Centurion

On Easter Monday I took part in the Cotswold Spring Classic. I am not sure I have ever made up so many swear words in my life (although I should admit that most of these were conventional swear words with the word biscuit added to the end). 

Perhaps I should start with an excerpt from the rider manual:

Additional route information – please be aware that the 163km route includes some very tough climbs, and technical descents. Some may think that there is not much climbing, but you are in the Cotswolds and when roads go up – they’re steep!! The last third of the long route includes a lot of the major climbs, therefore if you are not sure of your ability this early in the season please don’t risk it. We do run a broom wagon and if you get caught by it we will have to pull you out of the event for your own safety.

During the safety briefing the above message was reinforced quite strongly - we were told that the final 60km of the long route involved as much climbing as the first 100km (but a bit steeper) and that anybody feeling a bit jaded or not quite up for it should stick to the medium route when the routes split.

Having not slept particularly well, I decided at that point that however much I might want to ride 100 miles (160km), this was not the time to try it.

The ride involved a procession of hills, some of which had photographers at or near the top and some of which were timed hill climbs. Some of them were quite hard work.

Another difficult thing about the ride was the number of feed stops. The Tour de Bristol, that I took part in the previous weekend, had three feed stops within 100km ride. This one had one feed stop for the 100km ride and two stops for the 160km route.

Around 90km into the route, I thought about a conversation that I had with a friend the day before. He had taken part in a sprint triathlon and really enjoyed it, but (sensibly in my view) had no intention of doing a longer triathlon - unlike his sister, who completed an iron man a few years ago.

This sparked a dilemma in my head. On one hand, I really wasn't up for cycling a further 60km of hills, tiredness and pain. On the other hand, (i) I am training for a 4-day ride (the longest stage of which is 214km long) so will need to get to grips with longer rides at some point, (ii) I had told people that I was going to ride 100 miles (i.e. the long route) so there was a degree of pride at stake, (iii) I rode 135km last month - would quitting at 100km be a backwards step? (iv) I had 4 hours or so before the cut-off time - if I try the 160km and it doesn't work out I can either walk up some hills or bail out and hitch a lift back on the broom wagon.

While the above was still going through my mind, I found myself turning off to take the 160km route.

I immediately saw what they meant about the climbs. Never mind, I thought, there were so many steep hills straight after the turning off that I was surely getting the climbs out of the way.

That turned out to be a whole load of **** biscuits!

The hills continued and it was not long before I started to dread the lengthy descents as these were always going to be followed by lengthy, and often steep, climbs.

As painful as the hills were, they give the opportunity for some impressive views. I was struck by the following view as I approached Sheepscombe - and was grateful for the excuse to pause while I took a photo.

Slad Valley was particularly painful and demoralising - going down one side, crossing to climb out of the valley on the other side before immediately descending back into the valley and climbing back out again. At this point in the ride I met up with another rider, who joined me for some swearing and - eventually - a short walk uphill.

I can keep banging on about hills, but the only way to do this any justice is a picture of the elevation of the ride. The below picture is a screenshot from my phone. 

To further illustrate how difficult this was, if you google "how many calories will I burn if I run a marathon" the top result tells you that the burn rate is approximately 100 calories per mile - i.e. 2,600 calories for the entire race. According to my Garmin app I burned 3,967 calories during this ride.

Hopefully I now have your sympathy.

There was a moment, about 7-8km before the end, that I realised I was tired, hungry, alone and struggling along even flat roads. Determined to finish, however, I pushed on through to receive a much-needed round of applause as I crossed the line and collected my finisher's medal.

It says a lot about my frame of mind at the end of the ride that I wanted to take the following picture (sorry James, that is a bit of my leg).

It was, so far as I can remember, the toughest experience of my life.

Fundraising 
This summer I will be riding 670km (430 miles) in four days as I tackle four stages of the Tour de France. More information is available here.

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.

Please visit my fundraising page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TomHoldaway.

Alternatively, if you would like to sponsor me but do not want to do so online, let me know and I will cycle over to collect your donation in person (within reason obviously - I am not cycling too far!). 


Thank you for reading!

Hot and hilly - Tour de Bristol 2017

In support of St Peter's Hospice, I took part in the Tour de Bristol on Saturday. Given a choice of three distances (35km, 50km or 100km) I opted for the longer, most challenging route as part of my training for this year's Tour de Force.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, not much of the event took place on the busy streets of Bristol. This, in itself, gave me a bit of a shock as I realised the sort of distance I am covering on longer rides. Anybody who has ever thought that driving to Clevedon or Cheddar from Bristol is a bit of a faff will appreciate that cycling to both is not likely to be a leisurely ride.

You can watch a video of the 50km route if you would like to get a flavour of the ride.

Having some concerns about parking, I set off for Ashton Court at 7am. As you will see from the following photographs, it was a good thing I got there early:

After fighting through the crowds, I met up with some of my colleagues and made my way to the start of the ride.

The ride itself was fun. Here are some highlights:

1. Sociable feed stops are definitely the way forward.
2. Cycling up Cleeve Hill - the first point at which I decided to abandon my colleagues and get the hill over and done with (although I did wait for them at the top)!
3. Getting sworn at by somebody in a mini as I cycled up Burrington Combe, because I was in the process of overtaking another cyclist when the driver decided to overtake me - for the record, if a driver has to cross to the other side of the road to overtake one cyclist, it really makes no difference to that driver if they have to go slightly further over to overtake two cyclists!
4. Cheddar Gorge! I had heard some scary stories about cycling up Cheddar Gorge, but I quite enjoyed it. The hill goes on for around 10km, I think, but once the steep bit at the bottom is out of the way, most of it just a case of settling into a rhythm and showing gravity who is boss.
5. The horrible steep hill shortly before the third feed stop, the location of which I didn't think to check because I was too busy trying not to have to walk up the hill.
6. The person who rode the whole route that I am moaning about here, but with a Deliveroo backpack on!
7. Waiting with my colleagues at the end to see everybody cross the line.
8. The weather was great! Better, in fact, than I had expected. Here is the outcome of that:

Just to confirm, that is sunburn - not a really nice tan.

About St Peter's Hospice

St Peter's Hospice is a fantastic charity in Bristol which cares for adults with life-limiting illnesses, aiming to improve the quality of their living and dying while extending care and support to their families and loved ones. St Peter's Hospice is a charity which is close to the heart of a number of my friends and colleagues.

It may seem ridiculous in a blog which was set up to help me meet my fundraising target for one charity for me to plug another one, but I have always taken the view that I am not going to tell anybody what to do with their hard-earned money. I took part in this event with my colleagues, without whom it would have been much more difficult and far less enjoyable. If you would like to support this effort, please do visit our fundraising page. As a firm we have already managed to raise over £9,000 for taking part in this event alone!

My own fundraising effort!
I will be riding 670km (430 miles) in four days this summer as I tackle four stages of the Tour de France. Sadly, I am going to find each stage even tougher than the Tour de Bristol - especially by the final day in the Pyrenees.

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.

Please visit my fundraising page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TomHoldaway.

Alternatively, if you would like to sponsor me but do not want to do so online, let me know and I will cycle over to collect the money from you (within reason obviously - I'm not cycling too far!). 

Shout outs
A huge thank you to everybody for your continued support. A special thank you goes to both James and Rob (to whom I am so grateful I did not call him Hornblower) for your kind donations.

Thank you for reading!

Fun with maths

No, not crystal maths - this isn't Breaking Bad, you know!

Whilst I understand that the title might seem like an oxymoron, I decided to write this post after receiving donations to take me over halfway towards my fundraising total (more on that later).

In February I bought myself a GPS computer to record my training. What this has revealed so far is as follows:

• Between 10 February 2017 - 31 March 2017, I recorded over 1,116 km cycled - I have actually cycled further, as there have been plenty of journeys where I either forgot to start the GPS or it has taken a while to pick up a signal and I got fed up with waiting, but (as with the time that I recorded running 99.8km in one month when I had actually run further) if it isn't recorded, it doesn't count!
• This equates to 25,647 calories burned.
• The above period covers 50 days and gives an average of 22.32 km and 512.94 calories per day.
• During the month of March, there were just 6 days on which I did not cycle at all.

To put this into context though, when I ride four stages of the Tour de France this summer (more details here):

• Between 4 July 2017 - 7 July 2017, I will be cycling 694 km.
• This will equate to 45,000 calories burned.
• The above period covers 4 days and gives an average of 173.5 km and 11,250 calories per day.
• During the above 4 days, there will be no rest days!

I am choosing to ignore the elevation statistics for now because they are a bit scary.

Once again, I am incredibly grateful to everybody who has donated so far - it really means a lot to me. As mentioned above, I have now reached over half of my fundraising total. At the time of writing this blog post, I have raised £645 (£781.25 including Gift Aid) - leaving just £555 to reach my target. 

What this really means is that I can reach my target if the following happens:

• 555 kind people donate £1 each.
• 111 very kind people donate £5 each.
• 55½ incredibly kind people donate £10 each.
• 27¾ super kind people donate £20 each.

I am still trying to work on some fundraising events to reduce the number of super kind people that I have to rely on, but in the meantime if anybody wants to donate anything it really will make a difference.

If anybody would like to donate but is reluctant to do so via my fundraising page (I understand that it is a bit of a faff to do, that some people prefer to avoid that there internet thing and that some people might not want to allow Gift Aid and would prefer not to publically admit to doing so), do get in touch with me and I will happily cycle to you - subject to meeting within a reasonable distance of my flat or somewhere that I am already planning to be - to collect your donation.

Shout outs
Thank you again to everybody who has sponsored me so far. A big thank you goes to Gemma for your incredibly kind donation!

If anybody else would like to sponsor me, please visit my sponsorship page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TomHoldaway. Any donation of any size would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you for reading!

TDF Spring Training Weekend

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"!

L'épuisement

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!

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!

The Wiltshire Wildcat - 81 miles (and a bit more)

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!