A brief aside

Hello

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

Well, LEJOG is rapidly approaching, we're now into the twilight of preparations as we have less than 2 weeks until we head out on our journey, about the same time as the Tour de France finishes.

This week my thoughts have turned to the Wonder Years, a cracking US comedy drama that ran in the late 80s and early 90s charting the adolescent trials and tribulations of Kevin; an adult Kevin narrated the programme and in my memory, he started the fashion in US TV shows of the narrator signing off with a deep and meaningful aside, some heart warming moral that often finished the show with a bitter-sweet life lesson.

The theme tune was a Joe Cocker's cover of the Beatles "Get By With A Little Help From My Friends" and it made me think, if I were to summarise my LEJOG show so far, what morals would I share with you? Before that, here is a short clip from YouTube with the opening credits that may jog your memory of the show:

OK, so here goes:

1.  The first ride - get a plan

You may recall reading the blog some months ago, I headed out on my first ride of meaningful distance, 36 miles, and came back wondering what I had got myself in for - I struggled and even more so, I could not envisage consecutive days of cycling 100 miles.  Whilst I needed to keep the ultimate goal in sight, I needed to break it down in to smaller chunks that I could achieve and only then did I really start to believe it was something I could achieve.

2.  The Long One - what can you achieve?
There are two measures of what you can achieve, 1. What you can achieve and 2. What you think you can achieve.  Don't sit on the sofa wishing if only, you only get one shot at living your life, so you may as well give it a go.  I'm living proof of that, with a dodgy knee I really didn't think I could do this, but during this year I've cycled the equivalent of LEJOG twice, I covered 125 miles in one go (The Long One) and have now raised over £7,000!

3. It ain't going to plan - keep your head

The world is a chaotic place and things will not go to plan (but it's still worth having one).  There were a few rides that didn't go to plan, due to technical failure or physiological issues.  The temptation on each occasion has been to get downhearted, particularly if my body has played up, but you just cannot afford to do that (easily said!).  The first reaction to a disappointment is most likely emotional, so it is likely to be exaggerated. Give yourself some time to think objectively and think of the bigger picture, things are most likely not as bad as you think.

4. It's harder on your own - but I get by
Most of my training has been done on my own and I can tell you, without doubt, it's tough! If I were an elite athlete I'd have a team of support staff, all the kit I need on tap, coaching and training, but I'm not elite, so there is none of that.  But, I have something far more powerful than high-altitude training, diet supplements and sport psychology, I have you.  Drawing on the support of friends and family has been massive, from helpful advice, joining me on training rides, generous donations, encouragement and support.  So thank-you. I hope I make you proud and in turn, I hope I can inspire you to take on your own challenge, you've inpsired me to achieve mine - I get by with a little help from my friends.

Well, I hope the above is useful to you!  Lastly, an update on my training:

Wight Ferry Sportive - 5 July

A tricky ride, 10 miles on the New Forest before joining the ferry at Lymington to continue on the IoW for 70 miles, then a final 15 miles back in the New Forest.  I must admit, I really enjoyed this one, it was tougg though - after crossing through the middle of the IoW from west to east  I turned at Bembridge to follow the coastal road back to Yarmouth.

Some really amazing views of the white cliffs on the south coast, but some huge hills, particularly around Ventnor, and a constant headwind made for a though but rewarding ride.  I really belted it out and am pleased to say I was just a few seconds from being in the top 25% of riders, fantastic stuff.  Below is the official video from last year's ride and the usual Strava summary of my ride, but just the IoW bit.

The Magnificat Sportive - 13th July
This was a strange event and one I certainly don't savour.  Perhaps it was a bit close to the start of LEJOG, maybe hearing of Tour de France riders dropping out of the Tour or possibly a mate, who is a far more serious rider than I'll ever be, having knee injury issues, but what ever it was, this ride did not go well.

I had a choice of 83 miles or 128 and had for sometime settled at 83 as a decent pre-LEJOG ride, but as the ride neared I changed tack and decided to push myself one last time and do the 128 mile epic - a serious test and most likely 9.5 hours in the saddle.

It all started at Newbury racecourse, a cracking venue.  After the alarm sounding at 0530 I pulled into the well marshalled car park and just felt ill at ease.  I don't know why, I just felt like a chancer who had got in to through the back door of a party, I didn't really belong amongst the serious cyclists all kitted up and prepared, this is not for the hobbyists, the Sunday strollers, this is serious stuff for serious cyclists, not for the likes of me.

Such thoughts are unhelpful and I put them aside and just got on with things, but for whatever reason, I just could not settle.  After heading west and then south towards Andover and then Stockbridge, the route took us north of Winchester towards the South Downs.  The route itself was quite nice and I always enjoy the climb up Winchester Hill at Warnford.  I even chatted to a few people along the way, even an old school mate, and all said they were finding things tough.  Me too.

My body niggled like nothing before, in particular the sides of my knees hurt.  I've never been on one of these rides hoping, praying for a mechanical failure, but on this one I was.  I just wanted out, how totally absurd!  As I headed to around 75 miles the welcome sight of some supporters lifted my spirits, but by then I was already struggling with my knees and with my head.  I battled on for another 10 miles, but by then I was struggling, I could not stand up and pedal without it being painful, was it genuine pain or psychosomatic I just don't know, one thing was for sure, it was time to can the ride and reflect on what had happened.

I've now had plenty of time to think about the ride and I have mixed views about it.  On the one hand, giving up is just something I do not do, it's taken me aback a little and I'm disappointed that I didn't achieve what I wanted to.  My preparation was poor, so I really didn't give myself the best chance of being successful and for something like this, you must do that, it's a huge endurance test and I just don't think I gave myself the right opportunity.

On the other hand, I did cover the miles I had originally planned to and from what I can tell, I am physically OK, but I'll complete a short test ride next week to confirm.  Perhaps it is better not to go in to LEJOG overconfident, better still that I now have a point to prove, determination to steel and, if you've ever had chance to read the rules of road cycling, brush up on rule 5 - "Harden the **** up!" (see http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/).

Here's the Strava from the weekend


Happy cycling!

Mike

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

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

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.

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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

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

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!

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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

All in a day....

Hello

A day.  A lot can happen in a day, it can be the best of your life, it can be a day that changes your life forever, a bad day at the office or the day you vowed to chase the dream you've always wanted.  Days can mark a special point in time, your anniversary, your birthday, a religious holiday.

I've had a mixture of days recently.  Wednesday 28th May is a special day, but it is tinged with sadness.

If Lisa was still around it would mark her 31st birthday.  It's a tragedy that she is not here to celebrate it.  But sometimes the stars that shine for the shortest time shine the brightest, and that she did.  Lisa battled cystic fibrosis almost in private, as much as she could she kept it out of her life.  I hope you find the following video inspirational, it's a small example of the courage, bravery and determination that Lisa and my father had.



A strange coincidence that the same day is also World Multiple Sclerosis Day (http://www.worldmsday.org/wordpress/tag/multiple-sclerosis/), and as you will have read in previous posts, the MS Society and CF Trust are the two charities we are raising money for via LEJOG and elsewhere.

And whilst some days are tinged with sadness, others on this journey are filled with joy.  On Saturday 24th June we held a murder mystery night at North Baddesley Infant School, over 100 people attended and a huge amount of people helped out from the organising on the day to donating prizes to our charity raffle.  It was an amazing night, filled with laughter and a fair few drinks which raised £2,000 towards our total and hopefully raised awareness of multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis! 

Here's an article if you'd like to read more about it:

http://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/chameleons-help-raise-2000-for-cystic-fibrosis-multiple-sclerosis-charities/#more-15218

On Sunday I managed a cycle with Brendon, we headed across the South Downs on an 85 mile circuit and I must admit, that day I felt like I floated up and down the hills, still buoyed by the tremendous time we had the night before.

Here's a selfie from the ride and the usual Strava profile

Lastly I'll sign off on Saturday 31st May - the most challenging day so far in my cycling challenge - the longest ride 103 miles.  It isn't as hilly as some of the others, so fingers crossed I can get a silver time (I need to cross the finish line 7 hours and 21 minutes after I start, last time out it took me 8 hours although I had wind and many more hills to contend with.  Fingers crossed

Here's a link to the ride if you're interested in the route:

http://www.ukcyclingevents.co.uk/maps/ukce_wss_bournemouth_sportive_2014.pdf

Thanks for reading and happy pedalling!

Mike

MS and me

It was a strange event, I was intrigued, my dad had come to visit me in junior school.  I was ushered out of the class and went down to the gymnasium where he was stood there waiting for me in his naval uniform.  It was quite a mystery why he had come to visit, the feeling I had was akin to creeping downstairs on Christmas morning, full of excitement.  Dad's face was serious, but I was too young to be fearful of stern faces about to deliver bad news, and in any event, I wasn't going to understand the news.  Dad had come to tell me that he and mum were getting divorced.  I didn't really know what that meant so I was quite excited when I returned to class and shared the news with my friends.

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For a time, not much really changed, as dad was away at sea most of the time and I was at school I didn't see him as I was growing up, although it did begin to settle in and I began to despise my father.  Mum did a terrific job of bringing us up, she worked hard and my sister and I had lots of laughter and love.  Obviously funds were a little tighter than they had been, but I don't recall ever missing out on anything.  But at school I was teased for not having the latest trainers or the coolest sports top.  I struggled with that quite a lot and didn't handle the teasing in the best way, which just made things worse.  I guess as children we can be cruel sometimes and what we couldn't appreciate is that events at home were taking their toll, but it's easy to look back now and say we'd have done things differently.

Fast forward several years and my mum and dad had got back together and things were looking up and starting to feel settled.  Life felt good.

I remember the Saturday morning very clearly, mum, dad and I were going to head in to town for a shopping trip.  I was excited about the prospect of shopping for the latest trainers, but it was more important than that, it was an iconic moment that showed the Lashmars were back and I was bursting with joy.  I was sat in the living room watching television whilst mum and dad were in the kitchen, a few hours before our trip. And then it started.....

I froze to begin with, the noise was eerie and scared me, an inhuman wailing, like a wild animal was in the house and I was terrified, rooted to the spot.  Seconds seemed to last forever as the noise continued filling my young body with gut wrenching fear.  From somewhere I managed to summon up the courage to head to the kitchen to find out what was going on, by then mum was screaming and a huge part of me didn't want to know what was going on, but I was about to find out.

Dad was writhing on the floor, it was entirely unnatural, his face which was contorted in a way that scared me as he wailed and groaned, it was like he was possessed.  Mum was in a state of panic, but was in control, she was trying to force her hand into dad's mouth to stop him biting his tongue as he fitted, she instructed me to get help from our friends who lived nearby.  The rest is a bit of a blur, I'm not sure if I or our friends called for an ambulance, I do remember running as fast as I could in my socks to their house to get help, but not much else.

What I didn't realise at the time, but I do now, was that this was a seminal moment in dad's battle with multiple sclerosis ("MS").  I don't think I was even aware of his illness before then, he was still working in the Royal Navy and appeared to function normally, but this was the beginning of our MS story for me.  If you think of your nervous system as a vast swathe of electrical cables, insulated to ensure the signal gets from one place to the next, then MS somehow causes your immune system to attack the cables, disrupting the signals that are sent.  Dad had progressive MS, but not only was it affecting his nervous system, it was affecting his brain too, hence the fit.

From then on life for dad progressively got more difficult, he struggled to walk and eventually couldn't, lost feeling in his hands, struggled to swallow and more beside.  As he had it in the brain too it impacted everything from mood to memory and it was sad to see decline in the once sharp mind that propelled him such a long way from joining the Royal Navy as a school leaver to an officer charged with looking after weapons communication systems that were highly complex.

As a teenager I struggled to come to terms with MS, but perhaps that's a story for another blog.  Instead, now is time to focus on my fight with MS (and cystic fibrosis), and by taking on Land's End to John O'Groats there is a focal point that may help us raise funds to fund those clever boffin scientists to develop a cure for these diseases, because it's high time we gave them the heave-ho!  So if you haven't yet, I invite you to join me in our efforts.  Thank-you.

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

Training Update
This weekend was 100 miles, the first was a very hilly 60 mile route across the South Downs with Chris Moody, some beautiful vistas across the rolling countryside made the climbs worthwhile with some amazing weather to boot.  I must admit I struggled with the hills, it was definitely a mistake to miss out on my brekkie as I was short of calories.  Chris is a seasoned hill climbing cyclist, so I'm lucky he was patient with me and waited several times for me to catch up!  It just shows that with only 2 months to go there is plenty of scope for improvement and many small challenges ahead of the big ride itself!  Here's the ride from Strava:

And last but not least, some pics from my Jurassic Beast Sportive last weekend:

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