26/08/2009 by admin.

We had made the top of Helvellyn.  It had been a tough bike ride and an equally tough walk carrying the bikes.  Though once we were at the top, we had the knowledge that we could ride down the other side.Ian and I set off and coming towards us were a bunch of teenagers.  And they had their uni-cycles.  I’m feeling good making it on a mountain bike and a bunch of girls and guys had only the one wheel to ride. It reminded me of the Desiderata Poem written around 1920 by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945).  The poem starts: ‘ Go placidly amongst the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence’.  One of the lines says:  ‘If you compare yourself to others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be a greater and lessor person than yourself’.I was proud of what I had achieved and seeing these teenagers on uni-cycles made me smile.  Yes their challenge was simply harder by lack of a wheel, but it’s not about comparing, it’s about achieving our own goals whatever they may be and being excited for other people and what they are achieving.

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Are they mad?!

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26/08/2009 by admin.

Ian and I are back together for our final training weekend before our trip to India.  I have been putting in the miles on my mountain bike since our last trip to Mt Snowdon in Wales earlier in the year.  Ian insisted on checking my bike based on past experience before we set off.  We make some adjustments.  We are heading for the Lake District the next day and his daughter has found on the internet a route called Highway to Hell.  It involves cycling to the top of Helvellyn, which is England’s 3^rd highest peak.  This sounds challenging!

After our drive into the ‘Lakes’, we park up and set off.  The first 2 ½ hours of our ride is up-hill.  We hadn’t just chosen a hard cycle ride, we had chosen a hard walk.  In places, we not only had to push the bikes, but had to carry them.  Of the 19 ½ miles we travelled (according to the trip computer) we must have carried the bikes an additional 2 miles at various stages.  Walkers were stopping to take a breather, and they didn’t have an overnight backpack and a bike on their shoulder.

I do not think I have done anything so physically hard.  I remember giving a motivational speech and spoke about ‘how to walk from John O’Groates to Lands End’.  The answer is ‘one step at a time’.  It’s true.  I just didn’t think I would be playing this back in my head as I walked up Helvellyn.   ‘One step at a time’.  I kept repeating it as I took one more step.  It worked as I made it to the top.It was a great achievement, a test of our fitness, and for both Ian and I, we felt a level of confidence.  We knew that India and the foothills of the Himalayas would be tough but we had made it up Helvellyn.

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 Helvellyn - Ian and I make it to the top!

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26/08/2009 by admin.

During the cycle ride, there was a squeaking, grinding noise coming from the crank.  The noise seemed to be getting worse.  Ian and I had cycled a few miles out of a small village when suddenly the crank and pedal wobbled in a very peculiar way.  Before I had time to think ‘ Oh what’s happening?’, the crank fell off! 

Often ‘situations’ happen in life and it’s the ‘meaning’ we put on these ‘situations’ that effect us.  The same two things can happen to two different people – one person may laugh, the other person may get stressed.  I choose to laugh.  In fact so did Ian!Ian and I did a running repair on the side of the road.  We set off and within half a mile, the crank was wobbling again.  It was not looking good.  We were on a country lane, a few miles between villages.  Yet around the next corner there was a small industrial estate.  I walked in and the first person I met, I explained the crank had fallen off my bike and was wondering if someone had a socket set.  He went to the back of his car and produced a 248 piece socket set (OK I may exaggerate).  We fixed the crank on and for the first time in weeks, the squeaking, grinding noise stopped.  A lesson learnt I think.  Strange noises need attention. 

It was shortly after the next village we were back in the hills cycling up a very rough track, when a car with spoilers and lowered suspension came up past us.  ‘That’s very strange’ Ian and I commented.  It made sense a few miles later when we passed the car parked up in the middle of nowhere with the windows steamed up!

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06/08/2009 by admin.

It is 2 of 3 of our Mt Snowdon trip.  Whilst all I had cycled around Virginia Water a few times, it made me realise that sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you do something.  Clearly my exercise regime wasn’t enough but without doing what I had, I could not have continued on day 2.  We had cycled 24 miles the day before, 19 miles further than my normal outing and I wasn’t too sore at all.  What concerned me was if the previous day was a warm up, what did Ian have in store for today?  The simple answer was more hills to go up!  It turned out we climbed 700ft during the day.  Though as the saying goes all things that go up must come down.  It turns out I’m good at going down.

The day is grey and it is drizzling.  No one is out. On the way down there is a large slate ridge across the path.  It is used to direct rain water into the side gulley.  As I approach this slate, I realise its bigger than the rest I have ‘bunny hopped’ over.  This one needs respect.  I brake hard. My body goes forward on the bike.  I cannot ‘bunny hop’ .  I hit it hard.  I fly over the top of the handle bars and somehow manage to land on my back in the heather off to the side.  Remember I said no one was about.  Well not until that exact moment!  After it was established I was OK, Ian laughed..

  Chris in San Francisco

“Still not the Himilayas”

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04/08/2009 by admin.

This is our first ‘proper’ training weekend.  Ian and I are staying in North Wales near Mt. Snowdon. 

Ian knew this area well having a holiday home in the area and having cycled most of the routes around.  He had planned a weekend of fitness for us . . . well for me, really.  It turns out that Ian also does triathlons.  I hadn’t considered his level of fitness in comparison to mine, until now.  Ian had planned a little warm up on the Friday afternoon.   A LITTLE WARM UP. . . . . . .  

It was an old railway line from a slate mine to the coast.  The trains were loaded with slate and pushed off, where they trundled for the 15 miles to the coast under their own weight.  Starting at this quaint fishing village and old port meant I was cycling uphill from the start and Ian, being a lot fitter, went faster!  As my heart was pounding, I decided if I have a charity to support it would be the British Heart Foundation (link on the right if you would like to make a donation).  Whilst I was cycling, and hurting, it made me think cycling around Virginia Water was not going to be enough to get me through the foothills of the Himalayas for 10 days. 

Ian was fantastic.  I was feeling guilty as he would have to stop and wait for me though just kept saying, I think this gives us an idea of what it’s going to be like!

I also have to point out he was in lycra cycling trousers, lycra cycling top, backpack, whilst I was wearing rugby jogging bottoms, a running top, though I did have  a proper helmet.  I felt like the poor cousin.  It was also the first time in the 23 years of my bike, that I had had to use all 24 gears.   

I remember thinking to myself, “That’s why these bikes have so many gears!”

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“Me and my old bike”

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