Ever wondered what it takes to be able to ride audax events like London Edinburgh London and Paris Brest Paris? Well Izabela Murtagh will tell you it’s commuting 50+km every day in all the Scottish Weather, 5 days a week, year round.
She has done this now for over 8 years and little did she know at the time, that a way of saving money to get to work, would lead her to the world of long distance Audax rides. For those of you who have often wondered what Audax events are like, or who have thought of riding the big events like PBP or LEL, then this episode is a must listen.
Izabela’s first big ride was Ride to the Sun, from Carlisle to Crammond Beach. But she ended up having to do the event a day early due to work. Alone, and never having ridden more than 100kms before, she was unperturbed and managed to ride the full distance – over 320kms!
From there she hasn’t looked back and has completed an array of Audax events, as well as well as the TransAlba – a 1600km Ultra race around Scotland – where she came third place overall and first woman!
Izabela is now also the host of TowPath Talks (https://open.spotify.com/show/64npGHSH9Wuo1lcliCBx2X) hosted at the Towpath Cafe at BikeTrax Edinburgh. (https://www.biketrax.co.uk/events)
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actually on the way to breast I kind of went quite quickly and then I went slower on way on the way back and stopping more of those places stop for the crabs so as you said there’s quite a lot of people who cook crabs on the side of the road or there was one place where they just brought it freshly baked cake and just were slicing it and also steam still coming out of the cake and you could have it and yeah there was one place where they opened their garage and they had the wall full of postcards and you know with people who who went through their place before and you know they were giving you tea and coffee but yeah they had snacks and they they had coffee and they even like put some beds on on the ground so people can have a nap the hospitality is incredible it’s just an amazing atmosphere so it definitely definitely helps compared you know to you know cycling through Scotland where you hardly see anyone and you are on your own for hours and hours and hours well on the PVP it’s just like people everywhere welcome to the saate travel ride podcast where we share the stories and experiences of people who have undertaken Amazing Adventures by bike whether it’s crossing state borders mountain ranges countries or continents we want to share that Spirit of adventuring on two wheels with our [Music] listeners hello I’m your host Bella Malloy and I’m very excited to introduce my guest for today’s episode of travel ride Isabella MTA Isabella is a self-proclaimed commuting Enthusiast and you could be forgiven for thinking perhaps nothing feels more natural to her than cycling on sodn roads over long distances through the beautiful Scottish Countryside indeed many of her cycling Adventures involve doing exactly this she’s an accomplished aax writer and a finisher of the most famous International ax events such as London Edinburgh London and and Paris bris Paris last year Isabella took to the start line of the trans Alba a 1600 km Ultra cycling event taking in a long loop around Scotland with a good 20,000 M of climbing to boot fair to say she did quite well in the trans Alba she placed first female and third place overall on GC more recently she’s been bringing the exploits of others in the long-distance cycling Community to life as the host of The Toe Path talk series which she delivers to a live audience each month at the top paath Cafe at bike tracks Edinburgh I’m really looking forward to chatting with Isabella today to learn more about the world of ax having her recount her experiences of writing some of the most famous events in the world but equally I’m also curious to find out more about how participating in long-distance cycling adventures and being so active in that Community has itself been such an energizing experience for her Isabella welcome to the show Hello thank you thank you for having me I’m really excited to speak with you today Isabella I must put my hand up I am someone who has been curious about the world of ax for many years but I have actually never done one myself so I’m really Keen to find out more about this mad world that I’m perhaps maybe curious enough to try out myself soon but Isabella the question which I start my show with and I this of all my guests is do you remember the very first bike you ever rode as probably most people I don’t uh but we used to have a fleet of bicycles of different sizes and my grandparents and there were six of us cousins so each of us was going through the different sizes of the bikes as we were growing up because it was about one two years difference between each of us so you were picking up whatever bike was available at your size to ride on but I do remember when I then graduated to big bike that my mom and my grandma used to ride and it was just a single speed and I do remember that when they helped me to get on the saddle and I could barely touch the puddles but I felt very growing up you know being finally on an adult bike still at the age probably I don’t know six seven so I do remember this bike and my mom still actually has similar model at home the one she’s got is is red and it’s kind of working still 40 years later that story is something that just reminds me a little bit it takes me back in time myself I grew up with hand me- down bikes fans of the show will most likely have heard me recount that story many times before coming from a big family graduating to a different size bike that was pre-owned was just what was done but also that sense of Pride when you start riding what you think is like the adult or the big person’s bike and your feet barely can do the full Revolution as well you can barely turn those pedals around in a circle you know sometimes you’re on a Tippy Toe maybe you can’t even sit on the seat but I so know that feeling that you were talking about if your mom’s got a bike that’s like that do you think of that when you see that bike you go oh yeah that’s a cool bike that I used to try and ride yeah yeah yeah I do I still Rod it until probably a couple of years ago just go to the shops when I was visiting my parents probably it would need some maintainers now I don’t know if you can still get the parts for them but yeah I hope the bike stays around May maybe maybe do something with it one day something else you mentioned there is you know when you visit it’s the bike you use to go to the shops which I think is really apt for you Isabella I mentioned in my intro you’re a self-proclaimed commuting Enthusiast commuting by bicycle is a real significant part of your Monday to Friday life really isn’t it it is your deal yes yeah this so when we moved to Scotland 10 years ago well we didn’t have a car and well I never owned a car before that and I knew actually before moving to Scotland when we lived in Australia one of the post dogs did they year or two years in Edinburgh and he said oh I used to commute my bike to Harriot W University and there is a top of there and so before I moved here was like well I’m going to commute by bike once I move to Scotland so the initial commute was 10 kilometers each way but it was east to west so it was into Westerly wind most of the time and in the rain and it was good training to get used to the Scottish weather and the wind and then after two years I got a job out in Livingston which is about 25 kilometers West from Edinburgh and I feel like there is no way it is possible to commute there or ride that far every day but I tried the public transport on the first day I was let down by the public transport so I was like well how about I try to cycle and I will do it for a week so I did it for a week and then was like well maybe I will do it for a month and see how it feels like you know I’ll be able to say I cycled to Wiston for a month and I did did it for a month and then I said well maybe I should get a better bike because I had just like a 50 pound mountain bike at the time and so I got a better bike so I couldn’t then start taking the public transport again because like well P paid for the bike so I calculated I had to cycle for two and a half months to cover the cost of the bike in the train tickets so it’s like so I cycled for this two and a half months and then I was like well actually I’m really enjoying it so I’m not going back to the public transport and so that was almost eight years ago wow and in the meantime I did buy a car because we had the beast from the East about five years ago so there was just snow for quite a few weeks so it was really difficult to get to work so I did buy a car and people at Works said like well now certainly you’re not going to cycle anymore I was like well I’m going to show you so as soon as the snow melted I was back on the bike and I do it most days unless it’s t Icey because we do get temperatures at around 0 degrees for the winter and it the don’t get quite icy we get lots of black ice so it’s a bit just not worth the risk so this few days a week I can I can drive I think I actually saw something in my research cuz a post which wrapped up your last year statistics I think if I remember correctly I think it was 2023 I think there were like maybe what 15 days that you maybe didn’t cycle commute because of the ice which is pretty incredible when you think of an entire year especially in Scotland yeah I think it was probably about that like in January maybe February and then couple of old dates when I need to be home early or go for a haircut because we both have curly hair and not everyone Cuts curly hair so it’s a bit difficult to get a curly yes I can totally resonate and listeners of the show if you don’t know this about me I have I have curly hair it’s what people see generally before they see me and I was so heartwarming when my screen popped up for this recording session I can see Isabella here and she has curls and I loved it but you’re right not everyone knows how to cut our hair right yes exactly so when I had to go for a haircut I had to drive to work which just I was a bit annoyed with it I was like but I can’t cycle but yeah I don’t make it like oh you know I have to cycle every day because for whatever reason like no you know I don’t have to but cycling to work is my default option so it’s kind of driving to work that I kind of have to rearrange things like think different way that’s like okay what time do I need to leave to to get to work when I drive and or I need to dress into normal clothes to work instead of you know my cycling clothes but yes so the default option is is cycling to work and yeah I really enjoy it because I can the route I take it’s quite cynic because edinb is not a very it’s not a big city you are out of the city quite quickly and there’s just nice back roads and fields which in Spring they are covered in rape seed and barley and you get you you see pheasants you see deer and also other people uh so one of the things I really like about my meeting is and having fixed working hours because I have to be in Livingston by 8:30 is like seeing the same people so sometimes they are the same cyclists that do similar route but in the opposite way or the person who goes to get the paper at the same time every day or dog walkers or a lollipop lady at the school every morning or like person who waits for a lift for a bus those people have fixed times just as I do in the morning and you know over the time you get to see them you greet them so you know there’s a range of people you see along the way which is which I really really like I love that element and it reminds me when I was cycle commuting when I was living in Australia that was exactly one of my favorite Parts it was funny Isabelle I changed jobs and I was really lucky in that my workplace was like 2 kmers away from where I lived so perfect walking distance right but as someone who loves bikes I still wanted to cycle commute but 2 kilometers isn’t far enough so I used to make my commute longer and I’d go the long way to work which would be like I don’t know maybe 27 kilm sometimes but I remember part of the highlights of that cycle commute were seeing the same faces of people either riding the the other way commuting to work just riding their bike or you know there was a couple that I used to see two older women friends that would go for a walk together in a certain Park and it used to be a mental thing for me I used to know if I was doing well time wise by where I would see them on the cycle commute is this something you do like do you know like oh if I pass this person and I’m here I’m going fast today or yeah yeah exactly because yeah you kind of know roughly the range where where you see the same people and but some days I know I left late and I see them still in the same place like they are late as well I wonder have you ever like made friends with anyone that you’ve passed on the way like you must obviously like you know give them a nod or say hello maybe but have you ever actually stopped and and found out who these people are like so I started this a couple of years ago because there were some people also passing my work place and I used to tell my colleagues like oh they are my friend I have no idea what their name is so next time I saw them like I waved them down like what is your name because I tell people you’re my friend but actually I don’t know your name so then you know we had a WeChat but also last Christmas so just before Christmas I thought I really like you know for winter there are not that many people that you see regular and I thought like oh how about if I Brink I will have little gift for my commuting people with a chocolate you talking straight to my heart I wish I was on your commute so yeah I went to the shelves I got lint chocolates so you know like the little Linder balls so not just any chocolates he are worth stopping for and I put them in little bags and I put little messages that I love seeing them on my commut and I wish them Merry Christmas and yeah so I had a little bag with them and I was hoping you know I will see those people along the way so I had the little bag with me and was cycling along if I saw someone coming I would just wave them down and like here’s something for you I said and you know with quite a few people was the first time we spoke to each other because you know otherwise it was just the greeting I was like hello but you know you see those people for I don’t know three four years and you so you see each other quite regularly but I was like hello I’m such and sad it’s like here’s something and actually one of guy says like oh I had a Christmas card for you as well but I forgot to bring it so you know actually it it’s not just me there was someone who had a similar idea so yeah I gave away I think about 10 of them uh because you know through winter there are not so many people but and some people I didn’t manage to catch before Christmas so then I was still in January I was still carrying the chocolates to give them for the past Christmas but yeah that is so cool that there’s like this a little sort of under ground community community if that makes sense and and you you sort of know each other and you know that you’re part of like a special unique group in a way as well I was going to say Isabella you can tell you’re commuting in Scotland when you can just carry little lint Bal chocolates and on your commute and they’re not going to melt oh yeah no no chance something that occurred to me actually Isabella knowing that you have been commuting such long distances for Wow eight years now and I don’t want to overplay the fact that you’re commuting in Scotland but I think it’s fair to say you definitely deal with some Grim type of weather conditions I followed your Instagram for a while now and I’ve seen the photos it’s always damp it’s always wet even if it’s not raining it’s wet on the road but I wonder how much that has actually held you in good stead for a lot of the longdistance stuff that you do like mentally because I think having the conviction to continue to commute when let’s face it probably more than nine people out of 10 would often say no let’s take the car today like that obviously must give you some sort of a mental Edge do you agree with that idea definitely because yeah I think one of the worst weather I had was definitely on some of the commutes and also before I got you know better kit that you know would keep me dry and warm well mostly warm so whenever I do an aex usually the weather is not that bad because like I’ve had Wars often you will on some oaes you will have people who said oh the wind was brutal like it’s Scotland it’s nothing compared to you know the Winter Winds you know and storms that we get where you really struggle to stay up on a bike so usually the odax weather is better because you they are usually sometime between March and November because running ODU events through winter in Scotland is quite tricky because a lot of the times they will have to be canceled because of the ice so yeah people like not that many events are held through winter when it’s march to November it’s usually generally a bit warmer so you know even if you get wet maybe you are not that called what would be one of your most valuable pieces of commuting kit then and I’m not talking mud guards on your bike everybody’s got a piece of clothing like what do you find that you can just rely on and depend on and you were so happy that you found it’s made commuting such a much more pleasant experience when you’re dealing with this type of weather well so I’m still getting like improving my wardrobe to be honest because I started commuting just in my bushwalking clothes so because you know it’s just kind of stuff I brought from Australia I like oh I can cycle in those in those things and you know then I was cold and wet and I think I only bought them last year they are waterproof gloves and they make such a big difference so my hands are not frozen right away when it’s you know when it’s raining and also anything that has windproof properties so like uh gilet or jackets that they they stop the wind because I didn’t have them until probably about three years ago and so and no matter how many layers I put on I was still cold but now you put one layer and it stops the wind and uh actually it’s so much more pleasant yeah the rain jackets and only recently I started putting over trousers as well only got them last year they’re not nothing fancy but they mean that my and like you know the the bottoms that I have they are not soaked through so they’re also easier to dry but yeah generally buying things that are Scottish weather suited and I actually quite buy quite a few things from a company called Gia they’re based in L Ireland but they make kit that is very very suitable for Scotland and they are reasonably priced because as you know Bella cycling clothes are expensive and if you want to buy a whole range of them they’re really really expensive so but you know if you find something that is good quality but and you you can start collecting your things and you realize that actually you can feel quite comfortable when you’re on a bike it makes such a difference oh 100% agree it’s interesting how you say it has prepared you so well when it comes to ax riding because you find the weather is nowhere near as bad for that during an aex I guess before we get into the details of you know what an aax is I just want to quickly ask you what’s probably the worst weather you’ve which event gave you the worst weather that you had to deal with from an odox perspective so actually it will be an odox event it’s called the snow dos and it wasn’t wet it was in June but the wind was really really bad and it’s a it’s a 300 kilometer route through the kangom national park and it takes quite a lot of high passes left and gleni and all sorts of different Hills there where there are ski resorts but the wind was really really strong we really like I’ve struggled to get down some of the hills because the Crosswinds were just so strong so I had to walk down the hills so it wasn’t wet it was just really really strong wind there was just a struggle over those 300 kilometers and everyone was quite late to finish and uh we finished at the a local Hall we got food and bries and and soup and you could just see everyone being completely zoned out and sitting there it’s like what just happened what was this right winds like that is so scary I’ve experienced really bad strong winds and cross winds particularly that have you know blown you off a road and then also made me walk a bike down a hill I never thought that I would have to do that because of wind before and I actually put my hand up and saying having done that during an event I’ve never actually been 100% the same since that wind experience I’m more concerned about really strong windy weather than I am about wet weather because of that are you a little bit similar now yeah because rain is just like no rain is not dangerous right but when you have windy and gasty weather then you know this is quite dangerous and I know one person just got blown into a ditch you know nothing nothing really happened but you know there are actual dangers while rain is just like it’s not usually dangerous right it’s just more unpleasant really let’s get into the the odax world there will be listeners to the show that will know all about axes I’m sure I’ve got many listeners there hello to you all who have participated in odx events but there will also be people who were like odx what are these people talking about so who best describe this to someone then yourself Isabella if you were to introduce people to the concept of an aax what would you tell them it is and what is it all about yes so actually that’s a very good question because yeah a few years ago I was the same like what is an odox and one of my some of my colleagues actually completed a couple of events so they actually explained what an odox is so odox it’s a word that comes from Latin and it means udicious Bal and basically it’s a long distance bike ride when you have a set of controls that you have to go through so there will be towns or maybe some Crossroads and you have certain time window when you have to go through them and generally the rout is like you can pick whatever route you want but the organizers will provide you with often usually with a GPS track which is usually the best route to follow and the most syic one and so you can just use this GPS track and follow the rout you get to those so-called controls along the way and either it’s an info control that maybe you’ll be asking you what’s the distance to such and such town or the sign post there or it will be just a village or a town and there will be a free control so you just need to get go go to the shop and get a pro of passage which is usually get a receipt if you buy something in a shop or you go to an ATM you can get a bank statement it will have the date and time where you pass this control so odx is not the days so actually there is the minimum time time so if you want to go very very fast you would still have to wait at the controls potentially if you go faster than the maximum speed required yeah they don’t want the people to go very very fast and make it thease so you can go fast but then you to get the right validated you have to wait for your window to open at those controls as well and usually the distances for for those rides uh between 200 kilometers then you’ve got 300 kilometers 400 600 1,00 1200 kilometers and 600 kilometers that are the kind of standard but the most popular ones are 200 kilometers and for each distance at least in the UK you get point points so if it’s at 200 kilm you get two points 300 kilm you get three points and you you kind of collect those points along the way and at the end of the season there are Awards also for the PE for people with the highest number of points if this is something you’re interested in collecting points you would have collected a lot of points actually I don’t because I I do quite a lot of Rights but I don’t always do them for points so if you do a calendar event which is organized by by an organizer then yeah you get the points but there is also those the category DIY so do it yourself if you can’t do like a weekend event a calendar event organized or you just don’t want to you can do your own ride and you can submit it you have to follow certain rules about the root and you can then submit your plan go and do the rout then send the details for validation and you can get the points for it but I don’t really usually bother so I still do the rides I do the in odak style and I just don’t really bother doing them for points I’m curious Isabella when you first learned about ax what was then the first odx that you decided to have a go at and what distance was that uh so my first long ride was 326 kilometers which is you know 200 miles but it was not an odex it was inspired by something a couple of guys from Eden bike formed it the year before so they cycled to caral which is the in England and it’s 100 miles away from Edinburgh and then they joined right to the sun which is an a yearly event I’ve heard of this keep going sorry sorry sorry I interrupted you just for our listeners tell them about ride to the sun yes ride to the sun is an event organized by Fraser and Gary which are two guys who live in Edinburgh and about 10 years ago they F they wanted to do some training for the ironmen but they struggled with family time and they like how about if you write through the night around the summer solstice H so they took a train to Carol and I think they told a few people like we’re going to do this anyone is welcome to join and they started in the afternoon on Saturday and rode to crond beach in edinb for the sunrise and so that’s a 160 kilometer distance and yeah quite a few people turned up and they decided to do it every year since and now there’s hundreds of people coming and doing this and also Scouts helped to organize Transportation there and so to help people to get to the start line because there are not many bike spaces on the trains available to do it so there’s hundreds of people doing it on this route but people also now make it part of their bigger Adventures so you don’t have to organize the transport you can cycle down from edin and cycle back with the right to the Sun or make it even a bigger like a 400 K rout so the nice part of it is like you know there will be hundreds of people along this route and there will be a piper at top of the beef TB which is uh one of the major climbs on this route so there’s a piper standing there through the night playing tunes and then further on there is also a rave so through one of The Valleys there’s like little village which is like most of the time through the night there’s like nothing happening but suddenly there is this rave music and lights so you stop for this and there is usually bananas being given away and water and then you continue for the sun rise to cret I had this plan that I thought like oh I will do this but the right to the sun usually runs on the nearest Saturday to the solstice which is summer solstice which is you know 22nd of June I think so they pick one of the weekends around it but at the time I used to work on Sundays and I didn’t get to take a day off on Sunday so I thought well I’m not going to cycle 200 miles for the first time in my life and you know go to work on Sunday morning so yeah I couldn’t do the right to to the sun with everyone because I couldn’t get the day off on a Sunday so I decided to go on my own on a Friday and I’ve never cycled more than 100 kilometers before that so I decided I would go during the day instead of you cycling through the night so I set off just after the sunrise which is at about 4:00 a.m. in Scotland at the time in June I got to Carol ale to the park there was nobody there because it was the day I was 24 hours ahead of everyone and then started cycling back home to Adam br and I got home at around shortly before the sunset so I had this lovely day just cycling on my own I’ve never cycled that far from Edinburgh or from anywhere I made it back can I just say Isabelle and for my listeners my mouth sort of like half open hearing the story because hang on did you just say you’d never ridden more than 100 kmers and yet you just turned up and decided on your own without the benefit of other people in an event to feel like that solidarity of other riding companions you turned up to an event that’s over 300 kilometers yeah well whoa it’s not even an event it was just like oh I’m gonna cycle from home cycle there and then cycle back you didn’t even get to be at the little village with the Rave getting bananas like wow and you got through it did you ever a doubt you could get through it yes was so I knew it was basically just doing my commute 10 times I was like well I can do it twice in a day so you know then it’s only eight more times so logical of course it’s just it’s just eight more times was that the mental maths you were playing to get you through each time you were going well now I’ve only got like seven commutes left oh there’s another commute down now I’ve only got six were you doing that type of a mental strategy to get you through so towards the end yeah once I got I think to like eight times when I was coming back to Edinburgh because I didn’t really have track like map to follow so well I had the Google Maps and I had a route so but so whenever there was a turn I had to stop and check where I’m supposed to go now like the road is not so difficult so so I managed I was just tracking the road on straa but you know that was I didn’t like look at the screen all the time and I saw signs to Edinburgh so which were in miles so then I was converting miles to kilometers and was like okay so that’s still just two more commutes okay I I can do two more commutes sure yeah and then so I was just using the the signs to to to know how far I was from home and like yeah you know that’s only one more commute or I can do one more commute home I be home I think that speaks to two things one you know it’s such a cliche when people say with long-distance events it’s the mental battle not a physical battle someone told me at the start of my French Altra it was a French bike mechanic and he told me his saying in French and it was which and know probably butchered the French on this but translated it means you will start with the legs but you will finish with the head in the idea that you know you start and your legs are what get you going but it’s going to be your head that gets you to the finish line that sort of feel like what you was translating there really reflects that but on the flip side Isabella what I also think is you have just this inner endurance built into you now because you regularly are cycling over 50 km a day 5 days a week there is an endurance built up from just those steady daily commutes too would you agree with that yeah I think so like you know there is the base commute and then just is it’s like doing the same but just for longer because you know I don’t go fast in my commutes and on those longdistance events you don’t really go fast either you just do it for longer and you know it’s a pace that can sustain for a very very long time so yeah definitely having the base from commuting it helps I don’t do any other training I heard there are zones that people use apparently there’s zone two I think I’m in zone two when I cycle to work from you know what I’ve heard and I know when people do training they do quite a lot of that zone true training to have the endurance so I think I’m doing it but it’s not intentional it just happens oh I just love the purity of this it’s speaking to my soul because I have to say I have gone down the other path before and I’ve gone all down the whole Fitness thing heart rate monitor wearing understanding power zones doing interval sessions and it’s only really in the last couple of years where I’m winding all of that back unlearning it all and just going back to the beauty of riding my bike and not caring I read a quote from you actually or I heard a quote from you Isabella recently which was with ax you don’t have to go fast but you just have to go smart and that sort of that sort of seems to be a little bit playing to that as well it’s not about speed that’s not going to get you there it’s about a different type of strategy and I think the mental games must be huge yes you try ride to the sun it’s not an aax what is your first aax then and how do you all of a sudden find yourself doing the biggest aord axes there are like London Edinburgh London’s what 1500 kilometers that’s huge that’s got to be one of the biggest actually doesn’t it yes so I did the I did my ride I was like well that’s me done like I know I can do it partially the reason that I thought I could do it was because one of the persons who did it the year before where I got this idea from he was doing the same commute but in the opposite direction guy called Ian and I was like well if he’s doing the same commute as I do and he did this surely I can do it I was like yeah yeah you can so yeah like having someone you know seeing this like well they do the same what I do if they some do something bigger I can do it as well and yeah definely you can it’s not difficult it’s just you know it just takes time that’s what it is it takes time break it down into sizable chunks how many commutes of time exactly and yeah I had no interest to do it over again but one of the local oaes reached out to me on Facebook like you did this in a such and such time you can do oaes I like I have no interest in doing this ever again but then he got in touch again and was like fine I will sign up for an aexx and there was one in September so it was yeah like three months after that I did my ride and it was the year of Paris bre Paris so there weren’t many people at the start line it was a 300 event starting in Gala shields uh which is in the Scottish board ERS it’s about 50 60 kilometers south of Edinburgh and there’s a local organizer there Lucy and she puts out quite a lot of events through the Scottish borders I went there were 11 people at the start line so one of the smallest events we set off through the Scottish borders valleys and I was just on my own to the first control but then another person who was also the first doing this for the first time also arrived and then we set up together and we’ve did the whole ride then together and trying to discuss things how how this all works and this long distance cycling I met this friend Paul he gave me company so when we were coming back through the valleys again through the night it was nice to have someone to talk to I was like okay so that’s another 300 events so it’s like a week wors of commute just cramped into one day yeah if you look at this into this way it’s actually not that far that was my first calendar event then there was another 200 event uh month later that I also went because then it kind of became also social thing Paul said he’s like oh I’m coming to this vand are you coming like okay I will come along as well it becomes kind of a social thing that other people are doing it that you know so it’s like I will come along as well so that was in the in 2019 so it was just before the covid started so it was one of the last calendar events that were happening before there was a big break the community with is what I’ve heard makes it such a great thing as well there is that sort of comaraderie I must admit I do put my hand up un shedly saying sometimes when I hear about ax I do feel like do you nearly need to have a prerequisite of being like a middle-aged older guy with a beard you know sorry people but that is sort of what I think about but then I’ve sort of dug into it a little bit more and and realize it’s much more than that for sure but is it much more than that am I am I I right to think that there is a difference or is there a stereotype rightly so there’s yeah there is part of Truth in this the beards are not so common anymore right so the beards are not but the steel bikes titanium bikes and Paradise bags with you know all sorts of things that you may need spares and extra clothing and Dynamo Wheels that’s what you will see quite a lot on those events uh but in terms of person like yes there is mostly men in there and I think endurance comes with an age in a way as well so you know maybe young people want to just go fast and you know they will do shorter distances and but fast but in all act you will get people coming from racing and they you know because they say they may realize that well I will try something different you know I can’t really compete in races so much anymore but you know it will just go slower for a longer time so you get people coming from different backgrounds so like from racing or maybe touring because it’s quite similar to touring it’s just going those these extra miles in a day and lighter but you so you cover more ground in a shorter time than touring and then you know there’s people like like myself just coming from commuting or just you know riding around so it’s a really nice interesting mixture of people from different different cycling backgrounds so on the PBP the average age was I think 52 and that’s probably about right on on most of those events but it’s also a great opportunity actually to have long conversations with people of different ages because you don’t really get this chance in normal life I suppose like you know you may not be friends with people who some of them could be your parents age you know to go and have long conversations like this but here you are on a bike for many many hours people will tell you their life stories and especially when you go through the night you want to have some company someone to talk to so you will hear all sorts of stuff and I think there’s also a community at the checkpoints too isn’t there and like I guess when you when we’re talking longer events like London Edinburgh London and then Paris Bress Paris we’re talking about events that are going over multiple days and the checkpoints often they’re like in like Community town halls or something like that and there’s food there there’s I think for the really big events there’s sort of like sleep systems like you can pay to sleep will have someone wake you up in 2 hours or whatever and I think I’ve watched that on documentary so I always picture Isabella and correct me if I’m wrong that you you might need to pack earplugs or something for that don’t you because it’s just going to be like a a hole filled with like snoring and all sorts of sounds right yes so longer events that are Al so probably there 600 kilometers and over so if you go over 600 you go over two days 400 events you just generally don’t sleep because it’s just like a long long day ride your time limit is 27 hours for 400 kilm but most people will finish it under 24 hours so you don’t really need to sleep but 600 yeah you go over two days and sometimes the organizers will provide backdrops so you can bring your sleeping mat and sleeping bag and and they will have an overnight stop overnight control so there will be food there and there will be floor where you can snooze for a couple of hours but there is ear plags so recently I upgraded my ear plugs last year I went to some of the oders and asked them what are the ear plugs I should get so I I can sleep and yeah there is they do have ratings they you know they’ve tried several different times it’s like this these are the ones you want we need to know the answer to this this is important what are the E plugs we should be getting I would have to check the name I can post it but they’ve been recommended by the Four Corners Cycling Club which is kind of a group of ODU cyclist in the UK who do really big distances and they say these are the ones we want this one the one you should get send me the name and I’ll post it up in the show notes cuz I think there’s going to be a few people that are pretty curious about this can I ask a quick question I’ve been told by people that one of the hardest distances to do because for the bigger events you actually need to qualify I think to be able to do that and the way you do that is by showing that you have done a series of those events building up the distance but I’ve heard people say to me that the hardest distance to tick off in an aax is actually the 400k because it is a distance where you don’t need to sleep but you get tired enough where you probably really want to whereas with the 600k it’s longer but you will sleep what’s your experience about with that do you agree with that sentiment yes and no so if I do a 400 distance on my own from home I would start at 4:00 a.m. so you know I will come home on Friday night you know get my bike ready go to bed and I will wake up you know let’s say 3:00 a.m. and we’ll set up at 4:00 so I still have like a full night sleep and then I will come home at around 2 3 a.m. between Saturday to Sunday and I go to bed and I still get a full-time sleep so basically doing this 4:00 am to let’s say 2: am it’s it’s a long day but a lot of calendar events they start in the afternoon so like let’s say 3 P.M you will start it on 3 p.m. and then you will finish about 24 hours later so you go through the whole night so you start during the day you go through the the whole night and then you go through the morning so those are quite hard some of them even start like at 10 p.m. so you start for the night so I think those are really really hard because it’s a long so it’s 24 hours plus all the time you’ve been awake before it so you don’t necessarily find the 400 super bad if you start it in the morning like like early in the night it’s dark if you have a 4:00 a.m. start and you’re banking on finishing around 2 at night so you’re not riding through a full full night yes so it’s kind of night at the start and night at the end I’m not losing the the full night sleep somewhere I still have sleep at the start and at the end with London edenburgh London is it similar to Paris bre Paris in that you need to do qualifiers no London edma London you just sign up if you get a place then you go if you go and you do it is it a ballot it is a ballot okay if you’re a member of the odx UK and you have been member for like the past four years you get a guaranteed entry but if you’re not and I wasn’t you enter a ballot and you hope to get a place and the previous one in 2022 everyone got in because because it was after the covid and it was after the brexit it’s actually not so many people were applying so I think everyone who wanted they got a spot and it’s only again this year isn’t it cuz it’s every two years no so they so both PBP and London and Admiral London are every four years but they are kind of like two years in between them of course okay but the 2021 LEL got postponed to 2022 therefore it was one year after another it was L and then PBP but the next L is 2025 so you be like just only three years since the last one okay I understand so it’s a bit out of whack there as well so the p has more roles like yeah you have as you said you have to qualify you have to do a 200 300 400 and 600 K rides in the year like in the season before the PBP to to qualify for it so which kind of helps because it means people actually have to write those distances before well for the LEL you can just like you I’ve never done anything like this I’ll go and the ride from London to Adam Brandon back to London now if I’m correct you did what’s called a permanent before London EDM London didn’t you yes yes so so in the year when London edmir London got cancelled because the year before I did the 400 ride just on my own it was like during the covid but you could go for day ride and 400k ride is a day right right so it’s like I can do this I’m not breaking any rules and then a month later I thought like I will try 600 because that’s part with the oding you will tried one distance I like can I ride longer and it’s like oh I can ride the longer like how about if I write the next one up which is you know 600 so and the 600 if you do it as a DIY or like you know from home you can do two Loops from home you do one Loop come back sleep for a little bit and do another loop the next day and so yeah that’s your 600 so I thought like oh you know so the next year I would like to do something bigger but you know the London ad London got cancelled uh so I reached out to one of my ODU friends is like are you thinking about doing something big and he said oh actually yes so there’s this permanent event called Eight some real it’s an event around Scotland so it’s permanent event so it means that you’re provided with a list of controls places you have to visit but you do it you plan it all yourself and you select when you start and then your clock starts and you have to finish it before certain number of hours that you are allocated for this so the event actually it’s not quite 1600 kilometers it’s like I think 1570 but because we were so close to 1600 we decided should we just do the rest I think we had like 20 kilometers to do it 1,00 miles or 1600 kilometers so we finished this in in veres and we F like well yeah we’ll do that go for like extra 25k ride and we’ll get to, 1600 so we did that so I did it with a friend called Robbie Fargo so he was much more experienced in terms of those bigger events because he’s done the L and the PBP before but we only started planning this a month before so you know I don’t plan far ahead we kind of thought like oh let’s do it probably like two weeks before we started booking accommodation because and with deciding where we are going to start which way we are going to do it and you know trying to plot the route and how to divide it so we split it into about 300 kilometers days you know starting about 6:00 a.m. every morning and because it’s Scotland it was in August we decided to stay in accommodation bnbs and hotels so because you don’t have to carry as much stuff with you and plus you know it will be probably cold and quite wet so we were’re trying to find where we can find accommodation about 300 kilometers from the last accommodation find where you can do foot stops you know where you can get food along the way because south and north of Scotland actually they there is not that much and things close quite early you have to think ahead it’s like oh I’m going to get my dinner here I need to buy enough stuff to get me through the night and maybe stuff for breakfast as well because I will be leaving at 6:00 a.m. so before anything opens it’s not like a l or Paris press Paris where you know at the control points there’s going to be a a local Hall that’s got food available for you you have to be thought it’s almost like you’ve taken on an ultra it is almost an unofficial Ultra in a way I mean it is an ultra it’s ultra distance for sure and it’s self-supported so and yeah that is uh that is on you doing it really that is nobody nobody else like there’s nobody to cheer for you it was good to have you know do it with someone who’s done this sort of thing before and we planned it so I plan my trips using spreadsheets so I plug in the numbers and you know so it helps me to calculate you know what time I would be we and you know to kind of try to break it down into smaller bits try to have like a shop or something every let’s say 60 70 80 kilometers to make sure there is food I can you know resupply you just plug in the average speed and like okay I’m going to be there is there anything available if not then you find something else then I print it out and laminate well put sticky table over it you can just look at it and you you know how far you are from The Next Food stop uh whether you know I should eat some snacks now or you know I should wait because there is in 15 minutes there will be a shop I will get some food there but you’re having kind of all planned out this way instead of just ride and figureing out along the way like for me the only way I can do those things is like yeah kind of plan it and know oh I’m going a little bit too slow so I will stop for a shorter time to not be behind my schedule that gives you the confidence in going into it sort of knowing enough details to say I’ve got the information I need to help me to be successful in getting to the end there I guess there’s also that massive boost of confidence when you do get to the end you sort of see what you’re able to do I’m I’m interested to find out Isabella did you get to the end of that permanent going oh I’m definitely going to do London and London or did you get to the end of that permanent going never again hello everyone I just wanted to take a quick moment to say a big heartfelt thank you to all of you listeners who have given me a small Financial donation and supported me on buy me a coffee all of those donations do make a difference they help to support the running cost of this podcast so that I can keep producing episodes for you each week and I really appreciate all of you who’ve clicked on the buy me a coffee link and sent me through a small donation if you are listening and would like to support the show you can do so quite easily I’ve provided a link to buy me a coffee you will find it in the show notes if you click on that link and you can choose to buy me a coffee which again is just a small donation which helps towards the running cost of the show thank you all so much okay now let’s get back to the show oh well you get to the end it’s like huh it’s like I’m tired now yeah so it takes it takes a bit of time trying to yeah I I don’t think I don’t think I’ve ever been like proud at the end of it because it’s like I know it’s hard but you know then you look by it’s like yeah it’s a long distance but it’s like you know so many people do it you’re not anything special on the L or PBP you have hundreds and thousands of people completing the same thing some will have more fun than the others but it’s not that difficult it’s just as long as you can keep pedling on your bike I think everyone can do it can I ask then have there been moments where you’ve nearly not done it where you’ve been in the middle of it and gone no can’t do this one like have you ever had to not finish an aax when it’s gotten gritty have you had the mental selft talk to say keep going so I’ve never had that I nearly not finished or scratched but yeah on those big long events I did notice like day four or five it starts getting really hard yeah it’s just like the legs are tired not getting much sleep I can really feel it well being a woman I always get period on all those rid as well so you get you know all those things to deal with it apparently that’s a good thing apparent that’s when we are at our strongest well for a few days I know but there’s extra stuff you have to deal with you know Finding finding the toilets you know like I was like oh I need to you know my my PE stop is a little bit longer because I have to do other things I try to be quite organized with it have enough IU profane so you know it’s not an issue but you know it’s yeah there is all those extra stuff that if this wasn’t happening would be just easier on the PBP was my first event where I didn’t have to deal with it I was like oh that’s so much easier you know I don’t have to worry about it that if I could just schedule that to be that way all the time that would be amazing you sound like to someone to me that doesn’t I mean you commute in all weather in Scotland all year and you very matter of fact about oh everyone can do this it’s not no big deal no special so but everyone has those moments when you’re over tired where you just almost can’t think for yourself do you almost feel like that is what’s getting you through you’re you’re too tired to give up so I did have like on the early remember when on the way back when we were coming back down south I left Bramton early in the morning it was lovely day and I was oh that’s that feels great but I went through Austin which is like a town I got some food from the from the shop and I started cycling up again and I suddenly felt really really tired and I feel like I just need to sit on the side of the road for a little bit and I feel sorry for myself but as soon as I got off my bik actually I saw a friend of mine who started catching up with me and I was like well that’s me sitting on the ground done I like I need to carry on with him now so definitely having people does help yeah nothing go good will come just you know sitting on the side of the road and feeling sorry for yourself just you know get on the bike and keep pedaling so it definitely helped to have this PO is like let’s go we’re doing it did you find that Paris press Paris I don’t want to use the word easy cuz you’ve still got to do it and you’re still really tired but did you find there was an element where keeping on going was made easier because of all the people there and not just the people that are actually riding it but also the people who live in the village houses that you’re riding through actually coming out and supporting you and cheering you on because it is a huge big deal in that part of France when Paris breast Paris is on I mean there’s even a b longerie treat called Paris breast which is named after the race that’s how big this event is right yes so yes Paris bre par in those terms were so much easier because yeah there was people everywhere and yeah I met a person who I knew kind of for Instagram and and straa John and we ended up writing quite a lot of it together but yeah you know you get people cheering on the side of the road people having picnics on the side of the road and you know telling you know saying bonage yeah that’s that’s how they say B Ro Al and you and your kids lining up through Villages and you have five them as you come through yeah so I had I actually put a little bell on my bike so I could you know ring the bell when we were going for those people and you know get very enthusiastic cheer like you know appreciate in a way you know greet them as well and actually I think also I first you get more more cheering if you’re a woman because there’s only about 7% women taking part that took part in the PBP so we just you know a very very small number and I don’t have the other perspective but when his friend John would split up for a section and so he went on his own and he says like I wasn’t getting any cheering like when I was on my own like I think it’s all because of I’m with you so then he stuck with me I was like I’m just gonna ride with you because you’re then I get all the cheering as well that’s a hot tip everyone ride with a woman I’ve heard that there’s like some f famous roadside special areas I’ve seen it in a documentary there’s like a family who I mean there’s probably a few of these that that were in front of their house cooking creps for the Riders there’s there’s people who do this every Paris bre Paris and they’ve got like a a little mural of like postcards from participants they get them to like send them a postcard of where they’re from and stuff like that did you see stuff like this during that event too then yes definitely actually on the way to breast I kind of went quite quickly and then I went slower on way on the way back and sto in more of those places stop for the crabs so as you said there’s quite a lot of people who cook crabs on the side of the road or there was one place where they just brought it freshly baked cake and just were slicing it and all steam still coming out of the cake and you could have it and yeah there was one place where they opened their garage and they had the wall full of postcards you know with people who who went through their place before and you know they were giving you tea and coffee actually not sure about tea because it’s friends they don’t they don’t really do much tea don’t they but yeah they had snacks and they they coffee and they even like put some beds on the on the ground so people can have a nap yeah so the hospitality is incredible and you know there’s people playing music and people dancing so when we got to Britany like you know there were I remember this two ladies like uh dancing this BR and dance it’s just an amazing atmosphere so it definitely definitely helps compared you know to you know cycling through Scotland where you hardly see anyone and you are on your own for hours and hours and hours well on the PVP it’s just like people everywhere and I think yeah if you need anything they would try to help you a lot of those places people don’t have much themselves but you know they will give you their food they will give you bed whatever else you need wellow I was just thinking Isabella could you imagine if you know some of your Grim Scottish commutes if there was someone in a in a house there that was there to cheer you on and give you a bonage or to like hand you over like a I don’t know a haggus and cheese toasty or something or the equivalent of the hot baked cake with steam coming out of it that would that would be such a lift wouldn’t it is Paris press Paris something you want to do again having experienced that yes and no uh so before I wasn’t really convinced to go to do Paris press Paris I heard stories about it from people that amazing but I was like I don’t know like oh it’s all the way in France it’s so far away I didn’t actually have plans sorted out for it how to get there until like a month before when one of the local Riders was going they decided to take a van and they had extra space in the car and offered me a lift I was like okay yes then you all the logistic is sorted so sure I I’ll come along because I did all the registration I had all everything sorted but not actually the logistics how I’m going to get there yeah it exceeded my expectation so much like until actually I think you go and experience it like no stories will actually will give you the same experience and I know how good it was and I worry that maybe if I go next time it well it would be different right I worry that maybe it won’t be the same won’t won’t be quite as good anymore uh so in a way I would like to do it again but uh I worry maybe it won’t be as good yeah I’ve had this conundrum with other things before with rides where it was such a great experience where I’ve got such amazing memories I don’t want to do the same thing again I don’t want what I do not to live up to those lofty expectations but you’re right it would be different and it would be different atmosphere like it would be different weather potentially or you you know you rode with your friend John you might be riding with somebody else or there’s different sort of expectations but I can it’s a massive conundrum I can understand it I must admit I am very very intrigued with ax and getting into it enough to then register for Paris BR Paris is something I am keen on maybe we’ll both be lining up for the 2027 event is it in 2027 yes wow I’m not sure I can pinky swear on it just yet but in fact I must put it out there previous guests of the show and good friends of mine Tom and Stevie who live in in Frankfurt hello we’ve sort of talked about doing it as a group before with my husband Steve as well and so who knows maybe or five of us will be there on the start line actually kind of an advice I think it’s actually oaes are better done with people who are you not very good friends with oh we need to go down this rabbit Warren so you know once when you’re tired and when you’re are hungry I get cranky so I know like when I get cranky I need food actually there was a on the last PBP there was a couple here from Adra matad and Gabby hello mad and Gabby and Matt had this excellent plan that he would propose to Gabby at the end of PBP because they would have this amazing experience and you know it would be awesome and they fell out towards the end oh my goodness because you know they wrote together all the way and actually they and the end and they decided to write write separately because you know it’s it’s a long time being with the same person so ride with different people because you can tell them the same life stories over and over again if you ride with the same people you run out of the stories that’s a good tip so maybe we could do the event together but we don’t ride together and we just talk about our experiences at the end when we’re over tired so so my husband Tom he Al supports all my rides and he’s actually probably more enthusiastic about my rights than I am initially and he doesn’t cycle at all so you know I do it on my own but this way I do it with different people so we never get you know we don’t have this stage that you angry at each other because you have more patience for people you don’t know I I find you know you forgive them a bit more because you don’t know all their things that annoy you bit too much when when you are tired but you know if you ride with the same person all the time because you’re a couple you kind of run out of things to talk about probably but you when you ride with other people like you can yeah you ret tell the same stories over and over again to you to a new person so back to mad and Gabby they did get engaged a week later they came back to Scotland you know things were back to normal and yes they did get engaged but not that the end so sometimes probably it’s not the best idea to do those long rides with people you love and care about who that’s a good relationship keeper advice keep your relationship together ride sep can I ask then Isabella I can understand how you train for aaes with your commute I think that’s awesome and I’ve understood your mental strategy on how to get there and I can understand now how you’ve you’ve ticked on some big big distances there what about the trans Alba race now I mean I know it’s called a race and in my research you did say you did the trans Alba and you did it like an aax but I want to know what made you want to sign up for that anyway and I guess even before that what is it for people that have never heard of it before and what does it involve H yeah so trans Alba is uh I suppose trans similar to like lot of the ultra distance races the Transcontinental Trans American so they were like oh Trans will’ll use this and Alba which is Scotland in GIC language it’s a big event around Scotland so it’s uh 1,000 miles which is 1, 1600 kilometers and quite a lot of climbing so I think you said in the introduction it’s 20,000 MERS climbing so it’s quite hilly they will take you through the if there is a hilly way between two points they will take you the hilly way it’s a mandatory route so you can’t really you know Skip those bits and it’s created by Chris grenan and Jack driver so Chris grenan he completed TR Trans American race quite a few years ago and he thought it would be nice to have an Al endurance race here in Scotland and they’ve did the last I think it was about four years ago no five years ago when they did the first edition it was 2019 so just as I did my first 300K ride and someone on our Edinburgh bike Forum posted the link to the tracker so I started following the Riders and it was quite fun so it was like it’s the only race I really follow that much and it’s part of it’s like you know we know quite a lot of the roads like we know you know this is just Scotland so you know roughly where they are so it’s easier to relate to and it’s so far it happened always like first week of July so the weather has been always terrible it’s just wet and windy because July in Scotland is usually not very nice yeah so I followed this and then there was Co so there was a break and then two years ago I was also following the race and one one of the the first person who was finishing uh Graham Spiller he was going to finish it roughly when I would be cycling through my work so I thought I would just go to South Queensberry which was the finishing point on my way home and you I will getet the the first finisher so I went there and so there were the two organizers wife Graham’s wife and we waited for him as he rolled in and you know so we cheered he had five six people at the Finish Line to greet him and they said oh yeah you should do it next year I was like oh yeah maybe and yeah they in the end decided to do last year’s Edition like they only decided I think this in March and trans Alba is in July so it was quite a short time but I felt like you know I could I could give it a go you know do a big tour of Scotland again but I thought like oh do WID now on my own they also take really nice photos along the way so I thought oh we have some cool photos motivation I love it yeah and and as you said I did plan it as an odx so very similar to what I did for the permanent event a few years ago so I was just planning to ride about 300 kilometers a day and planned it this way and yeah ended up finishing F well actually I met another old AER Andrew Foxton and we ended up stopping at the same places initially they frogging each other and then I shared my knowledge about where we can get food because I think I wasn’t that prepared and you know once you get to the north of Scotland there aren’t many places so it’s like this place will have lunch then this is the last shop for the day we need to stock up here so we’re stocking the same places the spreadsheet you put together exactly well it it really helps we wrote like side by side because you know it’s a Race So like weren’t drafting uh but maybe like we rode maybe 100 kilometers together but otherwise we just riding our own pace which was quite similar but we only like quite a few minutes apart but you I I would tell him like there is a place there there is a place there and will just stop there have some food or stay for the night and we finished almost together as well like towards the end he was faster than me but he de said no I said I will wait for you I’ll wait for you so we you know Seconds Apart we roll like we re rolled to the to the finish line and we kind of well we had the discussion earlier how are you gonna do it so he said like I’ll go first and you wait a few meters behind me and you roll and it’s like okay we’ll do that so you know it was a face but uh we like you we wrote it as an alux really not together but kind of like kind of together yeah there was sort of like a someone around that was going through the same sort of thing that you were going through nearby and that sort of helps a lot as well imagine like like just mentally knowing there’s someone on the road a little bit ahead or a little bit behind me that’s going through this part of Scotland at the same time yes exactly it sounds like he needed your Intel more than you needed him though I’m not saying that in in a bad way I’m just more thinking like your spreadsheet with all the this Shop is open this shop’s not open this is where we need to resupply and stuff did how you go in trans ala come as a surprise or was it sort of of course this is how it was going to play out no no I I thought that would be like I would be last oh you know some somewhere at the end but so yeah suddenly when Andrea and I were like you know second and third I like H I didn’t expect that to have and so then we kind of kept an eye on the person behind us to make sure they don’t overtake us so sometimes like okay we need to leave now so that was potentially a point of difference with maybe what you would have done if this was like an AA yes you wouldn’t be looking and thinking I need to beat this person you wouldn’t be thinking of any of that type of mentality at all did you enjoy that aspect did you enjoy sort of feeling a different type of push to a different sense of urgency with the way you were riding actually I did I didn’t think I would I didn’t think I would be competitive but you know when actually I was like oh I can be fair it’s like well okay I I will have a shorter stop you know to push further because I couldn’t go faster I was just too tired to go in a faster but you yeah in a in all of those things like you lose so much time by stopping so by reducing the stop times that’s how you can gain the distance and the time and to be honest also because this was the first event that had a Tracker like all the time so actually knowing that people people are watching me that’s quite exciting it’s really helpful personally for me when I did it it was a real mental boost and I had like friends send random messages at all hours and it was such a mental boost knowing someone’s actually caring about how I’m going here and someone thinks that I can keep going maybe when in my mind I’m really tired and I don’t want to anymore did you find that as well oh yes definitely yeah I know it’s like I shouldn’t care about it but I found it’s like really really helpful so my husband Tom they had this email chain with some friends and they were commenting what was going on who was where what people were doing I got some of the emails that I read along the way I sent some updates as well and also we then found that dot Watcher had a commentary about us so we only found it I think on the final night and we were reading this and was just laughing so actually that’s where the commuting Enthusiast comes from because uh the commentator Louie he used this I like I’m a commuting Enthusiast okay that’s how it’s it’s stuck now I’m a commuting Enthusiast I love it do you think then Isabella that perhaps you might be Keen to sign up for a different ultra distance cycling event or a race like do you think are you thinking that uh I don’t know so you know people ask oh would you do the TCR but the transcontinental race but the rules that so strict and you and then oh we are the hardest race in the world like it just sounds I don’t know too doesn’t resonate with me there are ones that aren’t necessarily like that that might like do you ever look for those I understand what you mean there’s events where you look at and there’s like you know the way that the rules are made and what they are and what they involve are very set but there are definitely now ultra distance events which are looking at being much more inclusive which you know the focus isn’t on who ever sleeps the least or things like that as well like would you be more tempted with that type of style or so to be honest like after also going to you know doing the PBP I thought like you know Scotland is nice but other places are also nice maybe it interesting to ride somewhere somewhere else but to be honest haven’t looked into races to enter I don’t really plan that far ahead most of those things you know I make I make the decision here like month before or so that I I would sign up for a few things because I don’t want to miss out you know I don’t want to then think oh I wish I had signed up for it that was the the case with the LEL and then the PVP and I ended up doing this them and really enjoyed them but yeah I don’t know about the races watch this space I feel like it might be an itch that you are going to scratch though so I’m definitely going to watch space I’ll only find out like a day before obviously cuz it’s last minute so from that Journey something you’ve recently being a part of Isabella is toe path talks which is you know in a way similar to he sharing stories about people having bike Adventures but it’s done in Edinburgh top paath cafe I believe yes bike tracks in edenburgh it’s a bike store with a cafe yeah so there is a bike store called bike tracks and um space that they’re using now used to be a nightclub uh so it’s got two stories uh so they set up a cafe at the higher level as of recently they started organizing talks so they for January they invited Chris and Mark who did the TCR last year uh and they finished this a second pair and they also invited invited Matt who did the Paris best prize on a fixed geared bike and they thought it would be nice to have have those people to share their stories about those events and they were looking for someone to host it and McKenzie who works at bike trucks and actually the person who introduced me to your podcast oh hi McKenzie so yes so McKenzie well McKenzie sent me the link like listen to this podcast and so that’s how how I started listening to your podcasts and so he asked me whether I would like to host it and because I I followed chrisen Mark doing the their TC are and also I knew mat from the from the odex and the PBP I was like yeah sure so we had the first event in January and it was really good yeah the stories from the TCR were really amazing and then that’s how we also met found out about Matt and Gabby falling out on the PVP not getting engaged in France but you know then back in Scotland and really enjoyed doing this and they because in Edinburgh doesn’t really have that much of a cycling Community there’s quite a lot of people cycling doing various things but you know doing godex is like I don’t know you spend time on the road on your own for a long long time but there wasn’t really a place where you could meet other cyclists so we started doing this as a series and inviting various people from Edinburgh doing cycling things uh so we have also people doing some racing so then we had the February talk and the March talk and now we’ll have also and upcoming one uh in April which we’ll have the people who started the right to the sun Gan Fraser and one of the old John pablin so I really enjoy working on this because you know I get to meet more people I get to learn about them certain aspects of you know of cycling that I don’t know anything about so for instance 24-hour mountain bike racing I didn’t really know what that was uh but we had guessed Naomi in February so yeah I got find find out about this and what it’s like it’s a little bit different you to like longdistance cycling but similar in many ways uh as well and we started also because people were asking about online version of those talks so we started recording them and releasing as a podcast so it’s not like a podcast podcast but it’s a it’s a talk that’s been recorded so it’s a little bit different but uh hopefully also useful I think it’s awesome and I definitely encourage people if I’ve got listeners in edur and Scotland or even you know close by close enough to maybe go there I’d definitely encourage you to seek it out if you’re into these type of topics for sure I think it would be fantastic and you would get to meet Isabella in face to face which is which is pretty cool I will definitely post up links to toath talks toath talks yes topa because we are at the the end of the canal which is the union Canal which links the Adra and ferk and the top path is the path that runs along the canal that’s why it’s called to pu because it used to be for towing you know it used to have the the the canal was used for horses transporting goods from one side to the other so they were Towing things and that’s why it’s tow paff well I will definitely provide links to the talks in the show notes so that you can actually seek it out and as Isabella said even if you can’t be there in person you can definitely listen to them online and I did that before this episode and quite enjoyed the discussions there and like you said it’s almost like with this podcast I’ve been exposed to different facets of our sport different types of Adventures I’ve learned so much about different countries through the experiences of other people I love every single Avenue of people sharing their experiences and stories because it provides that spark of curiosity sometimes for us to think oh maybe that’s an adventure I’d like to go on I’ve no doubt Isabella people are going to hear your story listening to you talk about you know longdistance events and a axes where whether it’s a big event or a permanent or something like that and they’re probably going to be intrigued enough to give it a go as well so I think it’s brilliant and there needs to be more of this and if we can make this community grow even more I’m all for it Isabella a question which I’ve been recently asking guests of the show has been to tell me about one day of their trip now often this is to a guest who has done you know multi-day potentially multi-year trips all around the world but I feel with AAC you’re covering such a long distance too that sometimes one day of your trip it’s such a Monumental part of that experience too so I want to ask you this question and I’m going to give you the freedom to choose which day and which event this has fallen from but please can you take me and my listeners to one day of your trip right so I think it will be my second day on trans Alba so yeah as you said yeah it’s a long day so I think I started at 6:00 a.m. from Livingston where actually I work so I work in Livingston so previous day done you know over 300 probably 20 kilometers and end up where I work and then set up at 6:00 a.m. and going through Scotland Central belt which is not very nice it’s the the area between Aden and Glasgow and it’s quite industrial lots of towns and Villages it’s not very Scenic and quite tedious to be honest and lots of little roads with steep gradients up up and down up and down up and down and because the organizer want to keep you off the big roads they just send you on those all this little roads and I was just it was really very tiring and you went to cender which is quite nice you go north but then you have to come back south down to Glasgow way which is again busy with traffic and then again small roads and steep gradient here and there it was just like really slow going really really tiring but at the end of it towards the evening we had to catch a fery to Danon and there was such a big change from you know a day of just being in a quite busy area and tedious roads suddenly taking the ferry always feels quite exciting because like you go to the somewhere completely different and we could see this storm and rain coming over the hills over there like well it’s going to be wet and yeah in the evening just got of there it started raining but it was beautiful like you know it was like quite a l low fog and clouds and you looking up the gland it just looked all really really nice suddenly we’re on big roads so because there are not that many roads to choose from so they sent us on a roads which are quite quite big so I knew it should be quicker and yeah I enjoyed the cycle through the night I went all the way to Oben like finish it there 2: a.m. but so it was Heavy Rain but I really enjoyed like the the night part of the cycle because the the rain kept me away which was good and yeah it was beautiful like so it’s in July so the it was all very very green I think that was my favorite part of trans Alba just cycling through those kind of peninsula type part of Scotland it was in the evening so there Ro were very quiet and yeah just rain P of views and actually I enjoyed being actually a bit faster than the first part of the day yeah Scotland is beautiful I can I can even when it rains it is beautiful I love that and I wonder if that’s a little bit unexpected like if you’d said at the start oh your best moment’s going to be in the pouring Rin on the busy a-road I wonder if you would have believed that yeah no definitely not it has me intrigued I’m going to when this podcast recording finishes I’m going to look at a map at Scotland and have a look at the area that you were riding through on this day just close my eyes and imagine what it would have been like for you Isabella if people want to follow along with your future Adventures see where your last minute planning takes you and what rides you’re going to go on how can they follow you and find out more where do you live on social media and stuff H yes I’ve got an Instagram account it’s called is. Merta so my name and my surname and that’s where most of the my cycling trips are and my commuting updates if you want to see the same pictures of this well the pictures of the same places but you’re in different weather you definitely want to see this people I will be providing links to Isabella’s Instagram profile in the show notes but I have had the pleasure of trolling through all of your commuting pictures and they’re great they take me to the scene yes that often involves maybe some not much of the nicest weather but again the Landscapes you’re going through they look pretty awesome one day if I can find myself in Scotland with a bike I must ride a commute with you but maybe you need to bring me a lint ball though right yeah definitely I think it’s very pretty root so that’s why I enjoy it so much all right Isabelle I really need to wrap up the show so I finish with the same three questions you listen to the show so you probably know what they are first one is if you had to pick a song to be the soundtrack to your right what song will you choose which bit of music gives you the inspiration that helps you turn those pedals round and round and round on these big long rides that you do yes so actually that’s the s that was stuck in my head on my first right to car and back so I’m not very good remembering any lyrics or much of the songs because I’m a classical musician I used to be a classical musician so I don’t know that but my husband started introducing me to pop music which is actually quite catchy as it turns out so the song is XTC it’s a all I know it’s a one two three four five s is working over time so that’s the song and that’s the song the one two three four five is all I had my stuck in my head through through the first right and got me through so yeah I would pick that song hang on I don’t even know if I know this song and I’m half scared to play it cuz it’s going to get stuck in my head so hang on XTC is the band and it’s 1 two 3 4 5 S is working over time that’s the title I will definitely have to give that a play and Isabella you now get to have that lovely song that that accompanied you whether you liked it or not those lyrics they have been added to the seek travel ride playlist it is available now on Apple and Spotify and that playlist consists of one song chosen by every guest of seek travel ride and it’s a song that means so much to them and is their themed to their Adventures if you’re going on a long adventure and you want a whole different type of songs that maybe you wouldn’t listen to in Eclectic mix seek it out seek travel ride music playlist I’ve got a link in the show notes available there on Spotify and apple as well okay I feel I know the answer to this question I’m ask you obviously anyway Isabella one day you have the choice where you can ride your bike perpetually up a constant climb no downhill no free wheeel no top no nothing just constantly up or you can ride into a constant headwind which one are you going to choose well my question to you is what’s the gradient of that hill and how strong is the wind is it Gusty or not so is the gradient two or six or 10 or 15 % and how strong is the wind I love this I love this and maybe this is the angle that I need to mix this up because everyone chooses Hill overhead wind about you know 90% of people and maybe this is what I need to do to qualify it and I’m going to make the hill climb I’m going to say it’s a steady 7% so it’s not the steepest thing you’ve ever climbed but if you had to climb 7% all day it would be disgusting and I’m going to say the headwind it’s not Gusty but it is front headwind and it means that you can’t be in the Big Ring all right I think I told you sometimes I was thinking about this question was cycling up the hill and into the headwind like well which one is worse like well I have both why not both someone has said to me oh I think you need to change it up and say what about you could cycle in the rain but no you have to choose hill climb or headwind because I know you would choose the rain you love the rain come on now um well yeah I think I as everyone else probably I will pick the hill but I H the head all the I accept headwinds they just happen it’s Scotland they happen but I think that the problem is like you know it doesn’t have to be there like you know the hill will be always there the headwind it may or may not be there but for us it’s most of the time it’s there yeah I okay yeah I watch just the hill it’s almost like the headwind has cheated you out of something that should be a bit easier and it’s harder because it’s there so it’s nasty whereas the hill you know you’re going uphill I’ll allow the hill to give you views though you know it might never but you might be going up here all the time and imagine what the Scottish landscape looks like if is it black naar if it just went on [Laughter] forever all right final question Isabella you have a choice one day you’re only going to be riding for four hours and you get to choose whether you want to ride four hours on your own or four hours with other people which one are you going to choose yeah I ride on my own most of the time and I really enjoy it I can relax a little bit more sometimes when you have other people you kind of feel like you have have to you know keep up with them or they have to keep up with you you have to arrange your PE stops and all of this so I think I can relax more and just do all my own thing when I’m cycling on my own I like that you know yourself enough and that is definitely an element I can resonate with when when you are on your own it’s less complicated it’s just you you make the decisions you don’t have to rely on someone else and you’re not at their speed or at their whim of Mechanicals or something like that either so I do like that well is M it has been an absolute pleasure to chat with you and learn more about ax learn about what this commuting Enthusiast has has leared from all this experience eight years commuting what 50 km a day 300 km a week learning that 300 km a week is all you need to do to train for London Edinburgh London or Paris bre Paris coming thirdd place in trans Alba and to also learn an insight into you that some of your best days on the bike have been in the pouring rain I love that as well it has been an absolute pleasure chatting with you I’m going to see whether this song from XTC whether the lyrics drive me mental now but thank you so so much for sharing your stories and experiences on the show here for listeners of Seck travel ride well thanks thanks so much I really enjoyed it and like I really really like all your podcasts so thanks very much for having me that was such an awesome chat that I had there with Isabella I loved learning about how commuting became a thing for her and especially how you know when she committed to buying a better bike how she figured well I need to ride for at least 2 and a half months to pay this thing off and then it seemed to me that that Milestone just grew and grew in terms of well of course I’m going to commute and when she got a car she continued to commute and I feel that attitude sort of continued on with the aaes that she did turning up for an event having never ridden more than 100 kmers to then all of a sudden saying I’m going to ride 320 to discovering the world of AA discovering multi-day events riding things like L and Paris press Paris and the trans Alba sort of have an inkling that Isabella Will be taking on Ultra races in the future and I’m definitely going to be keeping my eye out on her account to see whether my hunch is correct now if you’ve been enjoying seek travel ride definitely sign up to the seek travel ride newsletter it comes out every month and gives you a little bit more information about what’s coming up on the show a little bit of detail about a sneak peek at guests that we will be featuring as well as listener corner where you get to see if your bit of feedback about the show has made it into the newsletter you’ll also find out more about how to get involved in the community and perhaps how you could appear on an episode of the podcast yourself to sign up to the newsletter just hit the link in the podcast show notes and you will receive it to your inbox every month until the next episode my name is Bella Malloy thanks for listening [Music]