 8 Tommy's Toe-Nail Curling Chili
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judge # 1 -- The perfect ending, this is a nice blend chili. Not
too bold but spicy enough to declare its existence.
Judge # 2 -- This final entry is a good, balance chili. Neither
mild nor hot. Sorry to see that most of it was lost when Judge #3 farted,
passed out, fell over and pulled the chili pot down on top of himself.
Not sure if he's going to make it. Poor fella, wonder how he'd
have reacted to really hot chili!!!

Assessing quality of data and MI

2009-01-03T12:44:00.004Z

To assess the quality of data and thus MI, question whether it is:

Complete and accurate
Timely - is it available on time?
Usable - can the reader make sense of what the data is trying to say?
Change behaviours and beliefs - are the reader's needs specifically addressed or are they used FYI'd?
Drives conclusion - is there a clear call to action? Is the data opened (if sent by e-mail), red, understood and acted upon, and are the actions of a high quality or a low quality?

If not, then prioritize corrective action in the order above. For example, there is little point in improving the usability of the data if it is not complete and accurate in the first place.

Database structures

2009-01-03T10:52:00.005Z

Whether you like it or not you have to have a reasonable understanding of database structures as a General Manager. Why? Because odds on your data is going to come from a database, and if you are making decisions based on the insight from the data from those databases, then you need to understand how they are structured and any inherent weaknesses. Moreover, to the extent you want to develop new products or change the manner and type of data you receive, then you need context to make an informed decision.

Where then to start? A simple step is to ask your IT/ MI team for their Entity-Relationship Diagram, or ERD. If it does not exist then you have already started to add something, as without an ERD there is a real risk your IT resource is not being sufficiently sweated.

The ERD will detail which independent data sources, or entities, exist (e.g customer, sale and the like) and what, if any, relationships there are between the data sources. For example, the customer may be serviced by a particular sales person.

Next the ERD will demonstrate what attributes are known about each of the independent data sources. For example, you may know the date a sale was made or a unique identifier for the sale or who sold it.

With the above in mind, the ERD can thus provide insight into where your data is coming from and how it can be further manipulated. With such insight your MI requests can move from being speculative (would you be able to produce the sales data by area?) to the specific (please provide the sales data by region and by who sold it and when).

Regardless of how you decide to go about understanding the source of MI, the creation of new MI comes with known risks. Provided you demonstrate an awareness of the risks, for example the confidence intervals (for associated confidence level) of the data, and critically how such risks influence decisions made, then such risks should not act as roadblocks to using the MI.

General Management role

2008-12-30T22:45:00.003Z

To deliver you must understand what the critical success factors are. Realistically these will span a multitude of areas such as Marketing, Operations, Finance, Information Technology and Sales. How then to answer the So What question, that is, sales have gone up by 6%, so what? Is this good? Should I be concerned?

The only real way to assess the outputs is to define success for each. Typically then what you, as the General Manager (GM), needs to do is one of two things:

Ensure your direct reports clearly communicate and track KPIs which incorporate each of the critical success factors. For each KPI there should be a simple Red-Amber-Green classification such that you can assess performance and thus answer the So What question.
Continually review the KPIs against all the inputs of the business. Without covering all of the inputs, it is very difficult to be sure the output will be delivered.

Some will regard such an analytical approach to be micro-management. Conversely, others will agree with the likes of Robert Kaplan and David Norton, creators of the balanced scorecard, that "if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it". Put another way, if you cannot define success across your various teams then you cannot effectively manage them.

Quality Programs such as Six Sigma are then used to deal with cases where the results of the KPIs are not what you desire or expect. It is no surprise then that the second step (after defining the problem) is to measure the problem.

Such a detailed analytical approach addresses the unique nature of the GM role. Ultimately the Board and Managing Director can and will be involved in the strategy process. There are however unlikely to get involved in the day to day running, unless there is a unforeseen problem that requires their intervention. Which brings us neatly again to the need to measure the critical success factors to ensure there are no unforeseen problems.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

2008-12-30T22:30:00.002Z

General Management is ultimately a job about making decisions. Decisions about when to hire, who to hire, where to invest, how to invest, and the like. Making one or two decisions without a structure to assess problems against, or without prior experience is very doable, and can often lead to little or no adverse reactions. After all, you would not have been given the role if you at didn’t at the very least have some degree of good judgement.

Try however to make thousands of decisions in the right way, and you need a structure, as odds on you simply will not know enough specialist knowledge of make the best decisions.

Relying on structures however ultimately can lead to information overload, meaning that any remaining insights are lost amongst the noise. Simply aiming to remember hundreds of structures is of little use if you cannot apply them. As such, in the first instance you need an overriding measure, a KPI if you will, that can be used as a benchmark.

Quick wins to increase sales

2008-12-30T22:10:00.003Z

Yes!

Time is the biggest constraint. As such, first things first you need to understand where your sales force spends their time.

This can be achieved via a small pilot, asking the sales people to record where they spend each hour of each day over a two week period.

Align the results with the pipeline and opportunities should be self evident. For example, if your sales team are travelling to customers rather than simply calling them then you can quickly make a win by tracking such time.

Root cause of poor sales performance

2008-12-30T22:03:00.001Z

Do they know how to sell? Surprisingly few people do. Yet, we all know that we prefer to buy rather be sold to. Thus, sales people as a starting point need to understand that their role is to facilitate between the customers needs and the benefits of the product/ service.

Such facilitation requires the sales person to engage or contact with the customer.

In the event the sales person is not selling it could be an issue with:

Theory - has the person been trained on how to sell?
Coaching - are they applying their sales training, for example when was the last time they pitched/ sold?
Practice - what is the quality of the sales they are making?
Motivation - are they speaking to all their customers with the same level of commitment, or are they cherry picking customers?

In the case of MI, you also need to run through the same analysis:

Theory - has the person been trained on how to use the MI?
Coaching - are they using the MI as directed?
Practice - what is the quality of the MI led actions they they are making?
Motivation - do they understand why they are using the MI?

Driving sales performance remotely

2008-12-30T21:21:00.003Z

Inevitably you will not have direct access to your sales force all day every day. As such, how you use MI will be critical to driving performance. A structured approach, a minimum standard if you like, ensures you cover the critical areas.

When completing sales MI you need to consider that the people reading it have a great deal of preconceptions about what the information may say. Further, different people need the information for different reasons. So the KISS rule applies, keep is simple stupid.

Start with the big picture performance vs. prior week, with a summary of which products drove the movement.

Next, home in on which if any areas beat their weekly target, and what the range of performance was, highlighting one area if it will impact the ranking of that area and others. The rankings are important as they foster natural peer pressure, in particular where the rankings are tight. In the event there is one significant leader, then highlight any degradation in their ranking. Consistency should be highlighted, for example with the YTD percentages against target.

Next, move to the product performance within the areas, explaining the drivers behind the product performance set out earlier.

Next, highlight where the product opportunity is by raising awareness of variability across the areas, for example xxx remains a huge opportunity for xxx areas – the top xxx regions are consistently averaging % +, whereas the bottom xx areas averaged xx% last week.

End with a summary, a call to action, of the key priority. Go for a product specific priority.

Analyzing sales data to drive performance

2008-12-30T21:09:00.002Z

Just as the analogy of not needing a map when you know where you are going, in a world where you only have one sales person and one customer, there is little need to track sales MI. Just as you want to segment your customer base such that you know each of their needs, so you want to segment your sales force such that you have perfect insight into their activities, successes and areas for improvement. With a national sales force you thus needs to consider breaking them into segments, whether that be by geography or type. Customers purchase products, they rarely purchase or see the sales person or company as a area or as a product only. As such, your data needs to get to product specific as soon as is feasible. For example, you may create a dashboard with sales by area by product. To provide context a target is required. The sales may need to be weighted where for example one product delivers significantly more GP than another, or where the wider organization has set targets for specific product lines

So, put simply, you need data. Without it you are flying blind.

Targets themselves can be used as buffers. For example, if you take a monthly target and divide it by the number of working days, then round up to the nearest integer, the integer multiplied by the number of working days will be higher than the original total. To arrive at an accurate daily target simply multiply the monthly target by the % of the days gone to date. The difference will thus trickle through each day. If you chose the first approach, then towards the end of the month the month to date target will be some xx% higher than the actual; in the event the target is not being hit the target can thus be moved. Whether you do this is a moot point, the very optionality is valuable.

Once you have this data, you have to explicitly recognize the impact of constrained time, that is you need to be clear that all your actions in the sales space will drive activity either now or in the future. Given the time constraint, the ideal action will not only impact the chosen team or area, but will have a knock-on effect to other teams or areas. Given this, the below represent the classic steps that maximise time vs. likely value whilst flushing out the key insights:

Compare the ranking of the top three areas by YTD against target.

Insight - consistently top ranked performer will only continue to deliver to the extent that they risk losing their top spot. So, initially in the year, make them famous, to the extent that they have something to lose if they drop below. Midway, provide insights and focus action on second and third placers to drive their performance

Compare product performance across each area vs. target

Insight - if one area is performing very well with a particular product, then highlight to low performing areas as example of what can be achieved.

Compare performance over last three weeks against performance

Insight - you need to be able to assess whether you actions are having the desired effect; three weeks is enough time to see a reaction; if there is none then ask whether it is a lost cause or if there is still scope for improvement. The key driver of the decision is the quality, or not, of the people in the team, in particular the leader, quickly followed by whether there are enough people in the team in the first place. The leader needs to be taking the situation seriously and conveying that the target is achievable.

Increasing the right sales

2008-12-30T20:30:00.002Z

Do all your direct reports know? Why not? If they cannot at a minimum understand how to drive sales then how ultimately will they be able to strategize, and thus assist you in finalizing the approach to get from current state to vision of the future?

Moreover, do the sales team know how to drive the right sales? Are they aware there is a formalized sales process and more importantly why there is a formalized sales process? If not, then you have to start from basics, driving awareness, understanding and usage of the process with the ultimate aim of eliminating systemic risk (i.e. the variation you can control) and thus delivering on your potential of needs based sales.

Delivering needs based sales

2008-12-30T20:25:00.002Z

Given that you are seeking to deliver a needs based sale, you need to reduce the variability in the sales process to ensure that the customers needs are understood and solutions delivered. If an inconsistent process is followed there is a risk the customers needs will not be addressed.

Knowing what value your product or service delivers enables you to identify what information you need to know about your customers in order that you can assess their needs. For example, if a customer wants a Christmas tree, you need to know how tall a tree they are thinking of getting, whether needle drop is important to them, how wide it ideally should be, how they are planning to get it home and the like. Each choice enables the salesperson to better advise the customer. As such, to reduce variability the salesperson should be instructed to collect such information on each sales event.

In the case of existing customers, such information may already exist in the form of what other customers with a similar profile regard to be important. Such a strategy has been successfully used by Amazon i.e. customers who purchased x also purchased y. Alternate approaches include customers who have purchased x/y/z, tell us that they are interested in a/b/c/d, are any of these important to you? The salesperson then moves from selling the company and its product to the customer, to aligning the customer with solutions that others with a similar background found useful. The penetration then of pitch to sale goes up, whilst perhaps more importantly the salesperson retains credibility, ensuring future sales activity is not harmed by a pitch, successful or not.

Needs based sales are the only sales worth making

2008-12-30T20:17:00.003Z

The value you create can be split into perceived value and experienced value. For new potential customers perceived value is paramount. Giving away free samples or trial periods can drive some experienced value; however perceived value remains the most important.

Once the customer has purchased, experienced value becomes more important. Essentially, does the product deliver on what it promised? If the customer does not use the product then there is a risk this experienced value will suffer. Tactics to drive usage thus become important, in particular if the brand is a significant part of the value derived by the customer, for example with luxury goods.

You can create a scenario where experienced value does not seem as important, for example where customers pay everything at the point of purchase. However, such a scenario ignores the value of brand advocates, repeat purchases and cross-sales.

Running with experienced value remaining important, it leads us to a position where all sales models should be fundamentally needs based, that is salespeople should focus on the goals, challenges and needs of the customer. If not, then the customer may only purchase based on perceived value, not use the product and ultimately not deliver sustained value to the organization. In this sense, such a sale can be regarded as bad value; a short term wins that ultimately does not assist the customer or the company. For example, it becomes difficult for the company to contact such customers as it reminds them of something they purchased that they did not need, driving potentially negative feedback to their friends and family, the very opposite of having customers as brand advocates.

To achieve such a needs based approach, the sales person needs to see themselves more as a facilitator, assisting the customer to solve their problem. For example if you are going to buy a bed odds on you do not know all the types are available to you. You may have an idea as to how much you think you would like to spend including an upper limit on what you can spend. The salesman’s job then is to help you get the right bed for you at a price you are comfortable with; if achieved the customer will be happy as their need will have been solved.

If you are facilitating a sale then the sales process moves to being between the company and the customer to the customer and the product. The salesperson is simply matching the customers needs to the right product from all the products available. In the event the right product does not exist the salesperson then should advise the customer of an alternate solution. At the same time the salesperson should deliver such conversations to their manager, as it highlights additional opportunities, be it through getting in new products or by creating new products to meet customers needs. Put another way, the salesperson becomes Chief Insight Officer, both on what products meet what needs, and where gaps exist.

Identifying new opportunities

2008-12-30T20:10:00.002Z

When looking for new opportunities, consider first the marriage, namely your existing customers first. Any known risks or issues in your existing customer base should be considered before heading off into the sunset looking for new customers.

Such a focus does not preclude new products. For example, there may be inefficiencies in your business which could benefit from being improved with a product; in particular those areas where managers are already willing to pay to solve the problem; namely pain can equal profit. Alternatively, it could be a personnel change. Your sales channel maybe particularly effective relationship managers, so consider splitting the relationship and the sales manager.

Regardless however of the source, a new opportunity has to be able to address three core questions:

What’s in it for the customer?
What’s in it for us?
Why are we the best people to do it?

What next for management literature?

2008-12-30T20:04:00.002Z

Go into any airport and you will spot a row of gleaming white toothed faces shining at you. Sadly these are rarely the understaffed underpaid customer service staff who are running to stand-still, rather the shining faces come from the multitude of management books offering the latest and greatest trick or gimmick to unlock value in your company. Each book offers the great secret that no one else has found. Some come stuffed to the gills with data from multi-year studies. Alternatively, they are the quasi-autobiography of a household name CEO. In each case the authors draw on their experience with different companies, data, past performance to give credibility to their suggested approach. Reading the books can be a wonderful experience. Yet, so is going to the movies. Sadly however going to the movies does not help me understand how to get that washboard stomach or how to jump across the bridge; it merely shows me that someone can do it. Great (I think as reading the books) that Toyota, GE, McKinsey, Motorola, Apple, IBM and the other usual suspects can grow at 50% y-o-y. But each company is by its very nature different. Even if I could follow exactly what the individuals did, it would necessarily be at a different time as they have already done it. Even if I decided to do exactly what they are doing I cannot use exactly the same staff at the same time. So the correlation between their success and mine starts to look a little shaky.

So, what next then? I believe the problem staters (you have too much overhead, your team are not motivated etc. etc.) need to move to becoming problem solvers of the open ended kind. This can only be achieved through real insight. The kind of insight that does more than just refresh and re energize a topic for you, it transforms the topic. Such insight should provide a clear picture of how to at least start going about solving the problem, if not then odds on the insight can be dropped into the interesting but not useful bucket.

2009 = insight.

Reinforcing experienced value

2008-12-30T08:44:00.002Z

You have engaged stakeholders, identified the needs, implemented measures and associated targets and drawn and acted on the insights gained.

Yet, put yourself in your customer’s eyes. There has been a flurry of activity as you’ve reached out to them. Maybe even a follow up call. Then what? Silence? How are they to avoid the conclusion that this is not just another ‘initiative’ rather than a significant change in the service levels they will receive?

Through marketing you can reinforce the initial positive message at each touch point between you and the customer. Such touch points can be broken into recurring and non-recurring touch points. Examples of recurring could include statements and servicing. Non-recurring are best described as simply everything else! Given the diverse nature of the choices available to market your organization the decision can be overwhelming.

How then to decide? The process is surprisingly simple. If you understand the customers needs it will include the channels they use and the types of message they respond to. As the objective is to reinforce rather than educate the marketing can be more passive than active. Reaching the decision makers and those that influence them can be difficult to demonstrably achieve. As the common saying goes, I know 50% of my marketing is effective, I just don’t know which half. You cannot market your way out of a bad product or service, the marketing is to reinforce the message thus the organization has to deliver on the core product and service first in order that the marketing is reinforcing the brand promise. The most effective marketing is often the simplest. Having identified the one performance measure and knowing that the marketing is to reinforce the message, marketing should be simple in its message.

Be different

2008-12-29T23:15:00.005Z

Your stakeholders' needs change, your organization changes, your market is constantly evolving.

To deliver even greater value to your stakeholders you may need to create differentiated offerings. Just as McDonald’s provides the option to purchase items individually or as a bundle, thus giving their customers choice, so you can combine products or focus efforts to improve several signature products.

The manner in which you deliver your products provides another potential source of differentiation and could be the solution to aligning with your stakeholders differing needs. The costs in creating such channels should however not be underestimated. Creating for example an online presence can be done cheaply yet time taken by the organization can impact delivery levels on existing channels. Moreover, such channels necessitate a different attitude and skill set, ensuring your organization will evolve differently then had it remained focusing on existing channels. What’s the alternative? You should be upfront with stakeholders as to why you do not offer such channels, earning credibility via demonstrably having understood needs and actively decided on a course of action.

Analyze a new business

2008-12-29T23:03:00.004Z

The following represent the steps I use to strip a new business a new business down to the essentials:

Why are management doing what they do and are they world class?
What would the implication be of giving away the product for free?
Document the value stream from top to bottom (see W&J); question how to reduce/ eliminate waste and increase value; how does the value stream compare with competitors?
What are the KPIs and are these used?
What is the pricing model & associated product gross profit margins incl. COS components?
Where is the business is in Grenier's lifecycle; what are the potential issues?
Where is growth expected to come from? Assess against: is it within the core (customers, cost centre, capabilities), what is the growth potential of market, how big is the market?
What is the core competence/ USP?
What is the turn time from new idea - revenue & is there a repeatable process?
How is feedback from stakeholders obtained/ used?
Who are the customers/ customer segments and what consumer insight exists?
Are there any change initiatives underway? How are they being managed (Theory O/ E/ hybrid)?

Creating a sustainable business

2008-12-29T22:58:00.002Z

The trick for your site/ service will be how to create the network effect amongst users to ensure that those you sign up stay, and thus you can grow.

You may wish to consider, if you haven't done so already, buying consumer data from the likes of Experian. Do this combined with a highly focused sales processes and decent feedback loops through from all customer contact points (IM/ call centre/ letters/ e-mail etc) to operations; and you should see sign-ups that stay, from which you can then reach out to advertisers with a strong base, which neatly enables you to auction key words at a decent rate.

Taking the lead - small business marketing

2008-12-29T22:56:00.001Z

Have you considered using a key problem/ issue in the industry and taking up the fight on behalf of consumers?

E-loan's CEO, Chris Larsen, did this to great effect with consumer privacy around financial services. It gives instant credibility to the business, and generates heaps of free PR too.

Of course, you have to be willing to follow through; this is not necessarily bad, think of it as additional leverage to force you to succeed!

There is the risk of being branded a social cause site, however the site's proposition will quickly be out of your hands anyway what with the 2.0 side of it, so by leading the fight, you at least get to frame its purpose at the start!

Targeted search - making small business work

2008-12-29T22:52:00.003Z

Check out Helpful Holidays for the merits of targeted search and the kinds of data points businesses can offer their customers to speed up finding the right solution. The granular search function rocks.

They have the best rentals site by far in the UK (in my humble opinion).

Usability gets a big tick too - lots of Amazon type customers who bought this did this, and visitor guides etc to address all possible questions about location etc. Their post sales process is also awesome - SMS reminders, info pack with useful information, feedback requests). Granted the site doesn't have the interactivity and potential web 2.0 stuff that some will covet. Moreover, they do not make as much use of their customer loyalty as they could e.g. through forums/ testimonials etc. However, critically, the basic business model works though, so the site's worth a look.

Mastering customer retention

2008-12-29T22:50:00.002Z

Retention under a subscription model appears so alluring, after all you have a fixed contract with the customer, ensuring you get at least some 'guaranteed' cash, or so it seems. Be careful however, Don't be tempted to underestimate cancellation rates on the subscription model; they can be horrendous once customers get past the minimum term period.

Even within the minimum period customers may leave. You only have the threat of legal action as actual action is too costly (typically) on an individual basis, not to mention the poor reputation chasing such customers can give you.

An alternative that appears to strengthen retention is to extend the minimum term period. However, such an approach can reduce the perceived value of your product. With this in mind, your choice of partners should be carefully considered. Good well regarded partners may be the USP over and above price, hence provided you have the right partners the impact of extending a contract may be next to nothing. In the event you can't secure the best providers, and your cancellation rates are painfully high it may be time to reconsider what value you add to the customer. After all your stakeholders are unlikely to be interested in you delivering sub-market returns.

One last thought. Don't ignore the impact of structuring your price points, reference values (i.e. are you positioned as a luxury good/ basic product are you in the tech or in the food industry) and sales processes on the perceived value of your product. Done well these three areas can materially increase the perceived value.

Continuous improvement

2008-12-29T22:15:00.003Z

You’ve identified implemented and drawn insights from your KPI. Your organization has bought into the measure, rallied around it and is delivering consistent and sustainable performance improvements. Customers are benefiting from the performance improvements, and sales to existing customers are increasing. Further, misaligned projects have been shelved and team members without the vision and belief have moved on. So, what now? Where do you go from here?

For the answer we can look to Toyota. Whilst the unwanted first that is their first loss in over fifty years, they did recently passed the US big three in sales volume, have a product in the Prius that has redefined a marquee and brand, and have redefined the whole process of manufacturing and now service industries. What are they doing? Reevaluating and consulting to improve. Put simply, the process of improvement never stops, if anything it intensifies as improvement becomes the norm.

Such cultural change takes years, but that should not preclude starting. Customers, business and industries continually change; so should your KPIs. People however for the most part do not. Understand your stakeholders and you will have greater insight than your competitors. Enshrine your understanding within one KPI and you will align around a key issue that will drive performance improvement and identify the future opportunities that will ensure you remain at the top of the pile.

So, what happens when you consistently fail to meet your KPI? There are three key possible reasons:

You are in the wrong market in the first place
You have not sufficiently invested in time, cost and quality to deliver the results
Your measure does not accurately reflect your customers needs

In the second and third cases there is some hope. In the first case, a courageous and candid conversation needs to occur within the organization to assess why you exist. The next steps are likely to involve:

Re-segment customers to identify those that you can deliver to
Sell up to another organization that can deliver value
Scale back the growth and value targets for the company

Creating an effective website

2008-12-29T21:19:00.006Z

Everyone pretty much agrees you should have a direct channel (online, telephone, mail).

In the case of online people tend to be somewhat analytical about it. After all its easy to set up a site isn't it? Domain, check, hosting, check, site builder, check. Done. You have a site, all for as little as $10 a month. Yet, the ease is actually the problem. Remember the last WoW site you visited? Maybe you can remember a couple, five at most? Yet we now spend more time on the Internet each day than we do any other medium. So creating a site that creates a buzz such that people independently seek out is tough.

Search engine optimization is billed by some as the solution. Reality is SEO is a hygiene factor these days, getting someone your site is phase 1 not the end game just as getting someone in a shop doesn't equal success. Maybe then it's the sites design that is critical? Yet, how often have you purchased a product purely due to the design of a website? Rarely I imagine. Early in the product cycle a brilliant design may encourage people to buy e.g. iconic i-phone. Rather, it doesn't stop them buying. Put another way, design is also a hygiene factor. Important but a given.

Where then to focus online if it's not having a site, getting people to it or great design? Insight. With great customer insight the site matches the customer need, raising the prospect of being more than interesting and actually being useful. Being useful ensures a need is solved

Solving the need requires real insight into what the needs are, whether you are considered part of the solution. Such insight will drive the choice of domain, SEO, design and the one area yet to be discussed, content. Stepping back, in a world of trademarks, patents, copywriters collectively called Intellectual Property, if you want to retain control of the brand you need to perform what is essentially a deep search to see if anyone else has the trademark or the objects to its use.

The cost of such searches can run to around 10k (sterling). Once complete and the business is in operation can you register the trademark providing an additional level of protection. This is not stricly necessary, for example McDonalds is not a registered trademark as its brand is strong enough to repel any challenges. Moreover, it maybe that the original business area chosen you applied for the trademark has changed, thus the case for registration is weaker.

Using the insight about what your customers want, the steps to building a credible website are:

Target Operating Model (TOM) - information required, agreement required, data links, integration with other channels
Use Cases - drawing on insight into customer lifestyles, so called Pen Portraits
Wireframes
Design
Build

The process does not end once the site is built, rather it continually evolves, ensuring the site remains targeted.

Sales as the ultimate measure

2008-12-29T20:36:00.002Z

Sales is often seen as a dirty word in our cleansed sterile management by numbers organizations. It is as if everything else is okay to discuss and debate, innovation, product management, finance and the like, yet all are in a sense just talking around the real issue: sales. Without sales an organization will not continue. Cash is king, yes, but that assumes you’ve sold something, be it product or service, to someone in the first place such that you need to collect. Sales then sits at the top of the pyramid. There are next to no operations if there is no product to fulfill or service. There is no product development if there is no product, no things that generate returns.

If sales are so important than how come no one directly measures sales? We discuss performance against individual, team and regional sales targets. We discuss sales as per prior periods, but how often do we actually consider whether the absolute sales numbers are actually okay? Rarely. Because if you question the sales performance then you are implicitly saying you have a plan, a strategy, of have to deal with any performance levels away from the norm. Few do. They understand and know what is expected of them, to deliver a slightly better performance than last year, not to rock the boat, to keep things running smoothly.

Just as you should look to get close to your customers so as to understand the one real external driver of your success, so you should look to get as close to the sales team as possible. Measuring returns and cash generation and cross sales is all after the fact. To make a genuine and long lasting internal impact you need to take actions that will drive future sales, critically future sales to the right people. If this is done then returns and cash generation will take care of themselves.

Sell at the wrong time or to the wrong people and issues around returns on investment and cash become important. Sell to those whose needs and expectations you understand having consulted with them to understand why you exist, and your time and energy can be spent further focusing on what they need and evolving with them rather than trying to create the agenda. This reflects the reality that few truly real inventions are made, most “innovations” are combinations of previously tried ideas that just happen to be re-launched or tried at the right time or to the right set of customers. To identify the connections, company's and individuals use the likes of Mindgym.com's tools and frameworks to make connections between different elements of their business, and potential areas for innovation.

Increasing the right sales

2008-12-28T23:05:00.004Z

To make a sale you need to communicate with a customer. Communication can be passive or active. Each communication for the sake of ease can be deemed to be an event. The step then to identify and understand your market size is to identify all the events. These could number in the 50s for some organizations. Events are not limited to the organization, for example the customer may communicate with your parent company and come across your products or services at that point.

For each event list the volume of events, for example how many statements are sent annually, once complete consider how which of your products and services can solve a customers problem. For many events you will not have a product or service that makes a difference. For those that you do, assign the current sales volumes. By increasing the conversion of existing events or selling products via currently underutilized events you can see the potential market size. At this point you can quickly see current versus desired state.

Services can include elements of the channel or distribution method that are valued. For example, a kiosk at a bank or a slick website. Lifetime value of customer to your organization then incorporates hard and soft value that drives value. Soft could include being treated with respect, having a strong relationship with an individual in the organization or the whole organization. Hard values incorporate the customer increasing their product holding or using their existing product more. Once complete the list will incorporate all of the sources of value for your customers and where value is created for your organization. In some cases such value created for your organization may be eroded by the cost to serve. Such economics are at the core of how to increase the right sales. Choose to align your organization without considering the cost to service and you could end up worse off than you began.

Cost to serve differs by channel, highlighting the necessary next step. You need to consider all the ways the value could be aligned. This may unearth instances where using a different channel will unlock additional value. To do the exercise for one customer is simple enough. No two customers are however alike. To thus avoid completing thousands or millions of value charts, you need to segment your customers along value sought lines; these may not necessarily correlate to their product holding, hence pricing channels differently can be effective.

Once all the sources of value are listed, $ amounts for example gross profit per annum should be attributed to them. In some cases this will be very easy for example with products, however for others specifically the lifetime values of customers, assigning a value will be harder.

Sizing a market

2008-12-28T22:11:00.004Z

Once you have had an idea at some point you are going to have to evaluate whether to do it. Essentially the process is the same as an entrepreneur uses to evaluate whether to take on a new business combined with the tools a project managers uses to assess whether a project can be achieved by a set time, within a cost budget and to a quality level acceptable to the stakeholders:

Is it aligned with the company’s strategy?
What are the drivers behind the idea?
Classify each of the drivers by their impact, whether you can impact them, what the probability is of you materially impacting them and/ or whether your competitors can impact them
With the above completed, you should be able to identify the top ten drivers that you can influence effectively that you competitors cannot and the confidence levels within which you can influence.
Using the confidence levels you should then be able to very quickly assess what the total market size could be.
Whether to continue the evaluation rests on several areas:

What the opportunity cost is of working on the idea, not just the current opportunity cost but also the loss of optionality in the event you currently have capacity
The steps required to complete the concept should then be mapped out using your functional subject matter experts
Add dependencies such as one task cannot be completed before another
Following this, allocate resource to each task
Add constraints such as other tasks, holiday and the like
The project plan should then set out when you can bring the idea to market

The due date needs then to be considered in light of the known influencing factors, and whether in the interim these will change. For example, whether in 6 months a competitor will be able to influence one of the drivers.

The next step to generate the market size is then relatively simple; it is just a reflection of the pipeline.

All ideas have customers, stakeholders if you do not have direct interaction with the person/ company that actually pays. Given this, it’s best to start with a customer acquisition model:

Customer is made aware of need
Customer made aware of solution
Customer considers you as a solution
Customer purchases
Customers uses
Customer re-uses
Customer purchases another of your products (cross-sell)
Customer removes the product

Price is thus not the most important factor in people considering whether to purchase their product. Moreover, even when it does become important it may not be important between particular levels. The so called price elasticity of demand, the change in demand for a change in price, is not necessarily fixed. As such, once the price drops below a particular level demand may significantly increase. Equally, at certain levels a price change may not have much of an impact. In some cases dropping the price can have unintended consequences, for example if by dropping the price the salesperson receives less credit or commission and thus they decide to sell a different product. Alternatively, if the process for fulfilling a sale takes longer or becomes more complex, then despite the price drop sales may not increase as the salesperson decides to stop selling the item.

Many people struggle with the idea of how customers all of a sudden are made aware of a need. This can be an emergent process, or a pull. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is perhaps the most famous example of how people choose between various options, how they prioritize. For example, if your customers do not have a roof over their head there are unlikely to be interested on the latest new car model, unless that is your car can double as a house. Over and above Maslow’s hierarchy, the impact of peer pressure should not be underestimated. Such is its impact that measures such as BCG’s Netpromoter score specifically track how often people advocate or recommend products to their peers. Joe Girand, listed as the world most successful salesman by the Guinness Book of Records, goes one step further and lists Girand’s Law of 250 as the critical factor in understanding how to unlock sales. Put simply, Girand contends that most people know or interact with around 250 people. Thus if you deliver a great product at a great price and actively manage the customer you are essentially selling to them and their 250 friends. Put another way, the power of recommendation is significant and can provide the engine room of growth for your business.

If only two of your ideas from a set of 10 ever get past step 5, then consider the basic odds. In order to have 10 good ideas you need to have at least 50 initial ideas. In this sense, team members should be encouraged to think of all the possible ideas, not limiting themselves to the current markets and products in which the company operates. Without such volumes of ideas, your pipeline is likely to only ever deliver a very low yield.

Does General Management still matter?

2008-12-28T21:25:00.006Z

General Management in an age of deep specialization is a tricky prospect. Your team knows more about an area than you do, yet you are ultimately responsible for making the decisions on the future of their areas which ultimately will deliver growth. How to become a great General Manager (GM)? This is not the same as becoming a great CEO. For example, stakeholder management is a lot less important for a GM than a CEO. Further, a GM will not expected to have a complete cradle to grave grasp on strategy; the Managing Director and Board are there to assist. In contrast to the CEO the GM does however require a detailed understanding of how to get the most out of his respective functional areas, for example Operations, Marketing, IT, Finance, Sales and Customer Service.

The MBA in its heyday was supposed to be a General Manager factory of sorts. Yet, most people do not get to apply the GM skills for several years after leaving business school. During this time they either forget the tools or do not get a chance to apply all the tools. Those that do, principally consultants, only apply the learnings to the extent that they influence others to execute. Rarely if ever do the consultants takes on all the risk or reward of execution and implementation until the task becomes BAU. As such the application element is lost. Just as strategy is only as good as execution so are the tools only as good as they be applied. GMs thus need a toolkit that will raise the right questions to ensure they make the right decisions. Whilst no one situation is the same as another, there are however tools that correctly applied will ensure GMs give themselves and their organizations every chance of success. Put another way, they will provide insight where the GM doesn't have direct experience.

Smiley Sister Santa

2008-12-26T10:32:00.001Z

Smiley Sister Santa
Originally uploaded by paul.rode

Happy Christmas!!

How to analyze sales data

2008-12-17T21:42:00.004Z

Do you need to analyze your data?

Just as the analogy of not needing a map when you know where you are going, in a world where you only have one sales person and one customer, there is little need to track sales MI. Just as you want to segment your customer base such that you know each of their needs, so you want to segment your sales force such that you have perfect insight into their activities, successes and areas for improvement.

With a national sales force you thus needs to consider breaking them into segments, whether that be by geography or type. Customers purchase products, they rarely purchase or see the sales person or company as a region or as a product only. As such, your data needs to get to product specific as soon as is feasible. For example, you may create a dashboard with sales by region by product. To provide context a target is required. The sales may need to be weighted where for example one product delivers significantly more GP than another, or where the wider organization has set targets for specific product lines. So, put simply, you need data. Without it you are flying blind.

Targets

Targets themselves can be used as buffers. For example, if you take a monthly target and divide it by the number of working days, then round up to the nearest integer, the integer multipled by the number of working days will be higher than the original total. To arrive at an accurate daily target simply multiply the monthly target by the % of the days gone to date. The difference will thus trickle through each day. If you chose the first approach, then towards the end of the month the month to date target will be some 6% higher than the actual; in the event the target is not being hit the target can thus be moved. Whether you do this is a moot point, the very optionality is valuable.

Prioritization

Once you have this data, you have to explicitly recognize the impact of constrained time, that is you need to be clear that all your actions in the sales space will drive activity either now or in the future. Given the time constraint, the ideal action will not only impact the chosen team/ region, but will have a knock-on effect to other regions. Given this, the below represent the classic steps that maximise time vs. likely value whilst flushing out the key insights:

* Compare the ranking of the top three regions by YTD against target
o Insight - consistently top ranked performer will only continue to deliver to the extent that they risk losing their top spot. So, initially in the year, make them famous, to the extent that they have something to lose if they drop below. Mid way, provide insights and focus action on second and third placers to drive their performance.
* Compare product performance across each region vs. target
o Insight - if one region is performing very well with a particular product, then highlight to low performing regions as example of what can be achieved.
* Compare performance over last three weeks against performance
o Insight - you need to be able to assess whether you actions are having the desired effect; three weeks is enough time to see a reaction; if there is none then ask whether it is a lost cause or if there is still scope for improvement.

The key driver of the decision is the quality, or not, of the people in the team, in particular the leader, quickly followed by whether there are enough people in the team in the first place. The leader needs to be taking the situation seriously and conveying that the target is achievable.

Competitive Strategy

2008-12-15T21:09:00.003Z

Case, Ryanair
1991 was on brink of financial collapse – payment of £34K due to Dublin Airport in 2.5 hours and could not pay. A last-minute cash infusion from the Ryan family let Ryanair pay Dublin Airport, but problems remained.

Initial response was mild. AL and BA reduced lowest, restricted fares by £4 to £95. RA counted with unrestricted £94.99. Load factor close to 100%. Hailed as heroes. 1987 profits of £1m. But expansion into Manchester and other regional airports met by slashing prices by 50% and tripling capacity.

By 1989 London-Dublin price was £70. Volumes grew rapidly but losses of £6m in 1988 and £4.5m in 1989. Loss-making routes were dropped. The early focus on service gave way to obsessive cost cutting.

Fares were cut substantially and sales picked up. As a low-cost, no-frills airline, Ryanair returned to profitability in 1992 and became one of the world’s most profitable airlines.

Market cap Nov 2004: RyanAir $5.8bn, BA $4.6 bn

Deter
• Incumbent with greater efficiency – can be problem as higher sensitivity to lower prices

A ‘barrier to entry’ allows an incumbent to earn excess profits without attracting entry.
• Structural (blockaded entry)
• Superior resources – patents, control of inputs
• Economies of S&S
• Economies of Scale + Sunk Costs = Barrier to Entry
• Marketing advantages
• Strategic (deterred entry) – Predatory pricing, capacity expansion, limit pricing

Capacity increase strategy
• By investing in capacity, incumbent lowers MC and therefore prices more aggressively following entry i.e., reaction function moves out.
• Makes entry less profitable
• Need to anticipate both own response and whether this makes entry unattractive.
• Investment in capacity needs to be irreversible, observable and understood

Lower entrant’s profits
• Pre-emptive patents
• Advertising
• Brand proliferation
• Appointing aggressive managers, building a ‘war chest’
• Use pre-entry price as signal? (Assuming entrants are not well informed)
• Exclusionary customer contracts
• Fighting for a Reputation
• Accommodation strategies
• Entry strategies
• Excess capacity can still be a valuable strategic commitment if compete in quantities
• Prices are strategic complements, refrain from tough investments like capacity to soften price competition
• Quantities are strategic substitutes; make tough investments like investing in capacity, to get entrants to choose low output, which benefits incumbent

If entry is not blockaded and competition is in quantities, excess capacity is always a valuable strategic commitment

If competition is in prices, then depends on whether want to deter or accommodate entry.

Collusion
• Assumes transparency and no misreads – otherwise can lead to accidental price wars
• Equally, detection lags can harm collusion as they tempt others to cheat
• Can bundle products to make selective price cuts to part of product line without risk of competition
• Price leadership – transparent pricing – price guarantees
• Finite repetition - still cheat
• Infinite repetition Þ may be able to maintain high prices using a strategy that punishes the other firm for ‘cheating’ (i.e., charging a low price).
• tit-for-tat: start by cooperating (high price), then do what the other player did last time
• trigger: start by cooperating, if anyone cheats then punish them by setting low price for ever

Use of game trees
• Use to identify credible threats in multi-move games – selected NE are then sub-game perfect
• Specify payoffs for all players and possible outcomes
• Calculate best moves at final stage
• Work backwards
• Would like to fight but not credible (not SPNE)

Make credible commitments – can be too expensive to maintain
• Capital – capacity
• R&D to produce better product
• Experience curves
• Preemptive patenting
• Large advertising

Entry strategies
• Commit to enter as a small player
• Differentiate product
• Rely on anti-trust regulations to constrain aggressive behavior

Strategic complements and substitutes
• Complements – upward reaction functions: if one chooses more the other will choose more. Increase (decrease) in the action by one firm leads to an increase (decrease) in the action of the other e.g., prices in oligopoly models. Equivalently, reaction functions slope up.
• Substitutes – increase (decrease) in the action by one firm leads to a decrease (increase) in the action of the other e.g., quantities in oligopoly. Equivalently, reaction functions slope down.

Commitments
• Soft – produce less, price higher. Good for competitors
• Tough – produce more, price less. Bad for competitors.

Pricing within imperfect markets

2008-12-15T20:49:00.001Z

Bertrand and Cournot are static – do not consider what we expect the competitor to do

Bertrand Paradox
o Assumes: identical products, constant costs, no capacity constraints, choose prices simultaneously and lowest price gets all demand.
o Also assumes that can meet all the demand at the price that’s set
o Airline may use this as the products are a perfect substitute
o Only Nash Equilibrium is p=c and zero profits
o When only two firms – lead to perfect competition i.e. p = MC
o When reaction functions intersect, they are at the Nash Equilibrium
o Solutions
o If high fixed costs then cannot price at MC at least initially (need cover AC)
o Product differentiation
o Capacity constraints
o Firms choose output not price (Cournot)
o Play Bertrand game repeatedly (tacit collusion)

Price competition with differentiated products
o At NE, p>c
o But still do not maximize joint profits, price too low – at monopoly price will undercut
o Reaction functions slope up (my optimal price is increasing in your price, because of effect on demand)

Capacity constraints
o If capacity is small, then at NE p>c
o In particular, set price to just fill industry capacity (i.e., sell all output the industry can produce)

Cournot Model
o Assume firms simultaneously choose output q
o By being commited to produce, the incremental cost is zero – thus continue to lower price until clear all supply
o Assumes that equilibrium each company will be pleased with its output – more likely that will produce too much
o With more entrants, the price falls as each entrants is less concerned about the impact of a change in price due to small output
o At NE, then p(Q) >c – otherwise, better for any firm to reduce output
o But, still do not maximize joint profits – produce too much
o Reaction functions slope down as when competitor increases output, they soak up demand, and I thus produce less
o Positive profits, profits decrease when large number of firms

May compete first on capacity and then on price i.e. mix Bertrand and Cournot

Bertrand applicable when output can easily be adjusted, Cournot when it cannot.

Profits are typically better under Cournot.

Collusion
o If profits are higher than they would be in the NE of a one period version of the game then there is collusion
o Tacit v explicit
o Firms can now punish each other for setting a low price in one period e.g., by setting a low price in all future periods (trigger)
o Collusion is feasible when future profits from co-operating outweigh immediate gain from cheating.
o Role of interest rate, frequency, detection etc.
o Hard if infrequent sales or detection lag
o Easier if: rivals are far away, control entry to the market, imperfect monitoring

Price leadership and Price matching can limit tit for tat pricing

Pricing

2008-12-15T20:39:00.002Z

Case
Pricing extracts consumer surplus by charging more to customers willing to pay for peak time access.

Dynamic vs. peak pricing?
• Dynamic pricing useful if peak changes
• Dynamic pricing removes price transparency
• Demand difficult to understand as people walking in not necessarily a proxy due to randomness
• Any queues suggest poor pricing

Barriers to entry included the high price location – demand very sensitive to location

At capacity
• Dynamic pricing optimizes revenue by raising price until demand just equals capacity
Below capacity
• Fixed peak pricing can be better, because want price to drive demand rather than demand drive the price i.e. easier to affect customer behaviour

Quantity discounts June 2001 discriminate between:
• First and subsequent units
• Users that value brief access highly and others

Differentiate customers by certainty of price and certainty of availability
Advertising did enable set cash flow as not as demand driven

Easy Internet cafes lost money

Higher price than if perfect competition as only real player
• Negative marginal revenue at some points as cut prices, assuming all benefit from a low price

Data suggests stores are oversized since rarely at capacity
• No significant economies of scale
• Demand very sensitive to convenience of location

Fancy pricing cannot overcome basic economics!

Now pursuing somewhat different model
• Majority of 70 stores much smaller – sold large Oxford St. store
• Locate in fast-food restaurants, shops etc., rather than leasing and running own premises
Still doing dynamic pricing
• Also passes for different periods, including off-peak pass.
• Competitors charge flat fees.

Future of market unclear due to growth in substitutes
• Increased home/work access
• Mobile phones
• Wireless technology
• Public libraries

Incentive to discriminate as different PEs across markets
Conditions
• Industry cannot be fully perfect
• Resale can be prevented – nature of good, transport costs, taxes, trade barriers, legal restrictions, modify product

‘Minimum efficient scale’ is the level of output (or interval) where the average cost function is minimized.

First (Perfect) degree price discrimination
• Firms knows individual customer’s valuation
• Extracts all surplus
• Firms makes a take-it-or-leave-it offer equal to the customer’s valuation

Second degree price discrimination
• Firms cannot identify customers’ valuations
• Get customers to self select
• Offer tariffs or packages
• To extract surplus from high valuation customers, the low option must be sufficiently unattractive
• Price discrimination may even increase total consumer surplus if opens up new markets, but in general the effects are ambiguous
• Profits increase, but can be at expense of consumers
• One bad effect — total output is inefficiently distributed across markets when prices differ
• Bundling - Allows firm to charge the highest possible price to customers with different preferences.
• Non price discrimination motivations:
• Lower costs of joint provision
• Predatory pricing, leveraging monopoly power across markets

Third-degree price discrimination
• Firms knows PEs of each sub market – does not know individual PEs
• Use (P – MC) / P = (1 / E) to price each part
• Customers are divided into market segments according to observable characteristics such as age, occupation or location (for example, student fare for films or theatre).
• Firm can divide market into segments

Inter-temporal discrimination
• High price initially – cut price – risks alienating higher value customers

Monopolies

2008-12-13T11:17:00.002Z

Case
Against
• Microsoft had a powerful monopoly in OS and significant power in platforms
• Network effects, switching costs Þ price insensitivity, high profits!
• Microsoft was threatened by Netscape’s browser and took anti-competitive steps
• Low MC enabled them to charge low prices
• Predatory pricing, tying, exclusive contracts
• These actions minimized Netscape’s market share and ability to compete in platform
• In the long run will raise prices and stifle innovation

Defense
• Microsoft had no monopoly power in browsers and little true power in platforms
• Only behavioural barriers to entry
• Difficult distinguish between tough competition and anti-competitiveness
• Significant competitors and continually threatened by innovation
• Microsoft competed vigorously through innovation, product improvements and skilful marketing
• Free browser increased demand for windows
• Integrated product offered major benefits
• These actions gave consumers better browsers at a lower price and increased competition

Summary
• Hard to deny that Microsoft has monopoly power – in some markets
• But being a monopoly is NOT illegal per se
• Sherman Act 1890: illegal to ‘monopolize, or attempt to monopolize’
• US v Standard Oil 1911: courts should apply ‘rule of reason’ and consider behaviour, intent, efficiency.
• Difficult to distinguish anti-competitive acts from tough competition in practice
• Consumers benefit from predatory acts in the short run – but may lose out in the long run

Monopoly definitions
• 100% of market
• Firm with significant market share
• Firm that can set prices above MC
• Consider market share versus market power

Herfindahl index H measures market concentration
• If H <> 0.6, the market is monopolised

Output is allocatively efficient if it maximizes the sum of producer and consumer surplus (i.e., the gains to trade)

In a static model, perfect competition is allocatively and productively efficient, a monopoly is not

When monopolist price discriminates
• Price varies with each unit, essentially the same pricing point as
• No consumer surplus
• Use (P – MC) / P = (1 / E) to price each part
• Ability of monopolists to price discriminate may reduce their inefficiency

Dynamic
• Requires that firms have the right incentives to improve products and processes
• Just as important as static efficiency, but much harder to measure.
• Arguably, monopolists have greater incentives and resources to innovate.
• However, financial markets often finance R&D and patents can protect competitive firms

Efficiency – productively and allocatively efficient where P=MC
• Productive – firms produce at lowest average cost
• Allocative – all consumers that are willing to pay more than what producers cost to produce end up purchasing the product
• Technological – firms that have right incentives to innovate and improve
• Pareto – none of participants can be made better without someone else being made worse off

Durable goods monopolist – e.g. diamonds
• Commitment to high prices
• May control second hand market

Encourage differentiation in perfect competition via patents to avoid winner takes all

Economies of Scale = the average cost per unit falls with volume produced.
Economies of Scope = the total cost of producing two different goods is cheaper when done by a single firm
• Sources – R&D, Finance, Marketing, Production, HR

Demand and supply - basic overview

2008-12-13T10:58:00.006Z

Demand curve – consumers consume until the marginal utility of good x equals the price.

Consumer surplus – consumer’s expenditure > demand curve

MES – where average cost is minimized

Price elasticity – willingness to pay

* PE of demand = % Change Q / % Change P
* Depends on substitutes, switching costs, necessity and addiction
* Cross elasticity = % Change in demand X / % Change in Price Y
* Complements – cross elasticity negative. Substitutes – positive

Profit maximization where MC = MR for all firms.

Perfect competition

* Firm has flat demand curve
* P = MR leading to P = MC
* Price takers
* Homogenous products
* Perfect information
* Equal access to technology

Average cost curve is U shaped – minimum efficient scale.

MR = P (1 – 1 / E)

(P – MC) / P = (1 / E)

Anaylsing data for relationships - an overview

2008-12-13T10:21:00.007Z

Simple steps to identify if a data set has any meaningful relationships such that you could decisions off the back of the results.

1. Complete a scatter plot
2. Consider the results - R2, T-Stat, P Value
3. Review the residuals:

* Are they normally distributed?
* Check the linear relationship between the variables (typically via scatter plot)
* Ensure there is no auto colleration/ multi-collineratity
* May need to incorporate other variables

In Excel:
1. Solver
* Define variables – weighting of investments
* Define objective function - risk
* Define constraints – low expected return; weights less than one
2. @ Risk - Monte Carlo
* Objective: derive probability distribution for variable of interest
* Requires sample range and a probabilities for each of the variables
* Many iterations
* Sampled values are dropped into the model
* Forms a probability distribution on a histogram
* Assessing probability distributions: consider distribution itself – shape, how steep, range; correlation between variables is important; consider mean and Sd too.

Consider implications via:
1. Scenario Analysis
* Optimistic – base – pessimistic
* Cash flow under each of optimistic – base – pessimistic i.e. all values for optimistic, base and pessimistic
* Plot
2. Sensitivity analysis
* Explore robustness of results to variations in parameters – identify which variables are particularly sensitive, and the range over which they may vary
* Complete What If analysis
* Tornado diagrams - What if analysis for each variable between optimistic and pessimistic: see distance from the base
* One Way - Expanded what if analysis using more data points
* Two Way - Expanded what if analysis using more data points, but for two variables
* Spider Plots - Plot one way sensitivity

Standard error is the specific risk

3. Decision trees
* Also consider risk profiles and sensitivity analysis

Best Christmas Cake receipe...ever

2008-11-30T13:29:00.001Z

You need:
7 oz. plain flour (can be self-raising)
Pinch salt
½ level teaspoon each of mixed spice and cinnamon
6 oz. of best margarine,6 oz. of soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon of black treacle
½ teaspoon each of vanilla and almond essences
3 large eggs
2 lbs. of mixed dried fruit
Grated peel of one small orange,
2 tablespoons of milk or sweet sherry

Method:
Set the oven at 300 degrees.
Grease well a 7 inch round cake tin.
Line base and sides with double greaseproof paper.
Sift dry ingredients unto a large plate.
Cream fat, sugar treacle and essence together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
Beat in whole eggs singly, adding a tablespoon of the dry mix with each.
Stir in fruit and orange peel.
Gently stir in the rest of the dry ingredients, mix with milk or sherry.
Spoon into tin.
Smooth evenly with knife.
Make a shallow well in the centre.
Bake in the oven centre for 3 to 3 ½ hours, covering with brown paper.
Leave in the tin for half an hour before turning out and cool on a wire rack.
I use milk, not sherry (above).

Good Small Business Guide, How to start and grow your own business

2008-11-25T21:49:00.012Z

Verdict?
Ignore.

Why?
You get the feeling the authors wanted to show readers just how much information they had found. Yet, what readers want, myself included, is insight, not information. Nowhere better demonstrates this love of detail than the preposterous 75 pages of 'essential' information at the end of the book, a directory of sorts.

Yet, the cross-referenced directory of books, website and organizations by topic actually turns out to be the most useful part of the book as the authors desire to pack in references means they have to provide concise summaries of each reference. Such brevity brings out the best in them and the directory is a genuinely helpful resource. It would be interesting to see how they would describe their own book.

The one area of the main text which did contain some useful insights was when the authors discussed retention. In summary, the authors remind the reader that the need to offer value that will make customers loyal to you. How to do this? By concentrating on how the benefit you provide will impact the customers' long-term personal needs, needs such as:

A feeling of belonging -people like to do what people like them like to do > user-groups
Self improvement and self-esteem - makes them feel better, fitter, healthier, or more important
Being reminded that they have made a good choice - reduce risk of the decision through cooling off period, free support, warranty/ guarantee
A sense of achievement - how will buying from you again put them in a better position e.g. loyalty program/ newsletter
Being educated about your service - reinforce what a great decision it was to buy from you in the first place e.g. via a newsletter demonstraing how they can get the most from the product
Getting a personal and relevant service, exactly when they need it - made to feel as if they are the most important customer

So, a missed opportunitity. Had the authors dropped the first 477 pages into a website and led with a sub $15 tight 75 page one-stop-shop directory then the verdict would have been buy. However, $40 for a directory is Good Business for them, but an expensive luxury for the rest of us.

Giant Steps in Management, Innovations that change the way we work, Michael J. Mol & Julian Birkinshaw

2008-11-22T17:20:00.011Z

Verdict?
Buy*

Why?
If you want to know about the future take a look at the past. With this in mind Mol and Birkinshaw (MB) examine the key management innovations and pose questions as to where the next big ideas are going to come from.

Lean
Intriguingly the lean production system that Toyota invented came from the most unlikely of areas: how to deal with the fact all employees had effectively been given jobs for life. With this in mind an engineer, Ohno, sought to make the operations scalable and to be able to respond to customers needs, the forerunner of mass customization. The focus on the employee was highlighted when a joint venture between GM and Toyota in California failed to produce the same results as the Toyota factories which just had Toyota people.

Workouts
Change Managers arguably have the hardest roles in a company. For this reason, the emphasis on workouts and the benefits of cutting across organization structures and thus getting more commitment and possible upside of fresher ideas was a smart choice. Quoting Jack Welch MB note that leaders lead rather than control. In a similar vein, communities of practice are also discussed, yet as MB note the very informality makes them difficult to consistently use.

Franchising
MB rightly laud franchising and highlight how well the model aligns with the current desire for control of our lives, the cult of entrepreneurship and companies outsourcing all but their core competencies.

Brand Management
With the growth of a company comes size, specialization and a lack of company-wide alignment. BM discuss how P&G solved this, through brand management; creating an environment in which brand managers were pitted against each other. Such inter company competition brings out the best use of scarce resources, and forces a real focus on how to take the products forward.

Customer Relationship Management
As MB state nobody doubts the key underlying ideas of CRM, yet too many companies have let the software drive the strategy rather than enabling the strategy. Albeit I'm not sure this is a CRM specific issue.

MB identify four areas for CRM to develop:

Salesforce automation
Customer service and support
Field service
Marketing automation

Innovation
MB note that innovation management is best achieved through a mix of formal (classic gatekeeper steps that ensure only the ideas that meet certain criteria make it to the next 'stage') and informal (skunk works, open line of sight from the top of the organization to the bottom).

ML provide a useful overview of the main innovation and strategy tools:

Strategic planning - esp. market, what % can get, types of product it'll need
Scenario planning - what if?
Benchmarking

Best demonstrated practice - comparison of performance by units within one firm.
Relative cost position - each element of the cost structure per dollar of sales in firm X compared to competitor Y.
Best related practice - similar to BDP but compare related not competing firms where direct comparisons can often be made by cooperation between firms to collect and compare data.

ML go as far as to say there have been no dramatic step changes in strategy other and above different sorts of internal analysis, all with the risk of paralysis by analysis. Yet they do believe such a change is on the horizon: open innovation, by which they mean companies opening their products and services to customers and other stakeholders. Such an approach goes beyond simply being customer centric, the customer becomes part of the company. Leaders become coordinators and are as much measured by implementation as they are by the WoW idea.

*If you love history just as much as you love management theory.

The Future of Management, Gary Hamel

2008-11-19T20:57:00.005Z

Verdict?
Buy.

Why?
Hamel does not pull any punches. Drawing on military history, Hamel believes Management as a discipline has topped out, and if it is to go forward it needs to innovate. Hamel believes management innovation as at the top of the innovation pyramid, with Operational, Product/ Service and Strategic innovation as the other elements.

To achieve management innovation Hamel demands we think Big:

What are the new challenges the future has in store for your company?
What are the tough balancing acts your company never seems to get right?
What are the biggest gaps between rhetoric and reality in your company?
What are you indignant about - what's the can't do?

Hamel provides examples (from Whirlpool) about how to embed innovation:

Make innovation a central part of leaderships development program and embed into bonus plan
Set aside a substantial share of capital spending every year for projects that are truly innovative
Require every product development plan to contain a size able component of new to market innovation
Train innovation mentors charged with driving innovation throughout the company
Enroll every FTE in an online course on innovation
Review quarterly each units innovation performance
Create an Innovation Board to review and fast-track the most promising ideas
Build an innovation portal to give employees access to innovation tools, data on the innovation pipeline and the chance to input their ideas e.g. access to customer insights and competitor intelliegence, download detailed financial statistics, access to business processes, CAD software to mock-up new products, internal wikis to get feedback from their co-workers?
Develop metrics to track innovation inputs, throughputs and outputs

Management itself is described as:

Setting and programming objective
Motivating and aligning effort
Coordinating and controlling activities
Developing and assigning talent
Accumulating and applying knowledge
Amassing and allocating resources
Building and nurturing relationships
Balancing and meeting stakeholder demands

My favorite point from the book is that creativity and by proxy innovation can be taught, if not there would be no need for design schools and the like. And simply put, more brains are better than one. Yet at a time when breakneck technological and financial change is creating and destroying companies in equal measure very few people in companies are given the training, responsibility and incentives to innovate, in particular in the arena of what strategy to follow.

Hamel favors communities (over traditional bureaucracies) as they amplify human capability rather than stifling it, mobilizing people to meet and interact rather than telling them to do it. In such an environment managers become less about direction than there to remove obstacles, they become football managers and conductors rather than behind closed doors autocrat. Managers then serve the employees not the other way around. The driver behind the community, the vision becomes critical to inspire and enthuse and avenues to get feedback whether it's through meetings or more nimble real-time tools such as blogs and wikis.

Hamel discusses pre-adaption, the capacity of the body to create capabilities and resources that it does not immediately need. Such capabilities create optionality which in of itself have value. Moreover, the combination of different elements can create new capabilities. For this reason Hamel draws on planner Jane Jacobs to identify how to get people to interact:

Areas must serve more than one purpose
There must be a large number of opportunities to take different routes through and around an office/ (urban centre)
New and old areas should be close

Hamel quotes Mary Parker Follet's Creative Experience:

Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power, but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those who are led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders.
Adversarial, win-lose decision making is debilitating for all concerned. Contentious problems are best solved not by imposing a single point of view at the expense of all other , but by striving for a higher-order solution that integrates the diverse perspectives of all relevant constituents.
A large organization is a collection of local communities. Individual and institutional growth are maximized when these communities are self governing to the maximum degree possible.

BI50, no. 8: Research

2008-11-18T19:35:00.008Z

If you want to be able to make a decision off the back of research then you need, however reluctantly, to get a grasp of basic statistics. Ignore this and you might as well just make a gut reaction judgment and save yourself the time, cost and hassle of doing research in the first place. Incidentally, your gut reaction may well be right: you don't need a map if you know where you going. Isolate the one area you are least comfortable with and research just that.

So, to stats. You want to understand whether your sample is representative of the whole. Segment the population into homogenous groups such that the sample sets have somewhat consistent characteritistics.

The sample size has to reflect the fact that you are unlikely to get feedback from all the people you approach. Equally, expect at least 15% of responses to be invalid, for example not including their name.

The Confidence Level (CL) is the probability of the sample falling within a given range of values, the Confidence Intervals (CI). A CL of 95% gives a 95% chance that one of the samples could have come from the wider population. To achieve a narrower CI and thus a greater reliance on any insight from the results, you need to increase the sample or reduce the CL. Intuitively this makes sense, choose enough in your sample and the mean will start to represent the wider population.

When completing your research you are likely to use a range of channels, for example focus groups and electronic surveys. To ensure the two can be compared and contrasted it is important the questions and response types are consistent. Moreover, to reduce the number of invalid responses the facilitator or e-survey should coach/ prevent the respondee from incorrectly the survey in.

Once you have your responses and you've stripped out any outliers, it's decision time; you need to decide which mean to use. There's more than one mean? Yes. In the event the confidence interval at the confidence level you want is weak it is likely that it's due to a large range between the minimum response and the maximum response. In such a situation, remove the impact of the outliers by calculating the mean across the middle set of data, the inter quartile mean, via the trimmean function in Excel. By removing the outliers you are effectively reducing the sample size, thus the level of reliance you can place on the data is lower.

In the event the inter quartile mean is vastly different to the actual mean then there's nothing stopping you using judgement to pick the mean. The implication however is that the mean will have a low level of confidence associated with it as it is susceptible to your judgment.

BI50, no. 7, Insight

2008-11-18T19:22:00.002Z

There's lots of information about, not least on the Internet, odds on you have access to and probably receive countless reports. Some may even feel useful every once in awhile. Yet, how many deliver real insight? And if not, why not?

Most data sources fail because the requestor has not specified the problem they want solved in the first place either because they do not know, or because they are hoping if they keep looking maybe they'll stumble across something interesting.

If you do invest the time upfront to specific the problem then you can prioritize and cut out the no doubt interesting but ultimately not useful information. Moreover, you can prevent such information being produced in the first place. You actively manage the data you receive. Do this and you will receive insightful analysis as it will address your specific needs. If so, then odds on you'll be well placed to make a decision on your problem, or at least to see what the next logical step is.

Without such direction there is a real risk of reviewing and assessing lots and lots and lots of information, all diligently produced, but that has no impact as there's no need.

You'll be surprised at how easy accessing insight is if you know what the problem is you are trying to solve is. After Google is very helpful if you know what you are looking for.

Possibly the most inspirational speech ever

2008-11-05T20:19:00.001Z

BI50, no. 6: Marketing

2008-11-04T23:48:00.004Z

My favorite marketing quote of all time comes from John Wanamaker who said "Half my advertising works, I just don't know which half". Fundamentally this says to me that he didn't understand what he was trying to achieve in the first place.

Marketing is often (incorrectly) seen as simply creating pretty communications. In reality, it is a deep complex pipeline made up of 'events': opportunities to effect change. The insight is that to optimize your spend you need to understand all existing events, not just those you use, and their ability to influence the final purchase decision. Moreover, you need to consider your ability to influence the event's outcome. With the ever growing percentage of spend on direct marketing in all likelihood you'll have the advantage of a wall of data.

Yet, the risk remains that you will incorrectly defined the initial objective in the first place. Marketing can however address this issue by providing insight into your customers, typically constructed in the form on pen portraits.

Your marketing thus can transcend both tactical and strategic objectives.

Previous BI50, No. 5, Innovation
Next BI50,

BI50, no.5: Innovation

2008-11-04T22:25:00.004Z

Everyone is innovative. This is the key insight. Innovation is thus all around you in the form of people.

Innovation is not simply a WOW! idea or an academic process, rather it is the process of solving real pain points, known or sub-conscious. Innovation thus incorporates not just having the idea but implementing it.

Innovation can then, just like any other function, be actively managed. There are close parallels with managing sales, namely it's all about the pipeline. Understand and define your pipeline and you will have taken care of one quarter of the Ansoff Matrix, namely product development.

Previous BI50, No. 4, Project Management
Next BI50, No. 6, Marketing

BI50, no. 4: Project Management

2008-11-04T21:28:00.006Z

Work at its key is about getting stuff done. Things change by design and unexpectedly, not least people. Project management provides the tools to ensure you continue to get stuff done despite the change, it enables your strategy, provides the ability to execute.

Once more there are a myriad of approaches, the key is to actively chose one and follow through. Follow through and you will be forced to define the objective, know the mix of time cost and quality that can be delivered by the desired date and what the inter dependencies are.

You can expect things to change between the start and the end of the project. It is for this reason that project management is so critical, it enables you to understand the implication on the time cost and quality of your project by the designated date, and prioritize accordingly.

Previous BI50, No. 3, Leadership
Next BI50, No. 5, Innovation

BI50, no. 3: Leadership

2008-11-04T20:52:00.005Z

To actively manage leadership you need a deep understanding of the ways leadership can uniquely drive performance:

Set the tone of the organization
Inspire people

Given the nature of both it is critical to be consistent in your leadership approach, regardless of which approach you use e.g. 'football manager', 'conductor' or 'admiral'. If not then expectations become muddled.

Previous BI50, No. 2, Management Information
Next BI50, No. 4, Project Management

BI50, no. 2: Management Information

2008-10-27T20:59:00.008Z

Just as you wouldn't drive a car without a fuel gauge, why would you manage a business without at least some indicators of whether the business is running OK? As the Six Sigma advocates say if you are not measuring you are not managing it.

MI should force you to sit up and take notice by addressing specific stategic questions.

Problems change. Thus your MI better change. As such, you better take notice of who is producing your MI, how they are producing it and whether it's complete and accurate. The stars of tomorrow need to lead the MI function at some point.

Drive blind at your peril!

Previous BI50, No. 1, Talent Matters

Next BI50, No. 3, Leadership

BI50, no. 1: Talent Matters

2008-10-26T21:51:00.005Z

Talent Matters. Simple as that.

So what to do about it? A lot is written about how to motivate people, however one area comes up again and again: people are driven by the opportunity to do challenging and interesting work. Not titles, money or posh offices, but the chance to do something amazing, something with meaning.

The insight? Explicitly and demonstrably eliminate the mundane and uninteresting work and you'll release your people to do the things that'll motivate them. Moreover, along the way your business will be leaner and thus more attractive to prospective employees.

Next BI50, No. 2, Management Information

Business: Top 50 insights (BI50)

2008-10-26T20:52:00.006Z

There's lots of interesting information about business out there but very little useful insight.

Over the next month or so, I'll be detailing the top 50 useful business insights (B50) I've picked up from people, books, work, travel and everything in between.

To keep things simple, each will be 200 words or less, or less than 5 minutes to read.

I hope you find them useful!

P

Tom Peters: Re-imagine!

2008-10-26T10:48:00.011Z

I've just finished reading Tom Peters' Re-imagine book (published in 2003).

Verdict? Buy.

Why?
Peters has a captivating approach that cannot fail to engage anyone with the faintest interest in how to get stuff done, be it in business or not. His question based style avoids the pitfall of one size fits all advice.

The headline?
Ruthless competition requires you/ your business to ruthlessly prioritize in order to simply survive, to win you must continually correctly prioritize and then excel at the few things you focus on.

The below represents the key areas, as I see them, and the questions Peters asked.

Branding

Who you are?
Why you are?
How you are unique (not the best of the best but the only ones who can do what you do)?
How you can make a dramatic difference?
What verb would you use to describe your business?
How are things done when we are at our very best?
Who cares?

Marketing

Propositions:

What specific problems does the product solve?

Don't overlook the intangibles, such as service/ experience

What unimaginably incredible opportunities does the product create?
How much money/ fame/ hero/ promotion/ will this product deliver to me/ my business
Here is exactly how the product will do the above...

Segments
How are you addressing the two segments below?

Over 60s - how does your business address the following needs:

Experience
Convenience
Comfort
Access

Women - how does your business address the following needs:

Control
Comfort
Trust
Respect
Connect your female customers to each other
Start with hearts and move to facts later
Promote the dream not the product

Reference: EVEvolution: the eight truths of marketing to women

Leadership

How are you creating opportunities for others to go to places they never dreamed of?
Are you a football manager/ conductor?
What's your BHAG (big hairy aggressive goal)?
When was the last time you gave out an award?
What do you stand for?
Do you advocate a bias for action amongst your team?

Do it. Fix it. Try it.

Innovation

What are your customers seriously pissed-off about?

Why, why, why, why...

What very darn special things can you do that create specific economic value?
What's the stupidest thing you do?
What are your top Seriously Cool ideas?

How do these dent the universe?
What legacy will they leave?

Who are your Seriously Cool customers?

Are they envied by their competitors?

Talent

Do you provide an environment for an adventure at work?
What's your track record for developing people and recruiting talent?
Would you describe any of your people as weird, wacky or different? If not, why have not hired such people?

The Future

Competition is equivalent to a brawl without rules
Is what you do worth paying for?

Anything that is not:

Automate with a computer
Anything else, automate

Any work you retain (i.e. don't automate or outsource) you'd better ensure it's:

Beautiful
Graceful
Simple
Clear

Only thing that's left is emotion:

Imagine
Myth
Ritual

Why we do what we do

2008-10-11T19:07:00.004+01:00

Seems like the public and private sector are not so different after all.

Per the National School of Government and the Ashbridge Business School, public and private sector managers are motivated by the same thing: challenging and interesting work. Or, to use Tom Peter's language in his brilliant book Re-energize, Seriously Cool stuff.

How to achieve this? It would appear all you have to go is get rid of the other stuff. The mundane stuff that customers don't care about: meetings about meetings, FYI e-mails and the like. That is, go Lean.

But hang-on, what if there's nothing left. What if you aren't working on anything but mundane stuff. What is there is no Challenging, Interesting or Seriously Cool stuff? Well, then, you and your business only continues to exist by chance. After all, your people do not appear to be motivated. Given that strategies, products, services and operations can all be copied by competitors, and thus do not represent a source of sustainable advantage, means that you have a problem!

Quick strategic analysis

2008-10-09T22:32:00.002+01:00

Liked The Economist's 'Guide to Business Planning' section on evaluating strategic options, with options being measured:

Consistency - option aligned to business vision, mission and objectives
Validity - for the most part relating to the option's assumptions
Feasibility
Business risk - level of undiversifiable risk
Flexibility - if the option can be broken into a series of options all the better

The book also includes an interesting twist on Porter's defensive tactics, with the following in order of priority, with preference being for options that cover at least one of the below;

Own the standard
Manage the value chain
String of superdominant positions
Own the customer relationship
Brand, copyright
Two-year product development lead
One-year product development lead
Commodity with 10-20 % cost advantage
Commodity with cost parity
Commodity with cost disadvantage

Google Maps comes to Twyford

2008-09-26T15:04:00.001+01:00

At first view it looked like one of the mobile congestion charge vehicles, but at closer inspection the mid-sized car with a basketball type contraption on top turned out to be Google Maps! Guessing they are mapping the area for the Street View app.

Google in Twyford, rock on!

How to solve the housing crisis

2008-09-16T23:21:00.002+01:00

Possibly not the perfect idea to solve the housing crisis on such a dismal day for the markets, but BBC doc this evening, presented by Alex Riley, touched on an interesting area. Essentially the idea is to use empty homes (mostly owned by local councils), approximately 1m in number, to increase supply. Admittedly, the housing market doesn't need much supply at the moment, however the long term balance seems to be that supply needs to increase. Moreover, the homes are cheaper than having people on the streets/ claiming benefits.

The BBC have set up a spoof, of sorts, site which is worth checking out.

Situation in Liverpool seemed just particularly acute/ crazy: thousands of empty council homes emptied as part of the Pathfinder scheme, developers keen to take them on and people (at least appearing) to be interested in buying them.

As ever, documentaries need to create a story and rarely if ever is the opposing story given much time/ favour. Yet, BBC did at least speak with the head of Liverpool council and he looked a rabbit in headlights when invited to a mock-auction of a 9-year-empty house. Suffice to say he didn't rock up to the auction.

The Chairman of the Conservative Party, Caroline Spelman didn't come off too good either. She failed to meet with the doc maker. Shame really as she was quite impressive on a non-politics Radio 2 show today about ageism.

For more detail on the program see Kits and Mortar.

Cycling lessons - RodeSafety.com

2008-07-20T12:45:00.007+01:00

As per a recent article in The Sunday Times, cycle training is one of the best levers to encourage more people to cycle, in particular children. Recognizing this, Cycling England, developed in conjunction with the key cycling groups Bikeability, a 'real-world' set of cycling courses that prepare riders for the actual conditions they will face on our roads. Bikeability has seen tremendous success, in part reflecting the increased popularity of cycling.

Having grown up cycling (I acutely remember getting my first bike!) I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience the benefits of cycling and was looking for a way to give something back. This led me to train as a cycle instructor with Kingston Borough Council. I enjoyed the training so much that I founded and now run a company, RodeSafety, that delivers cycling lessons to adults and children during evenings and weekends. So, if you fancy a refresher session or want to work your way through the Bikeability Levels 1 to 3 just drop me a line for a chat.

Thank you

2008-06-16T21:29:00.011+01:00

Thank you to all that kindly donated money to the Rwenzori Development Foundation. I raised 150 pounds in total, which added to the 3,000 (!) pounds Dad raised via his sponsored walk makes for an incredible act of generosity from all concerned. Thank you.

Report from the day
How did the triathlon go then? Lets just say I somewhat underestimated how hard it was going to be! The 1,500m swim plus transition took 50.06, the 42km ride plus transition took 1:30.10 and the 10k run took 59.53 giving a total time of 3:20.10 Full results can be found here.

I was quite nervous at the start but like all these things once it's under way you relax and enjoy the occassion. The crowd was amazing and the weather spectacular. Even a couple of celebs did the event, full respect to Jenson Button who broke 2:30 and to Robbie Earle who broke 3:00. Writing now from the comfort of my chair I would have like to have gone faster, however at the time I was just pleased to get to the finish in one piece without stopping!

Photos
Christine took some brilliant shots (see here) from the day. Further, the race day photographer also took some shots (I prefer Christines!) Finally, see here for some official ones, by no real design I ended up finishing at the same time as the elite winner hence making it into a few additional shots!!

Video
The day was filmed by Channel 4 and rumour has it they will show the event on June 29 at 7.30 am. If you can't wait, or can't sleep, then here's a montage from the 2007 event:

Swim
The 1,500m swim on paper (and in the pool) seemed tough albeit doable. When however faced with the seemingly simple task of just making it from the start to the bank, I started to have my doubts. The current was a lot stronger than I expected, even from looking from the bank it looked strong but OK. I followed a friend's advise that if you cannot touch the river bed during your stroke then you are not close enough to the bank, and it served me well until I reached the bridge at around 650m. The channel narrowed as it went under the bridge, the consequence of this was that the river moved faster. With a quiet word or two along the lines of "Don't Panic!!" I edged slowly under the bridge; albeit at one point I was convinced I was not moving!

Once past the bridge the channel opened and the current thus eased which was a relief. By this time I was well and truly the last person in my 'wave' (the 2,500 participants were split into 26 age based waves, each set off at 5 min intervals to avoid overcrowding at the start of the swim). I got into a nice rhythm and made good progress to the buoy. Despite a crisis of confidence when I managed to convince myself that the buoy was not the turning point and thus I had to go under another bridge (a particularly unedifying prospect given that my calf/ hamstring and angle tendon had already cramped/ spasmed by this time), after some plodding it slowly seemed within reach. I even managed to catch someone up which was quite satisfying given my dim perception of my swimming abilities.

Big thanks to the safety boat crew that watched over me as they advised taking a longer route to the buoy, swimming along the bank until I was perpendicular to the buoy and then cutting across, rather than taking what looked to be the shorter direct route. It was excellent advise. As I cut across I got washed downstream and was left with what from the bank probably looked like a stroke or two to the turn. In the water however it was a different matter. I had to revert to breast stroke just to generate enough speed to beat the current. With a final push I rounded the buoy and tapped my legs (as for no reason I become accustomed to do during a tough swim) to say well done and all of a sudden the swim seemed fun again.

The lazy river that is going with the current was awesome. The guy I had caught up disappeared as he made up for lost time but I wasn't fussed as I could now enjoy the exercise rather than battle with a nagging concern that I would not be able to complete the event. I relaxed so much that the safety boat crew shouted across a couple of times that I needed to watch where I was going, as I was just in the zone and not really paying my attention to anything :) Seeing the turn for the exit focused my mind and I apexed the corner as best I could, only to then face the dreaded current again. Once more I was not totally convinced I had the power to beat the current, however after some hard swift strokes I made it albeit at the expense of cramp in my foot and a minor ankle spasm.

The kind volunteers picked me out of the water onto the wooden step that comprised the exit route. I would like to think I could have bench pressed my weight and made it out under my own steam but I'm not sure, especially given that I could not take my weight immediately so promptly sat on the step.

After gingerly jogging a few steps, I broke into a vague run at the same time as trying to look professional by taking my suit off on the way to transition. Seeing Christine, Miranda and Nancy gave me a lift, despite much practiced comments during the swim all I could manage was "I survived the swim".

Transition 1
Looking like I was at the beach I grabbed my towel and changed into my cycling shorts having taken my wetsuit off with the finesse of an elephant in heels. With a dry between the toes and some (magical) Deep Heat for the hamstrings and ankle tendons (didn't occur to me that putting the chip on nice and tight around my ankle might not be such a good idea ahead of swimming for 45 minutes), I was off again. Albeit that is after a small telling off my the Marshall for not putting my helmet on immediately. Feeling suitably humbled I waddled to the exit, hopped on the bike and felt a rush of energy as the familiar feel of my trusted bike came back to me.

Bike
Having checked out the course on the drive over, in reverse for some reason only known to me and my poor map reading, the ride posed significantly less surprises than the swim.

What with being the last out of the water and last out of transition I did at least know that there were some people to chase!! With this in mind I practically cheered when I spotted the first person in the distance. The only slight regret was that my mind couldn't quite untangle the route. Without the benefit of a speedo I simply decided to ride as hard as I could for the 23 miles. Again, slight mis-hap here as it turns out 42km is actually 26 miles!! Not to worry, no speedo, no mile markers, no watch, no problem, just go hard and hang on!

The route was mainly uphill for the first 4 miles or so which suited me fine. I caught a couple of people up and started to gain confidence. Whilst my troublesome left knee ached the marvels of Deep Heat kept it at bay. I swallowed down half a gel which wasn't the greatest of ideas as it gave me indigestion, however it least meant I avoided boinking.

The middle section was quite exposed with little shade and long straight roads. The last section took us through Windsor Great Park. I picked up 5 places in all and, uncharacteristically, threw caution to the wind by barrelling down a big downhill through Windsor Great Park.

As I approached the transition it was difficult to separate fatigue from apprehension. I was somewhat dreading the 10k run. I used to run a lot however since injuring my left knee in 2004 I have largely avoided running, concentrating instead on watersports and cycling. Prior to the event I had last run about 5 weeks ago which in of itself was not a big deal. However, having bought some new trainers whilst on holiday I foolishly ditched my old running shoes. All this combined to make the run the real unknown of the event.

Transition 2
In marked contrast to T1, T2 was a speedy stop. In part this reflected the fact that I had some competition as I could see the other guys that I'd caught coming in from the bike. With yet more Deep Heat applied and a stop by a bench for a quick stretch I once more waddled off.

Run
About 100m into the run I realized that I didn't have the nerve to test my knee. Maybe I was kidding myself that I could've gone faster, not sure; either way it took me just under an hour to complete the 6ish miles.

The new shoes proved to be OK notwithstanding some blisters on my arches. The run itself was gorgeous as it took us past the Castle and up and back through Eton three times. I was also lucky as the Elite Men and Women started to come past me on the first lap. Seeing first hand just how fast they were was pretty special. Intriguingly the men and women were all different shapes, demonstrating how diverse a field you get even at the elite level.

Huge thanks to Christine, Nancy, James and Miranda for cheering me on and keeping me going , in particular on the run.

Finish
I could not hold off the five guys that I'd passed earlier. I have to admit to being a touch dismayed to have come in last to the Finish from the general classification. Whilst I could appreciate the maths i.e. that I was only last because my wave had gone off last, it still was not much fun. Thankfully Stannard, the men's elite winner, timed his sprint to perfection such that I finished just behind him, little secret, I let him have it (read as, I got out the way as the Stannard steam train came past!)

Christine was at the finish to give me a much needed hug and a big congratulations. I had to sit for a bit as I felt totally drained. All in all it had taken 3 hours 20 minutes. Maybe I could have gone harder on the run but at the time it didn't feel like it, it took all my will power just not to stop and walk let alone go faster!

As for highlights, finishing the swim was a huge buzz. Passing some people on the ride made me really happy and restored some confidence, and finishing my first 10k in years was quite the high even if I did not break any records! Probably however the biggest high was the comaradirie as I picked up my stuff from the transition just after the race. Several of the 5 guys were still around, one in particular I recognized as we had gone back and forth on the run. We had a real good chat, sharing highs and lows from the event. We both agreed it was fun albeit a rough and tumble sort of fun, and that maybe just maybe a bit of training wouldn't go amiss next time :)

Will I do it again? Not sure. With some more structured training I think it would be a lot more fun. It would be nice to have a bit of confidence on the swim, and the security of knowing my knee could deal with the run. A carbon time-trial bike wouldn't go a miss either!

Thank-you
So, thank-you once more to those that donated. The RDF is a great charity and the donations enable the organization to keep up its efforts to make a difference in Uganda

Nokia Royal Windor Triathlon in aid of the Rwenzori Development Foundation

2008-04-13T20:31:00.002+01:00

I am doing the Windsor Triathlon on June 15 to raise money for The Rwenzori Development Foundation (RDF). The triathlon involves swimming 1.5k, cycling 40k and then running 10k. I am a little apprehensive as it's my first Olympic distance triathlon, however the thought of swimming in the Thames is at least forcing me to train that little bit harder!

What is the RDF?
Set up in 1993, and registered with the Charity Commission in 2000 (Charity Number: 1082294), we are run entirely by volunteers, many of whom have substantial experience in the charity sector. We aim to ensure that 100% of the money donated goes direct to our project work in Uganda as the Trustees cover all administration and running costs through their own monthly donations.

Where does the money go?
£10 a month could help establish a small farm for each school, which would generate income through the sale of fruit, vegetables and eggs, thereby helping support disadvantaged students.

Why raise money for RDF and not someone else?
My Dad went to Uganda in 2006 to see RDF's work first hand. He was so impressed that he now works year round (as a volunteer) helping the RDF raise much needed funds. Put simply, the RDF delivers on the promises it makes to the local people.

For more information on RDF see here: http://www.rwenzori.org/index.htm

Why should I donate online?
Donating online is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: RDF will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

If you would rather raise money for RDF yourself, there is a sponsored walk on May 17. For more information see here: http://www.rwenzori.org/fundraising/walk/sponsoredwalk08.htm

So, whether you sponsor me or decide to get involved yourself, thank-you for your support.

BBQ Season Kicks Off

2008-03-24T11:23:00.003Z

Hmmmmm, BBQ
Originally uploaded by paul.rode

With the warm feeling (required given how cold it was) of the start to yet another glorious season, we had our first BBQ last night. Yum! A simple couple of burgers were the order of the day. I got a touch keen with the fire lighter, leading to most of Twyford being briefly lit :)

Final set of Thanksgiving pics uploaded

2008-01-01T20:20:00.001Z

Originally uploaded by paul.rode

(Yet more) pics from our Thanksgiving in Sayville

Mums on the porch

2007-12-10T22:12:00.001Z

Mums on the porch
Originally uploaded by paul.rode

A burst of fall color on the porch.

Added a few more pictures from Thanksgiving.

P

Thanksgiving 2007

2007-12-09T09:19:00.001Z

Table all set for the family meal
Originally uploaded by paul.rode

We had a brilliant time with Diane and VIncent and all the family, celebrating Thanksgiving in Sayville.

San Francisco - first impressions

2007-12-09T09:04:00.000Z

When I arrived in San Francisco in August 2002, I was blown away by all that there was to see. I tried to capture my first impressions by taking some pictures, I have not put my camera down since :) These were the best shots from the first 6 months. Pics.

Crashing sunset surf at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA

2007-12-09T09:00:00.001Z

Crashing sunset surf at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA
Originally uploaded by paul.rode

Newly created set of simply pretty pictures, invariably of sunsets. Hope you like them.

P

Dad's 60th

2007-10-29T18:07:00.000Z

The birthday celebrations continued, this time my Dad was the star having reached the heady heights of 60 years of age! Mum put on not one but two surprise parties, one in Brockham (check out the first video below; Dad walking in to Happy Birthday) and one in the Lake District (during the final blustery walk up and around Red Pike we stumbled across an ex-military man that looked remarkably like Ben...), and to top it off Charlotte and Jason came across too! Happy birthday Dad! Pics. Pics

LE - 1k - JOG: (finally) the whole route

2007-10-08T19:59:00.003+01:00

Well, its been more than a year now since I finished the ride with Spence. Mapping the entire route was supposed to have completed prior to starting, not entirely unreasonably now I think of it. I have however now (finally) completed the task.

The shortest day was a leisurely 49 miles (day 12) and the longest a bonkers 112 miles (day 8). I squeezed three centuries together for no particular reason other than the hostels are where they are so I had to ride further.

In total, the route added up to a healthy 1,030 miles; just over my original guess of 1,000 miles, phew! I averaged 10.5 miles per hour. The hours below denote riding time i.e. excluding breaks; the actual days tended to start around 6.30 am and end between 3.30pm and 6.30pm. The fastest day was on Day 4 where I averaged 11.2 mph; the slowest was Day 2 when I plodded along at a sedate 9.5 mph. Before this all starts to sound a touch chest-thumpingingly-rah-rah it's worth noting that over 5k, albeit on a flat course, I can (could) run faster than I averaged cycling during the first week!

The journal has been completed up to an including Day 7. Hopefully it will not take another year to complete!

I have also created some folders in flickr with each days pictures.

Day 1 - 83 miles, 8 hours
Day 2 - 67 miles, 7 hours
Day 3 - 100 miles, 9 hours
Day 4 - 67 miles, 5 hours 55 mins
Day 5 - 81 miles, 7 hours 30 mins
Day 6 - 84 miles, 7 hours 55 mins
Day 7 - 105 miles, 9 hours, 30 mins
Day 8 - 112 miles, 9 hours 15 mins (approx)
Day 9 - 104 miles, 9 hours 30 mins
Day 10 - 84 miles
Day 11 - 94 miles
Day 12 - 49 miles

LE - 1k - JOG: the journal - day 12

2007-10-08T19:50:00.007+01:00

Day 12 - route - pics

Bettyhill > John O'Groats, 49 miles

The final day was an easy ride along the northern coastline. The real drama however was Dad's bike which seemed to be bent on self-destruction, heartbreaking given it was so close to the end. Spence lent his bike and thus all was well again and we were off.

I stopped just outside Portkerra, a little lay-by. Spence and I had a quick chat and then I headed off again, with words of warning not to take too long as we still had miles to finish. Mr. King, ever the professional!

View across Torrisdale Bay from Bettyhill Hotel on morning of last day.

Rare break on first section of final day, next stop the Artic!

Ahh, the good life!

Making a meal of the hill for the camera, honest :)

Views across to Dunnet Head, northern most point of the UK.

Fixing bike to the car ahead of popping for some tea and cake in Thurso. Thurso was notably alive and felt like a real bustling town, confiding my idea that it was going to be a gritty place. Having locked up the bike and changed into some comfortable shoes, Spence and I went for an extremely pleasant tea and cake. Dad happened to join us but was keen to press on so didn't stay long.

Leaving Thurso was a strange affair as it was to be the last section of a 12 day ride. After a brief spot on sun, the heavens opened. It rained and rained and rained some more but it didn't seem to matter at the time. After turning off the A836, I spotted Dad in the distance and made a bit of a push to catch him up. It was not easy going as he was absolutely flying along on Spence's bike. The rain made for a crazy ride as a practical wave was coming up from my front wheel.

Dad waved down a taxi to (as it turned out) see if he could get a lift to Thurso in order to catch the train back home.

As we arrived at the final stretch I caught him and we rode in together. It was an emotional final mile. It was both satisfying and simply peaceful, a cracking and at times exhausting 12 days that had truly lived up to expectations.

I thanked Spence and we had some pics at the post (sans sign - again - bugger).

Dad and I had a quick chat, cleared up some confusion, and we all then set off for the hostel.

Made it!! JOG!!
Dad and at JOGDamp but happy

We had the hostel to ourselves, and then headed off to a local pub for a BIG celebration feed.

I vowed never to do such a long ride again just after I was done, however the real story was a certain Mr. King. There's no way I could have done it without him. Big thanks.

LE - 1k - JOG: the journal - day 11

2007-10-07T18:30:00.005+01:00

Day 11 - route - pics

Inverness > Bettyhill, 94 miles
6.45 - 9.30 > viewpoint, 30 miles

The merits of a curry and several pints were at the forefront of my mind when I woke to consider another big ride.

The bridge over The Firth was somewhat understated affair. A very pleasant cycle path meant I got to dodge the foreboding A9. A gentle sweeping downhill to the (slightly confusing) Firth was relaxing and interesting too, oil wells pepper the coast which makes for a different viewpoint. Heading to Alness along the Firth the sunrise lifted my spirits.

Leaving the A9 I headed into the wild Highlands on the B9176 towards Bonar Bridge. The next two hours of riding where some of the most remote I have done. It was me plus a few sheep and lots of mist.

I met Spence just above Dornoch Firth. It was an incredible view, albeit quite a sparse one.

Joining the A836 I passed Bonar Bridge and then Carbisdale Castle. It should have been a blast of a section however my left knee started to hurt and the odd long climb sapped my energy. Arriving at Lairg I was relieved to stop, rub in some Deep Heat and just take a rest. I was not particularly keen to leave the car park overlooking some people sailing on Loch Shin.

The A836 became a narrow road across bleak moorland (again). For no real reason again I lost the will to ride and struggled to get the bike moving. After stopping to stretch a few times and eating lots of high-energy foods I had hoped to get a burst but unfortunately it never quite came. Regardless, or maybe because of, the landscape is still crystal clear in my mind.

Altnahara was the perfect little hamlet; a hunting lodge with obligatory Loch (Naver) overshadowed by the HUGE Ben Klibreck. Common sense prevailed and Spence suggested we stop and have a break. It was just the cure. A pot of tea, some footie on the telly and a toasty corner by the bar boosted me.

Leaving Altnahara I flew along the side of Loch Navar on the B873 as it gently rolled (think Nessie's back!), even relishing some of the headwinds and posing for a few pics by Spence! At the end of the Loch the road headed north and followed rivers all pushing for the North Sea.

Passing through hamlets such as Skail, Rough Haugh and Carnachy I started to feel nostalgic as it was my last full day on the ride.

From Invernaver the road steeply climbed into Bettyhill. The ride had had the last laugh however as I could not find the hotel so I went up and down the hill as few times!

The hotel was functional. The view however was incredible, overlooking Torrisdale Bay. Unbelievably there was someone out their by themselves surfing. Deeply impressive given it was nearly October!

Spence and I checked in and popped to the bar for a few beers ahead of dinner. Dad duly arrived, a touch damp but with that stoic grin that he has perfected, the one that says made it. Turns out he got a flat, flagged a farmer down, got it fixed and then made it to the hotel.

We had dinner together, a heavy solid chunk of carbs that fit the bill, and THAT view!

Having locked the bikes onto the back of Spence's wagon we retired full and that all set for the last day.

LE - 1k - JOG: the journal - day 10

2007-10-04T20:24:00.004+01:00

Day 10 - route
- pics
Braemar - Inverness, 84 miles

Braemar > Cock Bridge
Cock Bridge > Tomintoul
Tomintoul > Granton-on-Spey
Granton-on-Spey > Cawdor Castle
Cawdor Castle > Inverness

There are several ways to describe a cold start to the day. If you are tucked up nice and warm, it is invariably crisp. In contrast, if there is no where to hide and you quite simply have to get with it, then a good moan and groan and a What the #$^!@, #$#$ it's cold, tends to win over "crisp" any day.

Eshewing crisp, I rode for all of 5 nanoseconds before flagging (read wailing and crying in the middle of the road) Spence down in order to don my ski gloves and most of WG Gore's myriad expensive ways to avoid the very nature you have spent so much time and money trying to engage with. Suitably attired I finally got under way, marvelling at Dad's immunity to cold as he pottered along with no more than a pair of plastic gloves (saves weight apparently) to keep his hands from the sub-zero temperatures.

Mercifully there was precious wind. Irritatingly my fixation with getting warm meant that I was totally unaware we had passed within about ten feet of Balmoral Castle which I would (still) quite like to visit. The Royal Family must be commended for their choice of retreat, the landscape is truly wild and the River Dee suitably inky and mysterious.

Cutting the corner to Gairnsheil Lodge we turned left up the hill onto the B976. After a mile or two we emerged out of the forest above the morning mist onto a contoured road that looked across the hills. With little to no wind, a clear sky and a stout climb we quickly warmed up.

As I toyed with the morals of passing my Dad on the hill, we spotted a man of 70 or so weaving his way up the hill. In a way that Charlotte too does so effortless, Dad struck up a memorable conversation with the old (but young at heart) Scottish man. Cycling over to see what sounded like a mistress, or at least a very good friends, he had the twinkle of a mischievous teenager on a morning mission to bunk school. With a soft voice and an infectious ability to fill interludes with Aii, Aii, I listened in as he recommended we take the track to the left of Brown Cow Hill, the route of the old road, as it would be quicker than circling past Tornahaish to Cock Bridge and then to Tomintoul. Vainly imaging the headlines of Dad and Son perishing in the wilds of Scotland we (or at least I) decided for the peace of mind that can only come from a paved road.

The climb up over to Tomintoul was a fair one, challenging without being brutal. Looking back on the land of Aii, Aii in the morning sun it was easy to see why so many of the oil men make second homes in the area.

Dad and I managed to lose each other in the space of 10 metres just before Cock Bridge, as I zipped down a road to a car park to see if Spence was around, whilst he continued to the cafe. After some subdued muttering I sped on only to be rudely interrupted by some mean hills, one after another they came after I crossed Cock Bridge. The reason for the climbs became clear enough when the Lecht Ski Area came into sight.

After 15 minutes of not seeing Dad or Spence I started to get worried. Cue more headline grabbing horrors. Dad eventually arrived over the brow of the hill, and then Spence arrived a bit later. In the interim I was reminded of just how impatient I can become, dying to get going. Being required to hang on was no bad thing though as I took the time to explore the ski area, a strange place out of season. The nursery slopes looked well named. The lifts over the hill suggested some ominous stomach churning rides, no option of walking out, the Cairngorms even by road are pretty unforgiving.

Dad and I finally got going, muttering away still, and plummeted down to Tomintoul. Following him down I started to think he'd either lost his brakes or had become fearless. As he braked near Tomintoul, my query was answered.

After the stop at the ski centre, there didn't seem much point hanging around in Tomintoul so we went straight through.

The section across the Bridge of Brown and through Lynemore was splendid. We made great time and the weather was bright and sunny, very un-Scottish by popular opinion.

Granton-on-Spey warranted a stop by the lovely town green. Dad disappeared to buy stuff from the bakery, crisps and Twix bars not being his thing. We bathed in the sun on the park benches, and without any social graces performed the usual ablutions; butt balm becoming a necessity.

After Granton it was more of the same flat moor land. I stopped at the turn at Dava to take some pictures to send to Christine, simply loving the joy of instant gratification a camera phone provides.

Such was the pleasant ride that we missed the turn to Dulsie and so took the next turn. After that it was a game of hope for the best as the roads lost all manner of signs or directions. After going for what seemed way too long (and seeing some splendid Moo-ooos) we stumbled across a cross-roads that denoted Cawdor Castle was close-by.

Dad decided to head straight to Inverness. In contrast, I was quite keen to check out the place that inspired Macbeth. And hey, any castle with its own mini-golf gets my nod.

Rocking up to the castle I felt like I was on holiday. Spence and I duly paid our entrance fee and pottered around the castle on the informal tour punctuated with pics of the inhabitants and pithy comments including that dwarfes excepted all should mind their heads.

The castle topped the list of places I want to live. The fact the family get a visitor-free 7 months seemed a worthy trade off for the extra revenue they get from visitors and trinket sales.

Having sailed past the left turn to Inverness, what should have been a relatively quick ride in took a touch longer. The views over the Moray Firth were breathtaking, in particular as I headed into Inverness.

After several "the other left" conversations with Spence I eventually met up with him. Again we faced a tricky prospect as we could not park the car in the centre of town, yet there weren't any beds in the YHA which did have parking. After some muttering we concocted a plan to stay at the original hostel in town, drop the bikes off at the YHA and park in the centre of town. I think. Its been a while and the plan was fiendishly cunning, so much so I cannot remember.

The hostel in town on the face of it was trendy, funky and well young. I am clearly no longer young, as for all its happy painted doors, I found it somewhat irritating, poky and, well, not the (S)YHA. Sad but true.

Dad in contrast is young, and was in his element. Seemingly having met and made friends with most of the hostel by the time we arrived, we left him to it and went off to explore Inverness.

After an impressive walk past just about every restaurant possible ("you never know/ one last one etc.") we chose upon a curry house. The curry was spot-on, hot enough to remember even despite my age, and spartan enough to suggest the food not the decor was the attraction. Having sunk a couple of beers in order to avoid spontaneous combustion, fuelled we were on a mission to find a boozer to round off the night.

Our choice was nothing less than disastrous. It was so bad it felt like an overly engineered joke. We meekly sat in the order trying to avoid the 500 decibel karaoke and over eager gazes of rock eating umm people. We had clearly dropped into some alternate anti-Narnia. But for the numbing curry we would probably have left. That or we are tight as a duck's.... Beer finished and collective nodding, speech being impossible, we headed back to the fun-bus-hostel, and settled down amongst the atonal snorathon, led amiably by Dad.

After the previous centuries, it felt like a very relaxing day. Looking back, the weather really was extremely kind. The ride with a head wind and a bit of rain would have been a very different proposition. I am glad we got lucky though, I'd had enough of triumphs through adversity. Castle tours and currys with the odd mountain pass were just fine by me.

LE - 1k - JOG: the journal - day 9

2007-09-26T20:35:00.009+01:00

Day 9 - route - pics

Edinburgh > Braemar, 104 miles, 9 hours 30 minutes riding

Edinburgh > Kinross, 6.45am - 9.30am, 2 hours 45 minutes
Kinross > Methven, 10.20am - 12.20pm, 2 hours
Methven > Blairgowie, 1pm (ish) - 3.30pm (ish), 2 hours 30 minutes
Blairgowie > Braemar, 3.45pm (ish) - 6pm, 2 hours 15 minutes

Having collected my bike from the hostel locker, and pottered to the wagon and picked up the usual accouterments, not least the magic nutty tracker bars.

It was bleak weak dark start to the morning as I ambled along Princes Street past Edinburgh Castle. The Edinburgh one-way did its best to stymie my efforts to get to the Forth Road Bridge in a vaguely efficient manner. After some cases of four left turns and much muttering I finally emerged in onto the A90 which took me towards the bridge.

A pleasant albeit bumpy cycle track emerged from the mist and took me a few miles before I gave up and took the always mistaken idea of going off-piste. Queensferry just under the bridge quickly yielded the route to the bridge.

The Forth was a real treat. Despite the wind and rain it still felt very special to be there on my 30th birthday, continuing the treat of being somewhere special on the wee anniversary.

The next 60 minutes or so were pretty grim. It was cold and when the wind picked up, increasingly cold with nothing much to look at. Until that was I entered Kelty and saw a couple of cards backed up. Bunched around the cars were two traffic wardens having a good argument which raised my spirits.

I was looking forward to Kinross, not least because I thought it was the picture postcard spot with the Scottish castle on the edge of the lake (Loch Leven). Not quite. At the end of a rough track I came to a drab car park with an equally drab fishing club house. Spence has huddled in the car, wondering no doubt what on earth I'd been thinking suggesting we meet there.

Supposedly the lake is very famous for fishing, borne out by the number of men getting ready to head to the water and the multitude of pictures of men with fish. Seems a change in plan from the local authorities however will put the fish stock in jeopardy which is a shame; despite not being in the best of moods at the time the place certainly seems to bring a lot of people (if not fish) happiness.

Having put on just about every item of clothing that I owned, no more bare legs for me, I exited Kinross for warm climes. I was quickly back into the hills heading up a 16%'er to Pathstruie. Pheasants a-plenty were bobbing around as I made my way to Newton of Pitcairns.

A short hop across the valley and it was back up the other side, climbing a bruising 20% past Balgowan to Methven where I met up with Spence. There was not much to report from Methven, at least when I was there, a quiet little town.

The section to Blairgowie passed without incident. It was pretty chilled riding, just grinding out the miles.

Life got fun however when I got to Blairgowie as Spence mentioned that he had seen Dad!! I had not expected to see Dad until the next day so this was very exciting news. The next step was to decide whether to head to Braemar or to stick with the plan to stay at Pitlochry. No a toughie, especially after Spence in his endless kindness agreed to pay for the night at Braemar. The guy is a legend.

So, after hunting around for a toilet for what seemed like forever and then finally finding one where I'd looked first, I was nearly ready to go. A quick purchase of some flapjacks and I was on my way.

Dad was supposedly only 7 miles ahead which I figured would not be too tricky to catch up. So, I turned it on and cranked up what turned out to be an endless 7 mile hill following the river Lack Water past Craighall, Bridge of Cally and towards Cray. The road passed through a tightish valley strewn with dense woods. It was at times quite eerie. It became somewhat obvious after about 30 minutes of riding that unless the hill continued forever I did not have it in me to catch Dad.

Spence and I met for a quick drink by the side of the road.

We agreed to meet in Braemar, some 20 miles or so down the road. At the time this did not seem like such a big deal. I made a conscious effort not to look at the map ahead as I had a sneaking suspicion that a somewhat large hill was between me a warm bed!

(Dad demonstrating his unique weave method to make the hill easier - assumption being there are no other road users of course!)

Riding past Cray the hill gave way to an open U shaped valley, cleared of the prior forest. The road snaked in front of me, looking like a series of little rolling hills. With Meall Uaine (2,605) and Duchray Hill (2,303) by my sides I pottered up the hill, still vainly checking the route ahead for Dad.

As I approached the Spittal of Glenshee I was starting to wonder how on earth the road was going to get past the imposing head of the valley, ominously known as Devil's Elbow. I recall taking an unnecessarily long time to reach the head of the valley, intrigued enough to want to get close, scared enough not to want to have to confront the last thing my legs wanted to see.

Devil's Elbow is the gap between The Cairnwell (3,061) and Glas Maol (3,504) and also serves as the entrance point to the Cairngorms National Park, one of the wilder British parks. To add a touch of spice, Devil's Elbow also houses the Glenshee Ski Centre. Yep, skiing. There is something inherently wrong with riding past a ski lift. You get a nagging feeling that somehow you should not be there; that if its high enough to ski then maybe being in a car would make more sense.

Getting then to the Devil's Elbow was eventful. As I approached it was possible to see the surprisingly wide road cutting across The Cairnwell as it made its way to the low point of the ridge with Glas Maol. The road then swept around the corner of The Cairnwell, out of sight.

The climb took just under 30 minutes, and was not much more than 15%. Moreover, the views back down to Cray were stupendous. It was getting on for 5pm and there I was climbing up a mountain pass on my tod, but with the warm glow that my best mate and my Dad were a few miles away and it was my birthday to boot! Marvellous stuff.

The biggest concern in reality was my vanity. Having decided not to walk up a single hill I was concerned that my hamstrings would cramp and thus I would have to get off. As if playing a game of brinkmanship I could feel my left hamstring starting to tense every once in a while, so I would get up some speed, get out of the saddle, stretch for as long as possible, then sit back down until it started to go again. This game of cat and mouse kept me entertained for some time. That and chatting away to myself about how I simply had to get a mental imprint of the moment.

When I finally reached the top, vanity intact, I saw the sign for the Cairngorms, smugly smiled at how ludicrous this ride was becoming, then saw the ski lift and winced. With none of the skill of a Greg LeMond having just topped out on an unclassifiable hill, I proceeded to button all possible sources of warmth before the decent. And what a decent! My my, it was made in heaven. 7 miles of perfect blacktop sweeping through a wild valley to Braemar. Half the way down my phone vibrations indicated that I'd got a voicemail. It was Mike and Kelly singing me happy birthday. Smiling I proceeded to finish off the downhill and rolled a very happy 30 years young into Braemar youth hostel.

Upon arriving and peeling myself off my bike I hobbled into the hostel only to be told to go into the kitchen for no particular reason. Vaguely confused but happy to be told to go to the most likely source of food, I pottered in to be met with a chorus of happy birthday from Dad, a German member of staff and her parents! Spence then blustered in, apparently none the wiser about the intended sing-song, a consequence of Dad (and mine) over-reliance on everyone knowing what's in our heads!

It was a great way to celebrate. After a beer and some cake we chatted with the German girl, and heard all about the hostel and its many inhabitants. Seemed a pretty sweet place to pick from my perspective, wild as wild can be without being a tent.

With the kind of luck reserved for birthdays, Spence snagged us a room to ourselves (sorry Dad, love you with all my heart, but the snoring could wake Blue whales at the bottom of the sea), and he secured the refunds from the other hostel. Amazing.

We opened some presents, including a nifty BBQ that had been hauled all around Britain and a stack of other lovely gifts. I am very lucky.

Spence and I headed to the local pub, Dad opting for a power sleep ahead of the 90 miler to Inverness. The pub was of the hotel hostelry variety, nice enough albeit the bar could have done with being 50% smaller to garner a touch more atmosphere. Worked for us though, and after a couple of pints and I think a whiskey, plus lots of calls perched out the door to get reception, we headed back to our warm hostel.

Big thanks to everyone, especially Dad and Spence for a truly unforgettable birthday.

LE - JOG - 1k: the journal - day 8

2007-09-20T20:26:00.012+01:00

Day 8- route - pics
Once Brewed > Edinburgh, 112 miles, 9 hours 15 minutes riding (approx.)

Once Brewed > Scottish Border, 29 miles, 6.30am - 9.25am, 2 hours 55 mins
Scottish Border >Eskmuirdale, 32 miles, 9.40am - 11.30am, 1 hour 50 mins
Eskmuirdale > Peebles, 36 miles, ??, it was so pretty I forgot to record the time, think just under 3 hours
Pebbles > Edinburgh, 26 miles, 3.50pm - 5.20pm, 1 hour 30 minutes

Having hobbled around in the morning after a long Day 7, it was a somewhat gingerly start to the day, not especially aided by the dark broody dawn. Fortunately I was blissfully unaware that I had 112 miles ahead of me; best not to measure these things I decided, or rather the lack of plotting the route ahead of time had decided.

The rolling hills were a little kinder of the legs than the previous night. As I pottered along with the Hadrian Wall silhouetted on my right it felt as if I was on a gentle morning ride.

At Gisland I finally started on some new road, having completed the backtracking from the previous day. The B6318 was a kind soul, shepherding me towards Kielder Forest, a place where I skied for the first time when with the Scouts. The highlight of the road however was when some cows that decided to gallop (?) along next to me a second or two. moo-ooo. The views across to the valley of the A69 (the road of wind) were pleasant enough.

Crossing through Kershope Forest the rain finally came as I approached Scotland. With the rain however was a vibrant rainbow which raised a smile. Kershope Forest itself had the feel of a frontier, apt I guess. The final approach to the Scottish border at Liddel Water was almost anti-climatic. The badger had somehow made its way onto the Scottish border, nothing to do with Spence I was assured.

Climbing into Scotland with the rain didn't initially feel like anything particularly memorable was going to occur. And yet, then came the road into Langholm. Above Langholm rose a series of hills/ mountains which hinted at the fun and games to come. Dad had mentioned that he had come to Langholm as a kid with the CCF, so seeing it for the first time was quite special.

Climbing out of Langholm was a somewhat leisurely affair with Lake District time hills on my right and a wild wood on my left. The climb was gradual meaning that I could enjoy the view rather than try to stop my lungs jumping out of my throat as was the case earlier, especially in Cornwall.

The final stretch on the B709 to Eskdalemuir was quite simply glorious. I felt like I was racing as the road was perfect and almost completely my own. The wood gave way to yet more green hills and a big strong river. I had always had the idea that the Scottish Borders were a somewhat flat dull area, devoid of any real attractions, the entry point to the big stuff if you like. I could not have been more wrong. The scenery was breathtaking, aided no doubt by near perfect weather; warm but without much wind. To top if off I was rewarded with a hotel sign that made me smile: Best Breakfast For '04. Quite what had been going on between 2004 and 2006 was unclear, but 2004 was clearly a good year and hey lets celebrate success. Riding by, I crossed the river and spotted Spence on a nearby grass verge next to a fence overlooking a flat field. Happy.

The 36 mile section from Eskdalemuir to Peebles was possibly the highlight of the entire ride. It had everything. I climbed for an eternity up along the side of an empty treeless valley, the road weaving along in a sedate way. As I climbed the views back to Eskdalemuir went from merely good to WOW. It was no surprise to see that the Kagyu Samye Tibetan Centre chose to the area. The landscape is so peaceful it is almost eerie.

Once I had finally completed the ascent I took a second to absorb the view. It was just as well as the next 10 miles or so were in Craik Forest, the kind of place where trolls would not live as it would be too cliched. The road was the stuff of dreams, no pot holes and sweeping turns with enough visibility to be able to safely apex each and everyone. I shot along and could not have been happier, I was in my own little world with nothing to think about other than the joy of cycling in a wild place. Perfect.

The downhill kept going on and on and on, it never seemed to end, and all within this mysterious (troll-free) forest. I passed some a couple of guys working on a cabin and then slowly but surely started to see signs of the outside world. At the time it seemed nuts that there was a small caravan park, but looking back now it would be the perfect place for a week of solitude.

The village of Ettrick marked the edge of the forest, at which point I crossed Ettrick Water and followed in on the B709 until turning left towards the impressively named Mountbenger. I got a buzz as I made the turn as I seemed to be returning to the boonies. I flew up the hill to Berrybush before making a sharp right turn. The new view was so incredible I stopped and called Christine, dying to send her a picture, not really thinking that maybe she did not want to see what a great time I was having while she was in the office paying to keep me on the road. In a rare moment of sanity I decided not to send the picture.

The downhill into Mountbenger was awesome. A car filled with a family of four went past, and it reminds me how often I am in the car and see someone else in the middle of nowhere out doing it and get very jealous. And this time I was the one doing, yea!

At Mountbenger I spotted the Gordon Arms Hotel where I believe my Dad stayed and (as ever) had met some weird and wonderful people. In this instance, it was a bunch of guys on a stag hunting party, stag of the four legged variety that is. Dad had stayed at a bunk house which by all accounts was a top find as Mountbenger is basically the Gordon Arms Hotel as far as I could see; there were no other houses!

Not quite sure where the energy was coming from I then proceeded to race up Glenlude Hill, again a decent climb on a regular day but something was going on that just made me feel invincible. The downhill was again superb, it really was like a dream. Steep without feeling like a cliff, dry well maintained surface and all wrapped up in a stunning valley. When I reached the bottom having had to slow down to let a car pass I was completely buzzing, it was not adrenaline as such just pure happiness. At the turn onto the B7062 to Peebles I saw a sign saying that it was 7.5 miles to the town, for no particular reason I decided to do this in less than 30 minutes. 25 heart stopping sweat soaked hilly minutes later I arrived in Peebles, silently cursing but quietly quite pleased with myself. On the flat at the start of the day it would have been an OK time but given the context I was very pleased.

Spence had holed up in a sweet spot, a car park next to the River Tweed overlooking the bridge into town. It was also had the icing on the cake that is space, space to drop the bike and just sprawl out. I made a call to order some flowers for Christine, stumbling upon possibly the best florist in the world, Daisies in Jeriocho Oxford. They are kind, thoughtful, quick and professional and always deliver on what and when they say. Suffice to say I have never looked back, thanks Daisies!

Peebles was also special because Spence once more proved what an incredibly resourceful chap he is by figuring out a way to get my pictures off my phone. I was not sure if it was possible, but with a flick of the wrist and a cable or two hey presto there were all my pictures from the ride. Brilliant.

Leaving Peebles I started to also leave the Scottish Borders and began to enter Midlothian and then Edinburgh. Continuing the perfect day, despite a large-ish road which on a different day could have been miserable, the sun came out and I had a following wind. As such I made great progress along the A703. A neat turn onto the quiet A6094 opened up a wonderful vista over to Penicuik. Joining the B7026 I started to initially hum and then sing as I rode, all sorts of made up nonsense as I darted along the mostly downhill stretch.

About 8 miles out of Edinburgh I put myself in the hands of the town planners and decided to ignore my planned route and just follow the cycle signs into the city. It worked a treat, albeit with a couple of moments when I thought I'd made a big mistake. Ultimately though the signs meant I could just concentrate on riding rather than constantly checking the map which meant I made great progress. Moreover, it kept the flow of the ride at a nice canter.

I emerged into the city centre having passed what seemed to be the University area which gave me hope, lots more cyclists and people not in a rush. I crossed on Waverley Bridge and called Spence for directions. As ever he was spot on, and I rode down Leith Walk to the brand spanking new hostel. Arriving at

After waiting and watching the car to ensure we kept the impossibly good parking spot (right outside the hostel in the middle of the city), and then locking down the car, we finally made it into the hostel. The rooms were very pleasant and it felt great to shower and go through my routine of oils and balms to ease the stiffness and soreness.

We headed back over the Waverly Bridge and went to Pizza Express, possibly the best restaurant in the world for Spence and I to go to; we got to spend half the meal analyzing how brilliant the operations of PE are. It is truly an incredible place, it's like watching a factory with nice decor. McDonalds without the Jonny-no-stars. After the odd cramp and a Reine pizza washed down with a few beers and a gallon of water we headed to a pub that I had been to during the previous New Years Eve. It was however a step too far for me, and I quickly faded in the bar. Fatigue won over and we headed back to our plush pad.

All in all a magical day.

LE - JOG - 1k: the journal - day 7

2007-09-20T19:54:00.001+01:00

Day 7 - route

Once Brewed, 105 miles, 9hrs 30 mins riding

Slaidburn > High Bentham, 12 miles, 6.30 - 8am, 90 mins!!
High Bentham > Kirbky Stephen, 35 miles, 8am - 12pm, @ 4 hrs
Kirbky Stephen > Culgraith, 17 miles, 1.20pm - 2.45pm, 1 hr 45 mins
Culgraith > Castle Carrock, 21 miles, 3.15 - 4.35pm, 1 hr 20 mins
Castle Carrock > Once Brewed YHA, 20 miles, 4.50pm - 6.15pm, 1hr 25 mins

Before setting off I'd mapped the route online as far as day 6. Mapping took forever and I simply ran out of time. I had the route marked on an Atlas but I did not really know for days 7-12 how far or hilly they would be. Day 7 was thus somewhat of a rude awakening! It turned out to have the toughest climbs that I've ever done and also the furthest I have ever cycled in one day! A good mix. Probably better not to have known!

Riding out of Slaidburn as the sun rose I felt like I was entering the frontier.

I quickly left the narrow B6478 and headed north on a country lane to High Bentham. I passed the tiny hamlet of Townhead, all two houses. The road was nestled in amongst the fells of the Forest of Bowland and the forested Cocklet Hill (Gisburn Forest). There was a wet mist hanging in the air and absolutely no one around. It was both eerie and absolutely wonderful at the same time.

As I came over the brow of one small hill I was faced with about 20 cows, some of the road others on the banks. The combination of the hills, mist and curious faces staring at me was a touch surreal.

I gave the customary moo-ooo greeting, discovered that I was getting a little too good at my cow impressions as some reacted; a good thing if they are the other side of a fence, an entirely different proposition when they are all around you! As I was gingerly making my way through the herd Spence came over the hill in his Discovery, the cars lights piercing the morning mist. We both shrugged and waited for the cows to move on, after which we had a quick chat and Spence then disappeared down the hill into the mist, leaving me once more feeling like I was the only person in the world. Cows were now in charge; probably not a bad thing.

After following Spence down the hill I went through a small copse, climbed once more and finally saw the fun and games ahead. The road dropped into a valley at Collyholme Wood before working slowly alongside the side of Hasgill Fell, endlessly going up until it reached the head of the valley at Lythe Fell.

Initially the climb looked okay; it was long but doable. As I started to plod up it however my mind started to play tricks on me, could I make it up, am I actually moving, crikey its cold. All of this combined to make me very relieved to reach the top of the valley. A couple of cars passed on the way which took the edge off the climb as I was able to watch them making their way up/ down the valley, gradually getting closer. The valley itself was carpeted in gorse, it looked like what I imagine the Queen's Balmoral estate to look like, wild and wooly, a touch foreboding.

At around 1,500 feet the top of the valley was pretty chilly so I stopped, donned some gear and prepared for what I thought would be the mother of all downhill. Mercifully the next few miles actually kept largely to the ridge, the road making its way across Tatham Fells. The views were simply stunning. I could see across to High Bentham in the north and east across Burn Moor. Humbling stuff.

A steep descent into Bentham past terraced houses took me to High Bentham. In hindsight I should have stopped and had a cup of tea and a particularly inviting looking tea shop. It had taken 90 minutes to do the 12 miles to High Bentham, and it'd been pretty hard going up the valley. However just as I was contemplating Midds Butty Box (I'm not kidding) from the T-junction at which I had stopped, a car arrived behind me and I decided to keep going.

The road to Ingleton, across the valley before climbing back into the hills, was closed so I had to take a diversion via Burton in Lonsdale. A pleasant enough diversion, albeit with some rolling hills that I did not particularly need at the time. Seeing the packed school bus pass me was a quick reminder as to how early we started each day.

After riding along the quiet A687, tentatively looking up to Leck Fell, West Fell and Park Fell (1,848), I finally turned north once more and headed up into the hills. It was a pretty quick reintroduction with a steep relentless climb up past Thornton in Lonsdale. The views in my helmet mirror were incredible, looking back to Burn Moor where I had come from earlier.

After just over a mile of climbing I reached Kingsdale, a long lingering valley that would take me through Blackside Pasture and down the other side into Dent and Cowgill. Looking up the valley I could not make out where the road was going to go by sight; it looked like an impregnable round headed valley protected by Green Hill (2,054) and Whernside (2,415).

For the first time that day I was able to get into a rhythm as I sped along the Kingsdale valley, passing sheep pens and watching as the River Kingsdale got narrower and narrower as I made my way up the valley. There was a small farm at Kinsdale Head with a cattle grille that I pottered across. Somewhat disconcertingly there was also a gate, suggesting that the road needed to be closed off at times. Quietly I loved it, it felt like a true challenge, a big old climb up into the desolate hills. Bring it, I seem to recall thinking!

The climb to the top of the valley was as expected tough, albeit short and sweet. I stopped at the top gate to catch my breath. I could see across to Aye Gill Pike (1,825) and to my left and right were 2,000+ peaks which was pretty awe inspiring.

Entering Cumbria I then descended into Dent via Deepdale. The descent was absolutely bonkers; it was blindley steep, 30% in places, I had to skid at times to stop myself flying off the road down into the valley. The road switch backed and forth down into Deepdale, following Deepdale Beck to the River Dee.

Reaching the valley floor I saw a sign for Kirkby Stephen which made by heart drop, 20 miles to go. It was supposed to be my first stop of the day and I was exhausted and been riding for what seemed like forever. That being said I was dead chuffed with the morning. I could not quite believe it when I looked back to where I had come from; it looked impossible.

Trying to avoid the bugs I sauntered along the valley floor, heading west to Cow Gill. I passed the very appealing Wheldale Manor House which seemed to also have bunkhouses, good to know for next time:) I stopped on the small low moss covered stone bridge that took me across the River Dee for a quick picture.

The climb out of Cowgill initially seemed quite comical, a touch old brute it took me to Dent railway station; as I climbed I could not help by think if anyone used the station on a regular basis. If so, the daily walk to get the train would be pretty brutal! I thought that the train station marked the end of the climb. Regrettably it didn't and the slog continued and continued and continued. On the upside the bridge that took the train line over the valley was incredible. A huge stone affair that looked like it and the valley were best of friends, it reminded me of the viaduct in Durham.

After a mile or so the climb reached its peak by which point I was more than a little tired. I was also running a little low on water, having not imagined the first section of the day would take so long.

Descending to Garsdale Head I had the novel experience of smelling my brakes smoldering as I unintentionally skidded down part of the hill. Suffice to say it was a tad steep!

Despite my best efforts I could not find anywhere that had water which was a little disconcerting. Even the appropriately named Moorcock Inn was closed.

Help was however at hand in the shape of the most perfect downhill of all time. The B6259 to Kirky Stephen was a riders dream. Straight and paved with newish blacktop the road plummted over 11 miles to Kirkby Stephen, a just reward for all the earlier climbing. I could not believe my luck. I rediscovered low gears, dropped onto my bars and just cranked out mile after mile. It was one of thw few occassions when I would have loved to had had a speedo. As if the road was not enough a few fighter planes screamed up the valley, Top Gun moment! Passing Shoregill, Southwaite and Thringill the landscape changed from the wild fells to the typical patchwork quilt of hedgerowed fields.

As I got closer to Kirkby Stephen the thought of going back into the hills as I had planned to do started to seem a lot less appealing, not least because it was starting to dawn on me just how long it took to cover ground when climbing. 80-100 miles on the flat started to look like an easy day; 80-100 in the hills however was a trickier prospect. My bike started , maybe conveniently, to make some odd noises too which seemed to provide an excuse upon which to drop me flaking away from the hills. Even without though I'm not sure I would have headed back in; I just could not go fast enough to cover the required distance. I was faced with the prospect of riding into the night in order to get to the next stop.

Spence and I met up and headed to a bike shop. The chap took a look over the bike whilst swapping stories of when he did the ride. He was vaguely impressed about my mornings activity and questioned why I didn't take a different route, smart chap I said. He described the route back into the Pennines I was proposing to take and it sounded murderous. So, a touch sheepishly, Spence and I poured over the map to figure out an easy to follow flatter route, all whilst chomping through a ton of food, nestled in the warm Discovery, looking out on a tea shop in the middle of beautiful KS. Perfect.

Fuelled up and with new water and a light head brought about by the idea that the rest of the day was going to be flat and fast I left KS. Rejoining the B6259 I headed North-west, skirting the edge of the Pennines. The road through Warcorp was for the most part flat and feeling rejuvenated I put in some fast miles. I briefly joined the A66 before heading into Appleby in Westmoreland where I stopped at the most greasy spoon of all time for a quick pee and a gesture driven purchase of a rock bun.

Having gone down the cycle lane to nowhere outside Appleby-in-Westmoreland, I retraced my steps and continued to plod along the blustery A66, heading North West. One and after another big trucks had the effect of making this section seem like an exercise in repeated coughing as I tried to make my way through the smoke and fumes; not particularly pleasant. The alternative was to have cut along country lanes, however given the time I decided to take the main road to speed things up, which all things considered was the right call, albeit not particularly enjoyable. The views of the Pennines did however remain spectacular, the hills rising from nowhere.

The huge bypass by Temple Sowerby was under construction, it appeared to be a massive waste of money and effort. Even now I cannot quite figure what the point was; the town was tiny and the new road will still run close to the existing one. Strange.

I turned off to Culgraith, relieved to have left the A66. Spence was waiting just outside the village. After yet another big feed and the ever amusing Peter Kay (Radio 1) I plodded on. The section to Langwathby was fast and flat, shadowed by the Pennines. I then headed North to Lazonby and then onto Kirkoswald. There was a noisy cattle action at Kiroswald, evidenced in part by the maze of Land Rovers pulling Ivor Williams trailers full of sheep, cows and pretty much anything with a hooves.

The landscape remained dwarfed by the Pennines and I was starting to feel like I was travelling without moving. My plan was quite simple, to skirt around to the west of the hills before taking a sharp turn east to get to Once Brewed. Problem was the hills seemed to stretch endlessly, the turn east a long distant dream. As I headed along the B6413 I started to wallow a little, half the battle sometimes seemed to just believe that I was okay, that my legs did not really hurt and that of course I could keep going for another 30 miles. Unfortunately my brain was not having any of it and the bike started to feel heavy, my legs useless and the hills somehow that little bit bigger. This had happened before buy it had passed quite quickly; this time though I could not shake the feeling. Even a hair raising descent on one of the rolling hills did not have the desired effect. Help was however at hand. Just as I made the turn at Middle Moor onto the very edge of the Pennines so the wind was all of a sudden on my back, everything got that little more quiet, my legs started to believe and it felt like I was making real headway. As I was cycling along a calf ran parallel through a field towards its mother. Everything was going to be okay. Drama over. My notes from the section sum it up: WIND - God bless nature! Pretty flat + just went for it.

The remaining miles to Castle Carrock melted away. Funny old thing the body and the mind. The power was there it just needed some persuading to come out. Spence and I had arranged to meet at Once Brewed, however learning from earlier in the day I stopped at Castle Carrock for a quick break by myself. I quickly got back on the bike and headed to Once Brewed.

Keen to get to the day over with I decided to take the A69 that cuts between the Pennines and Northumberland National Park, running just south of Hadrian's Wall. Just outside Brampton I made the much longed for turn east and hopped onto the A69. I realized reasonably soon that I made a mistake picking the road. To drive along it must be incredible. The views are incredible and it passing under endless canopies of trees. Moreover, its narrow so I imagine it seems quite intimate. Cycling however was not meant to be done on roads like this. A stout head wind combined with the whoosh-energy-pulse-crosswind just after a truck passed made life a touch precarious. I was okay with the first few miles, it seemed like a challenge trying to keep just off the kerb without straying into the road proper. However, after a few too close for comfort moments I decided to take another unplanned longer route. To drive home my decision it started to rain too!

I called Christine just after getting off the road, returning an earlier message. It was so great to talk, albeit briefly. I explained the day and the decision to get off the A69. Buoyed by the chat I ploughed through the ever strengthening rain, the spray peeling off my front tire. Amazingly it was the first real rain of the ride. I had had quite a few damp training rides, in particular out to Brill, so I actually felt a little rejuvenated by the cold rain. Turning onto the B6318 at Gisland I rode along the route I would have to take the next day, albeit in reverse. At the time it seemed quite neat to get an advanced view of the next days route. Now I wonder why I did not questions why on earth I had booked Once Brewed when I could have stayed int Gisland. That being said, last year money was tight and the youth hostel was the cheapest option. Further, the back tracking would have been minimal had I stuck to my original route through the Pennines.

Coming down to Greenhead I continued on the B63, albeit after some damp head scratching as I tried to figure out the right route. There was a steep but short climb out of Greenhead, a case of head down get into a rhythm and just tick it off; deep in thought then it was a complete shock to see Spence at the side of the road hollering out for me to keep going. I nearly cried I was so overcome; it had been a tough day, the rain was coming down and it was quickly getting dark.

Feeling much better and with a smile and a big thank you to Spence I attempted to power to Once Brewed. Unlike earlier there was not much left to give despite all the positive vibes in the world. The rolling hills along the straight road to Once Brewed presented a few false summits which were frustrating, although I was not particularly aided by the fact I hadn't bothered to take the final section of map; thus I had no real idea how much further off the map Once Brewed was! I tried in vain to see Hadrain wall. Passing walkers and a RAF mountain rescue team training camp I finally reached the hostel. Yea!

The new hostel is essentially a huge bungalow, not dissimilar to an old peoples home. Perfect fit then! I packed away my bike in the dark and blustery rain, and hobbled into the hostel to properly register. My brain was not in gear, so I went back at least twice to reception to access my bike, finally realizing that I needed the key overnight as I was planning to leave before they opened in the morning. A hot shower and our own room however slowly brought me back to life, of sorts.

In an effort to avoid pub food we cooked for the first time, making use of the hostels kitchen. It was a huge pasta meal much aided by a beer. As we sat ate a school group excitedly bounded around, keeping me from falling asleep into my dinner.

I called Christine again to report on the day and then promptly went to bed, exhausted and aching but happy. It had been yet another incredible day. Wild untamable hills, the best downhill of all time, a smart route decision, the wonder of Mother nature and then Spence's kind words of encouragement to keep me going. I vowed to return to the Pennines not to conquer them as the day had taught me more than enough about humility, but rather to explore them when I had the luxury of time.

Mia and Rosa meet for the first time

2007-09-19T09:01:00.000+01:00

Mia and Rosa met for the first time at Mum and Dad's house. Mia was a little nervous, however eventually she warmed to the crazy ball of energy that is Rosa. Pics.

LE - JOG - 1K: the journal - day 6

2007-09-09T19:28:00.002+01:00

Day 6 - route

Liverpool > Slaidburn (official half way point), 84 miles, 7.45am - 5pm, 7 hours 55 mins riding

Liverpool - Anfield, 45 mins
Anfield - Wrightington Bar, 3 hours, 15 mins!!
Wrightington Bar -Great Mitton, 2 hours, 25 mins
Great Mitton - Slaidburn, 1 hour 30 mins

Day 6 (84 miles ish) is a great example of why this ride is going to be so special. I start on national cycle network trails, twisting and turning my way out of Liverpool. The route then gradually heads north, weaving between Warrington and Manchester. At Chorley, the route heads NE past Blackburn and into Forest Bowlands. Again the topo map is asleep so I have no idea on how flat (or not) the day will be! Promises to be a great day.

After a deeply impressive buffet style breakfast in the peculiarly US diner themed YHA canteen/ restaurant, we got out our trusty maps and once more sat down to figure out where we would meet for the day. I then tore the pages from the quickly decaying Atlas and tucked the pages away in my hi-viz jacket, ready for the ride. We got the bikes out of Fort Knox, filled water bottles, took on some Tracker bars, and prepared for the day.

As a Liverpool football fan since an early age I wanted to go to check out Anfield. Whilst I had been once before during University it seemed crazy not to pop over. Once more the idea was easier than the execution. Rush hour city traffic combined with no signs made finding Anfield somewhat harder than I could ever have imagined. It set the scene for what was to be a frustrating morning of never ending map reading through city/ suburban streets, leading to painfully slow progress.

Anfield was finally found, not least after a lollipop man pointed it out to me; it was all of 400 yds away by that point! I naively decided against returning to the dual carriageway A580 and took the older A530. This led to endless traffic lights, bumpy roads and clueless scratching of head as I tried to figure out where the hell I was. Eventually I got close to the M57, tried to take yet another short cut which promptly ended on a dirt track blocked by trees, broken glass and the odd upturned shopping trolley.

Retracing my steps, I made slow slow progress along the A5208, missing a junction here and a junction there as I passed through housing estate after housing estate. The stop start nature was making me quite tired as it was stressful and I could not get into a rhythm. This had the consequence of putting stress on new parts of my body, and led to a sore shin muscle. To add to the fun, my bike decided to start making a clicking noise which did little for my confidence.

My map notes at the time summed it all up: complete shocker - went wrong many times. Wild Liverpool. Downtrodden. Clicking bike. Pulled shin muscle. Ugg.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally made it out of the by now much loathed Kirkby onto some country ish lanes by Tower Hill. As I headed to Barrow Nook normality seemed to return and I picked up some easy miles, slowly getting back into the groove. I passed over the M58 and went over the A570 and then onto the B5240, feeling quite smug that I had not made a mistake and my luck was returning. Unfortunately all went to pot as I missed a junction and rode around blindly trying to find a helpful sign. Eventually I stumbled across a road and made it onto the A5209. By this time I was starting to lose my cool as I had not even made it to the first stop. Climbing out of Parbold I must have got distracted by a big tractor that came down the hill whilst I was gazing into peoples twee hillside gardens, and again I missed a junction. Unfortunately I did not realize it for some time. To insult to injury I then missed another junction :) I shot down Harrock Hill only to discover I should have stayed at the top, went around the bottom of it, missed yet another junction. During this time Spence and I were exchanging tons of messages as I was running super late. Unfortunately though I had no frame of reference as I was by this time completely lost! I tried to ask where I hell I was at a garden centre but no one was around. So, I turned around, went back a mile and decided to take a peek over a small hill only to see Spence! I was so so so relieved to see him. I was absolutely mentally exhausted and totally frustrated about how long it had taken. Spence however, once more, calmed me down and got me back in shape, such that when I resumed I was quite a happy bunny once more; the frustration quickly forgotten. As I say, the guy's a legend.

The following 15 miles or so were spent pottering along, studiously reading, checking and rechecking the map to ensure that I kept on track. The miles dropped away and at Hoghton I finally got back to my route of choice, the country lane. What followed was some of the best riding of the whole trip.

Samlesbury Bottoms (smashing name) rested in a tight valley through which the River Darwen runs. The valley necessitated a sweet downhill followed by a tough old bird of a climb. The hamlet included an old mill and a seemingly popular dog food shop which made for a pleasant surprise. The road passed through a wood of sorts which totally calmed me down.

The route then passed Nab's Head and plummeted to the quiet A677. I was so happy! I quickly exited the A677 and climbed up through Mellor to a ridge hugging road, aptly named Top of Ramsgreave. I have to return to this area. The views over to Ribchesters, Longridge and the Lancashire Hills were simply breathtaking. The people of Blackburn and Preston are very lucky indeed to have all this at their backdoor.

The route crossed over the A666 and climbed up the other side of the valley. The climb was however rewarded with amazing views over to Longridge Fell and beyond on one side and Pendleton Moor ahead of me. The came pretty close to taking the wrong junction; fortunately I quickly realized that it was the wrong way, turned around and got back on track. The ride down from Miles Hill into Billington and Whalley was simply incredible, I was simply ecstatic as I rode down through the trees into the town. The road was pretty wide and, as I discovered whilst quickly going airborne, had some sleeping policeman too:)

After a short ride I arrived at Great Mitton, just past the River Ribble. Having spotted a near perfect tea shop I persuaded Spence to take a break and we tucked into some tea and cake. Simply Divine! After an hours warming up and generally feeling smug the road called one more for the final stint to Slaidburn.

I climbed up to the right of Longridge Fell and ever so gradually ascended NW into the Forest of Bowland. Whilst the land was managed and farmed it still felt wild, to think that I had spent the morning trying to get over motorways and dodging cars.

At Cow Ark I turned NE towards Newton. I called Christine to say hello and to relay how amazing life was. The night was slowly coming in and it was just me and my bike on what seemed like an endless moor. It makes me smile just thinking now as I type. Buoyed having spoken to Christine I then dropped down from the hill into another valley, passing signs warning of sheep. Grindleton Fell to my right looked wonderful as did the interlocking spurs that housed Newton and Slaidburn. As I passed the church and then a tractor I did not really want the day to end.

Upon reaching Slaidburn I had to pinch myself. The hostel was called Kings House for a start (Spencer King) and it was no more than 50 yds from the pub!!! Dream land.

I put my bike onto the back of the Discovery and then ambled into the warm homely stone slate hostel, lovingly restored by a local group of volunteers. Despite the odd bucket to catch the drips from the leaking slate roof the hostel looked in tremendous order, reading room included. Enthused by the day I picked up enough leaflets to fill the Discovery ten times over.

Signing up made me chuckle as my Dad's name was a couple above mine, he having left the day before. The warden remembered Dad as he had not got in until 8pm by which point my old running coach, Bob Drew, had made the odd call to see where the heck he was! Speaking with Dad later he said that the landscape was so incredible and the feelings so uplifting that he took his time and finished the last couple of hours by artificial light. I well understood.

Spence and I secured our customary room and settled into our usual routine. Careful unpacking to ensure that nothing got lost, long slow warm shower to wake the muscles, application of the treasured deep heat (when needed) and the ever precious butt balm (always needed), before a second or two to gather thoughts, and then off to the pub.

The local was everything we could have hoped for. It was full of banter, smoke and the warm smell of pie crust. Despite Spence's wise observation that maybe we could eat somewhere other than a pub, just one night (little did we know what the next night had in store for us), we tucked into a big meal polished off with some apple pie and a few ales.

Leaving the hunting draped pub walls we took the few steps required back to the hostel and snoozed away. The contrast of Liverpool to Slaidburn given their proximity was both odd and truly heart warming at the same time.

A difficult but ultimately uplifting day. 1-0 to us, and half the ride done. Ride on!

Christine's 30th

2007-09-09T08:31:00.000+01:00

The big event of the month was Christine's 30th. We started the celebrations when Diane and Vincent arrived in London. The following weekend we went to the New Forest. Pics.

To finish off the celebrations we then had a BBQ at our house; thanks to everyone that made the trip. Pics.

LE - JE - 1k: the journal - day 5

2007-09-07T10:22:00.001+01:00

Day 5 - route

Clun - Liverpool , 81 miles, 7 1/2 hours riding

Clun -Baschurch, 3 hours
Baschurch - (just outside Overton), 1hr 25 mins
Overton - Chester, 1hr 35mins
Chester - Liverpool, 1hr 30 mins

Day 5 (81 miles) looks set to be a day of contrasts. After ambling along the English-Welsh border, the route then crosses back into England, ending up in Liverpool. The topo function has given up on gmap-pedometer; I guess I'll find out about the hills on the road!

Maybe it was the final ride under the Mersey that did it, or maybe it was the sight of piglets on the road, or the mist rising over the hills just north of Clun, I'm not sure, all I know is that I don't remember anywhere near as much about Day 5 as I do the other days. It was a bit of a grind I guess, that or the experience under the Mersey scared out my other memories!

The ride out of Clun was simply incredible. Passing the castle I rode up a small incline onto a road that weaved through mist laced green fields. As I rode down into Bishop's Castle it felt like the area was slowly waking up; such was the mist that I practically rode down through it to the town!

I totally fell in love with the Shropshire Hills, albeit once I had passed through them. The climb past Norbury and Bridges to the top of Cothercott Hill was never ending. Whilst the landscape felt as if I been dropped into the Lake District the effort required at times took away from the beauty. It was quite the slog. I have to return to this bit of the world to do some walking, if only to fully explore all the hills. The hostel at Bridges make life that little bit easier too. Prior to passing Bridges I managed to get somewhat lost however I dropped out at English Shelve, at the time none the wiser that I was supposed to come from a different direction!

The decent to Habberley was totally sweet. Narrow lanes and the odd school bus combined to make it a safe and sober affair but just the idea of moving faster than 4mph was enough for me. I was somewhat done with hills!

Pontesbury was a pleasant place, much improved by the rare sighting of another cyclist. Having navigated the one way I headed back into the country on my way to Nox. Sadly I remember very little about the next few miles to Baschurch. I met Spence (or so the map notes tell me) at Baschurch and then headed onto Overton via Ellesmere.

I managed to get myself somewhat lost on the way to the wonderfully named Stanwardine in the Fields, more like Paul in the field going nowhere fast ;) After getting back on the trail I pottered through Bagley with a wee smile as was I watched this mad old lady hollering at one of her (very nonchalant) dogs. It looked like a regular occurrence. I weaved along the country lanes, making way for all manner of things including a set of piglets following their Mum down the middle of the road . And, I had the good fortune to avoid a big drainage truck, umm, draining a small brook. It looked like the truck was going nowhere fast; had I arrived 10 minutes later I would have had to turn around and take a detour. The lanes were everything that I had hoped for; the sense that the road was part of a wider landscaper rather than a scar and an opportunity to peer albeit briefly into places that I would never have come across but for the ride

I passed Ellesemere where there were a bunch of canal boats moored up along the roadway and many boaties heading up a small hill to get provisions. I started to tire as I headed along the A528 to Overton. Spence met me at the town sign and we cycled in together, chowed down some food in the Land Rover Defender infested car park, or so say my notes, its all a bit foggy to be honest, the piglets running along the road have robbed me of the other memories from the section!

The section to Chester was marked mainly by a big push as I got within range of Chester, other than that I vaguely remember circumnavigating the idyllic Wrexham Industrial Estate :)

I absolutely love Chester, mainly because my good friend James was at Law School there and we had a brilliant weekend visiting him. Its a beautiful place. The town centre however was totally snarled up so Spence took the wise move of parking on the outskirts. I selfishly wanted to stop in the town centre so ambled around until I got sick of people staring at me (think tall skinny Lycra clad bloke wandering through packed pedestrianised shopping area). So, common sense took hold and I went out to join Spence on the considerably less busy outskirts. I quick visit to the gents at the local petrol station, enough calories to keep me going to ten more rides and I was off again.

I was quite nervous leaving Spence as I knew that the next section was mainly on A-roads and despite my best route planning efforts looked like it was going to be pretty miserable. Figuring that attack was the best form of defence I stormed as hard I could along the A540, trying to keep between the verge and the white marker whilst cars bombed past me. I was very glad to finally turn off onto the B5151 and was totally shocked how pretty the area around the Wirral was. The route planning did no justice to the area whatsoever, and my mood eased up and I started to enjoy the ride rather than seeing it as a battle against the cars.

The road into Birkenhead trailed along a stone wall, reminiscent of the Lake District which helped to lift my spirits, and thus inevitably my speed, along. I was smiling as I rode which is always the best of feelings!

What followed however was arguably one of the stupidest things I have ever done. I don't think I was singing ferry-over-the-Mersey, however if I did, even for one second, I hope I would have thought, hmm, no mention of a bridge there, maybe I have to take the ferry. Sadly such a thought did not enter my head, and I came across the tunnel-under-the-Mersey, not such a popular tune. I did try to track an official down to see whether I could cycle under the tunnel. I probably should have figured that there was no around because you were not supposed to ride under it.

Anyhows after some mental should I shouldn't I, I rolled down the ramp and went as hard as I could through the tunnel. I would have been okay if the road was wide enough for a car to pass, and if the tunnel was not about 4 miles long, and if the hill at the end did not gone for an eternity. Unfortunately all these were well and truly in place and made for a truly terrifying ride. I should have got off, hauled my bike onto the raised, albeit very narrow, walkway and headed back. For some reason, pride no doubt, I continued on, my heart beating crazily fast. I was absolutely flying along the tunnel and felt adrenaline like I never knew existed. As cars came up behind me they braked and then had to change lanes in order to overtake me. Put simply I managed to put myself and a whole bunch of others in a daft spot for no good reason. Not my finest hour. This had well and truly dawned on me by the time I made it out of the tunnel and I was reconciled to the fact that I would have a nice policeman to greet me and have a chat. Amazingly there was no one there. So, I stopped, tried to calm down, took on some water and took a quick snap before promising myself to think before doing!

The ride through Liverpool along to the docks and the hostel felt like child's play after the tunnel. The city roads were busy but manageable and the docks slowly came into view, albeit a little further away than I initially thought. I badly needed a pee by the time I finally found the hostel so poor Spence got a grunt, a bike thrust in his general direction before I hobbled off to the nearest toilet. This was but one of the million or so occasions when he amazed me by simply shrugging and being totally cool. I am very lucky to have such an understanding friend.

We once more had a room to ourselves which still felt like a treat. Having locked up the bikes in a bike shed that resembled a prison (how keen can anyone be to nick a bike?), we headed into the city, reading and walking around the huge regeneration program underway downtown. The docks buildings have been restored and the water reflects serenely against the large glass windows. The city itself reminded me a little to New York. The grit and strong architecture combine to make the city feel very real, far from the polished hue of a Vienna or bits of London. I particularly liked the exhibition at the side of a busy road which informed drivers the selection of nice cars on display were just about to be destroyed as they the drivers had no insurance. Very clever work from the Police.

My first Starbucks caffeine-sugar bomb (frappacino) received a mixed reaction as I could barely sit still enough to enjoy it, my ass was particularly sore and my legs felt like they had developed tooth ache. The drink helped though and we continued exploring the city, passing students on Freshers week, and entered a true old mans pub, perfume seller and all, and made light work of a few beers. Dinner has long been forgotten, must have been a winner!

LE - 1k - JOG: the journal - day 4

2007-05-13T21:25:00.003+01:00

Day 4 - route - pics
St. Briavels - Clun, 67 miles, 5 hours 55 minutes riding

St. Briavels -Ross-on-Wye, 1hr 45 mins
Ross-on-Wye - Withington, 1hr 25 mins
Withington - Leominster, 45 minutes
Leominster - Clun, 2 hours (ish!)

"Day 4 (67 miles) will no doubt be a welcome break after a long day 3. The route is mainly on minor roads through the Welsh countryside. My map reading skills should be tested to the max!"

St. Briavels has many things, excellent apple pie, the world-class Wye Valley on its doorstep, a castle, rolling hills and a deep sense of history. St. Briavels does not, nor has it ever, had any carpenters, if it had then they would have had a full time job in the hostel fixing all the beds! Having ridden a wee distance and then supped well I figured I would sleep like an angel, as did many others I am sure. The hostel beds however were held up by little more than their sense of duty, they squeaked and groaned like a ship in a storm. Suffice to say everyone has had a better nights sleep. Maybe the hostel secretly knows about the beds and does not fix them to ensure that people leave, after all for twelve pounds a night why not decide to stay in the castle for the rest of your life: beats getting a mortgage!

As way of compensation, the hostel put on a fine breakfast. We got chatting to some guys that had done the Lands end ride some years before and then misty-eyed when they were recalling the ride which buoyed me up.

After a hug and a see-you-soon I left Christine and the gang and headed off for another day. I very nearly fell off my bike whilst trying to unclip from my left pedal, but thankfully I just avoided it.

The road to Coleford was really quiet. The sun gently rose as I pottered along through the mist. I managed to miss the B4028 in Coleford but rescued myself by curring back along the quiet A4136, a pleasant tree lined wide road. Turning off the A4126 I plummeted down hill to Lower Lydbrook. The village was nestled into the Wye valley, a dark and damp place. My legs started to feel the effects of the prior days century and it took a while to get back into my groove. A sweeping route following the river once more lifted my spirits as did the sight of an busy activity centre with people getting ready to raft down the River Wye, all carefully monitored by several pearl white swans that were doing an early morning paddle.

Continuing along the B4234 I arrived at Ross-on-Wye at 8.45 just as the shops were opening. A pretty market town on a slight hill, Ross-on-Wye had a peculiarly large number of English flags as if to reinforce the message that visitors were not quite in Wales. I met Spence by the side of a Woolworths and we exchanged grunts as we tried to wake ourselves up.

After a break of 20 mins I waved Spence goodbye and kept a beady eye open for my right turn. The ever resourceful Spence pointed it out to me as he went bye which made life a whole lost easier! The following 10 miles were typical of what I now remember the ride to be. Cycling along narrow country lanes more often than not through woodland and running parallel to small rivers, the route took me through tiny hamlets such as idyllic Hole in the Wall, a one house hamlet overlooking a fallow field next to a small brook.

Just after Hole in the Wall I passed several gamekeepers beating to stir up the pheasant ahead of a shoot (I guess). The men were wonderfully dressed in full tweed with a matching purposeful scowl. At Brockhampton I decided against rejoining the B4224 and stayed on the country lane. I was rewarded with the sight and sound of ten colorful MGs on an apparent day out growling up a steep hill towards me.

Back on the B4224 I hammered along, keen to get back onto country lanes at Mordiford. After sailing past the junction at Larport I retraced my steps and took the left turn to Longworth. Then followed an uninspiring journey through concrete-scape I crossed the A438, thought it was the A4103, decided I had missed Spence, continued on, crossed the real A4103 and had an ahh-hhaaa moment, before then seeing Spence neatly parked against a weathered brick wall in Withington.

After a wholesome feed on crisps, yet more tracker bars and the odd Twix I left Spence a mildly efficient 35 minutes after arriving, fat and happy :) Withinington itself was yet enough pretty little village. Maybe it was the warm glow from seeing the pretty village or the rocket-fuel impact of the magic Twix-tracker bar combo, either way before I knew it I'd arrived at Bodenham. The town was quaint enough, albeit not worthy of a stop. Realizing where I was I then hit of the A417 and then the B4361 with a real zeal to see how fast I could make it to Leominster. The ride was extremely fast, much aided by flattish wide roads with few traffic lights, all of which meant that I nearly beat Spence to Leominster!

I was very excited to get to Leominster as Dad had recommended a tea shop that was worthy of a stop. Quite the compliment given Father Rode's encyclopedic knowledge of all things tea shop related. After finding Spence tucked away in a car park next to a bowling green we pottered into Leominster only to discover that pretty everything was shut, with the exception of the odd pub or two. It was a little sad as I'd got quite upbeat about my little tea shop treat, however it was not meant to be. So, back on the bike and off I pottered to Clun.

The ride to Lucton along country lanes was idyllic. So idyllic in fact that I got somewhat lost! The flat flood plain through field after field did little to aid my admittedly poor navigation skills so I did what any sane man would do, and ploughed on, stopping briefly to chat to some cows! The cows were, well not particularly helpful, however we had a good chat and got the obligatory photo along with the moo-ooo welcome. All very satisfactory. Through complete fluke ('stroke-of-luck') I came out onto the B4362 having passed some rather fancily dressed city-country folk who I probably should have asked for directions, but they seemed a little haughty.

I finally joined the A4110 at Mortimer's Cross and headed North-East to the junction with the B4365 at Todding. As with the earlier sections it was again fast and somewhat furious, flying along the quiet wide roads undulating hills. It was exhilarating stuff.

As I got further into Herefordshire proper the landscape started to switch and the welcome sight of some hills emerged. In fact the A4110 pretty much carved between a set of albeit distant hills.

Turning off at Todding onto the B4365 it started to dawn on me how close I was to Clun. For no particularly good reason I decided to try and get to Clun by a set time, the actual number I can't recall. Anyhow this decision manifested itself in yet more hacking along country lanes to reach the place in time. Its quietly amusing that I did not bother to make a note on the map that I actually made it by the 'deadline'; all that effort!

Spence was relaxing by the car just outside the old stone hostel. We'd arrived before the place had even opened! After a very relaxing feed and slow change into normal non-Lycra clothes we wandered into Clun, caught a very enjoyable second half of schoolboy football (some real stars i the team, albeit the parents watching were just as amusing as the footie), and then drifted off to see Clun Castle. The castle was an eerie place, raised up on a mound overlooking the rest of the sleepy village.

We pretty much had the hostel to ourselves which was a blessing as it was a wonderful peaceful place, set back from the rest of the village along a dark narrow road. The hostel used to be a mill and they have retained the original machinery which the Warden was kind enough to show us. After some much needed washing and a hearty pub meal (what else!) washed down with a couple of pints of bitter we retired to our (non-creaky thank God) beds. After the previous days century over hill and dale, Day 4 was the perfect follow up; a fast and peaceful short ride with just as many stops. It almost felt fun :)

LE>1k>JOG: the journal - day 3

2007-04-30T21:40:00.001+01:00

Day 3 - route
Exford > St. Briavels, 100 miles, 9 hours riding

Exford - Bridgwater, 3 hours
Bridgwater - Wedmore, 1 hour
Wedmore - Chew Valley Lake, 1.5 hours
Chew Valley Lake - Severn Bridge, 2 hours
Severn Bridge - St. Briavels, 1.5 hours

After the effort of Day 2, I was looking forward to a more relaxed Day 3, in particular as Dad had texted to say that the hills finally gave way to flat ground around Bridgwater. With that in mind Spence and I decided on Bridgwater as the first rest stop of the day.

I left the Exford YHA in dark misty conditions along an empty road.

A short sharp climb warmed me up and briefly knocked the stuffing out of me. After the previous days I was however pretty confident in my ability to keep going. The first hour of riding tested this; I felt like I was riding through treacle, unable to get the bike to move with an ease. That being said it was a very scenic if bleak and woolly section to Luckwell Bridge. Eventually I gave up wearing my shades after having conclusively decided they served no purpose whatsoever, the decision did give me something to ponder though I as plodded along the rolling road. I felt like the only person on earth as I descended from Exmoor through the mist to the Luckwell junction. Mercifully the presence of a devilish black triangle on the map did not translate into a big climb out of Luckwell.

Past Wheddon Cross the road went from bleak and woolly to simply wild. The road was covered by a canopy of trees at various points, and in the rare breaks gave way to incredible views across Somerset. A bumpy but pleasant ride brought me out at the A358 or civilisation as it seemed.

I felt kinda wiped in that my legs ached but were happy to go on, in the groove on one day, a touch soul destroying on another! Pragmatism overtook integrity and I cut short to West Bagborough, saving all of 1/2 mile. I was feeling pretty smug with myself and even allowed a car some room down a narrow lane, wonders will never cease. All went out the window when I turned the corner and started to climb the Quantocks, flat out eye popping effort. I just about kept up with a couple of horses as they were plodded up the hill followed faithfully by a farm dog. Once at the top all was good. The ride across the Quantocks was incredible. Searing views and deep forest all intermixed, wonderful stuff.

The flat stuff finally emerged and I piled on the power to get to Bridgwater. After a little mix up Spence and I found each other, lots of "what can you see" type conversations! Bridgwater was a touch forgettable. I do however explicitly remember the stop as Spence had once more out down himself and purchased most of Salisbury's. It was such a sweet feed, huge amounts of food. Yum. Leaving Bridgwater I felt like I was riding on air, I spotted a club ride coming towards me and we exchanged respectful nods.

In an effort to placate the route Gods I took the steep climb to Woolavington as opposed to the quicker route via the B3141. It was impressively steep given the bowling green landscape all around. The route gods were no doubt pleased with my muffled cursing as I hauled up the hill!

The section between Woolavington and Watchfield was far and away the fastest part of the ride since I had started. I had the wind on my left shoulder singing a tune but more importantly the road was soo soo flat, the bike just flew along the road in the lowest gear it still felt like I was barely trying, and yet I was easily going 25mph. Pure unadulterated shout to the sky joy.

Turning the corner into the wind at Watchfield was a yank back to reality, it didn't really matter though, I was totally rejuvenated and totally focused on racing to the next rest stop. Miles seemed to disappear under my wheels. The sun was even out. You get the idea - it was a pretty cool section!

Just before Wedmore I saw Spence on the side of the road all ready for a ride in. Riding along with Spence rounded off the section as just about perfect and just the pick me up I needed.

Having greased up with sunscreen and chomped through lots of lovely food, I headed off to Chew Valley Lake via Cheddar Gorge. I had no idea what to expect about the section. It turned out however to be even better than the previous one for one very special reason. Before getting to that the Gorge deserve a mention. The steep valley walls housed a tenacious little hill that took a bit of beating. On the ride to Cheddar I trailed a brute of a man, a wall of muscle. The guy was on an old bike and was tearing up the black-top, I kept waiting him to boink. With a nod of respect I went past him as he stopped at the entrance to the Gorge.

Weaving through the Gorge the road took me past people climbing, tourists gawping and a particularly fine Mustang that was racing up and down the road, quite the mix. As I put some distance between me and the Visitor Centre service returned to normal, just me the sheep and the cows.

I missed the turn onto the B3371, however after a quick turn and retrace I got back on track. The B3371 weaved through the Mendip Forest with its tor like rock formations and surprising lack of trees.

After a bit of muddling about with the map around Compton Martin I finally found the right road. It turned out to be a complete corker, I was so glad to be going up it as it was hellishly steep and narrow. With the incineration of my brake blocks complete I emerged at the B3114 to the sight of the lake. A quick call to Spence confirmed that I still had a bit to go, and I flew along yet more flat blacktop. I finally saw the familiar sight of the Discovery just outside Stoke Villice, and with it CHRISTINE and Hazel!!!! I was so excited to the point of nearly crying. It was a total surprise. It felt so good to have a hug and kiss and to catch up. It had only been three days since leaving Lands End but after the wind and hills I felt like a different person, bonkers no doubt given the amount of time I was spending talking to myself and the surrounding animals and plants! We had a nice long break chatting and generally bouncing up and down, before heading off to Wales!

I passed through Chew Stoke to climb Chew Hill, a punky little challenge, one clean left turn which produced a fun camber to deal with as I climbed. The landscape after Chew Hill changed from the archetypal patchwork quilt of hedgerow linked green fields to suburban developments. I have always secretly imagined that I would like to live in Bristol so I was quite excited about the prospect of seeing the city up close and personal. Through inordinate amounts of good fortune and a van-racing decent into Bristol I found my way to the Clifton Suspension bridge, albeit have back-back tracked on some sections trying to find my way. Knowing that Christine was waiting at the Severn Bridge chilled me out so the endless route findings seemed more amusing than it had only a day before.

Riding across the Suspension bridge was a very special moment, not least because an officious nut had painstakingly lectured me on which 8 foot section of path I could ride on. I thought he was kidding at first so I rode on, his booming voice made me turn around to see what the fuss was all about. I retraced my steps, rode 1/2 foot on, another boom, retracted, shrugged and went on my merry way. It was also special for the reason of the 1/7 climb to the Suspension bridge, when I arrived it made more sense that it would be a tight climb to reach it, didn't occur to me when I did the route though! The view into the jaws of the valley carved out by the River Avon were a tremendously inspiring sight. On the other side Clifton was smart and understated with beautiful gardens and open spaces.

Navigating my way to the Severn Bridge took forever as it consisted of about 15 different roads and associated turns, not all of which I found. The effort was rewarded by a stunning view of the imaginatively named Second Severn Crossing. The view mirrored that of the Golden Gate from Crissy Field in San Francisco. Yet, the edge of the Severn was sparse and neglected in contrast to the trim and coiffured Crissy Field. Maybe the Severn frequently floods making the area unattractive, if not then it is begging for someone to spruce it up.

I met up with Spence, Hazel and Christine at the service station on the English side of the River Severn. After the obligatory feed and water bottle fill-up and a leisurely chat I made my way again, crossing the footbridge over the motorway.

The ride across the cream colored Second Severn Bridge was magical. The sun was breaking through some dark cloud and the rays were dancing on the river below. Having been caught out by gusty wind on the Golden Gate before I took my time. After a time it became apparent that the winds Gods were asleep so I let the bike run and shot across into Wales.

After such an uplifting ride across it was with sad to see that the designers had spent less time on access for cyclists once they had crossed the river. After going down a bleak un signposted steep set of slippery steps and gingerly cycling under a dark bridge I emerged into Wales proper. Once away from the bridge there was a lovely little cycle path that ran parallel to the dual carriageway. Once more the wind was behind me so I simply flew along without a care in the world.

Passing Chepstow I put the hammer down to climb a short hill only to be confronted by the blues and twos of the local police blocking the road ahead. My heart sank as upon investigation it turned out they had closed the road following a serious accident. I tried to call Christine, Spence and Hazel but could not get through. The policeman was able however to confirm that it was a different model of car that had been involved in the accident for which I was somewhat guilty relieved.

The upshot of the accident was that I took a diversion of my own design, and particularly pleasing it was too. It was approximately 5pm and with a deep canopy of trees around me and steep valleys dusk was arriving early. I rode up a sinewy country lane that climbed one side of the forested valley that I had planned to ride up. With pebbles in the middle of the road and rough sidings it was clear that the road was somewhat unused which suited me just perfectly. I did however meet a family on a late afternoon horse ride ("nice day for a ride, of sorts" - the Dad was Tommy Cooper in disguise) which I recall seemed an inspired idea at the time.

After a time I returned to the valley floor and took a quick trip to see the simply stunning Tintern Abbey. Riding up the Wye Valley I had the warm and fuzzy feeling I get when I've completed something that invariably involves daft amount of exercise, so warm and cosy and somewhat light headed I drifted along admiring the wide slow River Wye. I managed to get ahold of Spence who mercifully informed me that everything was OK but that I had a stiff climb between me and the hostel.

Turning off the A466 and climbing the other side of the valley to one I'd earlier navigated, I started to see what he meant! The hill was a tough nut which eventually out stared me, I kept going and kept my self-made promise not to walk any hills but mentally I was done. It was a real relief when I got to the top, the views, the pretty chocolate box villages all seemed less important that getting off my bike, showering, give my lovely wife a hug and eating everything the local pub had in its larder.

Christine and Hazel were waiting on the road as I entered St. Briavels which was extremely sweet. I was so happy to see them. We continued on to the hostel. And what a hostel, wow. St. Briavel's YHA is like no other hostel I have ever seen, for a start its a castle. An actual castle; there's a moat, wooden stairs and more imposing circular candle holding lights than anyone could ever want for; the whole caboodle. It rocks!

A long hot shower and some clean clothes returned me to normality. The others had headed to the pub to secure a table. I hobbled over to the pub, meekly sat on a cushion in the pub, tried not to fall asleep and ate a gargantuan amount of food washed down with some fine ale.

A memorable century.