Not an option!

Hello again

Something niggled after my last ride.  No doubt about it, it was the toughest ride to date and I enjoyed it, but I let a problem with the Garmin satnav get in the way of me finishing, so although I achieved a lot, it felt hollow.

I'm taking on Land's End to John O'Groats in just 5 months time, so this sort of attitude is just not acceptable, so today I went out and took on the route again, determined to ride harder and complete it. Giving up is not an option!!

And that I did, I finished nearly 20 minutes ahead of were I was on track to finish last time out and my overall pace was 1 mph faster.  Excellent stuff, really chuffed with the ride, see it below:

A wander in Wales

Hello

This week I'm spending a short break in the rolling countryside of Wales, in a small converted mill a few miles out from the hamlet of Tregaron, inland from Aberystwyth.  If you've never visited Wales, then I can highly recommend then beautiful countryside, but be warned!

If England has a few lumps and bumps, Wales has mammoth hills that will test you, whether you go out for a walk, a cycle ride or both as I did yesterday.  I set myself up for a 50 mile circular route out to the coast and back, it looked nice from the Garmin Connect site which I used to plot my route, all I had to do was upload it to my Garmin 800 Edge and it would show me the way.  Here's the ride:

I set off at 0730 on a bright morning as the rest of the cottage inhabitants were sleeping, clean fresh air filled my lungs as I slowly paced my way up the farm track to the main road as four (yes four) buzzards silently watched me from the neighbouring field, probably wondering what a lycra clad fluorescent orange person was doing cycling at that time of the morning!

There was a bit of downhill to begin with, all lined by fields full of sheep, and as the cool morning air rushed past me I began to feel fully awake.  And then the hills started.  I've never experienced cycling like it, a constant up and down steep gradients, on two occasions I had to get off and push, my bike simply ran out of gears that would allow me to carry on!

With every uphill there was a beautiful vista for miles of rolling hills, flooded valleys and a backdrop of a bright blue sky that made it worthwhile.  That and the down hill sections too!  Often these were steep, and not knowing the roads I couldn't go as fast as I would have liked, although my Garmin tells me I hit 33mph, so not bad.

I had told the gang back at the cottage that I would be 3.5hours or so, but after 1 hour I had only managed just over 10 miles, this was looking to be a cycling odyssey as the huge hill was still to come!  I pushed on to the little seaside town of Aberaeron ( a delightful little place, worth a visit if you come up this way).  The town is pretty much at sea level, but everywhere surrounding it is at about 1,000ft.  If you have ever cycled up a 1,000ft hill I can promise you, you will remember it very well, your thighs will burn, your lungs will be sore as you take deep lungfuls of not enough oxygen and your head will swim with the effort.  Wow!  It was tough, but tremendously rewarding when getting to the top.

The ride went on from there and consisted of more hills, thankfully a good deal of long downhill sections which were great.  As I rode past the fields, sheep jumped and fled from the orange monstrosity, and I began to think that the regularity of it may make an RSPCA officer suspicious, so I was thankful none were about.  Tractors and farm workers whizzed by, buzzards peered at me from hedges and soared over fast fields ahead.

As the Garmin clocked up 30 miles I began to count down how far I needed to go, 20, 19, 18, 17.  It was enjoyable ride, but incredibly strenuous and I was looking forward to finishing.  I hit 40 miles (10 to go) and then things got a little confusing, which ever way I went my Garmin told me I was going the wrong way, I guess now that I had botched the route at that point, the sensible thing would have been to check it on my phone and ride on.  Instead, I got a little frustrated and guessed that the route was to my right, so off I headed for miles in utterly the wrong direction as I discovered when I eventually stopped and did what I should have done before.  At this point time was beginning to tick away, a ride that should have been done at 11am was now dragging on past 12 and I still has a quarter of it to go!  I decided to get a lift back at this stage (although now wish I hadn't) and called it a day.  None the less, a very satisfying ride and I was pleased with how hard I had pushed myself - in 42 miles I had climbed 3,500 feet, just shy of the total climbing I had done in the 100mile New Forest sportive in October last year.

Here are a few shots from the afternoon walk (a 3 hour romp - I was tired by the end of the day).

Onwards & upwards

Mike

Can you do it, can you?

Can you do it, can you?

There are so many occasions in life when you may doubt your ability to overcome a challenge of some sort, whether it be at work, in your personal life or when you take on a daft feat that might push you to your physical limits.

Today I upped the ante a little and went for a 50 mile training ride, a step up from the 36 miles or so I've been doing up to now and with 2,700ft of climbs, a real stretch for me, but something I felt I needed to do as I gear up for the first organised ride of the year, the 80 mile Wiltshire Wildcat on 16 March.  

I've copied the route below, a fantastic forest track along some quiet roads, I even saw a herd of deer as I went towards Nomansland.  The beauty of the route could lull you into a false sense of security and I must admit, it did me, as I headed up from Lockerley towards Salisbury the hills began to get bigger and longer, the wind pushed me back as I struggled up hills and my legs and lungs burned with the effort.  The hills did not stop at Alderbury either, every corner I turned another climb ominously greeted me.  And that's when I started to question myself.

All sorts of things go through your mind when you are up against it and struggling, you doubt your abilities and your confidence gets tested.  I began to think about getting off and stopping, the small of my back was aching, my shoulders and neck were very uncomfortable, my legs felt heavy as all of the energy drained away.  I began to think about the challenge I had taken on in the Land's End to John O'Groats, I will be cycling twice this distance in a day, day after day and no doubt up bigger hills.

I began to think about the route I was on, I was starting and finishing in the same place, so all of the big hills I climbed would soon be descended, the wind in my face would at some point be behind me, all the hard work I was putting in would benefit me later, I just had to keep going.  And so I did, 3 hours and 40 minutes later, I finished.

I'm sure there will be more ups and downs, as we train and complete this challenge, there will be times when I doubt I can do it, cycling 7 hours a day, day after day.  But the hard work I am doing now will put me in good stead, the team around me will cheer me on (as I will them), the memory of those I'm raising money for will inspire me and the support of those who've sponsored me will keep me pushing up those hills even when the wind tries to push me back down, I know a lot of requests come round nowadays, so I hope you can spare a few quid to support me too.

Thanks for reading (and happy cycling)

Mike

Two Articles

Two Articles

When I decided to blog about our mammoth cycle ride I had already thought through a plan for several topics, but now I need to adapt it!  Why?  Well two articles on the BBC News website really caught my attention, here they are:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-25926572

The first article is an advert to promote cycling safety in Scotland, it's aimed at car drivers and suggest that they should give cyclists as much room as they would a horse.  However, it seems the Cycling Scotland group look at safety as the responsibility of car drivers rather than cyclists as several scenes have been filmed where the cyclists don't wear helmets!  How daft, not surprisingly the advert has been banned.

So, what was the reason the group gave for not wearing helmets?  They are not a legal requirement, they are optional.  Absolute bonkers if you are trying to promote cycling safety.  I recall cycling London to Brighton some years ago, a very busy organised ride with many people participating who have never cycled a reasonable distance before, hence there are lots of accidents.  One of the gang I was cycling with was resolute that he would not wear a helmet himself, a lot of his reasons seemed to be driven by bravado which was just madness, fortunately we persuaded him that wearing a helmet was a must and he reluctantly donned a helmet.

If you've ever cycled London to Brighton you will no doubt vividly recall the immensely steep Ditchling Beacon which greets you toward the end, a monster of a climb that saps the energy from your legs.  What comes up must come down though and once you've conquered the climb there is a long downhill section into Brighton itself on which you can pick up quite a speed and a feeling of almost perfect elation at nearing the completion of a huge feat.  Well on this particular ride we bombed down that hill, I hung back a little having seen some nasty accidents I was a little cautious; which gave me an excellent view of what happened next.

Our reluctant helmet wearer had got up a mighty speed and manoeuvred to overtake a middle aged woman on a mountain bike, as he did so, everything went in to slow motion.  Being inexperienced and most likely being someone who had not cycled that kind of distance before, the woman inexplicably turned her handlebars to be sideways on to the oncoming speed demon, a stomach churning crash ensued as he collided with her and bike and all span into the air and over the top of her and onward down the hill.  A sickening bang and crunch as he hit the road and all of a sudden the world sped up again and the adrenaline was flowing full pelt around my body as I rushed over to him.  Amazingly no lasting damage was done, at least to him, his helmet was ruined, cracked and split in numerous places as it took the impact and shielded his skull from almost certain damage.  The moral, is quite simple, wear your cycle helmet, you cannot control what mishaps will happen, it's crazy to suggest it's an option not to.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25925658

The second article is all about a "breakthrough" for MS.  I say breakthrough because I've seen and heard such stories before.  In fairness to the BBC, this one is quite balanced and does not raise false hope, but if you trawl through newspaper archives you will find countless examples of "miracle cures" and "breakthroughs" which generally are anything but and seeing this article reminded me of them. 

I've not counted the amount of times I would see such an article or someone would tell me about one, but each time a surge of excitement would course through my body as I for just a second allowed myself to believe that a cure was genuinely in sight.  The crushing disappointment and helplessness I would feel when I discovered the newspaper articles were nothing more than overblown hype to sell copy was and still is incredibly vivid.  I'm sure that anyone who has known someone with a terminal or severe illness will have experienced the same.

In an ideal world we would not have a sensationalist press who would raise hopes in this cruel way, but perhaps more importantly, we would have a cure for disease such as MS and CF.  I know that in both cases there are lots of studies going on and there is always hope the promised land is just round the corner.  I guess the part I can play in this is to raise awareness and raise some cash to help us get there a little quicker.  I hope you will help me and sponsor me in raising cash too.

Thanks for reading and here's the link to sponsor

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/CycleOfOurLives

We're going for it!

A road trip up to meet a good mate in Knutsford in October 2013 led to a little more than I had bargained for!  October 19th has a lot to answer for...

Brendon moved up to Knutsford a few years ago with his girlfriend for jobs and every now and again, sadly not as often as I'd like, we head up for a reunion and several beers.  This time round we happened to come across a sign depicting the distances to Land's End and John O'Groats and so the challenges began, and men being men with a few beers and a bit of bravado we ended up agreeing to take on the challenge......but that was the beer talking wasn't it?

Well in truth this wasn't an idle drunken chat, in fact, apart from the sign, a recent 101 mile cycle ride around the New Forest had me inspired, so taking on a bigger challenge seems logical, after all, I'd cycled 101 miles surely we could do it repeatedly over 10 days to cross the entire island we live on couldn't we?

Not only was it about a big challenge, it was something far bigger than that.  I've spent countless hours supporting other people on marathons, half marathons, fun runs and more besides all of them raising money for someone special or for a worthy cause.  I've gladly filled out the JustGiving or VirginMoneyGiving pages and offered words of support, but all the time I've felt a gnawing inside me to take on a major challenge myself and dedicate it to people whose spirit and courage has inspired me, so know's my chance.

I'll no doubt speak more about them later, but for now I'll give you a very brief few words on two people I hope will give me some of their courage in order to face up to 950 miles of grueling punishment and get me to pedal harder when my body aches and I just want to stop.

First off is my dad.  My first memory of him was as a young naval officer who had joined the Royal Navy from school and climbed through the ranks to lieutenant.  When I was young he was a giant, tougher than anyone, I vividly recall our pet dog falling in to a steep sided pond on the common in Southampton, I was full of panic thinking he would drown, but he reached over and hauled Sam up to the bank to save him - wow, what a hero.

Sadly as you get older you start to realise that your parents aren't the indestructible forces of nature you thought they were, my dad was no exception.  As I neared the end of my school years multiple sclerosis started to take hold, leading to him being discharged from the Royal Navy and progressively becoming more disabled.  Although the days of him saving drowning dogs and proudly wearing that smart uniform were gone, his courage and spirit were never broken, he fought that disease every step of the way, he did not give up, he got cross and angry at times and it made life tough, ending it too early before he turned 60 a few years ago.  As I said before, if I can draw on some of that courage, cycling all that was will be easy compared to the suffering he had to endure.

Secondly is Lisa, who I really got to know through my wife.  I will not write so much about Lisa in the post, but I will later.  Save to say Lisa battled illness that ended her life to early too.  Not only did she battle cyctic fibrosis with inspirational courage and bravery, but so did her amazing husband, family and friends.

I'm sure I have waffled on too much for now, but there is plenty more to come about my dad, Lisa, the ride and all the preparation, I hope you will stick with me for it, in the meantime here is the link to our sponsorship site and below some photos from that fateful weekend in October 2013


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

Brendon (L), Gareth and myself (R) under that damn sign!

A close up of the sign!