I laughed, I got fed up, I walked up a hill.
Last weekend I took part in the Tour de Force training weekend in Cheltenham. This was an organised event to get to know some of the other riders that will be there with me this summer as I ride four stages of the Tour de France (more details here) and, more importantly, an opportunity to do back to back rides over two consecutive days.
Aside from the wind, the weather across the weekend was great - I even managed to get sunburned!
Saturday consisted of two rides, both quite hilly. About a third of the way through the second ride, an optional extra 20 miles, we turned on to a side road with a 25% sign at the entrance. To help explain the sense of dread that I felt as I saw the sign, I found a blog which describes anything over 16% as "very challenging for riders of all abilities". I got about halfway up and needed a rest (to be fair it might have been my second rest). I somehow managed to get back into a rhythm, before turning a corner to find that the hill was much longer than I had hoped. In that instant, my resolve to struggle up the rest of the hill deserted me and I took the decision to walk for a bit. I managed to get back on my bike when the hill levelled off a bit, but was somewhat grumpy after that.
After Saturday's escapades, combined with a bad night's sleep, what should have been a fairly routine ride on Sunday felt like hard work. It also seemed that whichever direction we turned we were cycling in to the wind.
All in all, the weekend was hard work, but definitely worth doing. The organisation was good and the route was well signed (I didn't get lost, which is a good start!). It was also great to meet some of the other cyclists, which addressed some of my concerns about this summer's ride. We regularly exchanged pleasantries* and got to know each other during the ride and over dinner.
Disappointingly, while reflecting over the weekend on Monday, I found myself thinking that I had actually enjoyed it.
The Charity
All of this hard work is 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. Three of the trustees of WWMT were at the training weekend and it was great to speak to them and hear how enthusiastic they are about the charity and the projects they support.
Please visit my fundraising page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TomHoldaway.
Shout outs
A huge thank you to everybody for your support and for taking an interest. A special thank you goes out this week to my Dad and Sue, Michael and the charity team at Bond Dickinson for your very generous donations.
Thank you for reading!
* usually something along the lines of "flipping hill" or "flip off wind"!
Having upped my training over recent weekends - and after a busy week - I arrived at this weekend needing a break. I had hoped to put in some more training, but my energy levels were pretty low. I have a two-day training weekend next week, so it was not worth pushing myself and risking injury.
I thought I would take the opportunity to work on something else that I might need to ride four stages of the Tour de France - re-learning French!
Here is what I have been working on so far:
- Gauche / droite / tout droite - Left / right / straight on
- Où se trouve la toilette la plus proche - Where is the nearest toilet?
- Excusez-moi, je suis terriblement désolé de vous déranger, mais je suis complètement perdu dans un pays inconnu - Excuse me, I am terribly sorry to trouble you, but I am completely lost in an unfamiliar country
- Y at-il un raccourci à travers la montagne? Ou en dessous? - Is there a short cut through the mountain? Or underneath it?
- Combien plus loin? - How much further do I have to go?
- Vraiment, combien plus loin? - No come on, how much further do I really have to go?
- Aidez-moi, s'il vous plaît, j'ai fait une erreur - Please help me, I am starting to question my life choices
- Si je vous donne €15, s'il vous plaît, pourrions-nous échanger des vies pour les quatre prochains jours - If I give you €15, please could we swap lives for the next four days?
The charity bit
I am raising 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.
Shout outs:
Thank you to Ben and Emma (and the kids) for sponsoring me. I am very grateful for your donation.
To anybody else reading this, I would be really grateful if you could please visit my fundraising page. A donation of any size will help a lot.
Merci de lire ce blog!
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!
As part of my training to ride four stages of the Tour de France this summer (more information here), I decided to enter a few events to get used to taking part in them and cycling with other people.
The first event I entered was the Wiltshire Wildcat, which had three difficulty levels - short (30 miles), standard (61 miles) and epic (81 miles). In a bold move while signing up, I decided to enter the longest distance, figuring that I could probably ride one of the shorter distances if I needed to on the day.
The event started at Salisbury Racecourse on Saturday morning. I was subsequently told that this part of Wiltshire is fairly flat. The elevation chart (see above link) and the aching in my legs suggests otherwise!
I overcame the first obstacle at 6am (less than 2 hours before registration opened) when I discovered that the bike did fit in the back of my car as hoped. Winning at life!
When I arrived at the event, though, I realised just how much of an amateur I am as I stood there on my own trying to work out what everyone else was wearing so I could decide what kit to take with me. I got to the start line and, while listening to the safety instructions and deciding that I was not going to be the ridiculous guy that missed direction signs, overheard somebody talking about their glasses. That was the moment that I realised I had left mine on my passenger seat (I wear cycling glasses to protect my contact lenses) and had to race back to my car to collect them.
Once I finally got underway, things started well. I got to the first major hill, the biggest of the day, and made it to the top with enough energy to grin at the strategically placed photographer. Going down the other side of the hill, however, I discovered that my brakes were not going to stop me in a hurry. Fortunately, at the bottom of the hill was the first feed station - which I did manage to stop at - and a friendly bike mechanic who was able to supply some brake blocks at a reasonable price. His diagnosis of the problem was that the brake blocks were, to use the technical term, "f***ed".
My head swimming with cycling jargon, I got back on the road again and things continued to go quite well. About 3 hours into the ride, I found myself on my own. I saw a hill to my left and hoped I wouldn't have to cycle up it. That was when I realised that I hadn't seen any direction arrows for a while and that I was in fact the ridiculous guy who had missed a direction sign. To add insult to injury, the extra section I had added was quite hilly.
I found my way back on track and to my delight didn't have to cycle up the hill I was keen to avoid. Annoyingly, though, the next one I had to ride up was even worse than the one I had just seen.
The third section, after the next feed station, was probably the toughest. That was the period during which I got annoyed at the lack of flat roads in Wiltshire, at the changeable weather (other than the wind - that was pretty constant), at yet more fields, at still being sat on a bike, a bit more annoyed at the lack of flat roads, and the distance I had to travel to get to the next feed station. This was also the stage of the event that I realised 81 miles is further than 120km.
I did, however, get to the next feed station with a sense of relief and determination to get this thing done. I watched a girl crying her eyes out at the prospect of yet more hills and a marshal try to reassure her that there were only two left. At that moment I was just relieved it wasn't me.
On the final stretch, I started chatting to another cyclist. This made the rest of the ride far more bearable (note for next time!). What was ridiculous about the conversation was that he was much quicker than me when descending hills, but that I was quicker than him at climbing them. The conversation therefore lasted a few minutes before being interrupted by a downhill section before being picked up again at the same point at the top of the next hill and so on.
It was a relief to finally cross the line. I didn't manage it in a particularly good time, but I did so with a sense of having accomplished something and taken a huge step towards feeling more confident about riding four stages of the Tour de France this summer. I learned a lot that I would not have been able to do riding on my own!
If anybody fancies a laugh (and/or to see my funky shorts in action), the event photos are available here.
Next weekend might be a rest weekend (I think I have earned one!) - but it probably won't be.
Shout outs:
Thank you to everyone who has helped me so far. I would like to give a shout out to Loz for sponsoring me - I am very grateful 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.
Thank you for reading!
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!
