Eggstreme at Easter, Brrrrrrr!

 Happy Easter to all my blog followers, I hope you managed to spend a bit of quality time with your families. It's tough for me working in DIY retail but I did spend a few hours today having dinner with my mum, brother and family. Today also See's the start of British summer time Ha Ha Ha Ha, and April fools is not till tomorrow. Joking aside another training ride this morning and again I was greeted with sub zero temperatures and frost on the ground, I must sound like a stuck record but how long before this winter ends, boring, tedious and abominable don't go far enough in describing the severity of the weather this year. With the cold weather ritual well rehearsed, snood on, layers of clothes duly applied and the gloves coming straight off the radiator on to my hands just before leaving. The cold of a frosty morning burns the back of your nostrils with those first deep breaths and as my speed picked up on that down hill stretch my cheeks felt the bite of the wind, by now my finger tips were loosing sensation and I started to question my sanity. It was 9am on Easter Sunday and apart from a handful of cars and the odd dog walker the only other people I saw were other daft cyclists, a rare breed or completely bonkers? It wasn't until about eight miles in that my core temperature rose and the feeling started to return to my fingers, it's at this point that I start to enjoy the ride as my focus is not on keeping warm but on performance, speed and the now beautiful countryside I was riding through. Twenty five miles was the order of the day as the before mentioned dinner date with mum beckoned, I could have done much more despite the cold but longer rides lay ahead.

So the end of another month means June 6th is just that little closer. What did March bring, apart from more cold horrible weather, well on the weight loss front I slowed up, I have lost another four pounds taking me to 15 stone 4 pounds. Total weight loss since the start of January is now 1 stone 12 pounds, Incredibly proud. Cycling wise despite the cold snow and ice I managed 190 miles in the month, I'm happy with that and with lighter evenings in April more miles will be the order of the day, watch this space. The final part of my March round up and the the most important is the reason I am putting all this effort in and that is fund raising for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. With a target of £1,000 I have reached £560 so far, thank you to all that have contributed. The best bit of news for me on this front is that LLR have included my blog within their official web page, please take a look at http://leukaemialymphomaresearch.org.uk/campaign/trevor-jackson. This great news has given my an immense sense of pride and spurned me on even more, so roll on April, roll on sunshine, roll on sponsors and most of all "Roll on Paris".

Reversing! Not an option.

Paris became closer than ever since the day I signed on the dotted line for my greatest sporting challenge. The final payment was requested and duly paid, no turning back from here, pulling out is not an option so the training needs to be stepped up and motivation lifted. This has been tempered by the subject that I, amongst many other people, have become board of talking about, the great British Winter. It has been said before that we now only have two seasons, but I didn't think they meant Winter and Autumn. Another week of below zero temperatures and back to snow this weekend have left me with only one opportunity to get out on the bike, on Tuesday I did a twenty mile ride with a bitter Easterly wind making it pretty unpleasant.

There  was only one incident of note on my ride, one which left me with my heart in my mouth and a renewed respect for the vulnerability of being on a bike. A motorist had decided it was alright to reverse down the road just after a blind bend, not clever. It was on quite a quick stretch of road on a bike and with a greasy road surface I was heading for potential disaster, as I rounded the bend I saw the reversing lights and in a moments panic hit the brakes hard. Having not cleared the bend yet the back wheel slid out and for the first time back on the bike I was not in control. By more luck than judgement I regained control and without stopping steered around the car that by this time had stopped reversing and with a sheepish look on his face the driver gave an apologetic wave. I carried on at a slightly reduced pace for the next couple of miles while regaining my composure.

 I have also been busy on social media this week and set up my own Facebook page, hope you will all like it and follow my fund raising activity, the page is Londonparistrevor. My final piece of news really lifted my motivation and made me feel very proud, it is early stages and I hope it comes to fruition. You see I have been contacted by Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, they have made enquires with the view to including by blog on their official Web page, watch this space as for me this would be the ultimate recognition of my efforts to be recognised by the charity I am supporting. "Roll on Paris"

"I'm half way there, living on a prayer."

I'm sorry it has been over a week since my last blog, I feel a bit of a failure as I know of several of you that like a read on a Sunday evening, so please except my apology. It had been a busy week last week which included my son's twenty first birthday and several meetings at work. What this meant was I missed my ride on my day off in the middle of the week, so come the weekend I was desperate to get out for a few miles. So Sunday came and O how fed up am I of this rotten weather, I must be old because I am sure I remember March days of old that shared, at some level, a resemblance of spring. When the sun made an appearance and the nip in the air of early morning lifted to be replaced with a pleasant feel that allowed one to dream of summer days. Not now, not this year because winter still has a firm grip on the country and riding a bike is still for the brave, cold, wet and windy is what accompanied me on thirty miles of tarmac. It could have been any thirty miles of tarmac as with head down and the wind appearing to come from all directions I was determined to do a good time and with yet another meeting Sunday afternoon I had lots to fit into my day. So getting home in an hour and fifty six minutes at an average of sixteen MPH I was pretty chuffed with my efforts. The main aim of all my efforts, fund raising for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, took a real positive turn today on two fronts. Firstly I have reached half way to my fund raising target, thank you to everyone who has donated so far, you are all stars. Secondly today I had a chance meeting at work, we have a charity table set up advertising our fund raising efforts and as part of this there is literature from LLR promoting their work with stories of children that have beaten blood cancer. One is a story of Maisie Speller and today her grandparents came into the store and saw her picture, this led to me being lucky enough to spend a few minutes talking to two really wonderful and grateful people with so much love for their granddaughter. This was all the confirmation I needed to realise that all my efforts are worthwhile and to continue to raise as much money as I can so every child can beet blood cancer and every parent and grandparent can see their children grow up. Please give generously on my just giving page link on this blog Thank You, and while you do I will promise to give this challenge my every effort "Roll on Paris".

 

Maisie Speller

 

Chalk and Cheese!

 It has been a week of extreme contrasts with two rides at the complete opposite ends of the British weather spectrum. On Tuesday I was off work and the sun was shining, for the first time this year I set off in shirt sleeves, no jacket and no waterproofs. It was a barmy 13 degree C and little wind. This was what I had been missing and to say I felt good was an understatement, forty miles lay ahead of me and it felt great. It was a day when all the hard graft of winter seemed to have payed off, for the first time I felt that Paris was in my reach and with an average pace of sixteen miles an hour I could have gone all day, it was just a shame that other things have to be done on my days off and forty was all I could fit in. However come the weekend and the good old British weather had taken a turn for the

worse, Sunday morning came and with it temperatures hovering a couple of degrees above zero and a wind chill below, so out came the thermals and full finger gloves. It was extremely cold setting off and instead of the flat roads of Southend I headed towards Hangingfield and a more challenging hilly ride, I kept warm and was enjoying the ride when I felt the first few flakes of snow, Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, snow was not on the menu for today's ride and before long I felt like a member of the SS Enterprise hitting warp speed, but instead of stars it was snow flying past and into my face. With the snow now turning to rain I was on the homeward stretch and travelling well through the lanes, up ahead there were a group of mallard ducks meandering across the road without a care in the world. I got closer and closer before they noticed my approach and then with a cacophony of quacks and flapping of wings they all took off just in time to clear me as I in turn flew past. Lets hope next week and the months ahead have a more settled outlook, "Roll on Paris".

Everyone falls off!

I feel I need to explain the choice of photo that goes with my blog this week, you see the picture shows the great Sir Chris Hoy laying down on the track, not in a voluntary state of comfort but having fallen from an upright position. Thus showing even the best cyclists can fall over and that I can say that I now belong with a very long and illustrious group of people who can say, "I fell off". It was not spectacular and I can honestly say it didn't even hurt, well not my body anyway, can't really talk for my pride though. It does not even go down as a crash, I know because I have already ticked crashing off the list last year, no this was the kind of fall you see from a new born calf with wobbly legs. Going back to January when I bought all my new gear and started using SPD peddles and proper bike shoes I was confidently told, by friends I may add, "O you will fall off, everyone falls off". For two months I have dumbfounded and disappointed these friends, especially Nick, that I had not fallen, well Nick you were right and yes I am now not so cocky and will be forever humble in your presence. You see I have now joined the club that can say "yes I have fallen over when I stopped because I couldn't get my shoes out of the clips". This was not graceful and done with spectacular timing with the most people possible to witness my misfortune. I had found the back end of a queue of traffic in roadworks up Crown hill, coasting to the back of the queue I un clipped my left foot but at the same time my weight had transferred to the right, putting the bike and me into an irreversible motion driven by gravity that would ultimately end in me laying flat on the ground still attached. I made a point of not looking back at the car behind me as I picked myself up, but even now I can see the laughter on their faces. So a week of new experiences and another forty miles this weekend, I can say I am part of the bigger cycling world and a fully signed up member of the " Everyone falls off club" Sir Chris Hoy has more in common with me than he thinks. "Roll on Paris".

Weight loss, O yes!

Well end of the month and time to weigh in and check the progress. End of January I went 16s 4lb, had not set myself a target for the end of Febuary, that way I could'ent be disappointed. So what am I now, 15s 8lb, very happy indeed as thats another 10lb last month. I did think I had slowed up a bit but thats now two months running loosing 10lb. To say I am pleased is an understatement, "Roll on Paris".