I'm sure I should be training more

Last year my brother in-law bought a road bike, quite a fancy one. I have an interesting relationship with cycling and bikes. My dad encouraged us from an early age and got me a bike with drop handles when I was about 10 or 11 I guess. It is today the best Christmas present I have ever had, mainly because I had no idea I was getting it and I went downstairs in to the living room and there it was.

So I've always been in to riding bikes and I love watching the Tour de France, especially with my dad. In July we'd gather round the tv after dinner and watch the highlights on Channel 4. As I grew up I grew out of cycling although I always had a bike somewhere. When I went to uni dad put one together for me, granted the pedals fell off, but it was a nice thought.

And so from the age of 16 to 26 I lost my way and cycling was pushed to the back of my mind. After driving a van for a year in Australia I found a desk job for the Asthma Foundation of WA and they're big fundraising event was the Freeway Bike Hike. Working on this event and working with people that have since become great friends encouraged me to get back in to cycling. And in 2007 I bought a proper road bike myself, second hand, off my favourite site Ebay.

Ok, so it didn't get much usage in Perth because I didn't think I was cool enough to ride around Perth or fit enough, I used to play football on a saturday and would be breathing out my arse after 10 minutes.

When we moved back to Birmingham I did want to bring my bike back though as I thought it would be something me and dad could do. So, again, the bike was shipped over. It sat in my dad's house for about a year. Mainly because it dawned on me how wet, busy and horrible British roads are, and how busy life in the UK is.

But when my brother in-law bought his bike it spurred me on and since last year I've been getting out more. Now that I don't have a car to call my own I bike to work generally as it's only a 10 minute ride. And then toward the end of last year, I thought it would be great to do an organised ride, something to aim for and puch us on.

The soonest one was on March 28th and was an Action 100 ride (I'll be honest, I haven't a clue who the charity is) you can either ride 100km or 100 miles. I thought, perfect, in 6 months I can be ready for a 100km ride surely...

...of course, I must have been drinking that day and forgotten that a) it was coming up to winter b) that I have 2 young children and c) I'm actually quite lazy.

But I've been riding when I can, nowhere near on the scale of my brother in-law who seems to be doing regular 20 mile stints as opposed to my 5. And I fully intend on doing the ride in March, if only, because I don't think I'll get chance to do another in the UK.

So I better get training. I rode a longer route to work this mornig, and after a week off the bike it pretty much killed me. I probably over estimated how cold it was with 5 layers on including 2 warm fleece type jackets which probably didn't help. We've got a 20 mile ride planned fo rsunday morning with a few of my brother in-laws friends, so we'll see how that goes.

And the funniest part of the story, which is typical of me. I got to work (insert puffing and panting noises) and went to get changed and had I put my jeans and t-shirt in my bag? Of course not, I'm just glad I had my trainers in there as otherwise I would have looked an idiot walking around in cleats.

But don't worry, I have no lycra shorts in sight, I'm a trackies and socks kinda guy!

What's next?

First day back at work and the event is nearly tidied up and concluded. Which means that it's on to the next one. Sticking to my crazy 'it's winter and I don't care' theme we'll be going for an Australian Day BBQ on the 30th January.

Yes, yes, a BBQ in England in January. I must be mad. But let's face it, I love Australia and I'd love to celebrate Australia Day on the 26th January, and so I'll do it in my own unique way. Quite a bit to organise and not much time to do it, but as long as we can get word out then it should be fine.

Today, I was de-signing the bike route. Took me nearly 4 hours in the car, managed to get to moat of the spots, a few I will do here and there over the next week or so.

Taking tomorrow off, just to get head clear and do some housework as our house isn't anywhere near for Christmas and then Wednesday we'll start the countdown to Aussie Barbie 2010!

1 day to Go!

It was day 4 of training, but more importantly, there is just one more day to go until the Festive Bike Ride. I feel like I've done nothing but bang on about it for the past couple of weeks, I'm sure you'll be pretty glad when it's over and I stop talking about it.

Training took a bit of a step back today as some of you might be thinking, "aren't you meant to be organising this bike ride?!" And indeed, yes I am. So today started off early with signposting the route. Fingers crossed the signs all last until Saturday, but the route is largely self-explanatory, well it is to me, and everyone will have a map.

Quickest and easiest way to signpost it was to do it on my bike, which was fine, until I started running out of cable ties and 'Straight Ahead' signs. So I made it as far as Cannon Hill Park and then headed for home (always seems to be 70% uphill on the home leg) had a quick bite to eat then headed to the office to do more printing of signs and laminating them. All done, I had a lift to B&Q to get some more cable ties.

So now, I am armed and ready to tackle the Frankley - Harborne leg of the ride. It's dark, but taking the car so should be ok. That will just leave the Cannon Hill Park to Harborne via the canal leg to attempt tomorrow.

So, lots of boring jobs today, but tested the legs, and no doubt will be on the bike again tomorrow. And I'll have to take all the signs down either sunday or monday, so I'm certainly clocking up the miles.

In other news, it was sad to hear that a cyclist died yesterday at the Lancaster Circus roundabaout in town. It involved a bendy bus and sounds pretty nasty. We'll hear two sides of the story that it was the motorist fault vs the cyclist fault, but either way, I don't see why we can't share a road. Birmingham isn't the most cycle friendly city, but if everyone slowed down and relaxed, we'd all get where we wanted eventually and a little less stressed.

And the big news of today was that British Olympian Bradley Wiggins as joined forces with the new British cycling Team Sky. Was always on the cards that they would attract him from Garmin. I can understand that the appeal of riding for a British pro team from their conception must be pretty exciting, but at Garmin, he was well catered for and there were plenty of strong riders to support an assault on the top rides next year. I hope Team Sky can back him in a similar way, and it'll certainly add interest to Le Tour de France 2010.

Ok, well, that's all for tonight. I'll try and update tomorrow, but if not, see you at the Festive Bike Ride.

Training - Day 3

Not much to report today. The ride is 3 sleeps away and I've lost a bit of motivation. We've had a couple drop out, but a couple have said they'll be there on the day, so I'm optimistic.

Hoping they all do they're own sponsorship and it's more successful than mine. Going to have to re-think my strategy, asking for money the week before an event was asking a lot. I might still wear the santa suit on the ride and rattle a bucket or tin on the back!

[Edit] This will teach me for not checking my page before posting...Thank You so much to an amazing friend for a donation! It's pretty amazing, so thank you so much Lucy, Peryn, Carys and Luned. [Edit]

You'll notice one of my links over on the right is to the Believabelles website. I came across them on Twitter, although who pointed me in the direction I have no idea. But they're 3 lasses who are a good laugh and will be riding London to Paris next year. @Lisaseat registered on the Festive Bike Ride yesterday, but I'm skeptical...only because on the same day she announced she was having Vince Vaughan's baby!

Anyhoo. Training today has consisted of a 1.1 mile walk from my house to my parents to drop the Big littl'un off and then cycling the 1.8 miles to work. The diet today will consist of a chicken sandwich, sweets and chocolate cake kindly donated by Sue in my office.



I'll cycle back home and pick the boy up after work, and may cycle in to Harborne to get some decorations to stick on the bike.

In other news, our tree went up last night and the children were lovely in helping. Not so lovley them helping take the tree down this morning!

Have a good day people.

Challenge Accepted

Ok, some of you may know, some of you may not. I've just started (2 months counts as just started yeah?) as Events Fundraiser for a charity in Brum...Focus Birmingham. We support people with visual impairments.

So, what did I think a good Christmassy event would be...you got it...

a Bike Ride!

The other thing you should know about me is I love cycling. Now 'love' is an intersting word to use. I didn't use to get out on my bike very much at all. But after meeting some 2-wheelers during my time in Western Australia I found my love for cycling again...I bought a road bike, even bought one for the mrs...and they sat nicely in the back yard!

But I started watching the Tour de France again, as I used to with my Dad when I was young and that fire started burning again.

We moved back to Brum and I'd had my bike shipped back to and after a year in another shed, it's wheels finaly tasted British tarmac.

And now, well, I'm not doing as much riding as I'd like, it is winter after all, but I'm commuting to work (all of 10-15mins!) and doing the odd longer ride when possible. It has to be said I know very little about bikes and am relying on the knowledge of various websites and my brother in-law who also purchased a road bike and was another reason for getting back on the road.

So, back to the point of the blog...I organised the bike ride and yes 20 cyclists doing a bike ride in December would have been nice, but we're a bit short. But that does give me the opportunity to have a ride, and so somewhere along the line I decided that if I was sponsored £200 I would don a Santa suit and do the ride myself.

I mean, I've scouted the route, albeit it took nearly 4 hours! So, it'll be fun won't it??! Here's hoping.

So, I've accepted the challenge and Day One of training has involved cycling back from work (I'll get the distance of http://www.bikely.com/ in a bit) and stopping off at the chip shop for sausage, egg and chips for tea.

So, if you want to see photos of me puffing up a hill on a bike in a santa suit, you better get donating. Who needs Christmas cards anyway?!?! www.justgiving.com/AndyyK