Thank you to everybody who asks how my training is going when I see them. I am very grateful that people are taking an interest (for anybody that doesn't already know, I will be riding four stages of the Tour de France - but not with the professionals... obviously. More information here).
During one such conversation, one of my friends recently insisted (I was given very little choice in the matter) that I get in touch with a friend of hers who is keen on cycling. I did as I was told, which eventually led to me arranging to meet this guy on the Bristol to Bath cycle path yesterday morning.
Whilst introducing myself, what struck me as particularly novel about the experience was not necessarily that this chap (who I had never previously met) was about to lead me on a 65km-plus cycle ride, but that for the first time in my life I was introducing myself while wearing a fairly snug pair of cycle shorts which show off a bit more leg than I would usually feel comfortable inflicting on the general public.
To make it worse, the pair of cycle shorts that I chose (partly because they were in a January sale) are quite, ahem, conspicuous. I have discovered that nothing makes you feel quite so self-conscious about showing off a bit of leg like a pair of tight shorts with a bright orange pattern down one side. They seemed a good idea at the time.
The ride itself was described as having "plenty of lumps". We rode north from Bristol to the edge of the Cotswolds, passing through Hawkesbury Upton, Badminton and stopping for cake and a cuppa in Castle Combe. The ride home was quite tough as we had to cycle into the wind and the lumps continued, but it was great to get home after 70km knowing that it had been good training.
It was also nice to get out with an experienced rider from whom I could get some useful advice, push myself to keep up with and who didn't seem to mind that I needed to catch up a bit after wimping out on some of the descents (and was not too offended by my unsightly shorts/legs).
Shout outs:
Thank you again to everyone who has helped me so far. Shout outs go to Mike & Sue and to Louise & Pete for sponsoring me - I am very grateful for your kind donations.
I would also like to say thank you to Leon for venturing out in the wind and rain with me and to Rae for putting me in touch with him.
To anybody else reading this, please visit my fundraising page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TomHoldaway. A donation of any size will help a lot.
Finally, I need to step up my fundraising activities as I need to raise 80% of my target before the end of April. I am trying to arrange to set up a static bike somewhere (venue to be confirmed if it works out) and may also try to organise a charity gig. If anybody is able to help with organising a fundraising activity, or fancies getting involved in a gig, please do let me know.
Thank you for reading!
By the way, this is what I look like:
First of all, apologies to Destiny's Child for bringing the name of their fifth best song* into disrepute.
I decided on the title to this blog as I descended a hill for the second time. I thought about going up the same hill again for a third time, but wasn't sure "hill, hill, hill" would work quite the same so I decided to venture up a couple of other ones. As it turned out, I did go up that hill a third time a bit later on. Because I am a fool.
More interestingly, this week I cycled 100km in one go! I got to around 75km and thought I would see if I could push myself a bit further and get to three figures.
It was all going well until just before 90km in, when the world started to feel like a dark, lonely, painful place. Shortly after that I remembered I had some sweets in my pocket, though, and everything felt better!
Unsurprisingly I ached when I got home, and again the following morning, but I was quite pleased with my achievements so far.
Shout outs: Thank you to everyone who is helping me with this. A big shout out goes to Alan and Carolyn for sponsoring me - thank you so much for your donation. To anybody else reading this, please visit my fundraising page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TomHoldaway. It still has a picture of a dog on a bike on it. A donation of any size will help a lot. Thank you for reading!
* Probably not that controversial. Also worthy of note for the uninitiated are Say My Name (a sad tale about forgetfulness), Bugaboo (about an insect ghost or something - not in the top five) and Bootylicious (a tragic tale about somebody who filled up on dinner and isn't quite ready for pudding).
Often when I see people, after telling them about my charity ride this summer, they ask how my training is going. My response so far has been a kind of awkward mumble about not having started properly yet, but planning to do so shortly.
Anyway, I finally started today. Woohoo! Except that it was cold ... and involved lots of cycling.
As part of my training plan (a term I use very loosely) I have signed up for a few sportives. The first of these is in 3 weeks' time. It will be ok, I reckon I can manage 81km. Anyway, I discovered the other day that it is 81 miles, not km. Apparently that is around 120km. Balls.
I decided that, to start with, I was going to ride along the Bristol to Bath cycle path. One of the good things about living in Bristol is having access to a 13-mile traffic free cycle route, so I thought I would make the most of it. I did a couple of trips from my flat to Bath, going off-route a couple of times to get some hill training in.
Generally, it went quite well. I managed around 66.5 km (a bit over 40 miles) and would have been able to go further if I hadn't been short on time. Here are some lessons I learned:
- After around 30 km I couldn't feel my toes any more because it was so cold;
- A good windproof jacket is a worthwhile investment - it was worth paying the extra;
- My gps has something on its display that looks suspiciously like a symbol that the battery is about to die, prompting me to save my ride about three-quarters of the way through in case I lost the whole thing. It turned out there was plenty of juice left.
Other notable things were nearly hitting a squirrel and then a dog running in front of my bike twice - the same dog ... in completely different parts of the cycle path. I also got up to around 27mph at one point (although I was going downhill at the time).
Shout outs:
Once again, thank you to everyone who is helping me with this. A big shout out goes to Sarah for sponsoring me - thank you for your donation.
To anybody else reading this, please visit my fundraising page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TomHoldaway. A donation of any size will help a lot. Also, there is a picture of a dog on a bike. I tried to upload a really unflattering selfie taken towards the end of my ride today, but my tech skills let me down spectacularly.
Thank you for reading!
