Welcome to Nowhere

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Things you do not expect to see , The new Married Time Lord’s TARDIS

During the weekend I’ve participated in the Glasgow to Edinburgh Challenge ride , for me this was closing a circle .

As last year I considered this ride the starting point of the training for the L2P , completing this event today was my inner way of closing this chapter and moving on.
This years ride was along the same route as last year but the weather was not as accommodating with winds and some rain , I had a much easier time with the physical aspect , but also it was a one long cycling trail as we were told there we 16,000 ( yes ,you are reading correctly) rides taking part in the event .
This caused the entire length of the path to be full of riders and also in some place made overtaking the slow rides difficult ( and some time down right dangerous ) as the morons where riding two abreast and blocking the path, and if you wanted to go past them, you had to move in to the car’s lane.

So , as this is the last entry regarding the L2P cycling and related activities , the Blog will change it’s focus in the coming weeks , But do keep coming back as this will be the place to hear about my next Failed saving Throw.

In the 3-4 of September I spent the days in the Pets at Home branch in Hemel for the last time raising money for the L2P cycling .

The full amount for the ride is due for the 10/9 , and the amount needed is £1350 , which is another £250 from the amount i raised so far.

Although I had to cut my stay short ( only half a day on Sunday), I managed to raise £298.28, which nearly brought me to the £1400 I wanted to raise ( I would have been happy to get even more), but I do feel satisfied about the amount I was able to gather from Friends , co-workers and on donations.

Thank you All for donating .

The last 20 hours before I get on the bike and start the ride to paris , and just like any sane person the doubts creep in : Am I ready , Did i prepare for this properly ? will my knees be able to withstand this ? Am I crazy or delusional for picking up this challange ?

I know that this will be an incrediblle experiance , but will I arrive to Paris on the Bike or on the support car ?

Thank you all that helped me raise the funds to get to this point and for the spiritual support.

Tenchi –This One’s For you !!!

I did a full training session yesterday , a full 20 miles ( 30K ride) .

Knees were Ok for most of the ride , with some slight discomfort in some stages , the shoes worked better and the sole of my feet did not hurt as much as it did before , I think that is due to me tightening the laces and the replacement padding I put in the shoes.

The discomfort lingered to the morning and I guess that during the ride I’ll need to use the knee bracer’s as well , but at least I did not fall .

One week left …

After the musical number my knees performed on me (see the dunwich post) , I did some slow rides and found that if I secure my legs in a straight position the pain is gone.
So yesterday I went to a bike shop and bought Clits and shoes , Got home,fixed them on the bike and set out to learn how to use them.
The main issue with clits is the fact that you are SECURED to the bike and when you stop , if you don’t unsecure yourself fast enough , you’ll hit the floor .
My count for the first day is 3 hits on tarmac and 6 on grass (out of 14 stops).
The shoes are3 still not best fit top my flat-foot legs , I’ll need to put in the pads , but I will need to get used to them FAST .

I finally got myself a route I enjoy riding and that has all the aspects i need to work on , moderate hills , long climbs , flat stretches , rubbish road surface ,turns , open road .. all the things I assume i’ll encounter on the ride to Paris .
The total distance is 35k and it takes me about 1 hour 13 minutes to complete it ,and now that I have gotten to the stage that I am ready to ride it as many times as I can , I am stuck for a week till I can climb on the bike for more then 20 minutes, not due to an injury , but work!
I am on call and with no one else to man the phones I can not be out of reach from my Pc for more then 30 minutes , this is annoying as I can see that I will miss some movies in the cinema and loose training sessions.

I thought about using the Gym in town , but it is just not the same and now as fun.

Today I got an email from the organizers of the event saying this

“your total now stands at £1085.73 so very well done “.

Somehow the count of the offline donations on my justgiving page is wrong , but I don’t care.

You may not remember but the minimum amount to raise for participation in £1080 , so I have past that mile stone and my participation is guaranteed.


YES !!!

Just as I was planning a new start (see previous post) , life decides to put a stop gap into my plans .
I was all ready for my weekend ride , trimmed up the bike from the dirt and extra stuff I carry , charged the MP3 Players battery , so I was well on my way to get another weekend ride .
But the Health demons decided that I am not giving them enough of me, so they gave me an Airways and lung infection , breathing is painful , I even had to skip on my morning walk with the four legged miracle (that can tell you how much pain I am in).

On the better news section : I’ve been to the Doctor and I am now 76 kg . that means I lost almost 6kg since I started training for this , if I can loose another 5kg i’ll be very happy .
I Guess I should stop with my love for good food and Beer ? NO WAY ;-)

After the dismal performance in the Iain Rennie Challenge I decided to reevaluate my fitness on the bike and set my training regime a new , and get my fitness back .
I seem to have forgotten that most of my training was when i cycled to work in west London , but now that I no longer work for that employer I no longer ride to work .

So in order to resume my training I’ve decided to set a new course and use it , so I selected the A4164 from Hemel to Leighton Buzzard .
It is a 45k ride and has some nice hills to add some difficulty to the ride. It also has some very badly maintained roads on some sections , so that is not much fun .
I did my first ride this last Sunday , my time in total was not good , nearly 2 hours for a 44k ride , but as it is a new base ride to start from , I should no be too hard on myself …should I ?