What a difference a week makes

Firstly hello one and all. I’m the latest nutter to thrown my hat whole heartily into this epic but great adventure to raise money in support of the fabulous work done at Zoe’s.

Having known Rich since he had hair and was known as Fairy, yes that long, I knew as soon as the words bike ride, Lands End, John O’Groats and Zoes Place was mentioned I was severely tempted. And so I’ve eventually made the jump several weeks later and here we are!

Firstly I’m sans a Road Bike until at least late July (when my cycle to work scheme opens) so Rich as agreed to lend me his shinny, fast, lighter then a pack of cards road bike on alternate months.

Get off the floor rich, only joking. So not ideal, as I’d prefer to get as many miles on the “real bike” as soon as poss prior to the big day in Lands End on September 20^th…especially as I’ve never ridden a road bike and after trying Rich’s bike up and down the street it was a fun but they definetly ride and feel different to your standard mountain bike. However the good news is a few weeks before Rich uttered the mad words of bike rides I purchased a discounted mountain bike off a friend’s recommendation (cheers Sonic). So I’ll be training on that till the new road bike arrives! And i’m learning lots already! Apparently I get some slicks on that and I should see some extra mph on the road! Also if we stick close to each other the savings we make in wind resistance means the last person just needs to put his/her feet up and have a brew while we collectively suck them along.

So, having committed last Sunday to the big event I started with a wee 14 miler on Wednesday and on the very slight hill back I thought I saw a dead dog on the path. However as I started to slow I realised I was delusional from the ride as it was quite clearly a black bin bag. That didn’t stop me though and yesterday (Sunday) I almost drove Emily mad by inviting her on a leisurely (read severely underestimated) bike ride (read severe hill training camp) over 35 miles fromBritain’s highest town in Buxton (which is no longer news to me!). Still it was great to hit my first wall and if a £1 swear jar existed on that last 10 miles (which was flat) I would of easily of made a large dent in the £5,000 target!

In saying all of that, its still fun and the charity side is a great thing to aim for! As the great Sir John Ryan said “onwards and upwards” and when has Sir John ever been wrong? Never!

Biker Till I Die (literally it could be!)

Daz

PS – attached is my attempted "shock face"on opening Hairy Rich’s newly polished group training schedule ;D