Not long to go to completing the western third of the route check. Really looking forward to having another break. With the Royal Wedding being declared as another public holiday in the UK, I am getting 17 days off for 7 days of annual leave. Thanks, Will and Kate.
We're planning to hit Mexico for a day at the beginning as I have never been, nor has my friend Angee, who is my travel partner for this trip. Then after the route check we will see some of the delights of the South Western USA. Just bought a new map of the area and been looking at Death Valley, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yosemite and a couple of ski resorts that should have late snow, like Mammoth Mountain. We will have to try and squeeze lots in but I want to take Angee to Venice Beach for a little skate. We have been watching the TV series Californication together and she is keen to visit. I went 4 years ago for a friend's wedding and I quite liked it for a short break.
Got to sort out the immigration stuff soon. I think my last one is good for 2 years, so I will be fine for this trip but Angee has never been. It's all online these days which saves a little bit of time on entry.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Monday, 18 October 2010
Route Check One Complete
This month I completed the first route check, which covers the route from El Paso, TX to Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville, FL. It all seems to be quite doable though there will be some incredibly tough days. There is Farm to Market Road a couple of days out of El Paso that is going to be 41 miles of quite brutal roughness and a good distance of the road on the way to Austin is going to be hard work. After Austin it was much better with some beautiful scenary heading into Louisiana from Port Arthur, TX. Coastal flats through the marshes with stilted houses and similar again in after New Orleans most of the way to Biloxi, Mississippi. More of the same in Florida from Pensacola to Panama City. Days of skating along beaches, outstanding.
I totally fell in love with New Orleans on the trip. This city is just packed with amazing musicians. Doron and I stayed there for the middle weekend. I will be returning and not just on the skate.
Taken a lot of photos of the turns on the route but they are a bit too boring to publish. However, I have taken some choice pictures of the trip which I have published on Facebook
I totally fell in love with New Orleans on the trip. This city is just packed with amazing musicians. Doron and I stayed there for the middle weekend. I will be returning and not just on the skate.
Taken a lot of photos of the turns on the route but they are a bit too boring to publish. However, I have taken some choice pictures of the trip which I have published on Facebook
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
I may no longer be alone
Some good news for me is that Andrew, a friend of mine from Germany, has been dreaming about a USA coast to coast skate and might be interested in doing it with me if I go in 2012. The year for doing it wasn't fixed yet anyway. This will mean abandoning any chance of the solo record. However, there may be some news on that front too.
The advantages of having someone there the whole way, who is about the same pace as me, are that I will have company on the road the whole way. We can draft each other which will make the skating less tiring and we might be able to achieve much greater average daily distances. We can also look out for each other. It reduces the individual expenses as we would be splitting them between us. This makes the whole task a lot easier to achieve and, as there will be no record attempt, we will be allowed to draft any other skaters who may wish join us for any part of the route. Suddenly this seems like less of a mental challenge and more of a holiday with friends, both old and hopefully, many new ones. It is certainly less daunting, though the physical task of doing it is still immense.
The solo record attempt news is quite interesting for me too. While away for the 24 hour race last weekend I chatted about the challenge with George, a speed skating team mate from my club, and the fact that there was a solo record. At the time he seemed quite interested in giving it a crack the following year. George is an incredible endurance skater who has done a 24 hour solo event where he skated over 470km (almost 300 miles) in a 24 hour period. Doing it once didn't put him off and he is planning on doing more 24 hour races. He is the sort of endurance skater that might be able to get the record below 40 days and now he has 3 years to plan for it. Andrew and I will get him as much detailed information as possible on the route we are intending to take to help him achieve that goal should he commit himself to take it on. I hope he does because then I will still have played some part in making an attempt happen.
The advantages of having someone there the whole way, who is about the same pace as me, are that I will have company on the road the whole way. We can draft each other which will make the skating less tiring and we might be able to achieve much greater average daily distances. We can also look out for each other. It reduces the individual expenses as we would be splitting them between us. This makes the whole task a lot easier to achieve and, as there will be no record attempt, we will be allowed to draft any other skaters who may wish join us for any part of the route. Suddenly this seems like less of a mental challenge and more of a holiday with friends, both old and hopefully, many new ones. It is certainly less daunting, though the physical task of doing it is still immense.
The solo record attempt news is quite interesting for me too. While away for the 24 hour race last weekend I chatted about the challenge with George, a speed skating team mate from my club, and the fact that there was a solo record. At the time he seemed quite interested in giving it a crack the following year. George is an incredible endurance skater who has done a 24 hour solo event where he skated over 470km (almost 300 miles) in a 24 hour period. Doing it once didn't put him off and he is planning on doing more 24 hour races. He is the sort of endurance skater that might be able to get the record below 40 days and now he has 3 years to plan for it. Andrew and I will get him as much detailed information as possible on the route we are intending to take to help him achieve that goal should he commit himself to take it on. I hope he does because then I will still have played some part in making an attempt happen.
Monday, 30 August 2010
A little endurance training
Last weekend and went to Germany with 23 friends to do the Rhine on Skates. It is 135km (84 miles) of mostly flat cruising by the banks for the river Rhine. It was a mostly lovely day but it plummetted with heavy rain from time to time. I did it all in recreational skates because it wasn't a race and they are more comfortable to stand around in during the break points. I managed to finish it with relative ease and no problems with my body so everything still seems to be working nicely.
There's the small matter of the Raps 24 hour race next weekend to keep me working on my endurance.
There's the small matter of the Raps 24 hour race next weekend to keep me working on my endurance.
Friday, 13 August 2010
What Time of Year?
Thanks to a heads up from Sheldon about weather on my thread on Skatelog.com, I have been looking more closely at altitudes on the route.
Having experienced heavy snowfall in New Mexico in late October or early November in the past, I am considering the time window for the journey needs to be brought forward by a month, or perhaps six weeks from my initial estimate. I was hoping to be starting in early November which would get me to the highest point of between 4 and 5,000ft in about the last week of November or the first week of December. This is probably a bit risky for the chance of snow at this point. It rather puts paid to my plans of ending up at the Miami Great Eskate toward the end of January as I would have to be back at work at the beginning of the month. However, looking at the Great Eskate website, the 2010 edition was in February so if that continues to be the case I wouldn't have been able to make it there with my original plan anyway.
If there is anyone out there with a bit of local knowlege of the typical weather patterns around the I-10 area of New Mexico then I would be most interested to hear about what happens in October, November and December as far as snow or ice are concerned. These would be a serious safety risk. I have looked at Weather Underground and found there to be occasional precipitation during those months but looking at the maximum and minimum temperatures it could be snow or rain. Local knowledge would sure be a help.
Rain is not a problem. I am a very experienced rain skater it just means a lot of bearing cleaning to get grit out or I will run out of bearings as they sieze up over night.
Having experienced heavy snowfall in New Mexico in late October or early November in the past, I am considering the time window for the journey needs to be brought forward by a month, or perhaps six weeks from my initial estimate. I was hoping to be starting in early November which would get me to the highest point of between 4 and 5,000ft in about the last week of November or the first week of December. This is probably a bit risky for the chance of snow at this point. It rather puts paid to my plans of ending up at the Miami Great Eskate toward the end of January as I would have to be back at work at the beginning of the month. However, looking at the Great Eskate website, the 2010 edition was in February so if that continues to be the case I wouldn't have been able to make it there with my original plan anyway.
If there is anyone out there with a bit of local knowlege of the typical weather patterns around the I-10 area of New Mexico then I would be most interested to hear about what happens in October, November and December as far as snow or ice are concerned. These would be a serious safety risk. I have looked at Weather Underground and found there to be occasional precipitation during those months but looking at the maximum and minimum temperatures it could be snow or rain. Local knowledge would sure be a help.
Rain is not a problem. I am a very experienced rain skater it just means a lot of bearing cleaning to get grit out or I will run out of bearings as they sieze up over night.
Monday, 9 August 2010
Seriously????
How did I get myself into this? When a friend of mine suggested why not skate from ocean to ocean across the USA, my first reaction was, "That's insane. I can think of loads of reasons why not!" Over the following months I decided to do a bit of research and it started to look feasible.....though still not sensible. He pulled out of the idea but I've kept it alive ever since. I am now almost 100% committed to doing it and am looking forward to doing probably the hardest thing I will ever attempt in my life.
The first problem was getting enough time off work to be able to do it. I didn't really want to leave my job and have nothing to come back to. Fortunately, I work for a charity for whom I would be raising money by doing this and having been there for more than 3 years I can ask for a 3 month sabbatical. So I have 3 months from when I leave the office to get to the start, buy a van, skate to the other side of the continent and recover before returning to work which gives a maximum time for the skate of about 75 days. I hope to do it a lot faster than that but we'll have to wait and see.
The second problem was money. I won't be getting paid while on a sabbatical so I will need to budget carefully for the journey in order to not run out before I finish. That might be a little difficult as I have no idea how much it is going to cost. The faster I skate the less it will cost. The more problems I encounter the longer it will take and so funding the trip will cost more. The sensible approach seems to be budget for the maximum amount of time and hope to have plenty left at the end. I will be attempting to get some sponsorship to reduce my overheads to help with things like accommodation but no financial assistance.Any money that is raised will be going to charity. With a bit of luck I will find some skaters on or near the intended route that might put me and my support team (my parents) up for the odd night to help keep the costs down.
Since deciding that I was going to try and make this happen I have received a fair bit of help in the way of advice and support from a number of other skaters both where I live in London, UK and from US skaters on various skating websites. Most helpful so far has been Doug from Seattle posting a link to the blog of Danny Daniels. Danny is a skater from Texas who has done this before a few years ago. His experiences almost made me decide that I wasn't going to attempt it but at the same time inspired me even more into making it happen. Coincidentally, Danny took a route that starts about 5 miles where where I was intending to kick off and finished in exactly the same spot. He took a little over 62 days to achieve the feat which was incredibly impressive considering the problems he encountered. He also did it with no drafting in order establish a solo record. I haven't decided to attempt the record yet but I am keeping my options open at this point. However, I have adapted my intended route to try and avoid some of his problem areas but I have concluded that the best way to prepare for the skate is to include a route check in a car and make a note of all the hazards on the way and any surfaces that are likely to cause problems.
Route check planning: It's a little far to do it all in one go so I have booked time off work and split the route check into two parts. The first check will be the latter half of the route, from El Paso, TX to Jacksonville, FL. This will be done in October this year with Doron, a skater friend from London. We will be setting off the days after the Athens to Atlanta skate. The A2A is a magnificent event for anyone else thinking of having a go. They need all the support you can give them to help ensure it happens every year. I did it in 2008 and it is the most friendly skate event I have ever taken part in and am looking forward to supporting it again this year. The second route check is pencilled in for the weeks either side of Easter 2011. I will be doing that with Angee, another skater friend from London. That check will take us from San Diego, CA to El Paso, TX and we will be combining it with a little late season snowboarding.
I will be posting more about the intended route and timings over the coming months and when the event finally comes I will try and maintain this blog on a daily basis, so you can plot my progess and perhaps come along and join me for a section. I will welcome the company of other skaters.
The first problem was getting enough time off work to be able to do it. I didn't really want to leave my job and have nothing to come back to. Fortunately, I work for a charity for whom I would be raising money by doing this and having been there for more than 3 years I can ask for a 3 month sabbatical. So I have 3 months from when I leave the office to get to the start, buy a van, skate to the other side of the continent and recover before returning to work which gives a maximum time for the skate of about 75 days. I hope to do it a lot faster than that but we'll have to wait and see.
The second problem was money. I won't be getting paid while on a sabbatical so I will need to budget carefully for the journey in order to not run out before I finish. That might be a little difficult as I have no idea how much it is going to cost. The faster I skate the less it will cost. The more problems I encounter the longer it will take and so funding the trip will cost more. The sensible approach seems to be budget for the maximum amount of time and hope to have plenty left at the end. I will be attempting to get some sponsorship to reduce my overheads to help with things like accommodation but no financial assistance.Any money that is raised will be going to charity. With a bit of luck I will find some skaters on or near the intended route that might put me and my support team (my parents) up for the odd night to help keep the costs down.
Since deciding that I was going to try and make this happen I have received a fair bit of help in the way of advice and support from a number of other skaters both where I live in London, UK and from US skaters on various skating websites. Most helpful so far has been Doug from Seattle posting a link to the blog of Danny Daniels. Danny is a skater from Texas who has done this before a few years ago. His experiences almost made me decide that I wasn't going to attempt it but at the same time inspired me even more into making it happen. Coincidentally, Danny took a route that starts about 5 miles where where I was intending to kick off and finished in exactly the same spot. He took a little over 62 days to achieve the feat which was incredibly impressive considering the problems he encountered. He also did it with no drafting in order establish a solo record. I haven't decided to attempt the record yet but I am keeping my options open at this point. However, I have adapted my intended route to try and avoid some of his problem areas but I have concluded that the best way to prepare for the skate is to include a route check in a car and make a note of all the hazards on the way and any surfaces that are likely to cause problems.
Route check planning: It's a little far to do it all in one go so I have booked time off work and split the route check into two parts. The first check will be the latter half of the route, from El Paso, TX to Jacksonville, FL. This will be done in October this year with Doron, a skater friend from London. We will be setting off the days after the Athens to Atlanta skate. The A2A is a magnificent event for anyone else thinking of having a go. They need all the support you can give them to help ensure it happens every year. I did it in 2008 and it is the most friendly skate event I have ever taken part in and am looking forward to supporting it again this year. The second route check is pencilled in for the weeks either side of Easter 2011. I will be doing that with Angee, another skater friend from London. That check will take us from San Diego, CA to El Paso, TX and we will be combining it with a little late season snowboarding.
I will be posting more about the intended route and timings over the coming months and when the event finally comes I will try and maintain this blog on a daily basis, so you can plot my progess and perhaps come along and join me for a section. I will welcome the company of other skaters.
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