Promoting the ride

I have ordered some promotional business cards from www.moo.com; nice pictures and all the information to get people to part with their cash; shame about my typo of 2010, not 2012. I think I will order more of these anyway once I have had some of the promotional pictures done – more interesting and relevant to the project. If nothing else, it will at least give me an idea about the design and whether it can be improved or not. My intention is to hand out to people as a conversation starter, hope it works!

 

I have started a list of possible commercial sponsors and also written an e mail to a data tracking company to ask if they would donate a unit and log in to the ride. Once the publicity photos have been done and added to the profile etc., I will send this off, fingers crossed. I need to contact Damian to sort a time to go over for the publicity shots – Harriet is very keen to meet Matias and anyone who calls at the house is mugged for their 5p's.

 

I managed to fall off on the way home from work on Friday; it was an eye opener in that I was the cause because I wasn't concentrating. The bike path between the A34 Abingdon and Marcham is narrow in places, it was dark and I looked up to see a single light in the middle of the path. He had nowhere to go because he would have been in the road so I chose the ditch. Usual thing, over the handle bars but rolled this time to avoid undoing the surgeons work. Unbelievably, no injuries or bruises/stiffness, but I did land in nettles…in my shorts; somewhat ironic given no incidents on the A34 earlier in the day. It did teach me a lesson though: if I cock up like that on a main road the outcome might not be as positive – 100% concentration at all times. I reckon that the work route is so familiar that I switch off sometimes – another good lesson.

 

This Saturday saw the launch of the Mars Science Lab, I followed the launch blog until the coverage ended following successfully separation from the booster….by the time the landing is attempted in August next year, all this will be over. I'm fascinated by spacecraft engineering, especially that of Apollo. This tenuously reminded me of some words of wisdom from Gene Cernan, Apollo 17 Commander in 1972 – he kept reminding himself to enjoy every second of his unique experience because regardless of how fatigued he was, he would regret not doing so after he got back. He faced the unknown and kept his marbles, let's hope I am made of the Right Stuff too…

Normal Service Resumes

Posts have been lacking over the last couple of weeks, the first week was due to lack of motivation and the second week has just been busy. I’m not sure where I lost the drive to cycle or get to the gym as often but it happened so I should just get on with it now.

This week has been a good training week and my diet has been much more controlled. I need to lose at least a kilo; every gram that I have to haul up a hill will be regretted next May. If I want to take more equipment, I will have to lose the weight to compensate for that. I still haven’t managed to do a test pack yet so I have no idea how much harder it will be to peddle, no doubt my weight budget will be a moving feast for a while.

I had an early meeting in Abingdon today so thought I would try the A34 to see what a busy dual carriage way is like. In fairness, it was fine, there is plenty of room between the verge and the white line, trucks tend to give you a bit of room and I never felt vulnerable. The road seems a lot bigger compared to sitting in a car doing 90.

I am planning to do some more hill training for a couple of hours on Saturday to keep my legs ticking over.

Just Giving

I have been setting up a Just Giving page to receive donations in the usual way but also by text.  I tested the text side of things and it was fine, the only thing that was a bit of a pain was providing details for gift aid. A thank you text is sent back to the donator with a URL to the gift aid questionnaire - I hope this doesn't put some people off the gift aid side of things.

I have had trouble uploading photos, will need to find out why.  I have also set up a You Tube account as it would be good to have a video on the Just Giving page.  In the mean time, I though I would try and paste in a Just Giving Widget on the blog to see how this works. I am not actively promoting fundraising until the new year but it will be less of a rush if I do these kind of things bit by bit.



Having said that, don't hesitate to dontate! Thanks.

Winter Training

Not sure where the winter comes in as it was short sleeve jersey temperature today. The plan was to cycle up and down White Horse Hill but due to decorating and parties to attend, I ended up in Wantage at 3.30 with a couple of hours free so I decided to use Chain Hill and Manor road instead.

All was going nicely 1 hour and 5 minutes in and then I got a puncture in the front tyre. It was slowish so I got back to the car but I missed out on two more stiff climbs. I'd covered 15 miles which is not too bad in terms of an 80 mile day....what I mean is that time in the saddle to complete 80 hilly miles wouldn't be horrendous.

This was all fine and not too taxing but it was without the 19kg on the back.....

Meeting

Met with Damian from the Cri Du Chat Charity yesterday over a beer. His son was born on the same day as our daughter, both spending time in Special Care at the Radcliffe Hospital. He cares for his son full time and sits on the steering group of the charity. It sounds like there are a few of them that would like to cycle some of the legs too – the more the merrier. We also talked about fund raising ideas and the potential use of text giving in addition to a Just Giving page.

http://www.criduchat.org.uk/

I have been struggling to write a profile/flyer for the event and Damian came up with some good ideas. We thought it would be a great idea to have a picture of me, the bike and the kit plus the two kids – awesome. I'm even more wound up for doing this now – it's going to be fantastic.
Will try and squeeze in some hill training at White Horse Hill this weekend. With the ride there and back it should prove worthwhile.

Keep checking my blog for more useful information such as the weight of a spoke (rear wheel) - you need to know!

Chance Meeting

Caught up with a chap that cycled end to end last year as he has made me realise that not only have I bitten off a largish chunk in terms of physical effort and rear end erosion but the administration burden will also be high. He wrote/spoke to a lot of companies (especially bike companies) asking for gear and sponsorship with a good response. We will sit down over a pint next week and chew the fat on this – I will be taking a list of questions about the route, especially about the hilly areas.

Tomorrow will be an exciting day, I am meeting with the charity and do not really know what to expect. I would like to have a focused and coordinated fundraising campaign but, to be entirely honest, I'm not sure how to put this together. I have some ideas so am not completely clueless and will be looking to the charity for suggestions. Some of my thoughts are:

• Scrounge consumables
  
• Get corporate sponsorship
  
• Press Releases
  
• Mentions on local radio
  
• Use Facebook
  
• Set up a Just Giving page through the Charities website
  
• GPS Tracker to keep peoples interest during the ride
  
• Fundraising day at my work gym (day on the bike in reception if they are agreeable)
  
• 5p for 5p bottles at work and the cricket club.
  

 

Easy….what's to moan about?

This week’s training…..

I'm still looking after my back so I have only trained once a day since last week (well, twice a day if you count the ride in and the ride back on Wednesday). The gym has been fine although it has left my back a bit stiff, yesterday's ride was easier on the way back given the wind direction. Circuit training was quite hard today but I think I didn't eat enough during the morning.

Fuelling is a key part of completing this ride, I have been thinking a lot about getting enough carbohydrate down my throat to avoid that nasty 'empty' feeling. The stove cooks up pasta easily but this may get a bit dull. I also need to make sure that I have plenty of veg and fruit to strike a nutritional balance. Snacking throughout the day on things like bananas, raisins or malt loaf will ensure I make it to the next hot meal. I have been offered an army 24 hour ration pack to try – 6,000 calories apparently. I'll give this a go on a long training ride I think.

A colleague at work is keen to join me when I bleep test next (end of November), we are having a practice tomorrow. He is a very good runner but is unsure about turning at the cone – I suspect that he will smash me into a cocked hat in terms of oxygen uptake when it comes to the test itself but then that should raise my game. Not that it will be competitive at all….