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! :)

Who knew?

Well, well, well. Cycling in the wet isn't much fun.

Another 20k completed this morning and having the cadence computer working is really helping. I can now push myself instead of ambling along at a low RPM.

Also had my first wobble and "almost" crash. A small little bump threw my hand off the handlebars but luckily the other hand maintained some control. Not looking forward to my first proper crash!

A Useful Gift!!

A generous donation came in to the cycling team this week in the form of 2 large pots of Sudocrem - from another of Claire Fryer's (our PR guru here at CCvets) PR clients. I am sure we will be making good use of this come May!!

Training is now well underway - with mixed results, some days fun, other days absolute torture. Unfortunately there is no way of telling which it will be until you have started. I also thought that the more you did the easier it would get but that doesn't quite seem to be the case either!
Jen

How long left?

Well, I've finally started getting serious about training. I'm alternating running with cycling and gotten up as far as a massive 15 miles cycling! So far so good though. I think I could cycle further without any major issues (apart from time). My turbo trainer is now installed and I'm getting familiar with the up to date chart on MTV. This just about takes away from the tedium of the turbo trainer although my head is precariously lose to the lightbulb in the room. I swear I'm getting sunburnt!

I'm booked on the Reading Half mara at the start of April so I'm working up the running miles and I invested in a nifty heart rate monitor to make sure I wasnt just ambling around!

And unlike Warwick I've had no punctures (yet!)

Noooooo

I messed up last week. Having thought I'd cracked the 50, I checked my bike trip computer. Let's call it ....W.I.T.T. in the vein of knightrider's K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand) "Wok Industries Twenty -Twelve". Unfortunately WITT said that last Sunday's ride was only 36 miles. I checked the route I had planned on Google. I had overlapped a section when adding a destination in the wrong sequence. AArrgg. No wonder 50 miles had felt easy not to mention quick!.
So today I was determined. Vicky went to work, I walked the two older dogs round the woods for 3/4 of an hour as a bit of a warm up. Got home gave them their breakfast, had a bowl of shreddies filled my drink bottle and off I went. Up through the steep climbs of Netherfield, Dallington and Wood's Corner to Heathfield. (I suspect Cornwall will be much harder). By Heathfield despite the Climbs I was feeling really good. So instead of turning left down to Hellingly I carried on. Up to Cross in Hand and then Left to Lewes.I was starting to feel it a bit by Ringmer but instead of turning left for home I carried on to Lewes itself. Now if you Know Lewes you will know that their is a road tunnel through the south Downs to the coast road. Scarey!!!That's all.
On getting through the tunnel alive I decided to stop to celebrate with a stretch and a drink. Oh and a bana...na..? Ooops . "Yes we have no Bananas". O bum I forgot my nana. Still 20 odd miles from home and no fuel. No money either. So I trusted that the carbs in my energy drink would be enough. Nope.
Well I turned onto the coast road to Eastbourne. BLAST! I got hit full in the chest by a freezing cold headwind of probably 8-10mph. The last 20 miles home were pergatory.
I can tell you that 3 miles from home on nothing but a small bowl of shreddies every tiny little incline feels like Everest. My average speed dropped from 13 mph along the coast road to 10 and by the time I got to "Donkey banks" 3 miles from home 5mph.
Well home now. Bathed. My intercostals feel like they have been stretched to 3 times normal. My Asthmatic chest does not appreciate cold head-winds!
Nevertheles I have done 51.19 miles in 4 hours 59 minutes. I know that may not be fast or far for some of the fitter guys in the team but that's a significant goal for me. But it has been a serious lesson in refuelling. Especially if I have to do that twice a day!
Ouch.

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.