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This weekend I spent most of my time in the local branch of Pet’s at home in Hemel Hempstead, I went there with the unoptimistic hope that I will raise 60£ over the weekend.
I set up myself standing in the doorway with my leaflets and collection box pleading with the customers to donate money and sponsor me , eventually my mouth would utter the phrase ” Spare some change for the Dog’s Trust” all on it’s own .

With knees aching from standing, cold creeping in every time some one came or left the shop and me forgetting the pack food or water (the first day at least ) I endured and stayed on with my pleading .

When the weekend finished and I went to deposit the “loot” in the bank , the total tally was £202.99, which is 14% of the target amount I wish to achieve . and it brings me to more then 50% of the minimal amount I need to raise to participate , So I’d call it a weekend well spent .

Today I got of my lazy A%$ and decided to join the social rides of the Hemel Hempstead Cycling club, So I geared up and went to the meeting place at the scheduled time . I arrived about 3 minutes ahead and waited till the others will come.

when the time was 9:10 and i was still the only one at the meeting point , I decided to head out and ride alone , I picked a heading and with no set path started pedaling , eventually I did the Ashridge route which was a 28+ km ride – mostly hills and narrow roads.
I recorded this ride on my sports tracker application and uploaded it only to find out that the GPS started calculating the route 3 km into the ride Ashridge ride so it shows only a part of it … suits me right :-)

In my effort to reach as wide an audience as possible for my fund raising , I’ve talked to my contact in the Dogs Trust and he agreed to help me .

To that end I wrote a short 200 word story to be posted on the Dogs Trust website , and today I got an email telling me it is up and posted … so here is the article , with hopes it will help me help the Dogs Trust….The Dogs Trust Blog

As my efforts to raise sponsorship are failing and the goal of actually doing the ride seems to slip away from me , I approached several new places in order to raise awareness to my cause and perhaps be able to get more donations .

One of those place was the local news paper , and they did print it on their paper edition that you have to buy , then I called and asked to have it on the on-line version and they agreed to it – and so this is the article which they named Going the extra mile for man’s best friend .

Also I went to the Pets At home branch in Hemel and asked to put some of my flyers, I also get permission to hang around with the collection box – lets see how i can manage that.

After a too long a break , I managed to find the time and get on the bike for some practice , true it was not the ride I initially planned , but even a short ride is better then nothing . So the target set, warm cloth on , and I was off . it was good to feel the seat under me again and the cold wind on my face , until I got to the first hill climb , and then I noticed how out of shape I am – almost 3 month with no notable rides sent my fitness to hell .

The total distance of the ride was 17k (10.5 miles ) and it took me 45 minutes to do it – an abysmal time considering that i was doing that same distance it 35 minutes on my rides to work … and then I got home and realized I am suffering from food poisoning , so maybe I am not that out of shape – but I prefer to think that I am , and have a better motivator to push harder.

They say that life is what happens while you make plans , back home there is a similar saying that loosely translate to “every plan is the base of modifications” , and this week to me had been no exception . I planned to visit the gym and get some training time , and maybe even have a ride outside , but no .

I could only blame myself on some of it ( well most of it ) as I used the time to walk with Tenchi back from the train station after dropping Linor and Aeryn in the morning and walking back to it when it is time to pick them up , but he is just so happy to have long walks that I feel guilty if I spend the time not do it .

So I cleared the treadmill and decided to use it for a while , managed to get a 30 minute walk on that before the house chores required my attention – not a very good “training session” .

So I thought today i will do the walk back to the train station with intervals of jogging , and what do you know the weather decided to interject – rain pouring so bad the shoes were so soaked it was like walking with ankle weights – so no running there. I still don’t know if i’ll be doing the walk to pick Linor or let he do that – depends if the rain subsides.

Only good thing in this is that the walks are 4 Km each way – so I get to walk 8K each day , small comfort and some exercise is still good for me.

Well , after collecting for a long time and gathering a rather large number of cion bags on my living room “fireplace” , I asked my wife to take the coins and convert them to a more manageable form of cash so I may add it to the donations .

With all the mix ups and true to form – she took the money and deposited it to her account …

Not to worry – yesterday she transfered the amount to the Dogs Trust on the just giving page – all £28.67 collected .

Just goes to show that even in small numbers , we can get to nice sums.

“The Song of Ice and Fire” saga keep warning the readers – “Winter is Coming” . Well Winter is here , now and in force . This make my aspiration to train a bit more challenging , I actually invested in warm riding clothes so I can ride outside in the cold – and the day after I place my order – the snow comes in and for all intent and purpose puts a dead stop on my plans.


So now I am considering to start frequenting the local gym and use their training cycles , Not as fun , and not as good and an “honest to god outside ride” – but beggars can’t be choosers , and if I want to stay ready , I must put in the Saddle time .

You know the saying “A drop in a bucket” ?, Every one who ever had a leaky faucet will tell you that eventually the bucket gets filled up and you need to pour it out some where , well the same goes for small donations , and with that train of thought I have been collecting small change from all sources , pennies , twopence , and five pence coins I find in the street . I’m the person that bends down to pick up a stray penny on the sidewalk .
This money (as small as it is ) is being accumulated and will be given to the DogsTrust. So to quote Han Solo – “Small help is better then no help” .

September 12 , A day most of my friends will remember with fond memories – my wedding day.
The day most of them drank so much Scotch that it might have been a night long drinking game – and for some it was .

Well this year i celebrated in a totally different way , combining two loves of mine ( and a nice training session ) i traveled to Glasgow to participate in the “Pedal For Scotland” and do the ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh .










The ride was so much fun – the only sad point was – you were not allowed to stop for a dip :




















The ride itself was a 50 mile ride (80 km ) , mostly over rolling hills and in towns (although there were some parts were we traveled on main roads) , great route , and a good day for riding – I managed to complete it in 3 Hours 25 minutes.