Maintenance.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Just finished prepping for tomorrow's commute after a satisfying ride yesterday. I always remember being told to 'clean your bike, it's a disgrace' when I was a kid and I hated it. In fact, I only wanted to do skids really. However, there is a wisdom in making sure you can see your reflection in the cassette and the be able to read the decals on the frame. I get through chains at a rate of about 2-3 a year depending on how much off road riding I do. At £25 a pop this is not cheap so I make sure my chain is always clean along with the rest of the drive-train. I am convinced that if I didn't bother the chains wouldn't last as long plus there is the degraded performance around shifting etc.

People told me that 'chains stretch' and, when I fisrt started riding I found this hard to believe. It's true, they do get longer and unuasable but they don't stretch, the holes in the links connected by steel pins wear into larger holes and the sum of all this enlargement means the chain gets longer. If you want to speed up this process, you can leave the very efficient grinding paste in the chain made up of oil and road smeg. Alternatively, clean the bastard regularly with white spirit, it's not that hard. The modern 'power link' makes chain removal and therefore cleaning very easy - no more splitting which weakens chains.

This cleaning obsession (as other people see it) has lead to riducule; my wife often wonders why I don't dismantle my car and clean it as thoroughly, the answer to this is easy: my bike is worth more than my car and I don't give a toss about the car anyway. I have an order for cleaning and I make sure that nothing is skipped. It's important if you want to enjoy your cycling with a machine that works well - the same is true of any machine although people do switch on their central heating after 6 months of being switched off and wonder why is doesn't work first time!

What's the point of this post? If I am to complete this ride in reasonable shape there will need to be a cleaning/maintenance regime. I am taking a small bottle of degreaser and a small bottle of lube which, if used with care should last for the whole 12 days. I reckon on a thorough clean every two days with some shifter adjustment. I am taking spare gear cable and outers and will probably change these half way through. The downside is that the cable shears are heavy. This should keep things running smoothly though.

Anyway, the weather is supposed to be cold and wet tomorrow but I am still looking forward to the ride into work. There is spin at lunchtime and I may get a green light for the gym in the evening.

Trained again today - could be becoming a habit!

My legs felt fresh this morning and I spent a little time cleaning the drivetrain as it was mucky on the way home yesterday. Spence was arriving at 12pm with his new road bike, we finally set off at 12.20 and headed out of the Hanneys towards Uffington. The total ride was 50 miles in 4 hours which included a 20 minute stop for porridge and tea.

Spence wasn't sure what he would be like on a road bike as, like me, he owns a Trek mountain bike and has done all of his cycling on that up until now. We cruised along on the flat easily and attacked the hills - although 50 miles wasn't my ideal distance it was a hilly ride; the Wantage road from White Horse Hill is undulating with some short, sharp climbs sprinkled in. We cycled through Wantage and picked up the Harwell road to Lains Barn then back to Hanney for a break.

The 2nd part included some proper hills; we cycled to Wantage and then up Chain Hill (Newbury road) turning left at the Farnborough sign.  Up and over the Ridgeway to the A34, short ride along the A34 to Chilton and then back to Hanney via Steventon. Chain Hill provides a good hilly interval, it's 3 separate climbs in the space of a couple of miles.

All in all a satisfying day but a few more miles would have been good. I want to do the training justice but I have to balance it with spending time at home too. The main thing is that I am getting no ill effects from the cycling in terms of my knee - my main worry.

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Fundraising gets a boost...

Commuted in at last, 17^th January was the last time I cycled to worm - I hope I am over all of the mechanical problems for a while now.  New brake pads have made a world of difference. The weather is rubbish at the moment but I am looking forward to the ride home.

http://www.tfd-grove.co.uk/

Yesterday was a great day, the gym were bending over backwards to provide support and be involved with the challenge.  My Just Giving page has already been pushed around their FB group which has resulted in a couple of donations. They have offered me free membership until after the challenge so I can train and also offered to call a number of their commercial contracts asking for sponsorship and gear.

We are also planning an All Day Spin in their reception which will be advertised on FB and also on their newsletter.  Whatever we make will be a bonus plus I get extra training - all good.

I have a long ride planned tomorrow with Spence; he has just bought a new road bike and is keen to try it out.  I suspect we will take in some of the rolling countryside around Uffington and south of Wantage up to the Ridgeway.  The aim is to go for 5 hours of peddling, always much easier with someone to chat to.

All the gear - no idea!

My printed cycle jerseys have arrived and look very nice thanks to Dave Knight at Cycle Clothing

http://www.cycle-clothing.co.uk/

This means that there is absolutely no going back now!

I spent yesterday lunchtime spinning and seem to be returning to a more normal level of fitness following Christmas. It's good when you can push on in the last 10 minutes instead of hanging on for dear life. I am looking forward to a training ride this weekend, the brakes have been sorted with new pads so it will be a good chance to get them bedded in.

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There is a lot happening today, the main event is a meeting with my local gym to see what they can offer in terms of support.

Photo Call

Spent a nice morning catching up with Damian and Matias, Harriet also joined us; the last time she saw Matias was in Special Care 7 years ago! We grabbed some photos for the fundraising profile and I think they have turned out great.

There will be times when peddling seems impossible because of the wind or something hurting, pictures like this serve to remind me that failing would not be good. I will have several photo's in my 'moral pack' for times like this....

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Lacking some comfort....

It's amazing how much difference a few days makes.  At the beginning of this week all was progressing nicely, now a flurry of things have cropped up which, although not insurmountable, are a real pain.

The shirt design has been finalised and now just needs to be ordered, many thanks to Dave at Cycle-Clothing for his speedy response to e mails and great customer service.

Mock up's below.

http://www.cycle-clothing.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cycle-Clothing/51664428369

I have an appointment at my local gym next Thursday to talk about their contribution to the challenge.  Once I have met with them I will post details here.

I managed a decent ride last Saturday despite the cold and have been training hard in the gym having shed a kilo too.  All positive.

Now the rubbish stuff…

I put in a new inner tube on the back wheel which picked up a load of Hawthorne spikes from Tuesday's commute. Rushing to fix this I perforated a new tube and discovered a broken spoke - all this at 9pm last night.  I need to get the cassette off to do the spoke which needs time and daylight - bang goes my ride to work today.

I have lined up some photos with members of the Cri Du Chat Syndrome Support Group Charity on Saturday which requires an appearance by my bike as well as me.  I think we will just have to hide the back wheel…..

My knees are aching too, given my desk job this will only get worse today following two hard sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. I would never chuck the towel in but things are feeling a little less comfortable at the moment.

Good Day Today....but cold again

Cycled into work today, knee holding up although achy and slightly off the pace but very enjoyable despite the cold. I'm convinced that the cold weather is the main reason for achy knees so am very much looking forward to the warmer months.

I visited the gym last night and asked for some upper body exercises for a number of reasons: lean up a bit, build strength in my arms to avoid the 'stiff arm' handle bars syndrome when I get tired and also to strengthen my back to avoid fatigue. This resulted in 3 exercises: Brian Jacks style dips (I can do 2 before collapsing), press up position in the suspension harness and then touching a foam block alternately whilst keeping my legs straight (tough on the core) and underhand chin ups with my feet supported on a bench.  I am woeful at all of them but will just keep plugging away until I can do better numbers.

I received an e mail today from the League Cricket Association who want to do a story for their website.  The interview was done over the phone and we just need some pics to put with it as well. They have 25,000 members so I will FB and Twitter this to death!  I also asked for a cheeky donation so we will see what happens there.

I had a quick lesson on Social Media Marketing too from a colleague - all looks complicated and there is a lot to do but it has to be done - great way of maximising donations. £400 already and going well. If anyone cares, my hash tag is @hanneyboi

Bike is working well, I am not too bad in the mechanical department and the PR seems to be going well.

Very cold day to train...

Very happy with 60 miles today given the temperature and a lack of enthusiasm since Christmas.  I have been training at the gym but as I was reminded by a very sage man, specificity is the holy grail. I cycled to Drayton to pick up Spence, we did 25 miles around Abingdon, Kennington , Bagley Wood and the Thames at Abingdon to Drayton.  Spence bailed for a shower and a cuppa, I settled for an energy gel to get me home for tea and buns.

I set off again to do a 23 mile loop to Uffington, Fawler back on the Wantage road, through town onto the Harwell road and then turned left at Lains Barn.

Learnings from today:

• Avoid energy gels at all costs - you can cope with a dose of rusty p*ss at home but in and out of a tent will be miserable. The sell by date was June 11 though which has lead to me ruining the toilet.
• Relax and cycle easy - avoids tense shoulders, numb hands and protects a dodgy knee.
• Don't focus on the end goal - it only makes you feel miserable and inadequate. Just cycle!
• Eat/get off little and often. Avoid the empty feeling.

My left foot went numb with the cold and the horrible chilly damp feeling was with me all the way. It was unpleasant but this was offset by the amazing countryside in which we live; it was spectacular in the late afternoon sun.

I would say that this represents a morning's cycling in that I wasn't completely out of fuel when I finished - at this point I would be looking for a place to have something hot and have a reasonable rest.  Given that the longest day on the whole trip is just over 100 miles, that leaves another 40 to cover before bedtime. The average day is about 86 so another 26 miles in an afetrnoon would be ok even with weight on the bike (which I did not have today).

Total time out was 4.75 hours, total peddling time was 4hr 7mins; used lights from about 4pm. It will be slower with kit but the important thing is that a typical day's cycling is achievable - good news with only 4 months to go.

Came home to an e mail from the gym, apparently one of the members was going to do LEJOG but it fell through, he may be up for some rides so I will drop him an e mail tomorrow.  The gym are keen to help with the challenge and I am hoping to sort a meeting soon.

I will celebrate with a malt and two codiene.....

Generating interest...

I have made many enquiries this week of various people to try and sort things like printed cycling jerseys, train timetabels, CTC membership etc etc. I also made a point of adding the relevant touist information centres phone numbers into my phone just in case.

I have been trying to get to grips with Social Media Marketing but have to admit to being the wrong age to really understand this properly.  The patron of the Charity is Jo Whiley so I have started to follow her on Twitter with a view to tweeting about the fact that I am raising funds for CDC - she may notice? A re-tweet from her would be ideal.

I have started at the local gym with a months membership and they are keen to meet to discuss how they can help with the challenge.  Not sure what to expect but anything is a bonus! Going to be a busy weekend with Spence coming over for a ride and all the usual weekend activity.

Busy weekend...

Flat tyre last night, tried to repair it but I think the valve has gone = no long ride today. Thinking of taking my months gym membership now given the rubbish weather and lack of cycling.  The ideal would be to lose a couple of kilos off the spare tyre and build some back/upper body muscle.  Fatigue in my back and shoulders after 60 miles tends to be uncomfortable so the stronger I am the better.

Ben attended county nets this morning which gave me a couple of hours to create a to do-list while I watched. I've put up a couple of posters in the bus shelters at the Hanneys and have made some noises through the FB group. Everyone is being very supportive and it does help with the confidence level - at the moment I am still in the sceptical camp about completing the challenge, especially given some knee discomfort following the gym classes last week.  This is unusual for me as I normally believe I can do anything!

If anyone still finds this blog vaguely interesting this might make you smile.  A certain notorious cricket coach gave a team talk to the parents this morning and declared himself the most competative person you'd every meet, I was tempted to say 'No Dave, you're wrong...you're the second because you've already met me....' I kept quiet to avoid ruining his moment with the fresh meat parents.

I completed a risk assessment for the gym at work to show them I had given some thought to this side of things before I do a day's worth of turbo accompanied by two very large buckets for cash! I suspect that they will put their own spin (if you pardon the pun (need a punctuation mark for 'camp')) on it to keep Unipart happy but that's fine.  Aiming for 9th April if everyone agrees.

And here goes another week on the treadmill of work......

Christmas takes it's toll.

A reasonable week of non bike training following the Christmas break.  It seems that conditioning doesn't take a lot of time to diminish given plenty of seasonal food and drink.  The other downside is a painful amount of soreness - anyone would think that I'd never been to gym before.

Planning a one hour hill session tomorrow - complete destruction of the lower body.

Happy New Year!

I have spent most of the Christmas break planning places to stay and starting the promotion side of things. I did manage one 30 mile ride but that was it, because of the muddy conditions I spent an afternoon cleaning things thoroughly and making various adjustments. The gears are shifting nicely again.

I bought a new, slightly wider, saddle to see if this made a difference to the discomfort that I get after a day's riding. People have advised all sorts of cures and remedies but I thought I would try the simple solution first. Chamois cream came in at £17 for a toothpaste sized volume - it has better yield some results!

I wrote an article for the cricket club's website and shared tis around FB:

http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/challowchildreycc/news/charity-ride--lands-end-to-j-465935.html

I'm thinking of limiting the posts from the FB Group to avoid people getting bored with the whole thing and potentially blocking feeds; maybe a two-liner every week with a more in-depth article every 3 weeks or so?

Sam is checking out some options for transport from John O'Groats which is very helpful, it takes some of the work load off of me and I'm not that good at this kind of admin anyway. I also had an offer of accommodation and transport to Land's End from an old mate, should make for a great start to the ride. The current plan is to get dropped off at Swindon railway station, get the Plymouth service to Truro and get collected there. It will be a good opportunity to do a final gear check and get a good night's sleep before the off.

New Year fitness regime began in earnest this lunchtime, apparently there is a lot to do….