Not that Sparks... - Lee

Until 3 or 4 years ago the only Sparks I knew were the Euro Pop Bandthat I first encountered in the 1970’s. Euro Pop has never really been my bagbut Sparks are not your average Euro Pop. If you can’t remember them or arejust too young pick them up on YouTube at Sparks band video – ThisTown Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us their first UK hit and a classic.

However, this has got nothing to do with Lands End John O’Groats and thecharity Sparks that we’re supporting. Sparks are a children’s medical research charity whose work aims toimprove the quality of life for babies, children and mums to be or put simply -those most precious to us. There are so many good causes but it’s difficult notto be moved by Sparks’ work. If you have a moment visit their website at www.sparks.org.uk It’schallenging and inspiring in roughly equal measures.

So we found a good cause (or it found us through our local contact – NiaWilliams) but that doesn’t compel you to cycle from Lands End to John O’Groats.Do I enjoy cycling? – I suppose so in a sort of cycle down the shop to get apaper sort of way and we did hire one of those Chuckle Brothers Cycles onholiday in France once:

  

To me..to you

Then two years ago I was tempted to cycle around Wales on the promise ofmeeting a Sparks ambassador in Cardiff – I thought it was going to be MartinO’Neil, still Villa’s manager at the time (yes I’ve always been an Aston Villafan, born in Aston, christened in Aston Church, Dad, Brother, Grandfather,Nephew, Cousins, etc. all Villa fans – you get the picture), but it turned outto be a chap from New Zeland called Gatland – quite revered in Wales thesedays:

Warren Gatland meets Lee

(When my father in law found out we were meeting Warren Gatland hedecided to come and wish us well!).

My memories of cycling 500 miles around Wales are good ones. it’s agreat way to travel around the country and staying in bed and breakfast youmeet some terrific people - the proprietors were really supportive. There are afew aches and pains along the way (for some more than others – Paul) but thedownhill stretches are wonderful and there was a sense of surprise that we didit and satisfaction when we arrived back in Wrexham. 

You may be thinking that Lands End to John O’Groats was a natural nexttrip….. you’d be mistaken. I hadn’t considered cycling 1000miles until Richardcame up with the idea and began organising it. Yes Richard, along with Mike andBarry, I believe the credit for this idea is all yours! Before we knew itRichard was working on the route, had a support vehicle and was talking aboutsponsorship. And that is the beauty of a good idea – it inspires you to dosomething, something over and above what you would normally do. 

Our target isto raise £10,000 and without Richard coming up with the idea that wouldn’thappen. So I’m very happy to be involved with this event, yes I’ll enjoy theroad trip with Richard, Barry, Mike and the support crew – another Mike andBarry, but rather than just do it for ourselves it’s a great opportunity toraise the profile of Sparks and raise some funds that they will put to greatuse. Every £ donated makes a difference and if you can make a donation visit www.uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/SparksLEJOG orcontact us for sponsor forms

Thanks - Lee

Week 2 training. - Barry

As I sit here on a Sunday evening to write this update I am reminded of when I use my driver on the golf course; I am not entirely sure what direction I am going next.  There are a lot of thoughts going through my mind related to the trip at the moment but they probably don't fit under this topic...so will keep them to myself.  For now.

Having taken to Twitter as part of our webprint for the LEJOG trip, I came across an interesting article relating to What does your bike say about you? in Bicycling magazine.  Now as Lee and I both have a Giant bike that was mentioned in the article this caught my interest.  Sadly, the Trek and Boardman bikes (named after the scouse comedian apparently) that Richard and Mike have were not mentioned but this just gave me creative licence to make stuff up :-)

So what insight can I give you into our collective Psyches through our choice of vehicle?

Favourite post ride drinks should be beer for us Giant riders with chocolate milk a close second.  Richard however is prone to a couple of pints of Magners after a long ride and Mike is forever after cups of tea before during and after rides.

Giant Riders are supposed to think the best thing about a hard climb is the glorious descent.  As Mike is our very own king of the hills he actively appears to enjoy them and frequently flies past me at a rate of knots as I am slowing down on the hill.  Richard on the other hand may go to other extreme, and often flies past me on the descent screaming "I love you gravviiitttty...."

"King of the Hills"

So now to a sensitive subject.   Shaving.  We have had many a debate on this topic with Richard stating that we need to have our legs shaved prior to the ride to reduce the risk of infection.  "Infection from what?" I asked.  "If you fall off and get gravel and cuts on your legs".  In that case I have a far better plan than shaving my legs; don't fall off.   As you can tell from this interchange, it would appear the magazine's article is quite accurate when it reports that Giant Riders are "Overwhelmingly against" shaved legs on male cyclists.  It would appear Trek riders are wholly supportive.   Boardman riders are strangely non committal on the subject and I am not really that keen to press on the matter although our brief survey is 50:50.

Exercise classes

Mike returned to exercise classes this week and was seen at both bootcamp and cardio combat whereas Richard really went for it this week attending spin classes, cardio combat and both evening and morning bootcamp.  He even received a special notice in the bootcamp Facebook group with the advice all people on a fitness regime love to hear that he should really make sure he eats a lot during the day if you attend two classes.

Personally, I am struggling with the Bootcamp due to the impact.  Whereas my knee appears to be OK in spin classes and on a bike I struggle with the squats and lunges required in Bootcamp. You get funny looks when all around people are trying their hardest to perform Ski Jumps (touch both hands to the floor by your ankles jump three feet to the side and repeat) and you are slowly bending your knees and straightening back up again.

The looks were not aided by the fact that, to most people, I also appeared to be playing on my mobile phone throughout the class.  This was not true.  I was actually playing with the Garmin 800 that I was advised last week we desperately needed to help us with our route up the country (ahem).  Having just taken ownership of it, I was trying to find a way to view my heart rate on the screen.  I had at least realised that looking for cadence was not much use, and that the Sat Nav was unlikely to be very informative whilst I was stood still in a gym. I learn quickly.

Spin classes this week were still endurance rides maintaining our heart rates at around 75% of our maximum and pedalling at around 90-105 revolutions per minute for the hour session.  What amazes me still is that due to the conditions on the bikes we are able to cover distances of around 20 plus miles in the course of this class as opposed to the 14-15mph we generate on the road.  Can we do Lejog just on a spin bike or is that cheating? .....Pants.

Quotes of the week

There is a survey that says alcohol before a sporting even converts into a "super carbohydrate"  (May need testing)

My Mascara has run into my eyes... (not one of the team)

Saturday Ride

This weekend we set off with the intent of riding from Wrexham to Llangollen and back.  The route back was open to question as we set off as we had two options.  One; get to Llan and retrace our steps back up the horseshoe pass and down through Minera into Wrexham or Two; carry on to Ruabon and back via Johnstown.

To put this into context the start of the graph below shows the elevation of the horseshoe pass.  Route one would effectively mirrored this route after seventeen miles and repeated the 2,000 feet of climb on the way back.

Fold in half and imagine going again!

Thankfully, due to a variety of reasons including proximity to Nia's Birthday party we opted for route two.  At one point, there was also talk of missing the pass altogether and going on a more sedate ride but this was overruled.  We had set out to do the pass and we were going to the Ponderosa for a cup of tea come what may.

Team debates the options.

Our route took us into Minera (near to the highest village in Wales) before going along the Llandegla pass and then performing the final climb up to the Ponderosa at the peak of the map.  We were actually quite impressed with managing to average around 12mph on this route given the significant climb and Richard took a whole twenty minutes off his previous time.

For the run to Llandegla we had the main road option or to go via an access path to the visitor centre.  On the grounds of safety, the visitor path was chosen as whilst the roads are less "a touch gravelly" there is less traffic moving at 60 mph.  One of the things I have learnt as part of cycling is some of the etiquette involved  such as signalling with your hand if you take a line to avoid a pothole, drain, stick etc so those behind you can follow suit.  The only way I could have done that on this route was to take both hands of the handlebar and wave like a demented duck as we dodged holes, puddles, sand traps and stray sheep dogs.  All in the name of safety.


Now the more observant of you will notice, that we didn't go the steepest possible way to the peak and you would be right.  Had we gone to Llangollen and climbed up the horseshoe pass we would have climbed around 1500 feet in about three miles.  For another day.

 

Richard just about to reacquaint himself with Gravity at the peak

However, we did have the benefit of descending the steeper route.  And that is fun!  Approaching forty miles an hour and a 90 degree left hand turn does require judicious application of brakes but it is exciting.  This excitement is added to on the Horseshoe pass as the Welsh valleys descend away from the road steeply on your left hand side showing that there is a quicker, but far less advisable, way of descending.  If you ever get the chance you really should ride this as the views are amazing and it is a real workout whichever way you approach it.  

Even on this route or total climb was over 2,000 feet and we averaged around 13.6mph across the entire 31 miles which we are really pleased with.  Retracing our path would have been tough!

Told you it was high.  Horseshoe pass on a different day

I did get one unusual experience on this ride that I was not expecting.  I had often wondered what it must feel like to be Jenson Button when you approach a corner and find Lewis Hamilton thundering up the inside of the track on one of his more aggressive overtaking manoeuvres.  One of your first thoughts must be, "how is he going to slow down to make the corner?".   

How does this apply to cycling?  Well, at the bottom of one particularly steep hill I started to brake as we approached the sharp bend we had been warned of, and I had warned those behind me of, when Barri suddenly appeared in the Lewis Hamilton position.  Whereas Lewis has the full might of the Mclaren engineering team behind him which enables him to make the apex of the corner and accelerate away on regular occasions, Barri had just a normal front and back break which were not quite as effective. 

Fortunately, he landed on the softest part of his body as the bike skidded away from under him and he continued with the 1,000 foot climb and the remainder of the ride for which we give him respect.  However, this was a scary moment for all of us.  Obviously once we realised he was safe then, like all good friends, we mocked mercilessly and he did at one point resignedly realise "you going to put this in the blog aren't you?" but we are really grateful.  Lets hope he shaved his legs.

There was also one moment of elation felt during the ride as we approached the small village of Trevor.  As you ride into Trevor, you go from a national speed limit zone to a 30mph area.  As with a lot of rural villages there is a warning sign to inform you that you should have reduced your speed to 30mph.    As we approached, this light came on and I felt a thrill that I was approaching 30mph at the late stage in the ride and only on a slight decline.  At this point an Audi passed by extremely closely and spoilt my mood.  Still on the bright side it was so close I got a mint from the glove box.

Of course, with the Garmin unit when I got home I was able to relive the ride online showing my cadence heart rate and altitude as we progressed around the course which appealed to my inner Geek...I am going to have some fun with all of those statistics. :-)

Sparks - latest links

As it is Friday, the team has recharge time tonight and then a training ride tomorrow so will be off until Sunday when we will update with the review of last weeks training.

To bide you over until we get there the links attached to this provide you more information about the fantastic charity that we are riding for.

Andrea and Paul's story for Sparks charity

There is also the newsletter that is released with the details of a lot of the events undertaken for Sparks

Sparks Spring/Summer 2012 newsletter

Happy weekend.

A neighbour's story - Mike

WHY?..........

simple, I was asked by my neighbour Richard (who I actually thought quite liked me).  Just so there is no doubt, It WAS your idea Richard!!

As with many of us, over the years I have donated money to charity but have never actually done anything for it - until now that is. So here goes.... the challenge, 100 miles a day for 10 consecutive days. It's going to be tough, but I'm doing it with three like minded friends - a great support team and I'm sure along the way there's fun to be had  (there is isn't there?)

REASONS ..........

Obviously, much needed funds for a very deserving charity Four reluctantly ageing men proving to themselves that they are as fit today as they were back in their day!!

WE WILL SUCCEED EVEN THOUGH ...........

I last owned a bike (until 4 months ago) when I was 7 years old, after misguidedly thinking my dad would buy me a brand new "Chopper" (remember them? Oh, I loved those bikes) after giving my rusty red Raleigh to the bin men! - 43 years on and I ended up having to buy my own new bike.

Dad,do you feel bad at all?

As seen on Steve Mandich’s Evel Incarnate site 

Between us we're suffering from ........ bad knees / bad backs / swollen leg / leaking veins (what does that even mean?) / swollen tendons / fallen arches / leg cramps, and the list goes on and on ..... but, with all that being said, I'm in no doubt that we will make it.

Our determination, positive thinking and above all else cheery disposition (well, that's me at least) will not let us fail.

However, one thing we could really do with is...................................

a full medical team!!!

Wish us luck and please donate using http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/SparksLEJOG.

 Will keep you posted

The reluctant cyclist's training guide - Richard

Ramblings of a reluctant cyclist - Training

  

So I here you ask, what’s the training like?    Is it as bad as it sounds?    Well the answer is simple, it’s horrible and yes it’s worse than it sounds but it’s also rewarding, fun and at times hilarious!

Not to scale.

Let's face it I'm pretty much everything a cyclist isn't meant to be!  I asked an experienced cyclist for his top tips to cycling success and waited with bated breath as he stroked his chin and looked long and hard into the distance... "weight” he said after what seemed like an eternity.  “I am"  I said patiently.  "No...weight" he said "you need to bloody lose it."   Well I guess I did ask!

It reminded me of a story of a friend who asked an experienced tri-athlete for his advice on training technique"how many meals do you eat a day" the triathlete asked "3"came my friends reply, "well eat 2".

I guess you've realised by now there is a theme going on here!  Weight is the number 1 enemy of the cyclist.  In a sport where road bikes are judged by the gram carrying a few extra stone isn't great.   

OK cards on the table, I started this year at a couple of pounds under 20 stone! Yes I know it's a lot but I’m told I carry it well and have large bones; extremely large bones. :-)

Well, I've always been on the large side but it's never really bothered me.  At 17 I ran everyday and comfortably completed my 1st (and last) half marathon at a little over14 stone! Playing rugby and hockey my weight/size gave me my edge.

So as you can imagine as my rugby, cricket and hockey careers came to an end my love of good food and wine developed this combined with finally giving up smoking ‘hey presto’ 20 stone!

Well that was the size of the problem faced on January the 1st this year 20 stone and less than 6 months until Lands End to John O’Groats.

Calvin's Dad understands

The best advice was not to diet but to train and train and then train a bit more, which I followed dutifully for a few weeks.  Until during one of my regular assessment by Simon (more on Simon to follow) it revealed I was burning muscle and not fat!  Confused you bet I was!

Herbalife protein shakes were purchased (thanks Michelle)and the muscle wastage was solved unfortunately I had by then put some of the weight back on! The combination of Easter and my love of chocolate set me back several weeks!

So here we are 8 weeks to go and I'm now down to 18 stone I need to lose at least another stone before we go which should be achievable but who knows.  Simon’s spin classes are going well and the boot camps with Barri still fill me with dread but as they say “no pain……..

Ramblings of a reluctant cyclist - Richard

Well here we go my first ever blog or is it post? I’m not too sure, anyway here we go.  Thank you to Barry for making encouraging us to blog.  I’m sure it gets easier but Barry you set the bar really high! 

Why?

This is the question we have all asked ourselves and for some strange reason the question I keep getting asked by the team!  In the absence of doubt this was not my idea! (I think?) 

So why?  Mid-life crisis? Again like the others I’m not sure,  I have the most beautiful wife (note to self, tell her more!) and fast cars scare the hell out of me.   I guess I’ve always just done daft things!  As a child I loved a challenge and would normally be the one trying to prove the childish what ifs.  This got me into plenty of trouble! Like trying to cycle across Acton Park Lake on my bike when it was frozen from the top of the hill, to trying to cycle through Acton Park Lake when it wasn’t frozen from the top of the hill! (Both serious fails BTW).   I guess I was always out to prove something!  Amateur psychologists tell me it’s a father thing!

 I recently found a TV show on sky called ‘Myth Busters’, had they offered this as an option at my careers meeting I may have worked considerably harder at school!

Ok, so this is the serious bit but please feel free to skip.

I remember reading a quote from  the Dalai Lama which really made me think, I’m not religious, worry little of the future and try not to live in the past so I surprised myself when after reading it I stopped and took a deep breath .  Nothing unusual really, I read lots of stuff and rarely remember any individual breaths but this one was different it was the moment I realised I needed to really live!

“What surprises the Dalai Lama? Man. Because he sacrifices health in order to make money.  Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his heath and then he is so anxious about the future he does not enjoy the present; the result being he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die and then dies having never really lived”

As a child I watched my sister battle and then finally succumb to cancer, her struggle and desire to live has always stayed with me.   So if I’m honest, I kind of owe it to her to live a good life and more importantly a full life and if as part of that I can give something back then great.  After all I think it was Michael Josephson who said ‘when our time comes what will really matter is not what we got but what we gave’

The challenges

Sometime ago Lee and I decided to as part of our ‘payback’ we would take on a new fund raising challenge every 2 years or so (yes it takes that long to recover) 6 years ago we cycled Hadrian’s Wall in a weekend carrying camping kit and equipment,  2 years later we cycled around Wales in 8 days covering almost 500 miles and this year we decided it was time for the ‘big one’ LEJOG.  You will notice I use ‘we’ at this point confirming that there was at least one other person involved in decision to do this challenge.

So here we are 2 months to go until the start, official fund raising is under way and training is going well.  I suspect Barry will be pushing us to ‘blog’ again very soon until then please see below my new cycling gear!

Week 1 training - Barry

Week one is slightly misleading if we are being honest.  However on Saturday morning a group of men dressed in varying colours of Lycra assembled on our drive to start again on the build up to full fitness following our injury problems.  Whereas lime had never been so popular, Jamie had obviously just arrived from his Milk Tray delivery run and missed the "wear neon" text message.

We started doing most of the preparation for this route towards the end of January with the aid of two very helpful individuals, Barri Rawlings and Simon Gow.

Barri runs a bootcamp training session which is a high intensity, high impact, high everything fitness class.  It is so good I actually attended more than once!  Check out the website at www.bmifitness.net and if you get a chance to attend this type of fitness class I would highly recommend it for strength, stamina and generally just enjoying moving around more than you do now :-)

Simon Gow, is a Biomechanics coach who hosts a spin session at one of the local Gyms in Wrexham.  All of the team have attended one of the eight week courses that build up with endurance, strength and speed sessions.  He also helped set up my bike which I thought would be just a case of changing the seat post but ended up involving an iPad, video and a Reebok step the like of which I have not seen for a good few years.

We honestly could not be doing this without them.  More than just the classes they run, the support and encouragement we have received from them has been excellent and truly motivational.   There is nothing like being shouted at to go, go go as you ride or cycle up a hill with Simon or Barri and these proved a good basis for our general fitness improvements over the last few months.

Without going into too much detail I have lost around a stone in weight and become far more aware of what I am eating and when I am eating it but the classes are great fun and I now feel worse if I dont exercise.  Which is odd.

I also thought I was reasonably naturally fit.  I managed to run a 10k once in around an hour with next to no training (although I paid for it afterwards) but have come to realise that was not fitness it was willpower.  As a result when I started both of the training courses above, willpower had a lot to do with my desire to "not be left behind" in the first session.  This had two effects.  One, I nearly died in the Bootcamp warm up let alone the fitness test and camp that followed and Two, I nearly died in my first spin class which was a "recovery ride" i.e. to relax after an exerting ride.

But we have stuck with these classes for the majority of the team with Monday, Wednesday Friday Spin classes and Tuesday and Friday bootcamp sessions I can honestly say I am probably in better physical shape than I have been for the last fifteen years.

Week 1 training


Last week two of us had bootcamp on Tuesday and Friday and Spin starting again on Monday with a Lactate threshold test, and endurance rides on Wednesday and Friday.   The observant amongst you will note that Bootcamp and Spin are both on Friday and I can tell you that this is not easy with a strained knee tendon and when you forget your cycling shorts.  I really had underestimated how beneficial they were especially on a saddle that is not your own.

Favourite phrases for the week heard during the sessions:

"Sweat is like fat Crying"
"Boom, Boom, Boom.."

The other two are sticking more with the idea of hitting the road whenever possible so are not attending this type of training.

Rides


The above has been supplemented with regular Saturday rides and some weekday rides where possible.   We have done the following main routes:

Shotton - Chester and back - Two main bicycle paths linkng these locations and around 30 miles
Llandudno to Wrexham - around 60 miles along a reasonably flat coastal path with the wind at your back :-)
Ludlow to Wrexham - Around 60 miles after getting the train at an ungodly hour in the pouring rain.
Many trips to Prestatyn and back from Doddleston.

This is not the complete list of rides as there have been other smaller routes around Wrexham, including a really short, sharp route leaving Wrexham and including Marford Hill, Llay Hill and Griffin hill from Llay into Gresford.  I only actually realised how steep that was when we reversed the route and there was a person walking their bike in the opposite direction!

Week 1 rides


There was the usual Doddleston to Prestatyn round trip by Lee, whereas Richard Mike and Barry were embarrassed by two far fitter/more experienced cyclists on a trip from Wrexham to Chester and back.

This is a relatively easy 25-30 mile loop but includes the downhill benefit of Marford Hill as you leave Wrexham but does have the uphill drag into Penn-y-ford that you can see as the graph.    One thing I found having done this a second time is that the benefit of going into Penn-y-ford as opposed to using the bypass is the quality of the roads is much better

The team also benefited from a lovely hale shower halfway along the road from Saltney to Broughton retail park which caused a slight stoppage at a bus stop.  I am not sure we can use this tactic for the LEJOG trip though and still claim we cycled.

Riding in a straigh line whilst leaning on a 30 degree angle is an unusual feeling and without getting too Eric and Ernie about it, we really could have done with wipers for the sunglasses we were wearing.  This was also the point where I reached for my water bottle and then had the interesting thought as to where that may be now...and had I actually picked it up out of the kitchen in the first place?  Turns out I hadn't but note to self that trying to do any reasonably sizeable ride without a drink is not a good idea.

This was also the point where a few people tasted the "juice" that Barri had brought with him.  It was a concoction of a variety of fruits and vegetables "I'm getting Celery.." is the only quote we can provide as to what this tasted like that does not breach our family friendly policy.

There was also a moment of amusement for myself as I headed down the hill in Hope at a reasonable pace with the group right behind me and Richard a short distance ahead.  Head down, to keep up the pace I cycled along to reign Richard in when I realised there were no longer three other people right behind the back wheel.  It turns out the home-made mud guard that Mike uses to directly aim water at your face if you are right behind him had fallen off and the team were busy collecting the bits, as opposed to my initial belief that I had developed a turn of speed akin to Sir Chris Hoy and had left them in my wake.

On a personal note, knee is sore but holding up.  Actually more painful after coaching rugby today and having to run a little more so still needing to treat it with care but grateful that it is improving.

Next steps though is to consider a Garmin 800 to make sure we can track our route and include routes from the internet so if anyone reads this and can offer advice then we would love to hear from you.

Reasons why - Barry

LEJOG

What is LEJOG I hear you ask?  Well as we are all financial people, let me explain using numbers:

1,000 miles

100 hours

10 days

1 goal

To get from Lands End To John O Groats; Cycling.  For those of you who don’t know this is southernmost part of the UK to the northern most part of the UK.  Given that it covers the peak district and the Highlands sadly this is not a relatively flat journey around the British coastline but as close as possible to a straight line.

The first thing I had to do once I had agreed to this adventure was to buy a bike.  And now you appreciate the size of the challenge this really is for me.

Why???

As I got on my bike on a windy, dull Saturday morning with rain pouring down to begin the trip from Ludlow to Wrexham this question sprang to my mind too. So much so, that I thought about it for most of the sixty mile trip through the Shropshire countryside.  Fortunately, the thought of 1000 miles in ten days (for those not used to miles this is equal to the moon and back) focuses your mind so I could give the question serious consideration.

Whilst the obvious answer is "for charity" (see below :-)), ultimately I came to the conclusion that this is some sort of a mid life crisis.  Whilst the traditional route is to consider a younger partner and a faster car like[please insert your own choice of name here for legal reasons], a number of my friends have suddenly turned to unusual sporting events to try and hold on to the belief that we are still young and athletic. 

I have a friend who is running a marathon despite having never run for a bus, a friend who is suddenly taking up triathlons as she reaches her mid 30s and one friend from school who never showed a great deal of  interest in sports doing both marathons and triathlons.  He is that kind of person.

To explain my logic I would need to go back ten years to a time when I was a recently married,  newly promoted manager  who was about to find out the piece of news that changes just about everything. Indeed it was around this time ten years ago we discovered that we were expecting our son.  No matter how many people tell you that having a child changes everything you never quite believe them until it happens to you.  It's a bit like a tax audit.

Since then, I have gone from being an avid football fan with a passing interest in “egg chasing” to a qualified rugby coach and referee.  I went from feeling fit as a fiddle to having developed mild Asthma (i still blame the Helsinki office room that we were based in for eight months and was cleaned twice:-)).    I went from performing single arm extensions with one hand weighted with pint glasses to attending up to five exercise classes a week assuming I am not in another country.   I went from thinking of bikes as something you never forgot how to ride to someone who has fallen off twice simply for forgetting to take my feet off the pedals.  The taxi driver I rolled in front of was quite surprised and, once he realised he was far enough away to stop easily,highly amused.

And all of these things is so I can keep up with my son when he wants to play at the weekend without keeling over coughing and wheezing.   Admittedly the parents playing "bulldogs" at rugby and a competitive streak a mile wide was also an influence as after three lengths of the small pitch I felt the need to hand myself over and go in the middle.  The ultimate treachery my body could commit. 

Indeed, it is the other Rugby coach from my sons team who suggested the bike ride and after initially thinking he was crazy I started to think why not?  All it can do is help my general fitness and for some reason a challenge like this appeared to be a good idea.   New aspects of life then presented themselves:

•  calorie counting (there's an app for that),
• abstinence from alcohol,
•  regular exercise classes,
• going to the hotel gym every night as opposed to room service cheeseburger and playing PSP;  and To top it all,
•  Saturdays spent outside wearing trousers that look like they came from Borat's cast offs (see picture below)whilst cycling increasing distances.

I looked scared for a reason.  (It was the blackboard!)

The good cause

Sparks is a leading children’s medical research charity dedicated to funding and championing pioneering research into range of conditions affecting babies, children and mums-to-be. 

Since 1991, it has committed over £22million into pioneering research projects across a wide spectrum of medical conditions including childhood cancers, cerebral palsy, premature birth and spina bifida. In total, the charity has funded 233 research projects in more than 80 hospitals and universities across the UK.

Through the research it aims to improve the quality of life for children and families affected by serious illness or disability today, whilst seeking ways to better diagnose, treat and prevent these conditions in the future.

As a dad, this is obviously a topic close to my heart.     Coincidentally, it is chaired by somebody else with a key interest in Rugby; former professional rugby player Justin Leonard.   It’s a little known fact that between us Justin and I share 114 rugby caps for England.

There is a sponsorship page set up at the following address http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/sparkslejog and if youare able to help with sponsorship for this I would greatly appreciate it. 

So, on the 20th June we will start at Lands End and will update this blog regularly so you can track where we are from one day to another.

PS. One final request if I may.  The next time you pass some cyclists on a road in your car please give them a little bit of room.  For one thing, it may be me, and, who knows, in a few years time,it may be you.

About the cause

1,000 miles, 100 hours, 10 days, 1 goal, - to cycle the length of the country.  We have set ourselves a huge challenge, to cycle from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise as much money as possible for Sparks, the children’s medical research charity.  

Sparks is dedicated to funding and championing pioneering research into a range of serious conditions affecting the health of babies, children and mums-to-be.  Sparks aims to improve the quality of life for children and families affected by serious illness or disability today, whilst seeking ways to better diagnose, treat and prevent these conditions in the future.

Sparks has already committed over £22 million to finance more than 233 medical research projects into conditions affecting babies and children.  Sparks funds research across the whole spectrum of paediatric medicine, including childhood cancer, childhood arthritis, meningitis, club foot, cerebral palsy, spina bifida and the risks associated with premature birth. 

Our aching legs and sore muscles will be nothing compared with the daily challenges faced by the many children and their families who are fighting childhood illnesses.  There are many children in our community who are not able to ride a bike, kick a ball or play sport with their friends.  We want to help these children and make a difference.  By supporting Sparks we can help give every child the start in life they deserve – a healthy one. 

Sparks always run out of funding before they run out of deserving medical research projects.  Together we can help bridge that gap and save and change thousands of tiny lives.  To find out more about Sparks please visit their website at  http://www.sparks.org.uk/

Two months and counting...the final countdown

We have just two months left...so "final" may be exaggeration but that's now quite close.

One of us is injured, one was ill, one had a new bike and one was seen training with the others!

More spin classes have been booked for half of the team with the other team going for the rain and wind on the open roads that is the British Summer, but all in all most of the team has now covered 100 miles in one day.  It was then helpfully pointed out that the trick would be getting up tomorrow and repeating for 9 more days.  Pessimists :-)

If you read this please subscribe, follow, like on Facebook or do something that may help us in our quest to raise money for this great charity and complete some good personal goals in the process.

The site should you wish to donate is:  http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/SparksLEJOG

More regular updates to come as the final countdown begins.