Month: October 2012

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Welcome to Vague Direction

Welcome to the Vague Direction project.

The website has just gone live today, so there’s a lot that’s new to share!

Have a look around, and take a look at some brand new video content:

I’m hoping that this blog eventually becomes a useful resource for all things touring, adventure and filmmaking. It will be a place to find out what’s happening in the Vague Direction project, so previews of featured people, and updates on actually doing the journey and such. There are some great, and very diverse, featured people who will be involved in the project, so stay tuned. But also, the blog will be kept fresh by exploring topics as broad as travel, adventure and documentary through the use of guest posts and video interviews, plus specialist cycling-related areas such as nutrition, injury prevention and techy repairs.

Thank you for your interest in the project!

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel Interviews

Interview with Mark Beaumont

Before the Vague Direction project commenced, I met up with Mark Beaumont to discuss several topics that relate to the project.

The obvious one is endurance cycling. In 2008, he smashed the world record for cycling round the world. After that, he cycled from Alaska to Southern Argentina, climbing Denali and Aconcagua along the way. So clearly he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to adventurous cycling expeditions.

But more than that I was intrigued about his career path, why he thinks it’s so important to follow your instinct and pushing your comfort zone.

Hope you enjoy the clip!

Categories
Bicycle Travel Interviews

VIDEO: Injuries and Rehabilitation

I met with Graham Theobald from The Body Rehab clinic recently to try to and gain a bit of knowledge when it comes to cycling injuries and prevention. He’s currently doing a PhD in cycling-related knee pain, and is a die-hard cyclist, so it was really useful and eye opening to talk to him about what a long-distance cyclist may come up against.

In this short video, we discuss the injuries that a touring cyclist is likely to encounter. 

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Slight setback.

Had to put the commencement date back by three weeks, so now it all kicks off on the 7th November.

Getting itchy feet now, but the delay does bring positives in terms of preparedness for sure.

I suppose it makes sense to at least get a couple of big days in now too, test the system and all that!

Categories
Adventure Philosophy

If not now, when?

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle.” Steve Jobs

I know I know, it’s a cliche to use a Steve Jobs quote at the start of a blog post.

But, what he says kind of gets to the reason of why the Vague Direction project has come about. It’s easy to fall into a lifestyle, a career, whatever, almost by accident. And whilst it’s convenient to keep your doubts and insecurities about it locked up, if you are constantly thinking of something you’d rather be doing, somewhere you’d rather be, whatever that is, you know something needs to change.

You know that phrase “sort your life out”? There’s no reason to feel defeated if you haven’t found your calling yet, but there’s certainly a reason to keep looking.

I’ve been doing commercial advertising work in some shape or form for over 4 years now. There have been many points when I’ve thought ‘this is incredible’. But for the last few months, I’ve realised that the passion that brought me to this place has become mixed up, and it’s become less. Sometimes you have to make the difficult decision to shake it up. And do something that you know is what you want to be doing.

So the time was right to keep looking and not settle. To jump into a new lifestyle, one that’s healthier (for mind & body), and try to make a personally meaningful piece of work that gets back to the root of why I got into this game in the first place. Fingers crossed.

Categories
Bicycle Travel

The best form of training.

I haven’t been doing any training for the past few weeks. What with finishing work, and organising logistics, there’s little time to make room for anything else. Before that I did the odd 50Km on a training bike, but it’s safe to say that any gains made by that are long gone.

But to be honest I’m not that worried about lack of conditioning.

There are three reasons for this lack of training:

1) Of course doing a few weeks of cycle training will put me in a better shape than no weeks of training, but, as the trip is going to take several months (potentially up to 12 months), there’s plenty of time to get into condition along the way.

2) I think training may make me think – “Oh God what am I getting in to?”. The realisation that it’s not going to be easy is one that I’m quite happy to keep at bay until I’m in the US, standing under that seemingly never-ending hill climb.

3) The training bike is way too small.

The best form of training for a trip like this, I hope, is just to crack on and get on with it.

Categories
Bicycle Travel

The wheels – starting to take shape.

About 5 or 6 years ago, I was fully into trials riding. With riding everyday, and the strain that the trials bike came under, came a required knowledge of bike maintenance.

There was a time when bleeding brakes, building wheels, replacing brake pads was part of the daily post-ride routine.

But that’s long gone.

Now, I’m building up the touring bike, in preparation for the Vague Direction Project. Whilst there’s still a reasonable base level of basic maintenance skills, the vast majority have vanished and need to be re-learnt.

I’m hoping I can learn these skills now, before having to do them in a severe downpour by the side of a road.

EDIT: Since this blog post was written, and the photo taken, the bike has changed a lot. Take a look at the bike spec page to see the update.

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel

Organisation.

When I finished work two weeks ago to focus full-time on getting everything in place for Vague Direction to commence, I made some presumptions:

It’ll be nice and relaxing, no pressure from outside sources, I’ll get to take my time and organise everything with plenty of time to spare. Maybe even throw in a couple of paddleboard sessions.

So you might be surprised to find out that I’m writing this blog post at 02.28am, after having spent the last 18 hours glued to a screen, sending emails, and making Skype calls.

It dawned on me, after talking to a couple of people, that there’s now less than two weeks before everything (or atleast the first month or so of logistics) needs to be in place.

It also dawned on me, how much is left to do before being even a tiny bit organised!

So the long days and late nights continue.

EDIT: I ended up pushing the flight back by 3 weeks to get more prepared. It was without a doubt the best decision.