Green Cross Code!!

Training is progressing really well. Once I get out and get warmed up, I just want to keep going. At the moment my warm up is walking up Bridge Hill out of Badby, but my goal is to be able to cycle up it!

We have just 10 weeks to go before we depart at the ungodly hour of 07:00. I’ve been clocking up regular miles each week, trying different routes to keep the interest up. I’ve only had one fall in the last couple of weeks (well two really). They weren't serious ones though. I came to a standstill on a hill coming out of Weedon. It was a little steeper than I anticipated, and unfortunately I’d run out of gears on my bike. I thought about getting off and walking up but as I changed my mind and decided to stay on, oops, I fell over! Nice graze on my knees. I haven’t done that since I was a little kid! Then as I pulled up outside home I unclipped my foot, bumped up the grass verge and fell over!! There were a load of little kids whizzing up & down the path on their bikes and they all looked at me gone out!! I jumped up put my hands on my hips and said, in the manner of the ’Green Cross Code Man’ (remember him?) ‘STOP! Now that was a demonstration of how NOT to get off your bike!!!’ Don’t think they bought it somehow?......................

50 Miles.....

5o chuffin' miles!!!! In the blazing sun!!! On my own!! Well almost there were about 1000 other people taking part, but that's not the point! Emily had hurt her foot the night before (drunk, dancing, stepped on her cat Mickey's scratching post! a likely tale!) But undeterred by the loneliness (are you weeping yet?) I set off. Rider number 215 through the start post at 10.00am Sun 8th June.

You'd have thought they'd have started us off gently, but no.. straight into Newbold Hill!! Excellent, a hill, my favourite . We headed out of Rugby towards Pailton, where the route split (oh, I forgot to say there were actually 3 routes; the 10 mile Tootle, 26 mile marathon & 50 mile marathon), the marshall waved us to turn right for the 50 miles straight into? Yep a bloody great hill!!! Someone was definitely having a laugh and it wasn't me!

The first check point was about halfway round the course at The Shilton Arms, a pub! how cruel. Here I bumped into, not literally, my executive manager from Cummins, Dave Barker & his daughter Sophie. I spotted him as I came into the car park and started praying that I wouldn't fall off as I stopped. I didn't, hurrah! Had my card punched, a cup of squash and set off again towards Brinklow.

The 26 & 50mile routes merged at Brinklow and pandemonium reigned for the next 5 miles or so the 'cycle in single file' request went completely out the window. There were 2, 3 and even 4 abreast, but it was just a case of head down, arse up and get by them. The road out to the next check point at 'The Royal Oak' at Brandon, yet another pub! was a single track country road with the most enormous, long hill I've done to date. A lot of people had got off to walk up by this stage but I battled on, my thighs and lungs were fit to burst, but it was all worth it at the top because there was an absolutely belting descent!!

At Brandon there were people finishing, as this was two start/finish event. Medals were being doled out and people were wheeling their bikes off to the pub for a well deserved beer, but not me. I still had about 8 miles to go.

The next section of the ride was a little bizarre to say the least. It went over some cattle grids and through a farmyard!! By this point I was beginning to think I'd gone the wrong way as there were no other cyclists in view, anywhere! Even the cows were looking at me gone out. Especially when I asked them if they'd seen any one else on two wheels go by! But there was a light at the end of the tunnel, or at least a marshall at the end of the road in a hi-vis vest, last check point 400m, finishing post 4 miles! Hurrah!! The lady at the check point told me where to go (in the nicest possible fashion) and just threw in at the end that there just happened to be one large hill. Are you ahead of me yet? Do you know which one it was? Remember the belting descent I spoke about above? Yep, we'd done a loop and had to go back up. I could have cried! But gritted my teeth and got up it. From there on it was pretty straightforward, thank god.

I did suffer with a touch of road rage thanks to some young lad who was 'pulling wheelies' on his MTB right in front of me. I shouted 'Oi! Stop being such a twat! If you come off, I'll hurt you more than the road will, coz I'm going to ride straight over you!!!!!' He made some comment about me being a moody bitch and rode off.

Just a few miles later the finish line was a wonderful sight! Newbold School Playground, I got my medal and I felt such a sense of achievement. 50 miles in 3 hrs 13 mins. I was elated. Even more so the next day when I discovered that my boss and his daughter who are 'seasoned' cyclists finished just 13 mins ahead of me!!!

So that's the furthest I've done in one ride so far, half the distance of the first day of 'Paris for Bust'!! What have I let myself in for...........................

My first OFFICIAL fall...........

Sorry........

I've been a bit lax in posting recently, but that doesn’t mean I have been sitting around doing nothing!! Far from it.

I’ve had my first official fall. Hurrah!!!! Yes I know, why celebrate a fall, and what makes it official? Well, apparently (according to Dr Grant Phillips) you can’t call yourself a cyclist until you’ve had 3 falls and an official fall is a) done at speed & b) you loose skin. And I did both! I also banged my right tit, which is also what I felt too as I quickly leapt up from the ground checking to see if anyone had witnessed it and listening for sniggers behind garden walls!!! I had a humdinger of a bruise appear as well, but that’s all gone now. So no harm done there.

The weather has been a little against me over the last couple of weeks. It’s been bloody awful in fact. However I did manage to get out last week between downpours, whilst we were on holiday from work. I clocked up 94 miles!! In fact on Saturday I did my furthest distance so far, 45 miles!

On Monday I went round Draycote Water three times which is 15 miles total. Got dive bombed by the ‘golden plovers’ (impressed that I know my ornithology eh?) that seemed to think I was some sort of threat!! I went out on Martin’s MTB as it had been so wet and I wasn’t sure what the road surface would be like there. It was really nice actually. Do you know, I’ve lived round here, give or take 10 years, all my life and this was my first visit there!!

On Weds, I did 34 miles; it was a gorgeous day so I went out in the morning, early ’ish’, well I was on holiday! I went to Dunchurch/Southam/Priors Marston/Hellidon/Staverton/Badby. I had a really scary experience going down Braunston Hill though. I was overtaken by a speeding lorry, which was so close I could have touched it and it almost sucked me underneath it! I must admit after I had gesticulated furiously at the driver (I’ll bet he wasn’t even looking), I had a little weep it frightened me that much! Anyway during the ride, I was passed by a couple of fellow cyclist. They came by me going up a hill like I was standing still!!! They shouted ‘Morning’; I simply opened & closed my mouth! I wimped out on Priors Marston Hill though! Got halfway up and thought, sod it! I’ve since spoken to my dear friend Bex who’s recently started going out on her MTB with her husband Neil and they got all the way up that same hill on Saturday. I’m now utterly ashamed of myself. However, in my defence there are not so many gears on ‘The Beast’ so it is harder work!

So on Saturday it was longer distance ride day. I’d set my sights at cracking 40 miles, especially as Em had done 46 the other week. We’re very competitive you know. In fact we’ll probably be fighting on the approach to the Eiffel Tower to see who crosses the line first! Remember Em, ‘AGE BEFORE BEAUTY’!!! Anyway, I digress; I went to Dunchurch/ Princethorpe/Leamington/Southam/Staverton/Home. 45 miles in 3 ¼ hours. Bloody hell, I was knackered!! 3 horrible hills, but on the whole not a bad ride. I really don’t like this loneliness though. When I got home, because I hadn’t been talking, but I had been breathing so hard my voice had cracked!! Martin thought it was great! But it soon came back with lubrication!

Anyway this week amongst other things I’m taking part in the 50 mile ride at Rugby for Leukemia. Em & Grant MAY be coming but I doubt it somehow especially as it’s Emily belated birthday BBQ on Sat!!

Ah well, me on my lonesome again……………………