A weekend off

Anybody who read my previous blog will be aware that, having already put in a lot of work into this cycling malarkey, I earmarked this weekend as a rest weekend. So, what to do?

Well, the six nations and FA cup are both on this weekend, so I could stay in and watch them. I am hoping to move house soon, so I could start clearing the loft out (although to be honest I am quite keen to put this off for as long as possible). Also, my girlfriend is out showering babies or something on Saturday afternoon, so I could catch up with friends [edit: apparently no showers or babies are involved in a baby shower].

But then I received a text message on Friday inviting me out for a ride with a few other people. As much as I could do with a rest, I can't turn down opportunities to get good rides in and there is no room for slacking when riding as part of a group. 

And so I found myself setting an alarm for Saturday morning and crawling up the (slightly intimidating) Burrington Combe. As I descended the other side (a 15% gradient), another cyclist came up beside me and told me that he rode the Tour de Force two years ago. Fortunately he was very positive about it.

As I cycled home, I decided that I might as well go a bit further to get up to 100km. Having done so, and finding myself a little short, I went up another big hill. Because apparently that's what I do now - look for big hills and cycle up them. What have I become?!

I then spent Sunday morning doing maintenance work on my bike, including replacing a water bottle holder that had fallen apart at the start of Saturday's ride (nearly causing an accident) and changing the brake blocks on the front wheel. The brakes involved a bit of trial and error to get right, but I got there - I think/hope!

So why am I putting myself through this? I could have had a lie in!
Partly because I was encouraged/bullied into it, partly because it is the type of ridiculous challenge that I seem to enjoy putting myself through (N.B. I think "enjoy" is quite strong), but mostly to raise money for the fantastic William Wates Memorial Trust. WWMT gives funding and support to organisations and projects which help disadvantaged young people by keeping them away from a life of crime.

I have already contacted two Bristol charities to encourage them to seek funding from the Trust and am aware that at least one of them is working on an application.

My fundraising page is http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TomHoldaway. 

All of this hard work will be worth it if I can hit my fundraising target. 

Shout outs:
Thank you to Helen for sponsoring me (whilst I was writing this blog post!) - I am really grateful for your donation.
To anybody else reading this, please visit my fundraising page. A donation of any size will help a lot. Also, there is a picture of a dog on a bike. Who doesn't want to see that?

Thank you for reading!