Laura Kennington - The North Sea Cycle route, the world's longest signposted cycle route, 8 countries, 6,000km #GreatNorthRide

We first spoke with Laura in December 2017 when she shared more about solo kayaking in Russia, cycling the Wild Atlantic Way and circumnavigating 3 of the Channel Islands in an extreme triathlon! Laura has gone on to complete, The North Sea Cycle route (Eurovelo 12) which is the world's longest signposted cycle route. Over two and a half months, Laura cycled through 8 countries and covered a distance of over 6,000km. She named this challenge the #GreatNorthRide.

Laura is a full time adventurer and motivational speaker, she has now written and published her first book - Kairos - 

“ Kairos: The right or opportune moment (the supreme moment); a time lapse, a moment of indeterminate time in which everything happens. The perfect, delicate, crucial moment; the fleeting rightness of time and place that creates the opportune atmosphere for action, words, or movement.”

During this podcast, I’m super excited to catch up with Laura as she share more about, Kairos, the #GreatNorthRide, the challenges of getting over injury, as well as more info about her day to day life, Laura also answers quick fire questions from what time she gets up in the morning to her favourite piece of kit. 

Laura will leave you inspired to take on your own personal challenge! Take a listen now! 

Show notes

• Writing her first book!
• The definition of Kairos
• Writing the book and going back to 2012
• The Great North Ride (which hugs the coasts of the North Sea)
• From Scotland to Norway - 8,countries, 3000 miles
• Where the idea came from and why she was wanting a bigger challenge
• Getting really excited about the challenge!
• How does she start planning
• Being a big planner and why it is was so important to have a rough route schedule
• The spreadsheet life!
• Co-ordinating community rides and reaching out to schools
• Logistics and why she set the dates and meeting places
• Planning to be away for 2.5 months having one rest day a week
• Dealing with tough terrain and a heat wave
• Needing more rest on longer challenges
• Dealing with loneliness in Europe in the final 6 weeks
• Her mental habits that helped her 
• Why the UK was the perfect way to start the challenge
• Day to day life on the road
• Why routines on the road were so important
• Budgeting, money and how much it cost
• Starting in the Shetland Islands
• Getting to the start line
• What the NC500 (warm up ride)
• Dealing with injury and failure
• Coming back from injury 
• Frustration and being kind to yourself
• What she does before and after cycling 
• The power of a lacrosse ball
• Eating pineapple
• The sites on the way
• Being tacked again…
• Getting to the end of the trip
• How she felt after the challenge
• Having nothing to prove anymore 
• Getting to be ok with failure 
• Heading back home and coming back to reality
• Starting to write her book and needing the story to be right
• Having to say no to a lot of things
• Perfectionism and why perfect is not the end goal
• Day to day life as an adventurer
• Enjoying her life and getting to inspire the younger generation
• Quick Fire Questions
• Final words of advice and top tips