All uphill from here

Now training in earnest (whoever he was).  Attempted very steep hill on Monday and did get to the top, fabulous views which made it so worth it and wonderful setting sun.  Met a lovely lady at the top who said “Oh my God you haven’t just cycled up there?”   Which made me feel even better.  (I did stop quite a few times on the way up – but never walked at any stage or turned round!).

It is now less than three months to the off (the date has been moved to 17th June) and I am more determined than ever to get to Paris.  Never having been there I quite relish the thought of a few hours looking at the sights before jumping on the Eurostar home.  Unfortunately Matt can’t join me at the end due to cricket commitments (he coaches the Gloucestershire U14 team) but we have decided there is always another day and it is probably not ideal to plan a trip to Paris to see the sights when you have cycled over 250 miles to get there!

Just £70 off my fundraising total which is brilliant, I am thrilled but plan to try and raise a whole load more for a brilliant cause before I go.  Here is my site www.bmycharity.com/emmasbikechallenge. 

7 year olds are great company but lousy trainers!

Been training a bit recently – trying to get on the bike three times a week, life has got hectic with work so I am not achieving what I should be.  Last weekend I decided to try and do a good loop and get a few miles under my belt.  Monty my 7 year old son said he’d like to come too.  Seeing as he had been watching television most of the day I thought that it was a great idea to get him out of the house.  Decided that a trip to Lower Swell would be good and we could pop in and see his friend Euan which would be an incentive to get there.

In fairness to Monty it was a cold day and he has never cycled that far before.  We stopped about every 200 hundred yards for a “rest” and he walked the hills whilst I cycled them.  We had some great chats but as far as getting some good mileage under my belt it wasn’t happening.  On getting to Euan’s he announced he could not possibly cycle home so with a bit of cajoling I got him half way back then had to call in back up support in the form of Matt and the car! (Not a popular call as he was in the middle of cooking for a dinner party we were having that evening!)

Fundraising is going well – still not quite at my target but have had a lot pledged so need to nudge everyone!  Here is a new button from Bmycharity that should send you straight to my fundraising page…

Click to go straight to my fundraising page

Back on the bike

Last night was great – took the bull by the horns, posted my status on Facebook which I am a great believer in sticking to and got back on the bike.  Flying out of my road to the sounds of “Do you need some lights?” from my husband I headed off on my initial route across the fields and to Lower Slaughter.  I have to say (hopefully without sounding like a complete masochist) that it was great – peace and quiet and time to collect my thoughts!  Got almost to Lower Swell and realised that light was fading as it seems to really quickly at this time of year and that I would be cycling along country lanes with no lights.  Not the brightest idea and I understand is actually a fineable offence (along with most things in this country!). 

So did a quick U turn headed in to Upper Slaughter that has a few hills (nothing too serious) to see how I got on and was pleasantly surprised!  So all in all – came back feeling great – ready to get back to it, not nearly as sore as expected today must be my wonderful padded shorts!

Fundraising going really well – nearly at my target which is great and hope to raise a bit more for James Hopkins if possible.  Sorted some branded T-Shirts to wear while training to raise the profile as well. Definitely feeling back on track! Fundraising page is at www.bmycharity.com/emmasbikechallenge.

Slow Progress (Snow Progress!)

Having now had some physio my shoulder is repairing really well, so I am feeling more confident that  I will be able to get back training fairly soon.  The exercise bicycle I borrowed is straight out of the Ark and unfortunately doesn’t work very well – still with the promise of a static trainer I will hopefully be up and cycling sooner rather than later.

We have been fairly snow bound for the last week – which has been great for the kids – sledging galore and with more forecast tonight they will be doing the snow dance for their schools to be closed tomorrow!!

I had the pleasure of being assessed on the Wii Fit yesterday which told me that my centre of balance is somewhere off to the left , that I am officially 48 BUT  and this is a big BUT, I am not clinically obese!!  Who these machines are set up for I am not sure – a family of stick insects I would imagine.    So with my fitness not at rock bottom, I hope to be back on the bike once shoulder has repaired and snow disappeared!

Stuck on the exercise bike

For the last week, I have been twiddling my thumbs waiting to hear from the physio and thinking of other ways to exercise to keep me going whilst my shoulder heals.  I finally got through to the physio on Friday and have an appointment on Wednesday and in the meantime have managed to borrow an exercise bike.  This I hope will keep me up and running (pedalling) on a more regular basis whilst the nights are still long and it is sooo cold!

My fundraising page is now up and running on Bmycharity – www.bmycharity.com/emmasbikechallenge for those of you who may wish to sponsor me.  All donations will be gratefully received and are going to an extremely good cause.

Met some fellow cyclists and disaster

In London this week I had a celebration to attend – Bmycharity celebrating the fact that they have raised £20 million for charity so far.  This was a great opportunity to meet some others doing the challenge as well as me.  Which was encouraging as none of them had started training!  Although, I have to confess that one of them was Kriss Akabusi who was an Olympic athelete so I don’t think that he will be coming up against the same barriers as me!  Kriss rose to the challenge to find another cyclist that evening which he did very successfully in about 30 seconds so Andy Clough will be joining us.  We plan to keep each other updated on how training is going!

I was all set to return to the Cotswolds and resume training but have been unable to due to a pain in my shoulder.  This was today diagnosed as a left rotary cuff strain (wrecked my shoulder in order words!) so physio and no cycling for me.  Very tedious as I was beginning to into the cycling. Following an interesting chat with my husband and two best friends (who are concerned for my sanity and ability to train!), I have been feeling more determined than usual.

So physio on Monday where I shall be telling them about my plans and getting some advice as to what I can do in the meantime.  Fundraising page not yet up and running but I  am now a few steps further so should be live next week.

Hurrah for padded shorts

5 miles – In discussion with a fellow cyclist (I suppose I can call myself a cyclist now!) and very old friend, he recommended that I get some padded shorts asap if I want to continue to walk normally.  So on Tuesday after my second cycle I paid a visit to www.wiggle.com which offered me a huge array of cycling shorts padded to fit all sorts of bottoms.  They arrived today and I waited for the post to arrive before I went off on my next cycle.  What a joy – rather strange feeling but in this weather they not only protect you from the evils of saddles (I have become to view my saddle as rather evil!) but also keep you warm.  Today I made my first attempt at a hideous hill and cycled to Great Rissington – for those of you that know the Cotswolds they are made up of lots of large hills, I suppose a perfect place to train.  It wasn’t too hideous, once I had worked out my gears, I managed to get to the entrance to the village before turning round. Certainly coming back down at God knows what speed was very exhilarating.

This journey will not only be a challenge for me but also an opportunity to do some fundraising.  Having worked with charities for the last four years, I decided I would like to run my own fundraising campaign – practising what I preach.  My chosen charity for this adventure is The James Hopkins Trust – a small local charity that provides respite care for terminally ill children.  I have a very great friend, Godmother to my daughter, whose little boy Matthew unfortunately uses these facilities on a weekly basis.  So what better a cause, one very close to my heart.  I will be setting up a fundraising page on www.bmycharity.com that will have more details about Matthew and the James Hopkins Trust.

Dogs don’t like cycling

2½ miles – Having spent the rest of the weekend walking like John Wayne, I did have a couple of days off my “training”.  So come Tuesday and having been told that I really don’t need any padded shorts by my wonderful husband (as I have quite enough padding of my own and I should just get used to cycling), it was with great fear and trepidation that I got back on my bike.  To ease my pain I decided to take my large black labrador, Obi, with me for company.  This was a great idea to begin, I found a route that I could let him off the lead so it was up to him whether he kept up the pace.  As it turned out he didn’t like being left behind so kept up with me all the way on the deserted roads but when it came to going back on the lead through the village it was another matter.  I appeared to have managed to exhaust a three year old lab (good for my ego but not his) as he sat down in the middle of a road junction and would not budge.  A dog protest, I had no choice but to get off and walk!  Still I had managed to do a few miles and established that the dog will not be joining me on my training programme.

First Day Out – flat tyres and frozen fingers

4½ miles – Having made my big decision on a Friday I was woken on Saturday by my husband to the words “Looking forward to your first training session”.  There is no escape when you need to prove everyone around you that you can actually do it.  It was suggested to me that I try my daughter’s bike as it is lighter and more roadworthy than mine – although had two flat tyres when I got it out of the garage.  Well, how she cycles anywhere on that I have no idea.  I couldn’t make it to the end of our road, it was like cycling through toffee – I began to wonder what I had let myself in for – how was I going to get to Paris?!  My 20p ran out before I had pumped up the tyres on her bike so I decided to walk home and jump on my own bike. 

Joy of joys it was perfect, I knew how to work the gears and the saddle is actually moderately less painful than hers and it was actually the right height.  So off I set, full steam ahead – out of Bourton, across to Lower Slaughter, round the back roads to Upper Slaughter and back to Bourton.  It was freezing cold -note to self to get some gloves – fingerless mittens do not do the job, but a beautiful frosty day, peaceful and gave me time to think.  I came back feeling elated, jumped in a warm bath and put Queen’s immortal “I want to  ride my bicycle” on at full blast.

Big Decisions

Last Friday I made a momentous decision (for me that is) and decided to sign up to the Bmycharity London to Paris Cycle ride.  For a person who struggles to get to and from the local cricket club during the summer ( a sum total of half a mile) my family were in hysterics when I made my announcement.  However, being 40 this year, I decided I needed a challenge, one a little more taxing than getting to and from the local cricket club.  So on 28 May, I will be travelling to London to join the rest of my group and cycle to Paris over the following three days.  This blog will be a record of my journey till my big journey.