Lying coats, deviant overshoes and Dragons Den

Hello all

With the date of the ride speeding towards us i thought i would follow suit and blog recent events, so here goes.

Half of the team headed up to the picturesque village of Malham for Sues Birthday and some valuable hill training. A short 27 miler was planned which saw the cyclists turn right out of the accommodation straight into a 1 in 7 hill that lasted for 3 miles, Beautiful!

So after this valuable hill training it was back to work, and a slow down in the biking with less than 10 days before the start of the 'little ride' I thought that I would just keep my legs spinning until then. So after work I set off east on a route that I have done many times before, Pontefract, Darrington towards the A19 etc, a steady route with a few rolling hills and one climb that allows you to work a bit harder. The weather looked OK with a few dark clouds on the horizon towards Doncaster so I chucked a coat in and thought id give my recently purchased overshoes a whirl as well, which turned out to fit as snug as slippers and only fractionally less comfortable.

Now I am no expert in scales of rain, I'm not sure whether drizzle comes before spitting or after fine rain however I am certain that after 10 miles none of the above turned up they were clearly somewhere else and preoccupied wetting washing so they sent 'absolute monsoon hammer it down' rain instead. You would think at this point I would be grateful for my 'water proof' jacket and i would have been if my jacket wasn't a liar however I pedalled on thinking that my coat had let me down and it was teaming up with my overshoes in an attempt to drench me from head to toe.

I cracked on nearing Pontefract castle (i know i didn't believe it as well) rounding another bend i was met by a flooded road and another test of my resolve, it was here as John was frolicking like a happy seal through the 6 inch water i thought 'damn this ride is going to be hard'. But then something changed, my MP3 music clicked over and Tiesto's adagio for strings kicked in, as each pedal stroke splashed into the water i thought the reason why we are doing the ride is for Alfie who because of his condition will never be able to ride a bike, wear a wafer thin coat or whinge about the rain like i was doing just at this point! From here on i powered homeward bound pedalling up the hill like it was a no more than the camber of the road, the sun even came out and slightly dried me off.

So i will leave you with this thought inspired by Dragons Den's Duncan Bannatyne, I will be investing 100% of my effort into this business and wanting 100% equity of the route, that's why I'll let you know where i am. I'm absolutely ready for this bike ride!!

Soggy Rich says is that the best you can throw at me, I laugh in the face of bad weather, tweak the nose of adversity!

Race you to John O Groat.......................................Go!

17 days to go!

Hi Guys,

Not done a blog for quite a while so thought I would dust off the old blog writing cobwebs to fill you in on a bit of news.

First and foremost, it's only 17days to the big ride!! Monday 20th September, also known as D-DAY for the members of Alfie's Team, will see Rich, Elaine, Scott, Rich, Daz and myself setting off from Lands End, with our trusty support team; Sue, Tony and Emily! On the one hand, it feels like its been a long time in coming, but on the other it also feels like yesterday when me and Rich were sat in our parents living room coming up with this ridiculous plan.

The pre challenge nerves are kicking in with the team - 'Have I done enough training?', 'Will I be able to manage those hills?', Why can't I ride with my new pedals without falling off (only my concern I think!)?' But you get the gist of it!

Despite the nerves, we are all totally buzzing for the ride. Speaking purely from my own perspective, one of the main reasons for this is due to the amazing amount of money we have raised so far. We are so close to hitting £5800, which is incredible but I for one would like to make it to £6000 before we set off - ambitious I know but not if all of our friends donated just £1!

To make a donation go to www.justgiving.com/alfies-team and to keep up to date with more bike ride info go to www.alfiesteam.com

Thanks for your support guys and keep it coming!

Much love,

Helen and all of Alfie's Team

Now I can’t climb 600 feet, no I can’t climb 600 feet..nah nah na nah (a la proclaimers)

So lads and lasses, gone was the MTB and in comes the new Road bike. Pictures later. At 9.4kg it’s 3 times lighter then my MTB and “made for speed, but with the big miles in mind”. It also came with a nice bell.

After some fiddling with the pedals I was ready to roll last weekend..here goes the tale.

Friday 30th
Distance covered: 6 miles
Theme: Rain
One word: disaster

Man did it rain, I was literally riding with shoes fall of water (coming in from underneath and above!). I can take being wet I have learnt, but not having water move forwards and backwards in your shoes on every pedal, no sir. So I came home, and put that one down to experience. I also bought myself some Seal Skinz (waterproof socks!) for a tenner on eBay! I’m going to do the bath test when they come, how exciting.

Saturday 31st
Distance covered: 33 miles
Theme: hills in the peaks
One word: gears

This was my usual route, done it about 5 times on the MTB, a nice round loop from my house to Kettleshulme and back around the bottom of Buxton. 10 miles in I’m sailing along until I drop down the gears on a climb and find the lever won’t budge. I’m in the lowest of the low already, but it’s still too tough to ride with any level of comfort. I crack on and get off the saddle, and as no one is around I get on with the old groans and do it. I carry on with this process one more time but only with the goal that I can stop when I get to the top and regain myself. 10 minutes later, I’m off again but with the 3rd and 4th such silly climb I had to walk. To add salt to the wounds, my brilliantly scary steep descent was stopped while sheep chattered on the road. A character building day, but we'll get there!

Sunday 1st
Distance covered: 49 miles
Theme: a new, flatter, route
One word: lies

I wanted a few more (flatter) miles today so I took the advice of using other peoples cycling routes in my local area, using Bikely.com I found a 50 miler and 1/10 difficulty level – brilliant, I’m riding on a snooker table let’s get some speed on! Now, either that route was submitted by “C.Boardman” or 1/10 is the default and they didn’t see it (I refuse to believe it was a normal person and I’m crap), I mean it was at least a 3 or 4! A few more hills, nothing as bad as the peaks mind, and I was done in 3 hours or so. Not bad, hey.

Monday
Distance covered: 0.2 miles, to the doctors
Theme: anti inflammatory tablets
One word: pace it you tool (sorry I needed 4)

So with the excitement of the new bike comes the reality that my bike DOES have enough gears to do LEJOG (as I’ve been advised several times) however clearly I DON’T! Perhaps that advice doesn’t work for the 3 month old cycler as I imagine it’s like fishing with a great big rod when you’ve only just mastered using a net, maybe not quite like that.. but you get my drift.
So with some tablets and 5 to 10 days of advised rest I plan to “rest up well” until next Friday, and then have another crack at the flat 50 miler….maybe followed by the peaks on Sunday where I will refuse to walk up any hill... With practice we will get there.

Cycling, hey!
Daz x

Important PS blog readers:
http://www.justgiving.com/alfies-team
Spread the word, momentum is growing..! Its now just 48 days till we start on Monday Sept 20th!!

Next week we will have our official 12 day route published - so supporters/cyclers if we are coming to a town near you, you can join us for as long as you can stand it!

FINALLY, if anyone has any connections with Coventry, Liverpool or Middlesbrough based companies please let me know. Why, we need local sponsorship and locations close to the 3 Zoe's Place Hospices would work best. It costs £500/person to fund the two weeks, and so far we've got that down to £300 through some cracking sponsorship deals, so with one last push i'd like to think £200 is achievable.

Over and out.

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Success at Charity Auction!

Hello everyone, this is my first blog!

Well I can't believe it. The charity auction came and went so quick on Friday and was a blinding success! I for one am so chuffed at how much support we have already from friends and family! Thank you to everyone who came down and those who bidded and brought things! See the photos for how great the prizes looked and how much fun we had!

There were around 50 prizes on the night, many bargins were had and some crazily amazing bids were seen for the Donny Rovers and Del Piero shirts! I for one am glad that Neil Walkden won out on the rovers shirt against Daz! :)

Well done to the team as well for all the hard work put in getting the prizes, setting up and everything on the night. If we can do this for the auction, I know the riders can get over them hills and us support team will keep you going!!

Now get back to training! :)

Thunder thighs, Warwickshire Hills and cycling with the Richmond brothers

Its been a while since I blogged, so thought I would get back into it with a write up of my cycling exploits this weekend. I moved down to Leamington just over a month ago; when I was cycling around Doncaster I thought I was doing quite well - making good time, becoming more confident on the bike, enjoying myself quite a bit. Get to Leamington and it's as though Brian McMassiveHill who likes to build large hills has been and decimated the entire Warwickshire countryside with steep climbs! (Obviously this is a slight exaggeration before people start piping up about the hills in Cornwall, or that mountain range we're cycling through in Scotland...)

The first major one I tackled took me about 5 attempts, and it felt as though I had been shot in the thighs. Since then I haven't been doing too well on the hills, stopping half way up. Luckily, my Fairhurst, and moth-like mentality means that I completely forget the bullet wound type feeling in my legs, and just keep going back for more!

After finally getting his bike last week, Tom from down the street, and his brother John, joined me out on the roads on Saturday. Like Rich and I were saying last week, its always much nicer to go out with someone, and these two were really encouraging and John even said at one stage 'You're not too bad...for a girl'. Brilliant. After almost killing myself again on what can only be described as a small mountain, John and Tom suggested that we swap bikes to see if it would make any difference as his has more gears than mine, thus making it much easier to climb. At first I was a bit dubious about someone else getting their hands on Joyce, but having almost had a small heart attack at the side of the road I was open to suggestions! So I hopped (/struggled to get on Tom's bike), and flew up this hill!

Towards the end of the ride, we hit another hill so swapped over the bikes again. My legs were getting pretty tired by this stage, and it was a total nightmare trying to get up there but I dug deep, and all the while remembered the phrase 'pain is weakness leaving the body!'. Tom and John were really encouraging, which helped so much...right up until the stage when John cycled passed me, pulling a wheely....I can't type the words that came out of my mouth but suffice to say, I was livid. Nevertheless, I made it to the top, all in one go! A first for me, and although only a small victory (again for anyone who wants to pipe up with comments about how hard the Pennines will be, or think about the distance you'll be doing on whatever day), I was pretty chuffed with myself!

Just another note, to say thanks to everyone for the sponsorship so far! Justgiving has seen a bit of a flurry of donations in the last couple of weeks and I for one am blown away! £1568.32 is our total so far, making us top fundraisers for Zoe's Liverpool! Keep the donations coming guys, it really means a lot to us all!

Watch out for the Alfie's Team Bike Ride website which is coming soon! And by soon, I mean this week!

The Giant Has Landed

Hi guys

Elaine and I got our new bikes this last week and let me just say "WOW"

I decided to invest in a decent road bike through the Cycle 2 work scheme and picked the rather aptly named Giant Defy 2, It's so light that I now cant believe I managed to go so long with the Hybrid I bought earlier this year. The other advantage of course is that with it being lighter and more aero-dynamic than a normal bike it's much easier to hit high speeds and maintain them, thus cutting down the amount of time to cover longer distances and in fact cutting virtually 40mins off the time it took to do the run out to Clumber park and back that we had done only 3 weeks previous. It does mean however that you do reach some pant fillingly scary speeds too. I managed 29mph the other day and it felt like 60.

Doing the longer runs also does bring home another point too, Nutrition is key!!!

Having got the bike last wednesday I decided I'd christen it with a 50 miler with Scott "racing snake" clarke, Having been too excited to eat before going out it would be fair to say Scott was kicking my ass after 20 miles when I had finally depleted my energy reserves, Que a pub stop for food and drinks (Coke before you ask) This in turn led to indigestion too, supporting the point that you should always allow time for your food to go down boys and girls.

So when it came to saturday I made sure that I ate properly and loaded up with carbs and also took some energy gels with me too. Making the 60 miler much easier than the previous days 50 miler, and on tired legs might I add. I'm also pretty sure I heard Scott cry on one Hill too but i'll let him off on that one as it was a bitch of a hill.

On another completely different note i've mailed a load of sports clubs this week basically begging them for signed merchandise and stuff for the charity auction so fingers crossed we may get some more stuff for the do at the end of july. Elaine has also printed out 150 tickets which Gemma and Charlotte kindly cut out and numbered, So its time to get selling them ppl, message us with how many you need and we'll send them out to you, 150 between 6 of us works out at 25 to sell each which should be more than easy. So come on guys lets get on it!!!

Hope you are all well.

Go team!!!

Hairy Rich