Meet the team and follow our progress as we train for the ride...

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

First 50km overcome......

...........that's 31 miles for those of you used to old money. It was actually a bit of a breeze as we reversed our usual route up Muswell Hill to have a slow climb and a short steep descent (Paolo was ready to quit the whole deal after we tried it the hard way round last week).

I realised on completing this that I will have been a non-smoker for a year and a half by the time we get to John O' Groat's. My previous most successful attempt lasted 6 months so I'm feeling pretty good about this. It also occured to me that a bike has been central to the success of my non-smoking right from the start. A little over a year ago I decided to try a spin class in a place called Frame in Shoreditch. I was pushed to my limit by Pippa for a few weeks and this gave me the impetus to stop smoking and start running. I think if it had been the usual gym experience I would have given up quite quickly but I'm very grateful to the guys at Frame for being so friendly and motivating.

So Cormac's crazy suggestion of cycling LE-JOG couldn't have come at a better time for me. Getting back in a saddle and having to do some serious training has kept smoking far from my mind.

Not sure about Paolo though.......he reckons he's not a quitter! :)

2 comments:

  1. Wow, 50k. Well done. 50k already sounds scary. Imagine when its 150k!

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  2. It sounds much scarier than it is Cormac. Although I'm sure by day 3 it will be a different story. I'm buying a new saddle for my bike however, the Boardman saddle just isn't up to the job.

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