Since I met Beth we've had various involvements with FSID (http://www.fsid.org.uk/), the sudden infant death charity. Attending open days, selling wrist bands, raffle tickets and the like. Beth even trained as a counsellor with them, but felt the pain was still too raw, even years later, to be able to actively help others in that situation. The peak of our involvement was in 2007 when I cycled from land's End to John O'Groats to raise money and awareness for FSID. Thanks to the enormous generosity of friends, family and strangers I raised over £5500 fir SIDS research. And had a great time doing it. So much so that I caught the cycling bug and have cycled regularly ever since, even pitching in with another couple of charity rides for Action Medical Research (http://www.action.org.uk/). 100 miles in a day, to raise a couple of hundred pounds.
So, when Beth said she'd like to mark the tenth anniversary of Tom's death in 2009 and asked if I'd like to ride from London to Paris in 4 days to raise money, I leapt at the chance and coralled as many friends as a I could into coming too. Now training for and executing such a ride takes commitment and sacrifice, so I didn't really expect anyone to come with me. But our neighbour Tom Lawrence rose to the challenge and has committed already to the tune of £1000 by buying one of these to come with me:
Its a beauty isn't it. Specialzed Allez Elite. Aluminium frame, carbon, forks, seat post and seat stays. oooer! Shame he fell off it 3o seconds into our first training ride, but I'll spare you the details.
Also up for the trip is another neighbour, Mark Fothergill, who is raising money for Breast Cancer research, in honour of his brave wife Heather. Good luck to them both and thanks from me for coming along.
I haven't really got started yet but I'm already getting a lot of support from people. Keep reading for more info as the story unfolds.
When I did the end to end my main concern (and a large motivator) was fear of failure. I didn't actually know that I was capable of cycling 1000 miles in 12 days. But I did. Much to my amazement. I think my main concern this time around is over confidence. I know I can do the miles, I've done it before. But I still need to train. I'll keep you informed of progress here. I'm sure there will be ups and downs. First off I need to find the money to service my bike!
To keep my fitness up whilst the November weather restricts outdoor riding I've been going to spin classes. Monday at the gym, Thursday with Coventry Tri club and augmenting that with some frankly pathetic weight training to strengthen my "core". I know its important, but I'm not entirely clear what it is. Anyhow, I stood on the scales today to give myself a benchmark (and I need my height and weight to register for the ride, I guess they want to check the ferry won't sink under my weight). I was chuffed to bits to see I've lost a couple of kg (4.5lbs in old money). I don't think I need to lose weight and I haven't been trying, but its always good to feel fitter. When I rode in to John O'Groats I thionk I was as fit as at any time in my life. So imagine my disappointment minutes later when two gym staff wander through and stand over the scales discussing how they under report by a couple of pounds, but they can't be bothered to fix it....
