Pneumatic Nightmares then the big one.

So after last weekends disasters I tried again. Same route yesterday. 20 miles to Normans bay and back. But guess what half way down Sluce lane thud ...thud...thud. You have got to be kidding. So off came the front wheel again. This bike has now spent more time on its back than Michael-Angelo painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling! Unfortunately in my rush to re insert the inner tube I had pinched it with the tyre lever. But it took several attempts at re inflation to discover my faux pas. Out came the tube again. Second repair, more haste less speed upon re insertion! I also notice the rear tryre was a little out of shape??
Off I pootled anxious that another 1 and 1/2 hour ride should not become another 4 hour drama, when 1 mile further on suddenly it got really hard to pedal and then BANG! literally. The rear tryre blew out. I though it didn't look right you know . If he face of the cyclist passing me in the other direction is anything to go by mine must have been a picture.
Good job every time I make my almost daily trip to Halfords for an inner tube I buy a spare and take it with me.. Ha Ha not as daft as I look eh??? Don't answer that.
I completed the rest of the ride and relaxed in preparation for this morning.
I attempted and completed my first 50 miler! 53 to be exact. (73 for the weekend!)What's more I only stopped once at about half way for a drink and a banana and some stretches. I actually completed it on the same two tubes and tyres I left on, the bike was never on it's back and it as just a smidge over 3 and 1/2 hours. But I can tell you that Standard Hill on the way back into the village at the end of a 50 mile ride is a KILLER.
Now if you'll excuse me I have a bath, a homedics massage machine and a couple of pints with my name on them!
Tomorrow rest day or gentle swim steam and Sauna at Mr B's...Let's see if we can move first eh!

No Luck

So after pottering off to Halfords for 2 inner tubes (one spare) and a puncture repair kit I fitted it I tried again on New Years day morning. Nice gentle 10 miler I thought just down to the beach and back home.
1/2 way down the marsh road I get that familiar thud...thud...thud through the front wheel again. Flat as a flat thing!
As it had been raining luckily there was a puddle to look for the tell tail bubbles. Not 1 but 2 holes very close to each other. Unfortunately at a realy awkward distance needing 2 patches. But there was still a leak so after a third patch I was OK. However during teh repair I managed to snap one of the plastic (and franlky inadequate) tyre-levers supplied in the repair kit.
Off I went again. Got to the beach 3 miles on..thud...thud...thud.
Arrghh!. tyre off again. Another hole this time in the side wall. Just as I was repairing this one Vicky pulled up. She was at the beach with the dogs. "Need rescuing again dear?". "No. I have things under control thank you."
Off she went. Wheel bak on and off we go again. 4 miles on thud..thud...thud. I don't believe it!. Yes I got all Victor Meldrew. Particularly as now it was hammering it down with rain. I fummbled to get the inner tube out with fingers like ice. But it was so wet that the contact adhesive would not stick now and the 3 patches on the original punctures were bulging and clearly not working now. It was so wet that I feared the fluorescent green giant top was no longer waterproof and my ipod nano was going for a burton. So as I got soaked by a passing car going through a puddle I took out my phone and fired a flare.
Vacky duely arrived with the van. "I reckon I'll get to Scotland" I said. "But I don't know about this flaming bike!"
As I remarked on Facebook, I think fate was saying "It's New Years day and everyone else is in the pub you muppet!".
I now have another spare tube and metal tyre-levers.

O hello again bike

The last thing I did to or on the bike was to put 2 new tyres on it about 8 weeks ago. Since then the birthday, chrismas and bonfire parties have come and gone. I suddenly realised I have a whole weekend with time to ride.
So yesterday I worked out a nice little circular route 45 miles or so with an option to extend if I wasn't purple and throwing up by then. So the alarm was duely set so that I could leave at about 8 am. After having eaten one of the hard boiled eggs I had prepared the night before and some creatine. As the alarm sounded I there were muffled groans from the other side of the bed. I just caught the words "still, dark and nutter" as I donned the fluorescent green giant costume and fumbled for my iPod nano.
I started well, taking Boreham Street Hill a mile ouitside the village relatively well (was in granny gear though!). On through the village with the French name remember? Towards the Boship roundabout. Straight on here (still don't do right at roundabouts) towards East Grinstead.
My route then took me left before EG out to Ringmer (into a headwind...nice).I took the Left through laughton which would bring me back onto the A22 towards home for the last 20 miles or so.
Approaching the turn onto the 22 I felt, thud..thud..thud..and things got harder. I turned onto the A22 (too slowly as it happened and nearly got killed by a black volvo) and after exchanging the international hand gesture for "Happy New Year" with the driver I pulled over. The front was flat. No pump. Wife in Kent walking dogs.
As I walked toward home having phoned Vicky and been heartily congratulated on my efforts (not) I was thankful I had the nano and its stuffing of "all the rock tracks you can get on it" on shuffle.
I met a fellow nutter 2 miles further on who had a pump which would fit my tyres. Oh great at least if it will stay up until I get even half way there....... Anyway turns out the reason its flat is because the valve is broken. So the walk continued. Vicky arrived to pick me up. Home now, showered and feeling a bit annoyed that I only got 25 miles done before I had to fire a flare. Nevermind off to Halfords again.

33%!

Following Friday night's raffle at the Christmas party my fundraising total has crossed the £1,000 mark and I have 33% of the total required. This seems like a massive milestone and I am feeling extremely positive about the other 66% now!

Merry Christmas
Jen

Looking good

My new pimped up DFTD Totaliser in our notice board. Nice photoshopping job by Nikki at support office. Although i wonder did she leave my head big on purpose?

hmmm...

Festive Cheer!

The fund raising continues to go well - last Saturday afternoon was the light-switching on in Faringdon where the market square is closed to traffic and is transformed into a festive wonderland complete with fake snow and a Santa!
 
We had a stand set up and Debs and I sold our homemade jams, chutneys and pickles (all made from predominantly free local produce), bunches of holly and mistletoe (gathered from around the office) and ran raffles and a 'guess the number of gravy bones in the bottle' contest. As well as that we had Julie (from the data team) acting chaperon to Debbie's husband who very kindly donned the Drontal dog suit and entertained the crowds all afternoon (but who had limited vision!) out with the collecting bucket.


We managed to raise a fantastic £314.50!! a great result and just shows what is achievable with a bit of effort.  Once again my thanks go to Debs who masterminded the whole thing (and organised me as I had been up in Scotland all the previous week at the new surgery openings), to Wally for his tireless enthusiasm in the world's hottest dog suit, and Julie for all her help on the day.

Pictures to follow!

Jen

Paolo's first fundraising event

Paolo and our friend Nick hosted a night of music last Friday with the help of some of our very talented musical friends (including Nick himself). They were able to raise almost £500 to share between their two charities - Nick's running the London marathon next year for Leukaemia research.

Over 130 people came through the doors and the success and feedback have given them the encouragement they need to plan another night some time in the new year.

Thanks to Felix from Companion Care in Beckton for taking some great pictures of the night.

someone should really stop me doing these things

These are the lovely bruises that i have on my arms at the moment. A cycling injury you say? No, unfortunately more stupidity. I decided it would be fun (!) to do a Survival of the Fitest Rat Race at Battersea last weekend. And suffice to say i barely survived. 10k with obstacles without training is not the most clever thing to do

But if anything it has shown me: how unfit i am & how much training i have to do!

Hey ho, whats the worst that could happen?

PS. if you ever see me signing up for anything, please please hit me over the head or something. It'll probably be less painful whatever i had in my head to do

We had a great week of fundraising last week - £85 from a silent auction for some beautiful bouquets of flowers, and then a massive £182 was raised at our wardrobe exchange. This was greatly helped by the very generous people from Ariat who are based locally in Faringdon. They donated some great items which we held a silent auction for on the night - contributing significantly to the funds raised. I think everyone who came along went home with a new addition to their wardrobe as well as demolishing the nibbles that were laid on. Once again a big thank you to all who came/donated items.

Sadly on the cycling front I have been less successful. However I do have a renewed enthusiasm (as well as a slight fear now the start date is getting closer) and am planning on a training session tonight...!

Jen

Back in the saddle....

Due to the unexpected arrival of a rescue lurcher I've been a bit slack with the cycling for the past 2 months. Paolo's been cycling the 4 miles to and from work but today we started our training schedule which has been meticulously worked out to allow for inactivity during the festive seasons. We're easing ourselves into it to avoid injury and it was a beautiful day today to saddle up.
The good things about cycling around London are the new cycle super-highways that are becoming more widespread -these are like king size cycle lanes which are much less pot holed than your average road - and the ability to see so many different sights in a 2 hour outing. Unfortunately there are down sides too - our fellow road users are not particularly considerate with their road positioning so the cycle lanes are not always free to use. We had a group of scooters blocking the lane in Putney and numerous cabs with their wheels to the kerb. We had to dodge various piles of broken glass from the Saturday night revelry.
The biggest drawback of city cycling is that we worked out we spent 25 mintues of the 2 hour cycle waiting at traffic lights. Now at times my legs were quite glad of the rest but I can't help but feel the training would be more effective if we kept moving.
I've started to use a website called runkeeper.com with its phone app. It allows you to plan and record your routes and I've been able to choose some routes that another cyclist had already uploaded. I'm going to try to keep it up to date with our training. If any of my fellow team mates are already using it or decide to start then send me a message so we can become team mates on the website and keep track of eachothers training.

Truro to Penzance in the Rain

Forty seven miles in the rain! My longest cycle yet with all the associated rubbing and discomfort. Great views while cycling past St Michaels Mount, but some problems with a closed road leading to a mile of walking between diggers and tarmacing machines.

Have good new pair of clip-in cycle shoes, last pair had no grip and were like walking on ice skates- almost caused me to fall off on a busy local roundabout among other places.

Thanks to everyone who is helping me fundraise especially everyone at Companion Care Truro who are not as shy about asking for donations as I am!

Well whilst I've not been out on the bike for ages, I have been doing a bit of inpromptu fundraising. It was the Halloween party at the local last night. Fancy dress 1st prize £30 straight to Dogs for the Disabled!

Worth all the latex and the conacts to create the unzipped undead.

Cake, cake and more cake

A huge thank you to all at the support office this week who proved their cake eating prowess by raising over £70 for the cycle ride!! at 50p a slice that was a lot of cake.
Thank you also to everyone who baked, clearly we are a talented bunch :-)

Some cycling training definitely needed now to burn off some calories!
Jen

Bute it or shoot it?

Riding home yesterday my steed went lame. I was flying down a hill out to westham. There is a man-hole cover which I know isn't flush with the road surface. But as I got level with it a van was overtaking me so I couldn't take my usual avoiding action and swing out to go around it.

Thump...thump (add that one to the list of things that hurt on a road bike especially at 17mph.. ouch!) but carried on OK. Got the 10 miles or so home but cycling up the high street in Ninfield I happened to look down to see the front wheel changing shape once every revolution.

I got home had a closer look and saw this. Thankfully the wheel and rim itself is OK. But there is a distinct "s"-bend in the tyre. Not quite sure if this is safe to leave so I've done some googling. On the various fora it sounds like in the words of one respondant " if there is anything you wanted to say to that tyre, you better say it now!" With other mentions of high speed blow-outs going down steep hills, and there's plenty of those round here, I think she's had it. I will take the wheel off tomorrow and toddle off to Halfords for some advice on whether it is salvagable but I doubt it. I should also ask if the inner tube needs replacing I suppose. I've looked at the prices of new tyres of this sort on-line and found one for £17.50. But I guess I should change both so that'll be 35 quid. This charitable cycling thing ain't turning out to be cheap you know. But then neither would coming off at high speed going down Earlsdown as your tyre explodes as the road bears right up to Three cups corner.

Hey ho that's me grounded for a few days. Shame I'll jsut have to visit the Blacksmiths Inn tomorrow and partake of Rugby and the Grand Prix instead. Or I could go to the gym........nah!

Worth it

There have been mornings over the last few weeks when, smashed from the arms of Morpheus
by the alarm at some un-godly hour on a day when I cycle to work, I look at the darkness and mist outside and shiver under the duvet searching for an excuse to stay in bed that extra hour and just drive to work. Yesterday was one of those days.

With the shortening days the mornings are certainly darker. Soon it will be too dark and dangerous to ride to work (even with the cloak of much hi visibility) and I will be settling for gym work and "spinning calsses" rather than risk my neck. I will then try to do more road work at weekends/days off during the day weather permitting.

Unfortunately I couldn't think of a lame enough excuse to not get up. Not even a hangover! So I dragged my kit on and let "Rumer" puppy out for her early morning wee in the garden. I must say even she has been looking at me with disdain on the darker mornings. Her eyes questioning my sanity, yawning on her slow bimble to the gravel path outside the backdoor. Grudgingly she squats and then shuffles back to her crate in the kitchen curled up with her teddy.

I clambered onto the bike, engaged the pedal clamps of death and set off. On the way through the next village along, "Hooe" there are some beautiful views across the Pevensey marshes towards Bexhill and the Sea beyond. On mornings like this just as dawn is breaking it is quite mystical. I thought I would stop and take some shots on my phone and share them with you.

It makes the transition from bed to Mr B's steam, sauna and more importantly the first coffee of the day a bit more gentle.

White knuckle ride

On Saturday I decided to go for a more substantial ride. Before I left I checked the bike to find that the tyres were going a bit soft. So I got my pump out and inflated the tyres as far as I could. This would also hopefully reduce friction and increase speed.





I did the usual weekend route; Netherfield, Heathfield,Horam,Polegate but added an extra bit. Instead of coming back through Hooe I carried on to Bexhill and came back through Sidley. That was a total of 45.2 miles and in just over 3 hours. Could have knocked off 5 minutes as I had to stop for an "Gentleman's adjustment break".





That is the longest training ride I have done so far on the road bike. The last 5 miles were pretty horrible and slow. I was more than a bit "jelly-legged" at the end of it. I have to say that I am starting to question whether I am going to be up to this. We will be doing 70-80 miles a day, that's twice what I did on Saturday and yeah OK I did it in 3 so 80 should be possible in 6 hours right?? But every day for 2 weeks.....wow. I am also more than a little worried about the fund raising side of things as that is not exactly flying at Eastbourne. I'm getting lots of people asking how the training is going but not as many actually donating. I will not be able to finance this personally so I am worried I may have to pull out if things don't pick up.





The extra air in the tyres may have helped with the speed and friction but it does nothing for the list of things that hurt on a road bike. Basically everything when your tyres are blown up so you can feel every bump. I have to say that it's not the seat that suffers the most either. Lord know's I have enough natural padding. It's the hands and arms. The vibrations through the hands and arms are something to atch for. White knuckle disease is a distinct posibility and I kind of need my fingers to operate and stuff! So I have bought some padded handle bar tape and added and extra layer. We'll see if that helps.

Harry Potter app?

I have been worried about S.M.I.D.S.Y for a while now. This is the acronym which strikes fear into the hearts of anyone on two wheels and the public highway motorised or otherwise. It is the phrase uttered by motorists as they are standing over your bloodied and battered body and help you to your feet, while trying to bend your bike wheels back into shape. Quite simply "Sorry Mate I Didn't See You".

So I thought I'd better make myself a wee bit more visible. I toddled off to sports Direct down the road. Saw the appropriately garish coloured top and duely purchased. Now being polyester and designed for outdoor use I had also assumed ( never assume) that this would also be somewhat waterproof. However yesterday morning while cycling to Mr B's Steam and Sauna emporium, into a 10 mile per hour headwind and persistant drizzle upon arrival I was saturated. So I have reserved this one for summer use and bought a waterproof equivalent.

Having dried off (thank goodness for Meile industrial sized tumble dryers) and done my day at the surgery I left for home. Whilst the weather had brightened up considerably by now the blasted wind had changed direction, and instead of a helping tailwind I was up against it again!

There is a cycle path and pavement running parallel to the dual carriageway out of Eastbourne. I tend to use this until I get to the padestrian crossing and then get onto the road. By the way wind is a hazard in SPD clips. I am just mastering the getting out of them in time to stop thing, but yesterday while waiting to cross the road, I had my left foot out, toe touching the floor and Right foot in ready to go, when a gust of wind hit me from the Left and still nearly blew me over as I struggled to get my Right foot out! Anyhoo. I have identified a further hazard. Pedestrians.

There is a floor in the high vis plan. In order to be seen (and who could miss me in that thing?) you have to be looked at. Now the mobile phone is a marvellous thing. But I now consider it deadly to cyclists. When you are cycling towards someone who is texting away or reading something on their phone their eyes and brains are somewhat preoccupied. Unfortunately the other problem is that you tend not to be able to hear a hi vis jacket either. Especially if you are the sort of person who is so obsessed by their phone that you have to text while walking, because you will almost certainly have earphones plugged into the thing too so you can listen to music, whilst texting and walking simultaneously. Immersed in your sensory paradise you may for instance fail to notice the 20 stone bloke, glowing like the core of Chernobyl coming at you on a bike at 15 m.p.h.

I very nearly broke the dinger off my little token bell supplied with the bike (well now I know why it's there) trying to get the attention of the approaching hipster, and imagining how much it's going to hurt hitting him, then the ground with feet still attached to the pedals. There would be blood, designer labels and knitwear scarves everywhere. Luckily some sort of 6th sense (or gap between tracks) allowed him to hear my frantic dinging and he stepped to the side just in time. I also had occasion to thank the shortening days when I approached a simliarly oblivious fashion/technology victim however this time walking away from me. Luckily the sun being so low and behind me cast a long enough shadow that he saw me (or my day-glo shadow) approaching way before I deployed the dinger and got out of the way.

I have now concluded that there is a Harry Potter style invisibility cloak app on android phones. I think it's a bit like the spell that makes people by yoghurt drinks thinking they will be healthier. You know the one "Bifidus dygestivum". Likewise I think this one goes "Hi-vis obliviosum" and renders the wearer of anything reflective or brightly coloured completely invisible and in-audible, no matter how frantically they are dinging their ickle bell.

The Hokey Kokey.......in a nappy.....in Russian?

To say that today at work has been a bad day would be a masterpiece of understatement.

Today has been the only day I have been on the bike this week. Last week I did a total of 83 miles, so feel extra guilty. I did nothing on Sunday except pootle to the local (only at the end of the road) for a pint, on what is now a noticably heavy mountain bike. But without suicide pedals. This is much safer for the pooo(hic)ttl(hic)e home melud. Wednesday was so washed out down here I didn't cycle to work as I have not yet purchased the appropriate fluorescent waterproof (skin tight of course) cycling top. I have not even managed to get to the gym to sit in the warm half heartedly pedalling while watching Kylie (mmmmm Kylie) on VH1 classic or the Vault. So this morning I made myself get up, despite the near sleepless night and bad dreams and get on the bike.

It was flippin misty at 6.30 this morning. But Off I went with as many high viz strip thingys as I could find attached to my person somewhere and praying that whoever came up behind me would see my flashing light before they hit me. The level crossing barrier gates were down so rather than go the long way round (zero enthusiasm) I got off and waited (yes folks I got my feet out of the clips in a controlled and dignified manner). Got to the gym had my Mr B steam, sauna, jaccuzzi and shower. This was especially nice as the wet road had mostly been transfered into the seat padding of my cycling shorts as I have not yet bought a mud guard either. In fact I am frankly ill equipped for moisture.

The day from hell, completing the fortnight from Valhalla ensued.

I usually wash my cycling kit in the surgery machine so it can get dried in the tumbly dryer ready for the ride home. However as part of the day my shorts had not really dried well. Too late and I really wanted to get home I change anyay. Well what the heck I'll going to end up all sweaty anyay by the time I get home so start damp.....no big deal.

Now I should now mention that because of the day from hell and the forthnight of damnation, my mind was not 100% focused on riding the bike. Knowing this I was being careful. I dismounted when the cycle paths crossed the dual carriageways getting back on only when safe to do so. Then on the climb up the hill towards shinewater and allowed my mind to wander and review and try to somehow change the day's events, when in my distraction I sensed a Firefox moment again. Aside...wasn't that freaky. No sooner do I mention it in a post on here than it appears on TV over the weekend. Another excuse (nearly said reason ha!) for not getting out on the bike. Anyhoo. I am getting to the end of the cycle route. Directly in front is a high curb, the cycle route turns sharp right onto a dropped curb but then I have to go sharp left once on the road , onto and over a mini roundabout (it's OK I can do those). For a split second I considered the straight on option dropping off the curb. But then remembered Sinead's comments about several innertubes as a result of such mammoth leaps. So I decide to turn right and then sharp left onto the mini roundabout before being struck by the approaching mondeo. My left foot is out of the pedal in readiness in case I do need to stop. But the slightly damp seat padding in my shorts was somewhat less closely conforming to one's contours, and had by now taken on all the characteristics of a moderately full pampers. The bike is slowing...and slowing and I find that now standing in the right pedal, left foot free, the pampers are hooked over the front end of the saddle. I tried to regain may seat, however this seemed to make the situation somewhat more urgent as I failed, and was duely presenting whoever was behind me with a visual represntation of somehere to park their own bike... if you know what I mean. So, whilst slowing with pampers hooked up like a failed parachute, and turning very, very slowly to the right, Mitchell Gant's face (Clint Eastwood's Firefox character) popped into my head muttering the Hokey Kokey into his helmet. He said something to the effect of "your Right foot's in but your left foot's out". Major Gant could obviously see that as I was slowly toppling to the Right, the tactical descision to remove the Left foot from the cleats before the curb was by now fatally (almost) flawed.

I think that in the blind panic of trying to un-hook the dry-nights I forgot to think in Russian!


I can only hope that next week will be better.......? Maybe if I just tweak those pedal releases a bit more??

My new bike

No excuses now!
Jen

money money money

Office dog Honey has been down to Lands End to check out the conditions for us this weekend - very hilly was the verdict!!

As I still don't have my bike (apparently I have a short body and long legs - meaning I need an unusual sized bike!!) the thought of hills has not filled me with joy as the training is yet to begin.

However the fundraising has got off to a better start thanks to my official fundraising manager Debbie who has an eye for sniffing out a money-making opportunity whatever the situation!

We have a National Lottery bonus ball competition every week, various sport sweepstakes, and soon to come the launch of the jams, chutneys and pickles sales - the perfect Christmas presents for your friends and family!! thanks to the Support Office staff who have been donating all sorts of fruit for Debs and I to cook up. I am sure the resulting produce will be interesting!

Please don't forget to check out our Just Giving page - http://www.justgiving.com/teams/ccvets we still have a long way to go to get to £50,000.

Am also meeting with the Dogs for the Disabled PR team next week to get the PR ball rolling - watch this space.

I hope that next time I post it will be a picture of me on my bike....

Jen