I've done it again.......

Hi everyone,

Nigel here.

Do I ever learn?. I mean blimey I am 52 years old and you'd think by now I had a bit of common sense wouldn't you? But, no - alas I can be a real idiot sometimes: and for the second time I've been exactly that. What a complete plonker.

So. In true Hollywood style let's start "5 days earlier........". Drum roll and moody music please and rewind the clock to last Friday 13th April. My plan was to do 5 days of 60 miles each day to replicate the actual event and then relax for ten days before the real thing safe in the knowledge that "I was ready."  Good plan! 

So last Friday, I set off with Rob the trainer and did 60 miles averaging 13.4 miles per hour. To be honest it was pretty easy. No pain, no tiredness. Nothing. What a wonderful feeling. I was in love with this sport. I came back home Friday night exuberant: I was ready. I really, truly honestly felt a million dollars and I was ready.

Can't wait to get going !

So, Saturday morning bright and early I went to get Ally at Luton airport en route to George's where Lisa, George, Ally and I were fitting in two 60 milers over the weekend. Full of confidence from her successful Portuguese trip Ally couldn't wait to get going as you can see above.............. Even though it was bright sunshine at Luton, in true Nigel style we managed to plan to cycle in the only part of the UK that was wet that weekend.

 Greetings out of the way, we set off from George's house at 12 noon on Saturday (George armed with his super new wheels) aiming to do 60 miles or so. And boy at the start it was sure wet. Horizontal sheet rain wet. Undeterred, we set off on our "little 60." 

George's new Zipp 404 wheels

A few miles into the ride Ally said to me: Nigel you are going too fast - remember how you felt in Portugal. "Nonsense" I said, "I'm only averaging 12.5mph that's nothing." And so we went on and did our 60 miles. The rain stopped, it warmed up a bit - George had yet another puncture but all was good. Ally and Lisa however were quite sure that we  were going too fast and I kind of didn't agree. But hey that was cool.

After yet another superb dinner cooked by Bunny Rolls on Saturday night (George and Bunny are simply the very best hosts you could ever wish for where nothing is too much trouble) we all retired to bed around 10.30pm. We were pretty tired but not "dead". Sunday morning, after a photo on the lawn we set off again in better weather.

No rain !!!!

The ride was good at first though George definitely screwed up the route taking us on a 4,000 feet elevation route and 70 miles not 60 but hey it was still good. We met the Thruxton Racing Circuit Stig (see below) and George had two further punctures (subsequently we noticed he had the wrong tires on really) but otherwise besides being a hard day it was good. 

Thruxton Stig (who didn't speak either)

That's two already....

We had to rush at the end of Sunday as we didn't factor in either George's punctures or the extra ten miles into the time frame but we still just about managed to make it back to Luton airport in time for Ally's flight. 

Personally, even though I knew Ally was right in saying that we were riding too fast for the "long haul" I still felt great. A million dollars actually. And so I got up Monday morning and cycled another 60 miles with Rob - 4 days on the bounce - and averaged 12.9mph which was great: faster than we need to go down to Monte Carlo. I still felt brilliant. No doubt then: I'd cracked it. I was ready. In fact I was smiling to myself to be honest.

And then came today: Tuesday April 17th. A day I will not forget in a hurry. In my slight defence it was wet (very wet), freezing cold and very very windy which at least tripled the effort required to move forward in many places. But regardless: today, out of nowhere, I literally died on my bike. 10 miles into today's ride,  I went from feeling great to literally devoid of any energy in about 30 minutes. I was totally and utterly shattered. Completely and absolutely nothing left to give. My bum was agony; my knees hurt like hell and swelled back up again; my thighs went from mountsins of strength to red hot pokers. To be honest I was in a complete mess and I physically had to stop more times than I care to recount. "How could this be?" I kept asking myself - but of course I knew.

Did I make it? Yes I made it back home. In a sense perhaps this was my best ever ride as I have no idea where the strength to get home came from. But I made it in a pathetic 9.7mph average and I am now pretty must laid out flat on my bed exhausted.  I'm typing this on my ipad lay on my bed flat out. Everything hurts and if this was the real thing, I would be in trouble tomorrow. Big time. 

So. From a million dollars yesterday to flat out zero today. All in the space of one day!! Why? Of course I know why. I'm not Superman. I'm pretty fit but not super fit. I'm 52 and I need to start perhaps to be a little bit more sensible. Simply and honestly, over the 5 days and 300 miles, I'd expended too much energy each day going unnecessarily fast and being a plonker. The cumulative effect had taken its toll. My 13.4 mph on Day 1 was unnecessary and I paid the price on Day 5. That's why. Lesson completely learnt.

I'm cycling right at the back, absolutely flat last in the real thing.  

A few tips ...

Over the weekend George, Nigel, Ally and Lisa cycled a whopping 130 miles in just two days.  I'm sure Nigel will update you with all the details of the two days but I wanted to send a quick update just to let my fellow cyclists in on what I learned over that time. 


Tip #1 - Aiding the uphill battle ... dig your heels in!
Seriously, hills can be an absolute killer.  We're hopeful that the road surface in France will make things a little easier than the rough, bumpy, pot-hole filled British roads, but nonetheless there will still be some hills that will test our physical strength and mental determination.  The key thing I learned this weekend, simply through trial and error was to 'dig your heels in'.  As soon as you start approaching a big hill, start really thinking about extending the leg and pushing your heels to the floor - essentially like trying to stretch out your calf muscle.  Honestly the amount of additional power I got on the upward pull was incredible and made even the toughest hills seem bearable.  

Tip #2 - Imitate a cat ... arch the back!
Maybe its just me, but I finish every ride with really bad upper back ache.  This weekend, whilst not completely fixed (I don't think this is possible), I found the pain much improved simply for the basic stretching I did along the ride, as well as changing my hand position frequently. Remember that stretch you learn in the gym where you're on your hands and knees and you have to arch and flex you back 'like a cat might'?  Well, imitate this on the bike and you really feel the benefit.  Equally, as I mentioned, changing your hand position frequently really makes a difference. 




Tip #3 - Bend your elbows
I have a tendency to hold on for dear life when going up hill.  I end up locking my elbows and really freezing my back into position.  This simply means I end up with far worse pain across my back and arms than is truly necessary.  By simply bending my elbows I released all of this pressure.  Simple, yet effective!


Tip #4 - Stretching is key
I can't stress this enough.  Stretch stretch and stretch some more.  Whenever we stop for a break, just stretch out your quads and calves ... then at the end of the day, make sure you spend at least 20 minutes stretching every part of your body.  Cycling doesn't just affect your legs ... don't ignore the rest of the body!

Tip #5 - Get cold 
This weekend I tried the 'ice bath' theory for the first time.  Whilst the idea really doesn't appeal it actually wasn't as bad as I thought.  Fingers crossed we'll have baths at every place we stay.  Basically half fill the bath with cold water (try to avoid putting any warm water in - the colder the better) then lower yourself in so that your legs are covered.  Try to stick it out for around 10 minutes.  Its amazing the difference I found this made to my muscle movement both later that evening and the following day. 


That's it from me ... less than 2 weeks to go and I have my last full on training session this afternoon.  Then its rest and recuperation ... oh and a quick sports massage!  Bliss! :) 


Lisa x

Thank you Lee!

Hello all!

Ally here, a sore Ally that is... Slow down George!!!! :) 

 

Just dropping by to show you my fab poster that one of my work colleagues, Lee Rafferty, here at Sportingbet so kindly put together for me :) I love it! Going to stick them absoloutley everywhere in one last push to raise more money! Onwards to 15k as Matt says ;)

 

Back soon!

Ally "Sorry, Can't talk when cycling up big hills" Gormley :)

Redefining the word "Challenge"

Hi everyone, Keiron here. 

A few months ago, in what seems now like a distant memory, I remember Nigel saying to me:  “Come and cycle to Monte Carlo” .. “It’ll be an awesome challenge”. Well self-evidently, I agreed, joined up and started to train – but little did I truly realise what a challenge it was going to be.

Martha Blay

Just as my training was beginning to get into full swing, my wife Polly gave birth to our beautiful new baby girl Martha a little earlier than anticipated on 11^th February. That of course was going to stop any training for a short while anyway. But the "challenge gods" weren’t finished with me just yet! 

On Saturday afternoon when Mum and daughter arrived home from hospital, we were all upstairs resting when I heard a strange noise coming from downstairs. Initially I ignored it – and it was not until my two boys asked if they could go downstairs to play that they came running back upstairs and told me that there was loads of water in the house. Still unperturbed, after all boys do tend to exaggerate don't they.....and just how bad could it really be....I went to investigate to find that my entire house was flooded !!! And the water was rising up above ground floor level !! We were trapped upstairs: me, my wife, my brand new baby girl and our three other children.  Trapped. The stuff of absolute nightmares!

Outside our front door

A few calls to the emergency services and lots of worrying later, we were rescued and we discovered that the Thames Water mains supply had ruptured outside our house and flooded the house, garden and just about everywhere. But my bike was safe as it was hung up in the garage!

Our garden

So my "challenge", initially a Cycle to Monte Carlo, had grown in one weekend, to a cycle ride, a new baby girl, having to evacuate our beautiful home, find somewhere else to live, move out, rent a load of new belongings and deal with the nightmare that is the Insurance Company. 

Needless to say I’ve been a busy boy the past few weeks sorting everything out. But, whilst still a mess, we are gradually getting on top of things and I’ll be there at the start line on the 29th raring to go. Maybe not quite as prepared as I’d have liked to have been – but I’ll be there!

Compared to what I’ve been through the Alps will be a doddle - I hope J

Our friends are still going !!

Spirit never dies

Slightly off topic this, but isn't it great to see other members of the Kili team who sadly can't join us this year on our epic cycle ride still hard at it doing other things! Dan Radley is running the Milton Keynes marathon on Sunday 29th (the same day we start) and Jane Kerindi is running the London marathon on 22nd !!

The photo above is of Jane in training a few days ago after 18 miles of the Oakley 20 mile run. It was by all accounts both very hilly and windy and as such great preparation. Interestingly both Dan and Jane have pretty much stopped full on training now and are tapering down. Be warned team !!! We need to be doing the same.

It anyone would like Dan or Jane's phone number to wish them well then contact Nigel and I'll pass it on.

Lisa's back!

That's right ... I'm back!  That's not to say I actually went anywhere, but I think my spirit took a bit of a knock the last couple of weeks and I wasn't my usual lively self! 

But this weekend, thanks to fellow cyclists Ren, Tony and Nigel, along with personal trainer, Rob, - or should I just call him Superman (what? he's had other superhero titles in this blog ... Ironman ... Batman ... why not Superman??) :) as well as my best mate Caz, her brother George, and a whole host of children I am, as the title suggests, BACK! 

So a quick explanation ... as you can see from Tony and Ren's blog entry I joined them for a little saunter along the country roads in Milton Keynes on Saturday, and as they say, we learned a lot!  However they missed off one important lesson ... 

Always ensure that you are ahead of Nigel.  That way, when he starts singing 'I Feel Good' you can get away quickly! :) 

Thanks guys for a great day cycling.  Sad I couldn't join you on Sunday but Easter Egg making, rolling and hunting with 100 children (!!!) was on the agenda instead!!

And then came today.  Joined by my best mate's brother who lives down the road from me, we set off in the rain to cycle the 26.6 miles to my best friend's house.  Within 30 minutes it was clear that anything claiming to be waterproof by brand is lying and we were soaked right through.  Nonetheless we persevered, taking in the "delights" of Harringey, Tottenham, Edmonton and Enfield before hitting the slightly more rural are of Waltham Cross, Harlow and finally Sawbridgeworth. 

A short lunch - Thank you Caz - then I set off alone for the 26.6 miles home again!  And whilst the rain had stopped (momentarily), the wind had certainly found its strength.  It was like cycling uphill the entire way!  Really very unpleasant!  I hope we don't have crap weather on the actual trip ... cycling in sunshine sounds so much more appealing! 

And so, this weekend I have totalled just over 100 miles ... 

Given this blog seems to be about lessons learned, here goes:

1) waterproofs are not waterproof

2) chaffing, sadly, isn't a myth and really does exist (too much detail??) :) 

3) I need to get some better socks and some overshoes ... my feet are consistently cold on these cycles

4) I have made some amazing friends on this trip (and Kilimanjaro of course) ... thank you all for putting up with me these last few weeks

5) Nigel needs to find a new arrival song for this trip. There's only so much of 'I'm feeling good' one can stand ... 

6) Rob, aka Superman, Batman and Ironman all rolled into one ... having now met you in the flesh you look nothing like the guy withe the fridge on his back in Nigel's earlier blog post.  Are you sure its you?  I'm not convinced ... I think we need more photo evidence! ;) 

Over and out ... oh and Happy belated Easter! :) 

Steady pace finishes the race....

Hello to all

Ready to go on saturday morning

Tony and Ren here. We hope you had a productive Easter training. Ren and I spent Easter Sat/Sun cycling with Nigel and Lisa. Adorned in our snazzy new London to Monte Carlo gear, we met at Nigel's house on Sat at 10.30am for a nice training ride where we were met by Nigel's strapping personal trainer Rob, who is an "Ironman" and as the name suggests is a bit of a superhero, with a body like Batman!

Rob helping out as he does

Ren, looking at me with a face like a smacked arse, suggesting "shall we push the trip back to 2014, because my legs aint gonna look like that in 3 weeks!". Regardless, after we got over the initial shock of our Ironman welcome, we reluctantly mounted our bikes and began our Easter training.

Anyway, even though it was early morning - as my body language shows ..... aided by Rob the trainer, we set off on our weekend "little jaunt".

Awake and ready....

I'm coming stop hassling.......

We cycled just under 50 miles on Saturday and followed that with a further 25 miles on Sunday. We managed the distance pretty comfortably to be honest and really enjoyed the training. But this was only because of one key thing ....... we have totally realised one very important lesson over the past 3-4 weeks as our training has intensified and this weekend's rides completely reinforced it, and that "it" is STEADY PACE FINISHES THE RACE!!

The difference between maintaining a constant 11.5 to 12 miles per hour versus increasing and decreasing speed en route as others scamper away and we play catch up is HUGE. Rob our trainer continually told us we had started too fast and forced us into a steady constant sustainable pace. He explained that the thing about endurance cycling we all must acknowledge if we are to complete our journey is that if we do not hold our speed and resist the frequent temptation to increase the pace and race, we will simply never finish. Rob explained that by not regulating pace you will use larger muscles and burn your energy up far too quickly to last out an endurance event. In our opinion we really must continually remind our selves whilst riding especially in the first 4-5 days when excitement levels are greater that it is a marathon not a sprint.

It's hard to make yourself cycle slower at times when you feel energetic in the moment and maybe a little slow, yet we have to preserve our fuel tanks for latter days, as none of us have cycled more than 4-5 days back to back covering 60-65mls per day. One technique that Rob got us to do was proper "peloton" riding where we all start off in a line then after say a mile, the front person peels off and slowly goes to the back. By constantly doing this, everyone got a turn at the front, it became far more interesting but most important of all it forced everyone to keep the same pace as the guy at the front went to the back every mile or so. This technique really worked and we will be strongly encouraging George to try it out again next weekend. It enabled the four of us to cycle as a team, at a constant pace and we loved it. Really loved it. 

To be honest, having seen now what we've seen, Ren and I will be plodding at 11.5 to 12miles per hour throughout regardless of what goes on around us, as we want to finish, we want to do the whole nine yards and we know its the only way. With the peleton technique this is absolutely possible. 

Thanks to Nigel and Paula for their hospitality and to Nigel and Rob for an invaluable lesson this weekend. It really was brilliant. We've got the bug, we understand what we have to do and we are "on it" big time.

See many of you at George's next weekend and the rest very soon in Greenwich for an adventure none of us will ever forget!!

Ren and Tony xx

Noah's Ark in Portugal !!

"We haven't had any rain since November" said Antonio's wife Claudia when I booked a week's training in Portugal. "It's been 25 degrees or more for weeks if not months" she said. "Come and do some training with Antonio in early April. The weather will be beautiful."

And what she had said of course was true. There hadn't been any rain for months. And the weather had been beautiful - pretty much since last November. What is also true however is that I seem to have an incredible ability to bring rain nearly every time I go to the Algarve - so much so that I even now get emails from the locals when it does rain asking me if I've just arrived! 

Still raining.......

Believe it or not he then put on yellow marigold gloves too !!!!!

This is a big tree to be blown nearly in half

And so, encouraged by Claudia's enthusiasm, Antonio, Ally and I met up to cycle for 4 or 5 days in the "sun" last Thursday. Sun? Hmmm. Well not quite: wind, storms and rain: yes. But sun? Well very little. But it did not "just" rain this time: oh no......this time the sea tipped upside down and dropped its contents on us. We had ocean's of rain. And masses of wind. The wind in the picture is blowing a 20 foot high palm tree in my garden in half !!

In fact there was so much rain that in a short space of 5 days my iPhone broke through water damage; my swimming pool overflowed; my SKY TV system rarely worked as the satellite signal couldn't get through, the remote controllers for the electric gates broke (all 3 of them) through water damage, water got into the heating and air con system dripping in the house and parts of my bike went rusty !!!!!!! Lovely.

It wasn't all rain: during the 5 days I was there (Ally was there for slightly less) we did eat outside at lunchtime twice and we did cycle once out of our five training sessions in the dry. As indeed the picture below shows. On the whole however it was ridiculously stupidly wet. 

The sun does shine occasionally....

But you know in many ways that was a good thing. Because on the actual trip it might well rain every day too. So what better way of testing out the equipment? And we learnt a great deal: we learnt that overshoes, whilst essential in that they work a bit, absolutely do not keep your feet dry and thus on the actual trip more socks are needed. We learnt too that the pockets in waterproof coats are not waterproof at all and ziplocked plastic bags are essential to protect money, phones etc. We learn't that without mud guards you get filthy dirty all over your back very very quickly indeed.

And we learn't something else and even more important too. We learnt that the rain just didn't matter: because we loved it. All three of us loved the entire five days training that we did. We rode 400km (Nigel, Antonio) and 300km (Ally) and we loved it. We had a fantastic time. Was it hard? absolutely. Did it hurt and tire us out? Of course. But it was wonderful nevertheless.  

We also learnt more about each other: we learnt that Antonio rides sometimes like a duck (see above);

We learnt that the Portuguese men seemingly can't resist blonde haired Irish girls (see below);

And we learnt that Antonio is slightly like a ballet dancer when he's limbering up (see below) 

And we learn't much about ourselves from a cycling viewpoint too. We learn't that doing 100km in a day is massively more than the 60 km training efforts and we all need to try hard and do more longer rides in training; we learn't that energy conservation in terms of speed and replenishment is utterly vital; we learn't that going too fast is so very counter productive and we learn't that muscle conservation through appropriate "easy" gear selection is also very important.

All in all however we learnt that this is one hell of a challenge - but one we can't wait for! Bring it on !!

The "Boss" endorses London to MC crazy riders!

Hi there all - just thought id fire up a quick blog entry from the END POINT of this adventure!!

Being the lone ranger away from the rest of you, I've had to do a few solo runs on the bike - which gets a bit tiresome after a while (prefer to see George smoking a cigar up the hill, or be guest DJ for the team)!!!

However, I'm now training with the local Monaco crew (10 of them) who are doing a ride from St Tropez to Monaco, which is about 130KM. We are doing around 50KM to 75KM 3 x a week now, and soon  we will crack the 100KM mark (with coffee in between), which is effectively Monaco to Cannes and back. It will also simulate the last day or our ride, so ill be good with Nigel (the human GPS), our Garmins, Bespoke Tours Support Vehicles and some local knowledge of where all the good bars are!!!

I've also alerted the "boss" (his royal charmer - Prince Albert of Monaco) of our ride, as he is part of the training crew doing the St Tropez ride, and he has shown full royal support and promises to wave from his castle to us (I explained we were looking for more of a "head of state" type welcome reception, with 21 guns and the whole motorcyle convoy, which he is thinking about ha haaa aaa).

On a serious note he thinks we are completely mad, and I explained we caught a highly infectious disease from this lunatic called Nigel Payne where we do an off the wall thing for charity once a year - he as an adventurer with many expeditions under his belt (North Pole treck for example and was in 4 Olympics as bob sledder) was very humbled and extended his personal thanks etc etc. He isn't quite the Queen of England (can you imagine her coming past on the bike with a helmet!), but he has shown full support and asked what co-operation we needed. I said we were all under control save for our massage therapist which Renata is sorting, and we are ready for next years halloween festivities with George & Bunny supplying all the fancy dresses ;)

Anyway - off to do some work then prepare for saturdays ride, speak soon all and keep up the training, im motivated by you guys and not long to go!!!!

Best matt

Why oh why oh why: Nigel's woes

In 2009 when I first climbed Kilimanjaro, I managed to break my left wrist in training. Would it heal in time? Would I be able to go? Fortunately it did. But only just.

Then, almost defying sense and reason, in 2011 whilst training for the second attempt on Kilimanjaro I managed to break my right wrist in training. Only me yeah? Would it heal in time? Fortunately again, it did. But only just.

And so it is with this challenge. My last cycle was over a week ago now and I cannot at the moment even get on a bike. Just over a week ago I tried an endurance period of 4 days cycling 40 miles each day one after the other and, at the end of the fourth day my knees started to swell up. The left leg is swollen in the picture but the right is just as bad now. Six days later and they are still the same and stubbornly refuse to go down. I'm unable to cycle and they hurt. I've tried physio, anti inflammatory tablets...........you name it and it's been tried. 

Hmmm. So I'm going to rest up totally until Thursday when I'm off to Portugal with Antonio, Ally and Lisa for a few days on a bike. At the moment that thought is a bit of a pipe dream.

Pray to the knee gods people !!

We have a mascot

All good adventures should have a lucky mascot right? 

And so have we - in the form of Matt's wonderful new puppy Rio. Courtesy of the delightful Deborah Davies who arranged for Matt to get Rio. Rio is doing fine and is learning to bark freely every morning to remind Matt to get off his posterior and onto his bike !!

And as if that wasn't enough, Deborah's eldest son is getting married in the next few weeks and instead of gifts, guests are being asked to donate to charity. And some of those donations will be used to enhance our charity cause. Quite amazing to be honest that. 

Rio has also learn't to be cute and if - and only if Matt actually does some cycling then Rio has already learnt to reward his new "Dad" in the appropriate doggy way.

 

  

We have our kit.........

After much to-ing and fro-ing we now have our cycle kit to adorn the roads during our little picnic jaunt in a few week's time !! Using the quite excellent Scimitar sports (www.scimitarsports.com )we have designed our own shirt and shorts which are currently in production. The aim was to be bright and bold and be noticed..............and hopefully we've achieved that. What does anyone think???

The only real issue to be honest has been the sizes! Now okay some of us are not the thinnest in the world but when one takes an L sized shirt and a 36 inch waste that's not too bad - but you still need an XXXL cycle shirt !!! It really makes you wonder why cycling kit is so incredibly small..............

Update from Tony and Renata

Hi everyone - hope the team training is going well. We had a great weekend and finished it on a bit of a high after a few weeks struggling in the doldrums feeling like we were a long way behind. We went out yesterday (Saturday) and Ren suggested we mix it up so we did total of 16 miles, but half was off road in the woods, and on mountain bike tracks, this was great and lots of fun. 

Today (Sunday 18th) we did 26 miles on the road, and we felt really good. So a total of 40miles over the weekend, and we really are feeling fitter every week now, the cumulative effect of putting in the miles really does improve your fitness quickly!! 

Ren got a puncture yesterday, and fell off today cleated in, but cycled on smiling))

We are cycling with Nigel and Lisa on the weekend of Apr7/8 up in the Milton Keynes area and we aim to put in 60-70 miles that weekend - though with Payne in charge lord knows what that'll turn out to be !! Ren starts her new job tomorrow, and will cycle to work 3-4 times a week and get 50-75mls a week doing just this. As I am in Canary Wharf, I struggle to put in more than 50 road miles per week, but I am in spinning classes now every day at HSBC, and this will help a lot I know. Good luck this week team training, see you all soon Tony and Ren xx

Typical girl - no spacial awareness!

That's me - told you this
cycling malarky isn't stylish!

It seems cycling is a funny old business.  Since our training weekend last week I have been a little lacklustre on my cycle training. Then on Saturday I decided to head out for a decent ride, circling Regents Park a whopping seven times (approx 21 miles) However, in order to get to lovely Regents Park I have to embrace the wonders of Kentish Town and Camden high streets. Let me quickly remind you this was on Saturday ... possibly the busiest day of the week for these areas!

So there I am, calmly cycling along, thinking its good to be back in the saddle then suddenly I reach a massive traffic jam! I hover behind a bus for 2 minutes then think maybe I can squeeze through the traffic and beat it.  So, I slowly move my way through identifying the possible gaps.  So far so good.  Then, a gap that looks feasible but oh how wrong I was.

Kentish Town High Street -
Not my most favourite place!

What happens next was like watching a film in slow motion.

I approach the gap the, ack, I clip my left handle bar on the cars wing mirror.  As I attempt to apologise to the driver I lose my balance, and unable to release my foot quick enough I end up effectively sprawled across the car door to my right - literally whole body hugging the drivers door!  How embarrassing! Obviously I apologise then quickly regain my composure and get out of there as quickly as I can, only to hear a cabbie shout 'careful luv' as I escape!

I reach Regents Park without any more hiccups then absolutely cane the seven laps - adrenalin can be a wonderful thing.  Average speed 13.5 miles per hour ... I'm on track!  But then I have to get home!  No issues in Camden then I hit Kentish Town and almost in exactly the same place as earlier (obviously going in the other direction) I misjudge the width of my bike again! Not only to I hit a wing mirror but I took it completely off, releasing the mirror from its casing.  Panicking I manage to frantically put the mirror back in its casing and then fix the whole thing back in place.  Thankfully the car was parked, driver was nowhere to be seen and I don't think anyone else noticed.  Almost in tears I cycle off heading home.

Now as I approach home, I have two choices - big hill that adds an extra mile to my journey and is good training or quick short cut home.  With adrenalin pumping and tears almost in full flow I choose the hill ... time to feel the burn.  I've attempted this hill 3 times before and never achieved  it.  Saturday ... not only did I get up it, but I then took on a second hill just to prove a point!  Accidents forgotten!

Morale of the story ...
1) yes I am I typical girl and admit I have no spacial awareness (this goes for driving my car too)
2) I probably shouldn't be cycling on London roads alone!
3) adrenalin rocks
4) when I hit a tough point on route to Monte Carlo, could someone please make me angry or scared ... that should get me through!

On a final note, I said I was going to bring some style to the page so how's this for a hairstyle?!

Oh, and fellow cyclists, today I cycled a further 14 miles and tomorrow its 35 through the beautiful Bristol countryside! Just saying! :) 

A torn thigh muscle, a broken bike, 6 utterly drenched riders stranded in the snow, 6 fallings off and a proverbial puncture. Just a normal weekend then for our wonderful group!

I don’t know what it is about us lot. I don’t know if we just make things happen this way or whether we are just mental – but we certainly do not ever have a dull moment! And so it proved on this first assessment training weekend where if it was physically possible to happen. Well it did.

The weekend began early on Saturday morning when Ally Gormley emerged with a sellotape adorned cardboard box at Luton airport. With Nigel in hysterics seeing this coffin like beaten up box of a thing appear from customs…..we were told that apparently her intended bike case had somehow found its way to Hawaii and the cardboard box was a 4am last minute substitute! Okay…….no drama there then.  Well not that we yet knew about anyway. 

We drove down to George’s Hampshire palace (literally) arriving around 11am along with the rest of the 7 person team. We all arrived in great spirits, helped no doubt by the warm spring-like sunshine. We all set about unpacking and building (where necessary) the bikes and things were looking good. Whilst everyone was a little apprehensive, the buzz and excitement was evident.

The weather was warm and sunny and by 12.30 we were ready to attack two scheduled 20 mile rides that afternoon.George had organised two excellent testing courses for our assessment to begin. We didn't really look like a team though George was clearly excited as you can see from the photo (!!) as indeed was Renata and her saddle. Anyway, enough of that...........from left to right in the photo we have Lisa, Ally, Nigel, Renata, Tony, Matt and George. Sadly Keiron (my house has just been flooded by a burst 24 inch water main and I’ve just had a new baby too) Blay, Antonio (good excuse living in Portugal) and Rowan (on holiday) all couldn’t make it this time. 

Ten minutes into the first ride it was obvious that all was not well. Ally’s cardboard box was it seems not sufficient to protect her €2,000 bike from the destructive tendencies of Luton and Dublin’s baggage handlers. The gears on her bike were not working properly, nor was the chain. Ally, being Ally, soldiered on effectively having to climb every hill in an unusable gear ratio which caused her to fall off quite badly at least 6 times. Not fun. And whilst not realising it, the determination induced strain she was putting herself through led to a badly torn thigh muscle which subsequently has required laser surgery treatment back in Ireland. The picture opposite is just one of 5 purple lumps that appeared a few days afterwards. Not fun at all. And can you believe this "I don't do quitting" lady even tried to cycle with it on Sunday! Mad woman….which is why we love her: she never, ever gives up.

For the rest of the team, apart from Matt’s puncture (repaired in 5 minutes flat – yeah) and George continually failing to understand the meaning of “team” and cycling away in the distance, the first 20 mile ride was pretty enjoyable and uneventful. The pace was good at 10.6mph – though not quite good enough for the actual ride which needs to be about 11.5 average - but everyone was getting there. On the second ride improvement was seen all around, and we averaged 11 mph - not quite there on speed but with 8 weeks to go to get just a bit faster everyone was pretty pleased. It had gone well.

We were all however pretty tired after 40 miles: and ready to eat. Saturday evening dinner was simply hilarious. Joined by George’s delightful family we had an absolute blast. What a fantastic, truly fantastic hosts and an awesome group of people on this cycling team. The combination of amazing food, incredible hospitality, stomach aching funny stories and the appearance of George in fancy dress combined to make a truly memorable and fantastic evening.

And then came Sunday. Oh my god. A day we’ll never, ever forget.

We awoke to rain of the sheer horizontal variety with inch to two inch puddles everywhere from the sheer volume that had fallen overnight. And it was incessant: 100% non-stop heaven emptying rain. 

First we ate a hearty breakfast (no idea what's going on with the jacket here....) But, undeterred and cocooned in our supposedly protective wet gear we set off on our 40 mile ride.  

5 miles in, cycling at a rain and wind induced excruciatingly slow 7 miles and hour it was clear that this was going to be very tough. Impossible even. But we carried on. Wind battering our faces, our feet soaking wet, toes frozen and fingers numb we all soldiered on for 18 miles until we reached the Lions Head at Winterslow near Salisbury. Even though we were two miles off the scheduled half way stop point of our 40 mile ride, we simply had to stop. None of our limbs were left working! The publican, Anton O’connor, kindly opened up for us even though it was only 11.30am (yes it had taken nearly 3 hours to do 18 miles….).

As we sat down, a pool of water came out of the padding in our shorts, water poured out from our shoes, all looking as if we had all wet ourselves. We were totally, completely and utterly sodden and numb with cold. Then in one of those “moments” that just happen spontaneously, we all collapsed in non-stop laughter. We laughed so much it hurt. Could it get more bizarre? 

Well yes – it could and it did. Tony, in what we thought at the time was a joke, shouted that the rain outside had turned to thick snow. “Yeah sure” we all said: but it had. And it came down, and it came down and came down and continued incessantly for over 90 minutes. 

What at first was quite funny soon turned into the realisation that actually we weren't going anywhere any more on our bikes. At that point we had no choice but to call for the 4^th Emergency Service in Mrs Bunny Rolls who drove the 18 miles in her Land Rover to come and get us (two trips required). So having set off at 8.30am, we cycled a mere 18 miles over the 6 hours it took us to get back to George’s house in Bunny’s car!!

So what did we learn from our weekend? Well many things to be honest.

- We learnt that we have a great team. A really great team;

- We learnt that bikes need to be in proper cases.....

- We learnt that our wet weather gear was nowhere near good enough;

- We learned that this is one mother of a challenge

- We learned that the next 8 weeks need to be spent training.....

And we learnt that this is going to be one hell of a lot of fun. Bring it on.