Chiily dogs and seagulls!

My week has been quite a full one with work, cycling and fund raising. At work we have been approaching the end of our big sale period and the pressure to deliver the numbers has meant a big draw on my time, thankfully it paid off with a very busy weekend. We have also set up our grand raffle draw at work this week with three great prize's topped by a Kindle fire HD. We only have a matter of a 1,000 tickets to sell, but the girls at work did a fantastic job in selling £50 to customers on Saturday, with the draw on May 6th we have a big task ahead to sell them all. I picked the best day of the week to have as a day off on Tuesday, the sun shone bright even if it was slightly chilly. I am still getting up to full speed after hurting my back and left home on the bike with the view to seeing how I went, no set mileage in mind just suck it and see. I felt OK and was operating at a steady pace, turning off the main road in Rochford I headed for the country roads. Up ahead and at a low altitude came a suicidal seagull, it was one of those moments when you look and think it will see me, it will see me, for F*@! sake why can't it see me, and as I started to break it did see me and like an X wind fighter after bombing the death star it pulled out at the last moment. Now cruising through the lanes and the sun on my back I was dreaming of the summer days that lay ahead, I felt real good and ended up taking the longer way back from Wallasea extending the ride to thirty miles. While coming up the final drag to home I encountered my second animal near miss of the day, the old boy with his dog up ahead had obviously not judged my speed and had started to cross the road. I made the decision to speed up to clear him before he reached my side of the road, this was fine until I jumped out of my skin as his dog, unbeknown to me, had a pathological dislike for bikes. He strained at the leash and growled and snarled like a rabid beast, I was truly thankful for the short leash he was on at the time. We then came to the end of the week and to today, a nice peaceful Sunday at home which with Paris in mind means a bike ride is a must. Now today was nothing unusual Gray and overcast like a lot of days, one thing stood it apart was a keen North Easterly wind giving a wind chill of about -4. Gearing myself up for a cold one I got the bike from the garage, a flat tyre, where did that come from. After changing the inner tube I picked up the trip computer, flat battery, ahhhhhhh, I could see how today was going and I was not liking it one bit. At least I had my new thermal top and the gloves came straight off the warm radiator as I left the house. Boy was it cold but I was well wrapped and in good shape, head warm, check, body warm, check, hands warm, check, feet warm, no. You see I still haven't invested in shoe covers and while the rest of me stayed real toasty my feet ended up as blocks of ice, peddling was fine clipped in and with twenty miles the order of the day I could live without my feet. Summer still feels a long way off but Paris is rushing up fast, with work getting busy and fund raising in full swing my focus in firmly on being ready for D day June 6th "Roll on Paris".

Back in the Saddle.

I was at the physio on Saturday to check out the back. I was a bit concerned and not looking forward to the prognosis but as the days went by and Saturday came it felt a bit easier every day. It had been a while since I have had the need for physio and had forgot the art of contortion performed by such individuals on your body. Well the good news was that there was no damage to the discs, I had opened a facet joint though and been given a number of stretches to help it recover. So now its time to re strengthen and not over do things, easier said than done. Like a good boy I have been keeping up with the stretching and on Thursday went out for a leisurly 15 miles on the bike, felt ok if a little stiff, looking to repeat again on Sunday. Still a long way to go and with a renewed determination "Roll on Paris".

Painfull problem!!!

Just a small update from today. I undertook a small 20 miles this morning in the wind. Everything was going well until turning into the end of my road. Pushing away from a stationary position on an uphill junction, BANG. It felt like I had been shot, the pain through my lower back was intense. I coasted home and needed help getting off the bike. Lets hope the back gets better soon, at the moment its a bit sore, Paris looks a long way away today so please support me with a small donation. "Roll on Paris".

A weight off my mind!

It has been a good week all round, I have been out three times on the bike racking up a total of 100 miles and the healthy eating is starting to deliver results. Even West Ham won this week, so could not get much better than that. After the twenty miles in the high winds of Thursday I set myself the target of fifty on Friday, it was wet when I left and the wind chill made it a bit colder than I had expected. However the rain soon dried up and the coldness in my hands was not quite so bad now they were dry, I really can not wait till it warms up a bit and all I have to worry about is building up the miles and not about how I will keep from freezing. I enjoyed the ride and it was good to be able to get out in the saddle two days running, as the training progresses this will need to be two days running and four hours in the saddle each day, but for now just getting out is good enough. The other thirty miles was done today (Sunday) a blast out to Wallasea Island, a reasonably flat route that enables me to put some extra effort in and build some good speed. The wind was still blowing a bit and the way home was a little harder than normal. As I mentioned earlier I have been eating healthy since my Birthday on the 3rd of January and the big weigh in came at the end of the month. I was 17 stone on the 3rd and was looking to have dropped half a stone, so I was over the moon when the scales read 16 st 4lbs that was 10lbs lost in under a month WOW. So with four months to go till London to Paris I feel really positive and looking forward with a little less intrepidation than a couple of months ago, the big thing now on my mind is fund raising. £1,000 is my target and if everyone can give just a little I will feel all my efforts will be worthwhile, so if you can follow my link to the right for my just giving page I would be eternally grateful. With a renewed vigour "Roll on Paris".