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Done. Knackered. Blimey, I have to do this every day?! It's almost time to get up again.

Yes, I was very touched.

Did you find the little rock? It was from the rockery in the toilet at Frank's.

cold when you're done with your riding.

Yep. I got to the office still sweating this morning.

sms ftl rofl

Thanks for the sympathy, Dan. Did you get my text the night it happened? About the rock on your saddle?

Well, I do this distance quite a lot at weekends, but this is normally where I have a pub lunch and get the train home. My legs are sore, but we'll see how I feel tonight.

Greetings from Point B. Got lost, so went via Points C, D and E. Did roughly 30 miles.

Still, got there in the end. Quick swim (two lengths) and ten minutes in the sauna, and off to work. I've left my bike in the kitchen here, fingers crossed it won't provoke outrage.

Damn! I'm 6'2" and weigh 16st. And you say you have a little extra padding :(

I'm sure yours is all muscle...

Anyway, bed. I'll fill you all in tomorrow, so to speak.

Never cycled that much daily, but when i did 30+ miles day plus eight hours of work and two hours of kung fu training, I felt tired when getting up and food became fuel!

Plus Kung Fu? Ouch. And ouch again, actually.

The woman at the fitness centre kept saying I can add gym membership for a bit more, and I had to say 'I only want the showers'. She didn't really get it that I'm not going to arrive on the doorstep and sprint for the weights.

I guess everyone there will get to know me as the lazy sod who arrives looking scruffy, has a sauna, showers and buggers off...

I have no idea how much you weigh but if you eat the same and exercise more you will most likely lose weight. It's a statement of fact. You just need to make sure you can operate properly at work with the extra effort commuting. I aim for a 1hr commute - any more wastes too much time - so good luck.

Only joking. I'm 14st 2 at 6' 1-2", so carrying a little extra padding. I rode the Pyrenees last year, and the weight fell off in just 2 weeks. Hopefully a month of this and I'll be a little trimmer, and then I'll have less to carry.

The terrain is mostly flat as I'm in Norfolk. A few little hillettes.

Will water not work?

Are you calling me fat?

While I understand the sauna on arrival, the sauna before going home could cause dehydration and is probably best avoided.

Fair point.

Seek out cupboard space for drying, etc. Keep some old newspapers in there and use them to stuff in your shoes to dry them.
Seek out secure parking spaces. I have two locks that live at work. I don't carry them.
Leave shoes, shirts, trousers at work and carry undies and socks in daily. I dry clean shirts near work so I don't take them home.. they stay in the office.

There is certainly space at work to keep it indoors, just not sure what they will say. Might leave the locks and risk it.

Make sure you eat properly.

What do you recommend? Should I save some for just before home time? Should I be cramming in carbs right now?

make sure that you also let your muscles rest and recover occasionally and take the train in. maybe mid-week.

Fair point, maybe every day is a bit ambitious.

Leave as much as you can at work or at the gym. If you wear cycling clothes and you have to take them to the office put them in a bag that you can seal. No one will want to smell your sweaty socks.

I will try, but this will be tricky. There is a locker at the gym, so maybe I will leave five shirts there on a Wednesday and make that my rest day. I also work the occasional weekend, just to make life more difficult.

Why do need a sauna before your return journey?

Just because I've paid for a gym membership...

£22.50 a month seems an unusually low wage.

For a journalist that's actually quite extravagant.

So, I've just started in a new office that's 22.5 miles from home, direct route.

I figure this will be 50ish round-trip on bike-friendly roads.

I've been doing it on the train, but tomorrow the biking starts. There are no showers at work (I'm in a tiny regional news bureau), so I've registered at a gym.

Up (very) early, 25 miles, sauna, work, sauna, 25 miles, collapse, wait 8 hours, repeat.

That's the plan for the next 18 months. It's not bad at £22.50 per month - loads less than a week on the train.

Any tips for lengthy commutes? I'm a bit worried about carrying stuff that far. I have a Fuji Track that as of tonight has a freewheel, drops and two brakes. No rack, so Crumpler it is.

In a month or so I should have a Thorn tourer for this, but Track it is for now. Tips greatly welcomed.

Blimey, this is a waffly post. Bye.

My Fuji just got further bastardised. Drops, aero levers, two brakes und freewheel.

This is the fourth age of my Fuji. It has done everything bar offroader.

I begin my 45 mile round-trip commute tomorrow, so I needed some aero tuckage.

Good news, everyone, I've completely solved the problem!

Sort of...

Hands-free kit.

OR, solution 2;

Send SMS instead of talking.

So, I spilled a tiny drop of oil from a forkful of delicious chorizo into the earpiece speaker of my iPhone. Now it is terribly quiet.

Anyone had any problem like this and come up with an ingenious, cheap and completely effective fix?

Yours laughably-optimistically,
Sparky

I write a sporadically-updated cycling site and occasionally post on the Guardian bike blog. Send any releases you have through to me?

One of them seemed to be fixed to the axle, do I need to replace that, too? The scratched cone was the removable one, but I'm not sure I could get an exact match, especially as it's had five years wear.

Odd geared bike in cafe atop Tourmalet

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparkes/2839734094/

http://stopreadingthisandrideabike.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/img_0724.jpg

Thanks for all the advice - I gave it a go today. One of the cones had a bad scratch, but the balls and cups were fine. I cleaned and greased it all, popped it back together and it's better, but not great. It's still rolling a little crunchily (to invent a new word).

It'll be no problem for a few hundred miles more, but I'm replacing the hub sometime soon. Anyone know of a decent bit of kit? I generally run 35mm tires, semi-slick, and the bike is a pootle-to-work type affair, used in all weathers and often mistreated.

If I'm going to replace it I figure I should go mid-range, but I can't seem to find stuff that's just right for this type of bike; everything's road or mountain.

Cheers for the advice, everyone. I'll try replacing the balls. It might be good enough. This bike is my tank for rolling to work or the pub. It never does more than five miles at a time.