Saturday 28 June 2014

Go for it!

Hello

How are you? I hope you are doing well.

Today I was due to head off on a 90 miles ride, but a few problems with navigation, heavy down pours and the overwhelming feeling that I just didn't fancy it (again) mean I only ended up completing around 20 miles. But, it's not something I'm going to whine about, tomorrow I plan to head out and do a good ride, so I needn't feel to bad and looking at another downpour outside, I'm quite happy here catching up with a few things.

So, as I'm not going to waffle on about not completing my ride today I thought I better talk about something else, going for it.  There's also a little video and some pics from my last ride, so I don't think you'll be short-changed.

Recently I took up a new opportunity, I'd taken the decision that the role I was in wasn't for me and I wanted a new venture, something to challenge me, something exciting, rewarding and good for my career.  I took my time and had a good look around and finally settled on a small luxury hotel business, a fantastic offering, good backing and driven, experienced MD.  Having not worked with hotels before, some may not take the plunge and look for a safer bet, but I didn't.  I think sometimes you have to go for it, you have to try something different and you may be better for it.

I've taken this route several times before, a new job is one example, taking on LEJOG is another, and if I could pass on to you one piece of advice, it couldn't be better summed up than is this video by Jim Carey, but in short, you can live your life frightened about what might be or you can go out and give it a shot...



I hope you enjoyed that, as for me, week one at my new job went well, it's obviously early days but I'm excited about my new role.  And LEJOG, yes, I'm worried about it, my dodgy knee, some mechanical failure of other misfortune, but I can't let speculation ruin opportunity, so tomorrow marks another training ride and another step towards LEJOG, less than one months to go!

Finally, as promised, some pics from my epic 125 mile ride last weekend.  It all went fantastically well, over an hour quicker than I expected at a shade under 9 hours, but it was extraordinarily tough - I sincerely doubt I'll cycle that distance again, it's one for the serious athletes and sadly I'm not one of them!





And penultimately, here's the route


Happy cycling and chose love

Mike

Tuesday 17 June 2014

It's a long way baby!

Hi

How are you?  I hope you are doing well.

For this week's blog I thought I'd give an update on training first and then my usual 'thought of the week', so things are in reverse this week.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/CycleOfOurLives

Training Update

I normally like to give a positive update on how well everything is going in these posts, the usual form is I've faced a huge challenge when faced with a ride that is circa 100 miles, but despite the difficulties I emerge triumphant on my heroic mission to conquer the UK.

But I just don't feel like it at the moment.

After six months of training I'm finding it pretty tough at the moment.  No doubt, I've improved substantially over this time, looking back I found 36 miles a tough ask when I first headed out with Chris in February, now it's almost not worth getting kitted up for. 

But I guess at this point I'm just finding all the prep hard going, I'm constantly thinking about how I can squeeze a ride in here and there whilst everyone else is enjoying the summer and chilling out when they need to.  My weekends revolve around cycling and I start to feel guilty if I don't spend as much time as I need to in the saddle.  When we plan to meet up with friends and family we organise timings so that I can fit a ride in before or after, the weekend diary fills up first with time on the road and at the back of my mind the LEJOG is now begining to loom.

Having that feeling when you embark on a long ride is not great, as I did this weekend.  I planned a long ride across to the South Downs National Park taking on Old Winchester Hill, Butser Hill and Beacon Hill plus many more ups and downs besides.  Overall nearly 100 miles and lots of really demanding climbs that ask a lot of a novice cyclist such as I.  I rely on a Garmin computer to act as a sat nav which is very handy (and will be a must on LEJOG), but sadly the route I had planned (in a rush) tried to send me down gravel tracks and needless diversions.  In the end, I just gave up and headed home, 50 miles instead of nearly 100.

So, when it's tough like this, what can you do.  The answer, not a lot, just grin and bare it.  If you've done any type of endurance event in the past you'll no doubt know the feeling, I've had it on rides before, albeit the feeling then is a little more transient so easier to deal with, this has taken hold somewhat.

In this case, I've just got to try and defeat these feelings of doubt and despair with cold hard logic.  I've signed up to LEJOG, it's for a great cause, it will be tough but everything I'm doing will stand me in good stead to complete it.  If I didn't find it tough, it would not be worthwhile and a fitting tribute to two people who faced significantly more challenges than I'm facing, so it's just a case of buckling down and getting on with it.  Whilst it doesn't feel great now, time will pass and in just over a few months, this ride will be done and my weekends will be available once again!
 
So with that I adjusted my route and headed out on the ride again.  Those feelings were still there and depsite enjoying the remarkable views and achieving some great climbs, I didn't enjoy it, but I did it and I didn't give in.  Every hill I struggled up helped prepare me for the big ride ahead.



Thankfully, next weekend I have my longest ride to date and no doubt the longest ride I'll ever do, 125 miles!  Thankfully it's an organised ride rathet than me plodding out on my own, but I must admit, I'm absolutely dreading it and I'll be glad when I'm done!




Fathers' Day

The weekend marked fathers' day and as you can no doubt guess, it's not a day I'm particularly fond of.  The signs up are up all over the place in the weeks preceding it for restaurants and gifts, so there is almost a constant reminder of what is arount the corner.  I must admit that historically I didn't create a special fuss for fathers' day, a brief celebration, but not much more.

As the years pass it becomes all the more obvious that I'm not alone in feeling a sense of dread about fathers' day (or for that matter, an anniversary, birthday, mothers' day or such that may mark someone's memory).  This year, some friends of ours lost their father after a short illness the day before, quite suddenly and far too young - a great tragedy.  Luckily Carla and I have been around to give a little bit of support here and there - although in the grand scheme of things and quite understandably it's difficult to feel like you are making a big difference, but it's nice to be able to help nonetheless.

I guess the moral of the story is to make sure you value what you have, it's easy to get caught up in the difficulties that you face in your day to day life and forget what is going on around you.  There may well be people having a worse time of things than you who could do with couting on your support in times of need or just to celebrate the good things, try and be there for both.

Thanks for reading and happy cycling

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/CycleOfOurLives

Mike

Wednesday 4 June 2014

The one you've been waiting for....

Hello

I remember sending an email out on 23rd April this year very well; I'd launched my charity giving site a few months before and I'd had some very good sponsorship which I'm very grateful for. One of the things I had done to spur the donations on a little was to promise to wax my legs my legs, if we raised £2.5k it was one and if it was £3k it was both waxed, but the deadline was 25th April.  We were quite a way short of the target and I was genuinely thinking it wasn't going to happen.

I had really mixed feelings at this point, on the one hand I was disappointed, two causes so very close to my own heart had not resonated with others, despite the mammoth LEJOG effort and my promises to put myself through the pain of leg waxing.  But on the other hand (and being much more realitic) there are so many people doing great work to raise money for charity it's difficult to get heard and people with tight budgets already give a lot to various causes throughout the year, this is just another one so you have to be mindful of that - and I didn't feel keen to pester people, but sometimes you've just got to bite the bullet and just hope people just need a nudge, lives are busy and hectic after all.

The next two days were a real whirlwind, when I look back over this year it will certainly be one of the highlights, people started donating en masse, in just over 24 hours we raised over £1,100!  I guess people really wanted to see me in pain - haha!

Well, as part of the bargain I promised to post videos on line, so here they are.  But before you look at them, if you have not donated yet, please do by following the link below, then you can watch the videos with a clear conscience.  Enjoy the videos!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/CycleOfOurLives

Many thanks

Mike














Monday 2 June 2014

A Friend In Need.....

Hello

Last weekend was the Wiggle Bournemouth Sportive and I opted for the Epic distance, 103 miles, a large circular route from Bournemouth airport, up to Salisbury, across to Shaftesbury, down to Blandford before return to Bournemouth Airport.  I'm starting to feel quite at home on these events now, geared up in lycra I know the routine and what to expect so I can almost take it in my stride - amazing how 6 months or so changes things!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/CycleOfOurLives



The Wiggle Bournemouth is perhaps one of the easier rides I have lined up for training, so I was hopeful of getting a silver medal time, although that would mean an improvement of over 40 minutes compared to my last time out.  A lack of wind and less hills meant I was a little more confident of achieving that, but you never know.

Most of the ride was a bit of a blur to be honest, there were plenty of quiet country lanes and nice scenery but I wasn't really taking it all in, I was concentrating on my pace and trying to bank minutes by my first stop at the 56 mile point.  Normally on these rides it's easier if you ride in a group, the slipstream that you get behind a lead rider make an incredible difference to the effort you need to put in, but sadly everyone was either a lot faster or a lot slower, nothing in between, so I plodded on regardless.  As I headed to the second feed station (and my first stop) I had well over 10 minutes in the bank so I was feeling pleased, all going well. I quickly filled my drink bottles, grabbed some flapjack, jelly beans and banana  before jumping back on.

Next up was Bulbarrow Hill, Dorset's highest point and a tremendous climb and could derail my medal time if I tried to push it too hard.  Nothing quite sets you up for a big climb as well as the sight of a para-glider at the top getting ready to soar over the rolling valleys below.  According to Strava I was climbing the hill for over 17 minutes at 7.7mph, a long slog, but worth it when you get to the top, the views are amazing as you can see from the pic below (not taken by me):


The usual aches and pains had cropped up from about 40 miles onwards (a bit later on than usual, so perhaps I'm getting used to it), my back in particular aches so much the thought of getting off the bike is incredibly seductive! After Bulbarrow I started to pass a few people who were suffering from the ride, some on their first long distance ride, others who had pushed themselves too hard on the earlier stages.  I feel for people who are struggling along like that (having been there myself enough times), so I try and give some encouragement to them and, if I can, help them out (although I'm no technical cycling genius, so my help is somewhat limited).

Luckily for me I had some support out on the course, when you're cycling for 7-8 hours and you're exhausted it does give you a real boost and it really helped me push on and build on my 10 minute advantage.  Carla and her mum passed me cheering away and then parked up ahead of me so they could get out of the car to cheer me some more, this was repeated at several points. I'm fortunate that my grimace looks somewhat like a smile, so as they cheered me on I appeared to smile gleefully back!

Further up the road I spotted a rider who had stopped and was carrying his bike along.  At this point he was around 2 miles from the 3rd and final feed station and 80 miles in to the ride, so a long and weary walk if he were to get to the feed station for a lift (if one were available).  Fortunately Carla had seen him struggling as she had completed her latest drive by and was already on the way back to pick him up as I signalled her to slow down so I could ask her to do the same.

The poor chap was absolutely shattered, his first long distance ride and sadly his chain had snapped so he was no longer able to continue.  He was absolutely delighted to get a life to the finish line, approximately 23 miles away, although I gather he was told, at length, all about my epic LEJOG journey for his troubles.  In fact I know he was told all about it because no sooner had he got home had he written a lovely message as he donated £100 to our cause!  Sadly I don't know him and have no way of contacting him to say thanks for such a kind and generous donation, so if you know of Ian Hudson, please let me know, I'd like to thank him.


I'd like to think if I hit the same problems someone else would try to do the same and help out, on this occasion I happened to be in a position to help out (I also carry a spare chain, so I could have provided that as a last resort too).  I think it's moments like this that you can be a friend to someone you've never met and don't know but can feel genuinely good about it.  What a lovely gesture, I'm so touched!

After the drama and a very brief stop and the final feed station I began the final 20 miles return led, and I pushed on knowing that I was well within the target time so I should be on track for a silver, my legs pumped and slowly but surely I began overtaking groups of riders, I really belted out the last 20 (at least by my standards) and felt pleased with how my stamina held out, and here's my certificate to prove it, over 26 minutes inside the Silver time and if I'd pushed a little harder (and been a bit quicker at the feed stations) I could have saved the extra 16 minutes I needed to get to Gold!


Lastly, and by no means least, many of you will have seen Brendon and I in Saturday's edition of the Echo, what a lovely write up.  If you missed it, check out here:

Daily Echo Article

That's it for now, happy riding and don't forget, if you can lend a hand, why not, you'll feel all the better for it and you never know how someone may repay a kindness.

Thanks for reading

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/CycleOfOurLives

Mike