Getting Fit

Manchester to Florence

2014-09-27T18:36:00.001+01:00

Sat above Florence having a cappuccino and a moment to reflect on an amazing adventure. I was going to use the word trip or maybe holiday but neither would describe this journey nearly aptly enough.

Pre adventure in Manchester I had a feeling that distance and climbing would be easy (ish). I am cycle fit and ride often and had just come off the back of doing a 200mile Coast to Coast trip. I had had 8 weeks notice of the adventure and was confident my preparation was adequate. I knew I would drop some weight and become fitter before the mountain climbs we had in store.

The first few days were pretty easy going. The Belgians are lovers of all things two wheeled and on many occasions we took priority over everything on the road with no anger or animosity. It was one of the nicest parts of the trips as the roads became more aggressive in Italy.

Most days I struggled in the heat on the continent. We were exceptionally lucky in that we had beautiful weather all trip. The temperatures ranged between 22 and 31 degrees each day. I figure that I struggled due to dehydration and a lack of calorie consumption. The food on the trip was pretty awful after leaving the ferry. Not enough veg or salad and far to much junk. I think it's fair to say I won't be eating pizza or pasta for a few weeks on my return lol. I am sick of the sight of bread rolls. Cuisonts and salami! The coffee however had been exceptional across the trip much to my delight!

By around day 4 the average speed of each day had settled to around 13mph and many hours of riding and stopping for food and water followed. It was pretty relaxed and I spent my time trying to help people and keeping spirits high with some Crossland humour. The group had two distinct abilities to it and a lack of cohesiveness when riding really did let us down throughout the trip. The Garmins also insisted on taking us down some awful off road cycle tracks which really made me angry on occasion due to having my pride and joy buffeted about.

Apart from the above the days were filled with some absolutely stunning riding. Most days held some deceptive totals in terms of the climbing we had done and the friendly Garmins added a few miles here and there for good measure. The countryside in all of the countries Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy was epic. My particular highlight was the climb up Col St Bernard, which is the third highest peak in Europe to cycle I am informed. I am not a climber at all. I weigh far to much and gravity is my mortal enemy. It was the best and worse 17 miles of my life. It delved into every nook and cranny of my character as I climbed alone with the percentages increasing then lulling then ramping. It was a fantastic, once in a lifetime experience and I came through it. It is perhaps the single best and biggest achievement I have accomplished on my bike. The decent on the other side was battled for and was an absolute stunner. We decended for miles and miles through tight hairpins and roller coaster fast straights through the most idyllic mountain scenery. Overtaking cars and sweeping through the corners at break neck speeds. The descent took nearly an hour to complete and by the end my hands were numb from clinging onto the bars and squeezing the breaks trying to extract every wheel spin of speed. The photos I have taken were mostly on the ascent as I was concentrating on not getting my descent wrong and flying off a mountainside.

The other days were also memorable for other reasons. The 8 person team we had was composed of some real characters and this kept us mostly in high spirits. A real feeling of friendship and unity developed, which although tested at times due to the extreme nature of the trip, will be something that lives on with me until the day I die.

I will probably never do an eleven day cycling trip again in my life. It was a mentally and physical taxing trip it tested and pushed me to my limits. I have a far better knowledge of myself and a bigger new found respect for the professionals who ride for three weeks during the Grand Tours at top speeds.

Massive thanks to everyone who made the trip possible, the people on the trip and peoples kind messages of support they genuinely really helped.

Hope you enjoyed the read!

https://www.justgiving.com/M2FBikeRiders/

Ps Wiggins al akbar (for the M2F group)

Motiv8

2014-02-16T13:40:00.005+00:00

First one for a while. 2014 has seen a change in attitude for me. After a rough 2013 with personal stuff and work combining to make it a fairly miserable year 2014 has seen me change my attitude and fully commit to getting to where I need to be. Last year I was dabbling if I am honest. I joined the gym in October went a few times then didn’t go again until the back end of December. I have tried to learn to be more positive and it seems to be going well at the moment. Using self talk and some other techniques to try and curb of the downers I regularly used to experience.

I am not sure what has relit my fire for fitness but so far it is going well. I am seeing a personal trainer once per month and every two months having a bioanalysis done. This is allowing me to set some really achievable goals and also to lose weight more effectively as I am not just cycling. Doing some really interesting workouts that are modified and varied to keep me interested. I have just signed up for my first pilates class on Friday! Wish me luck!

January saw me for the first time in ages sit down and actually write down some short term goals. My long term goal is 15.5stone and a good engine for the bike.

Januarys Goals where;

Gym – 2 times per week

Run – 4km running twice per week

Cycling – Add extra miles to commute (not achieved due to weather)

Food – no alcohol, chocolate, bread or takeaways

Target set for running is a 6mile Sport Relief challenge at the end of March

You may think that there is a lot to go on here but I have managed to achieve it. I am not missing bread or any of the other no’s. I am having one treat day a month where I can have a pizza and some other bits and pieces. To go along with the no’s I have looked at my diet and made sure that I am eating a bit more wiser. More veg and fruit are the order of the year!!

Going to do an update each month! Thanks for reading!

Bookworm

2013-08-03T12:07:00.000+01:00

Hi all, I am going to attempt to right a little on a few books I have been reading recently. I really enjoy reading and that coupled with my enthusiasm for cycling has led me to try and learn more about the history, culture and the professional element of it.

Domestique

Domestique is a really interesting read as it is from the perspective of someone who wasn’t a winner of big races but fulfilled a very necessary role within the teams he rode for. As a fairly new cycling enthusiast I have watched a lot of the races and Grand Tours and started to learn about the intricacies of the Peloton. There are lots of books on the big names of cycling but this book offers a genuine if slightly self pitying view of the world of a domestique. The book is written in a very frank manner and tells mostly of Charly Wegelius career from junior ranks to respected senior professional. He tells of the struggles of trying to make it in the world of the pro-tour, the pitfalls of the era he rode in and the constant struggle to maintain form and usefulness in this highly competitive sport. Overall a very easy and informative read. I picked up a copy for £10 from Amazon. Highstreet best price is £12 from Waterstones.

Hunger: Sean Kelly

A massive name in the world of cycling and a much anticipated release of a book from this Irish legend. As with most autobiographies the book starts with Kelly’s beginnings and works through his career. He has chosen only to pick up on a small number of wins but I guess if he had written about all of them the book would have been somewhat bigger! It’s again a frank read. Kelly talks about his rivals, a tragic episode in his personal life and the ups and downs he encountered during his career. I really enjoyed the book and found it difficult to put down. This was probably my favourite book amongst the ones I have reviewed here. Picked this up for £17.69 from Amazon but matched on the highstreet by Waterstones at the same price!

The Man Who Cycled the World

This is something a little different but peaked my interest as I would love to do some travelling on the bike. My hatred of camping may make this a little difficult and more expensive but this book was a great read. Mark Beaumont the chap who wrote this book is the current World Record holder for a round the world trip. There are certain rules which must be followed to qualify and the trip must also be mapped by a number of technical gadgets of course. The book is obviously very broad in that it starts with Marks background and moves on to a day by day coverage of the ride itself. There are lots of interesting stories and anecdotes and the constant struggle to find food and water was very interesting especially when covering the Asian countries. What I struggled to get my head around was how Mark could cycle 100+ miles per day with so very few rest days for the entirety of the trip. Anyone who has done 100 miles in a day will know how sapping it is. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it if you like cycling and travel. I picked a second hand paperback copy up of Amazon for £2.18 and it was good entertainment.

Greater Manchester Cycle 2013

2013-07-04T11:52:00.002+01:00

This Sunday (30^th June) we completed the Greater Manchester Cycle again. That could be the end of the blog but for the fact there was a slight twist this year. We had put together a group of customers and staff from around Trafford Community Leisure Trust and had been preparing to do the event for a few months before. New jerseys ordered, printed and distributed, entries filled in and meeting points sorted the first wave arrived at 07:30 to a lovely morning not glorious but decent (no rain and hardly any wind). After picking up people from around the start zone due to a combination of our distinctive jerseys and mobile phones we started at the back of the couple of thousand strong field. Again there were many people young to old on many many different types of machines, the atmosphere was one of nerves and excitement. We finally got away at about 08:20 after a small wait, understandable considering the mass of people, for our four laps of the 13 mile course. We had set off and were in a nice group getting onto the Mancunian Way when we saw the lead peloton coming back the other way with their police outrider. I still cannot understand why people see fit to come and race a sportive but each to there own. We managed about two laps with the group in relative tact before we split up and rode our own pace. The second lap also heralded the arrival of a really strong wind down the back of the course. This kept us ‘entertained’ for two laps and meant a sapping of reserves for some of those newer to the ride. I managed to finish at 2hrs and 44mins, which I was pleased with as it was faster by about 10minutes from the last year. I didn’t feel that I emptied the tank but it was difficult due to starting at the back of the field and having to dodge people. We were still overtaking people as we approached the finish. Everyone of the seven finished with no issues. Some tired faces but a general feeling of enjoyment and accomplishment was expressed!

The second group doing the 26miler, two laps of the course, arrived and were ready to set off at 11:30. Heather was leading them and they set off in one of the first waves. I looked out for them on their first lap and tried (and failed) to get some pictures. They all looked pretty fresh on the first lap. I decided to go to the finish and take some video of them. I managed to get some of everyone looking a little more tired then the first lap. Heather had a slow puncture and managed to get over the finish line before we had to change it. Again everyone was pleased about completing and complementary about the organisation of the event.

As for the event itself it was again very well organised. The course had been tweeked this year after last years pinch point which caused a few problems. It was a lot better then the previous years course. The Council had filled in some pot holes which was nice for the start of the event. The only things that were a little strange were the trip through Old Trafford car park and a u-turn out at the far end of the course. Maybe they will look at that for next year!

I really enjoyed the cycle and one of the main things for me was getting more people down to enjoy the experience. Seeing people regain their enjoyment of cycling is something that I get a massive kick from.

Some pictures :-)

Greater Nottinghamshire Cycle

2013-06-24T12:58:00.000+01:00

Hi all, the third leg of the charity rides this year for Cyclists Fighting Cancer has been completed…just!

Lindsey, Evie and I travelled down to Nottingham the night before to stay with The Garrods as Matt was taking part in the event also, his first 100 miler. May had put on a massive spread of meatballs and pasta. I have never seen such a big bowl of awesomeness! I think even Adam Richman himself would have had issues trying to consume it all! It was a great pre-‘race’ meal. We had been doing some last minute tyre work on Matt’s bike and had managed to pinch a tube so that changed and confident it was ok we went to sleep as it was an early start the next day at 05:30 for launch at 07:00. Had a decent nights sleep but Evie’s snoring was bad the little tike!

We woke up to a howling gale outside in the morning. After consuming some muesli and cornflakes and refusing Matt’s kind offer of beetroot juice we crammed the bikes into the car and set off for the start. We met Matt’s friend Darren Warrior (such a cool name) at the start and were taken to our holding pen along with the other ‘cattle’. We set off in waves at around 07:00 with a really strong tail wind. For the first hour we were ticking along at around 20mph avg it was that strong. The inevitable happened and we had to turn into the wind after an hour and a half as we turned along the top of one of the loops. The wind really killed off our good start. Matt, Darren and I struggled along at a misely 13mph cursing ever so slightly the wind. The countryside was really quite stunning and the weather apart from the wind was really nice. After around three hours we entered into a downpour but it wasn’t so bad as we had turned again and the wind was now coming in from the side. I shouted to Matt and Darren that we should form an echelon but as none of us knew what that meant or how to do it we ended up single file. We had decided on a two stop strategy one at 50miles at Matt’s parent and one at 75miles at the last feed station. This proved to be a sensible ploy as we all struggled a little near the end from the adverse conditions. Matt’s mum and dad really looked after us a hot cup of tea and some peanut butter sandwiches were just what the doctor ordered. We also had opportunity to towel ourselves off and that was most welcome to. We thanked Matt’s parents and cracked on. Around about the 90 mile mark we went past Matt’s house and Evie, May, Louca and Lindsey where cheering us on and videoing. This gave us the extra boost we needed for the last ten miles. The weather was everything from rain to bright sunshine but we kept going and after taking a short detour (same mileage) to avoid a dirt track we arrived back at the finish to a great fanfare, well a few people waiting for other participants and a soggy field. I was given my medal and I am not sure if I was looking like a lady at that point as I also received the female finisher’s goody bag. My hands are now lovely and soft from the hand cream. I am still trying to work out how to use the hairbobbles.

I really enjoyed the ride chatting with Matt and Darren it was great to be apart of their first 100miler and I have to say a massive thanks to Matt for getting everyone to contribute to the charity total.

You can still make a donation here:

http://www.justgiving.com/James-Crossland2

Every penny goes to the charity as I am meeting my own costs for the events and travel

:-)

Here we are at the finish.

Me (Left) Matt (Centre) Darren (Right)

Here are the ride stats to :-)

Strava File

Safe Riding!

Majorca Part 2

2013-05-05T10:02:00.000+01:00

Its a long one so forget about your Sunday paper and give it a go!

Day 3 was a bit of a chilled out rest day ride…it was supposed to be anyway. David P, Jean and I decided to head up the coast for a coffee and a short 25mile ride to ease the legs into the sportive on the Saturday. We stopped at Tolo’s café which is Wiggin’s hangout when he is in Majorca. There is a signed yellow jersey framed in there from him (see below). Again the coffee and company was exceptional and we headed out to the Cap de Formentor for a spin up to the first viewing point. This was my first real taste of the climbs I could be expecting the next day as I had flown in a day after the big ride for Sunvelo. It was a couple of kilometres long between 5-10% in gradient. I managed it quite easily and this instilled a bit of confidence in me for the next day. Unfortunately this is where the enjoyment was tempered. My build up to the sportive had gone as well as I could have wanted. 200+ miles in the three weeks building up to the event and another 250 under the belt including the sportive in Majorca had made me pretty confident. Other then the wobble the previous day when trying to get my foot out of the pedal I was 100% confident of my preparation. We arrived at the car park at the first viewing area. I tried to take my foot out of the pedal…it didn’t budge…I tried again still no joy…I start to panic a little but think I will go round the car park and try again buy myself a bit of time…unfortunately a car pulled out which sent me towards a bush which I thought wouldn’t be to bad to have a lie down in better then the tarmac. Unfortunately I had not seen the small protruding rocks to the right of the bush which when I came off I landed full force on with my elbow puncturing it and leaving a nice proportion of DNA on the floor. It knocked me sick a bit to as I hate seeing blood especially my own. I was a bit dazed didn’t see the views or take any pictures which I am annoyed about. David and Jean did there best to pick me up and stem the flow of blood from my elbow, which eventually reduced to a small trickle. We then went back descending the climb which was fun even though my elbow was hurting. On the way home we stopped off at one of the many pharmacies where a kindly old Majorcan lady cleaned up the wound using a liquid antiseptic which was a tad painful. Once back at the hotel David P used some steri-strips to seal the gash/puncture wound. Needless to say I had enjoyed the ride but was fuming at myself for the way in which I had injured myself.

Here is the route for you to have a nosey at.

http://app.strava.com/activities/51108904

D-Day – It was an early start up at 0400 for a 0500 breakfast. I had managed to get a few hours sleep despite not being able to sleep in my favoured position due to the elbow and also that in the night I knocked the elbow a couple of time, which obviously woke me up. Everyone was quiet at breakfast as the weather was looking ominous. We met in the garage at 06:00 and had a final check of equipment and some pictures done. I had opted for bib shorts and short sleeve jersey with windbreak gillet. Even though it was raining the temperature was still between 15-20 degrees and the rain was warm to so was bearable. I don’t think I regretted the kit decision even when the weather was at its peak due to the warmness the only place I really struggled was on the massive decent from the Puig de Muir (video from last year of the descent - http://youtu.be/BbrVqFH5Hwo) mountain which took around 20 minutes and was averaged at about 24mph. That kind of gives you an idea of how big the climb was also! We arrived at the start for 0645 for a starting time of 0700. The Germans had got there first, sure there is a sun bed joke in there somewhere, and there was already a big build up of riders. The support team for Sunvelo where happily snapping pictures of our tired and pensive faces and doing there best to cheer us up which they had success with. At the briefing the previous evening we had spoken about getting a group together and looking after each other but it was already clear at the start this was going to be difficult with the volume of riders there. We set off at 0700 and within the first 20km we had split as a group and where just riding as best we could sitting in groups with other participants. I didn’t see anyone for around 30miles from our group. The first hour was quick as the race was neutralised for safety reasons coming out of Alcudia. Once the police split off the sportive exploded. Fast riders going off and a real selection of riders being made and distributed into many groups. I found myself on the first climb alone but this was what I had expected and wanted. I am not the best climber and didn’t want to hold people up. I was climbing at a steady rate of between 7 – 11mph depending on the gradient. Lots of people where passing me but I was not to concerned about what anyone else was doing just trying to tempo away and get to the top. The first 60km of the ride where were the mountains and climbs where coming thick and fast. I knew once I had done this part that the rest would play to my advantage of being faster on descents and on the rolling flats we had.

The weather had really closed in now and the rain was heavy for around 100km. There were patches of sun but mostly rain and a persistent fog which unfortunately blocked off some of the views we would have seen. Fortunately when it we descended from the Puig de Muir it was dry and safe and gave us some fantastic views into the valleys below. It was like looking out of an aeroplane window coming into land. All of the houses and roads where so tiny. As you can see from the video above the descent can only be described as epic. Barry and I had linked up just before the descent and rode most of the rest of the way together until the crash…more to come on that. One rider took it upon himself to nearly kill himself on the descent making some rash overtaking manoeuvres and nearly getting taken out by a coach. A number of riders where shaking there heads and shouting at him in different languages. We hit the second food stop which had been taken over by a load of tanned Italian looking chaps all huddled under the gazebo sheltering from the rain. I managed to get in and get a couple of rolls and a tin or two of coke for me and Barry. An Italian gentleman started to shout at me but as I didn’t speak the language so I just smiled, shrugged and walked away with the loot! We set off again and saw the split for the race those doing the 167km and those doing the 312km. We made absolutely sure we turned onto the 167km. We started to pick up speed down another decent and headed on to the flatter part of the course. We had picked up Tony from Sunvelo and a German chap who we had been speaking to whilst going up the climbs. Barry and I upped the pace to a decent 21-22mph and started to motor. When I next turned around we had picked up around ten riders. I said to Barry ok mate you have done a lot of work lets start rolling through and letting the others take a turn then we can get home faster. Barry pulled in in front of me and I gave the signal for another rider to come through. Our German friend Uwe kindly obliged then nothing. I waited a few seconds then tried again. Nobody wanted to come through and help. They all just wanted to tag on and sit in the wheels. This upset me a little but there wasn’t really much I could do. As we were taking the next roundabout the crash happened. We were single file with me following Barry’s wheel when Barry must have hit something on the road or a bit of oil. Both of Barry’s wheels went from under him and he skidded on the tarmac. We were travelling at about 22mph and I had very little time to react. Barry had slid away from the bike slightly as he had come away from his toe straps if he hadn’t I would have gone straight over his torso as I went over the back wheel. I somehow managed to stay on the bike and ended up on the wrong side of the road again. Fortunately no traffic. Barry got to the side of the road and I could see that his rear derailleur was a right off. Barry was relatively unhurt with a bit of road rash down his left leg. My bike miraculously was in good shape. We made sure Barry was ok and then set off to see if we could link up with the support car and send them back to Barry. The others had just ridden off without a thought for Barry. Tony and I set off I was pulling Tony along for sometime and we met with the car about 5 miles away grabbing some food and letting them know what had happened. Then we set off again. Some time after this is when I had my first puncture. I was just ticking along nicely when the dreaded noise occurred. I stopped to change it but was having issues getting the tyre off as I was cold and tired by now having covered around 80miles. An Irish guy came to my rescue and sorted the tyre out. He then left me to put some air in. I couldn’t get the valve out far enough to put any in. A German trio stopped to help. That’s when we found out that the Irish chap hadn’t taken off the circlet on the valve and it was inside the tyre. I felt stupid but the German people where really nice about it and sorted it out. After putting some air in I set off again. I came across Morris and Barry…yes Barry he had fixed the bike with a stick at the roadside and managed to continue. We rode on for a bit but then Barry’s bike completely broke as the rear mech sheered from the bike. Day over for Barry and an immense feeling of sadness that he would not be able to complete the ride. We had ridden together through 70% of the course through the hills and I was gutted for him. A few miles after we had left Barry I began to feel bumps through the rear tyre. Morris and I pulled over and the tyre was soft. Slow puncture. I nearly gave up then I thought of the kids with cancer and that Evie and Lindz were waiting at the finish for me. I pumped some air in and carried on as I was close to the finish. I was very angry at this point. The effect of two punctures, crap weather and Barry having to stop had enraged me and I apologise to all the people who I rode past at speed cursing under my breath. It took another couple of stops to reinflate the tyre then I was home or so I thought. Just to top things off I had taken a wrong turning and was now at the far side of Alcudia. So I had just done an extra 10 miles for fun. I finally got back on track and rode down the finishing straight. There where still a number of people there and the announcer said “James Crossland, United Kingdom” I put on my best attempt of a smile and crossed the finishing line to cheers from Lindsey and Evie. I was glad to have finished and be home. The official time was 8hrs 29minutes by the board. My Garmin read close to 7hours but I think there was about 40minutes of unrecorded due to the crash and punctures after which I had forgotten to start the timer again. I was pleased with the time not knowing the route and with so many issues. I was under the 9 hour mark and got my finishers jersey.

The sportive itself was epic. I would love to do it again in the sunshine although I think the weather was better for it not being to hot. The climbs where long and hard and the descents where amazing. The Majorcan people and countryside did a great job of keeping my spirits up during the ride and there was a real sense of achievement at the end of the sportive. I would recommend whole heartedly to anyone to go and cycle in Majorca and to do so with SunVelo.

Ride stats for you

http://app.strava.com/activities/51108956

Thanks for reading guys hope you enjoyed it!

Bit of a picture gallery for you also. I seem to be eating in most of the pictures...nothing new there then!

Barry and one of the support ladies

Mr David Percival

At the start

In the dark at the start

Check out the standing water

Half way up a mountain

Majorca Part 1

2013-05-01T15:04:00.001+01:00

The trip was the first part of a bigger picture for me for 2013. Raising money for Cyclists Fighting Cancer throughout the year via a number of sportives through the year.

http://www.justgiving.com/James-Crossland2

I was looking to do a few days cycling then the Majorca 167 sportive as the first part of the challenge. I had been to see the best physio in Manchester Marek Holowenko (http://www.mhcpt.co.uk/) in preperation and he had sorted my legs right out! I took the girls with me in the hope that they would have a great time and to spend some time with them over the few days. The first thing I noticed on the coach to the hotel was the enormous amount of cyclists around. It was a utopia for cycling. I was beginning to get very excited about the prospect of being part of the community. We had booked with Sunvelo (www.sunvelo.com) who are a cycling adventure holiday company based in Alcudia on the island. The hotel was the Viva Blue, which was very nice and had ticked all the boxes. We were looking for half board, nice rooms, kids activities and importantly for me cycling setup. The hotel provided an excellent range of food for breakfast and evening meals. I was astounded by the variety there was something for everyone and the food was always excellent. Dave from Sunvelo was my contact for booking and everything went very smoothly. This was the case when dealing with Sunvelo for the entirety of the holiday. The weather was to prove a different matter over the five days we were there. The first couple of days where nice with a strong breeze. After that it was mostly wind and rain and would stay this way for the sportive on the Saturday.

We had booked the same week as two friends of ours David and Jean Percival and the friendship was strengthened through the week via the cycling and the meals we all shared together. Evie was in her element drawing with Jean which was really nice to see. David also looked after me when I had a bit of a spill on our easy ride day (more to come in part 2).

The first days riding was very windy and we had Dave the company boss leading us out. The ride took in the beautiful Majorcan countryside and involved a coffee and cake stop something that reoccurred throughout the riding on different days. I had my new pedals (Look Keo Carbon) attached to the Ridley Orion bike I had rented from SunVelo. I was very impressed with them as they provided a tight attachment and were light. I am saving them for my new bike which hopefully I will be able to purchase later in the year. The Ridley was really nice and was the first full carbon bike I have ridden. I didn’t have any complaints over the four days with the bike although I did have three punctures during the week. This was probably down to me being too heavy still though. I did however have some small issues with my new pedals and new cleats in that they were a little too good and had me struggling to release when we stopped. We had just left the coffee stop and I was beginning to see what strong riders Dave and one of our companions Harald from Norway were. They were dragging us along at a fair old pace just manageable for me but dropping a few of the others on the small drags. Harald was residing on Gran Canaria for the winter and was doing 120km a day over the mountains there. The legs on this guy were massive and near the end he decided to leave us on the climb of the day Cancellara style and head back to Alcudia. As we reached the climb there was a stop sign, which I had seen around 200 metres before we got there but was having issues getting my foot from the clip…this resulted in me turning the wrong way up the road and round a traffic island trying not to fall off and ending up facing the oncoming traffic. Luckily there wasn't any and other then worrying Dave a bit I ended up unclipped on the climb but in the big ring. I had to dismount and change the gears manually very embarrassing as a few groups of Germans went past looking at me in disgust. I climbed back on to the group with a little assistance from David P. I met Barry for the first time today also he was struggling a little to stay with the group but working together we arrived back into Alcudia with the group. Barry improved through the whole trip and was a very tenacious rider especially using toe straps!

Here is the first days ride with a few stats if you are interested!

http://app.strava.com/activities/51108933

Day 2 saw another 0930 start we all met at 0800 for breakfast, which really fostered a team atmosphere throughout the holiday. Today I would be riding with Alistair, who I found out after the ride was a double bronze Commonwealth track cycling medallist, David P, Nathan and Barry. Alistair took some massive turns on the front into the wind at a very decent pace he had the biggest calves I have ever seen! It was all Barry and I could do to sit behind him and David P! We had cake and coffee at a small place outside of Alcudia and got there doing about 22 mph average the whole time. It was a recurrent theme that the coffee was cheap and nice tasting. As I love coffee this was a massive plus. We tucked in behind Alistair and David but about 20km from the end of the ride I had my first puncture. Alistair gave me a masterclass on how to change a tyre. Even though I can do it he took about 5 mins! Nathan left us to go and have a look at one of the local climbs later we found out that he had got some way away and then the heavens opened and drove him back to Alcudia. Alistair then led us back to Alcudia being buffeted by the wind off the sea.

Here is the second days ride with a few stats!

http://app.strava.com/activities/51108925

The second part will be arriving shortly and will have some video and a few pics :-)

Fresh Thinking

2013-04-07T21:12:00.001+01:00

Just brushing the cobwebs off my blog it’s been a while. Not sure why, I think mostly because I haven’t really had that much to report. More importantly I didn’t blogwhinge about the wind and the crappy weather we have been having!

I am feeling very positive this week on a number of fronts. I am beginning to think I am solar powered both physically and mentally. The long winter months and events have taken their toll and I am glad that things are starting to settle down. The first three months of the year have been tough. I have some major news in that I have decided to finish the coaching with Mercury. This wasn’t through anything that Mercury has or hasn’t done and I would recommend them to anyone still. I am hoping to continue to do some testing with them in the future and keep in touch of course. The main reason for finishing with them was that after some of the tests I didn’t feel that I could achieve a level of competition that would be acceptable to me. Most of you know how competitive I am and the results I achieved meant that I would struggle to achieve a Category 1 or 2 licence. I am sure that the results would have improved, I have no doubt but it would have required a commitment of more time which I just can’t commit at the moment.

I have gone back to using Strava as a training tool and have to say have been impressed so far with the results I’m seeing. This week alone I have been setting personal records all over the place which is very pleasing and has given me a massive boost on the mental side of things. Still looking for a regular riding buddy though. The original wingman Mark O’Reiily was back for the weekend and I really enjoyed him being around. I miss his lycra clad ass leaving me far behind on the ascents. This week saw 200miles covered and 12 hours in the saddle. This was from an extended commute and a couple of rides out. There is of course an aim to all this. There are a number of events I am doing this year for charity the first of which is the Majorca Sportive at the end of April which is 103miles over mountains! There is also a second motive Strava in April have set a challenge of riding the combined distance of some of the major one day races on the calendar which comes to 1319 kilometres. At the end of this week I am sat at 23% of that total.

I will be cycling a lot this year still and raising lots of money (hopefully) for Cancer Fighting Cyclists. This is something I really enjoy doing and I have some events etc in the pipeline so keep your eyes peeled. We recently raised £63.50 from a cake sale at Stretford which was excellent. What is always good about the cake sales is that a lot of friends get involved baking for me. Without them the stalls wouldn’t happen and their time and energy is very much appreciated! Again these same friends have stood up to be counted and I am currently sat on £370 or the £2000 target for the year. Thanks everyone for your donations so far! I will be doing some more cake sales between now and the end of the year. There will also be a Spinning Masterclass at Stretford Sports Village which should hopefully raise some more pennies. I would also like to say a massive thanks to Nat for designing my new cover on Facebook it is amazing. Talented guy!

Thanks for reading and go make a donation if you can!

Moving Forward

2013-02-07T12:40:00.000+00:00

Hi everyone. This year I am going to be trying to raise as much money as I possibly can for a charity called Cyclists Fighting Cancer http://cyclistsfc.org.uk/ . A few friends of mine already do great voluntary work for them and they have been part of the inspiration for me to do this. The other reason is that a colleague and friend of mines son is recovering and the charity helped them out with bikes. He gains a lot of joy from riding his bike and the family are more united because of the bikes.

The charities mission is

Cyclists Fighting Cancer gives bikes, adapted trikes and tandems to children and young people whose lives have been affected by cancer.

Something as simple as a bike makes a remarkable difference to their daily lives and brings back smiles

If you have a look at their website you will see the great work that they do and how many people’s lives they have changed for the better.

You will all know that I love cycling and I want to help provide the excitement and health benefits I get from riding my bike to other people.

I will be doing a number of sportive rides during the year for the charity and am again looking for you to support me in whatever way you can. The first ride I will be doing is in Majorca at the end of April. It is 103miles around the mountains where Bradley Wiggins trains. It is going to be tough and will probably take me near to 9hours to complete. I am hoping to do some other events on top of the cycling such as cake stalls and race nights so if anyone can help or has any other ideas that would be amazing.

You can make a donation on my JustGiving page here;

http://www.justgiving.com/James-Crossland2

You can make a one off donation or perhaps make a pledge to donate a small amount each month for the next 12 months. Thanks again for your continued support.

Armstrong Revisited

2013-01-19T17:26:00.001+00:00

Revelations or confirmation of that which we already were 99% sure of Mr Armstrong raised his ugly head again this week to a bandwagon of publicity but with the majority shouting out that he should not be forgiven and that he was not contrite enough. I spent an hour and forty five minutes watching the interviews (thank God for Sky+ to get rid of the adverts) and was absorbed by it. Like a great many people I had been taken in by Mr Armstrong and the story of his survival from cancer and miraculous rise to the pinnacle of the Tour de France several times no less. I have many thoughts going on in my head regarding the subject and will try and share some the best I can with you.

The first thing that struck me about the interviews was the number of times I had a feeling that Mr Armstrong was trying not to break out into a wry smile. He answered the questions very honestly that were put to him but he didn’t seem genuinely concerned. Another point which I scoffed at was that he was unaware of what a big deal he was. How can someone with a massive foundation winning a marquee sporting event each year not have a clue that they are ‘big’?

I am I have to say a little sympathetic in some respects. A majority of the competitors at the time were doing a cocktail of drugs and there are a few things that rangle with me still in that Armstrong has been made a scapegoat for the generation and that if it wasn’t him it would have been someone else. I am not trying to justify it the whole era was a farcical mess which will have a massive impact on cycling for years to come. I don’t think it helps that certain individuals were welcomed back with open arms to compete again after a few months or years bans. In my opinion once you are banned you should not be allowed to compete again within elite sport. This is regardless of peer pressure etc being put on people to take drugs in the first place. The other issue that I have is that Mr Armstrong did create an organisation to help people with cancer to cope. This has undoubtedly helped a large number of people over the years and will hopefully continue to. It would be a huge shame for this organisation to fail on the back of one man’s obvious and gross flaws. If there is one thing that he has done right though it is Livestrong.

Having read a number of witness accounts, the USADA report and a platitude of column inches over the past few months along with a number of programmes and internet videos I am now long since over my hero worship of Mr Armstrong. I don’t think Mr Armstrong can be given a second chance. He ruined too many people’s reputations, lied for too long and was nonchalant about the fact he had doped in the context of the racing believing still he was on a level playing field. After this I do not want to hear his name for a long time although I fear there is more to come.

I want to move on swiftly from this and concentrate on the sport I now know and love. Geraint Thomas summed it up perfectly for me in an interview with the BBC

"I don't think he deserves any more air time than what he's (Armstrong) got.
"We can all just finally move on and learn from it, and stop talking about him and actually talk about what's happening today

"Talk about the future, the clean riders that are doing everything that they can. That's what it's all about."

All Heart

2013-01-13T14:53:00.000+00:00

Bit of an update on the training for the last month and a bit. Very very positive to be honest. I have combined gym and cycling doing two gym sessions a week and six days of cycling. Some of the six days are commuting miles but every little helps. It did my spirit good doing a wattbike session with Mark O’Reilly shame he has to go back to the Army! I completed a 20 minute power test with Mercury Training (http://www.mercuryperformancecoaching.com/ ) on Saturday. It was the first one I had done so didn’t judge the first part amazingly well I think there was a little left in the tank at the end of the test. There was certainly a few heart beats left to go to maximum. This brings me nicely on to the blog title. There are two reasons for the title. One is the psychological aspect of my training and the other is the recovery element.

Mercury have asked me to monitor my resting heart rate (HR) in the morning before I get out of bed. It did take a bit of remembering and getting used to but I am not in the habit of providing the data to them along with a morning weight. My resting HR did surprise me somewhat the average of the week was 52 beats per minute. I was very pleased with this as it shows a good level of fitness. Mercury are monitoring to make sure that I am not overtraining. I had a rough nights sleep mid week getting four hours due to my little lady not been well and my resting heart rate reflected that in the morning moving to 63 beats per minute.

This leads me into the psychology of the HR monitoring. The days where I awoke with the lower more average HR readings I felt great on the bike and the commute was very easy and uneventful. I could push and wasn’t tired when I arrived at work and home. The day the HR was elevated I am not sure if it was physical or psychological but the commute was a massive effort and I felt tired at the end of the last commute home. The speed dropped and the avg HR was higher for the commute home. I think it will be a little bit of both. Moving on from that the power test on Saturday morning allowed me an opportunity to zone in and push myself. I could see the HR on the monitor and even though I felt tired I knew that there was more to give. Trying to hit a sweet spot was good of between 169 – 177 bpm and I knew if I went over this small zone I would be ‘in the red’. This allowed me to make sure the effort was pretty consistent and provided good readings.

The gym sessions have been providing a real sense of moving forward with the training. I am doing two per week and the are consisting of upper body toning, core work and a long period of flexibility work. The session is lasting about 50 minutes which I am happy with at the moment. I am going to try and fit another session in before or after work. I am also looking to start getting some more miles in on the bike. The last two Sundays have seen a longer ride due to the nice, but cold, weather.

Thanks very much for reading!

2012 - 2013

2013-01-01T11:46:00.000+00:00

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a very Happy New Year. May all that you wish for be achieved.

This is a bit of a 2012 review and a 2013 goal set. In 2012 I set the following as goals;

2-3 stones weight needs to be shifted

Manchester to Blackpool in better than the 4hr 30mins I took this year.

I also want to attempt the Manchester 100miler again this year and come in under 6 hours hopefully more towards the 5 hours 30minutes mark.

The Big Red Bike Ride in June, it will be 600miles in 6 days which will be my biggest challenge yet.

June will also see me try and complete my first half marathon. I am looking to sign up for the Humber Bridge half marathon.

I managed to shift a stone and a half, which I am pleased with. 2013 will see a further loss at approximately 1kg a week. This has been set by the coaches at Mercury Training (http://www.mercuryperformancecoaching.com) Stuart and David. This will motivate me more to achieve the target. On the Manchester to Blackpool goal we did it in 3hrs 36 minutes nearly an hour’s improvement on the 2011 effort this was achieved shortly after returning from Ireland and I believe I was probably at my peak for the season at this point. The Manchester 100 was not quite as successful. The first half of the sportive was in poor weather and I struggled a little with it. Considering this I was pleased with the 6hrs 21minutes I did. This was a ten minute improvement on my attempt in 2011. The Big Red Bike Ride was amazing. You can read a number of exerts about the trip in this very blog if you take a look at June 2012. On the running front I don’t think it will happen yet until I am significantly lighter and have had something done with the knee. I am hoping one day to run again as my good friend Steve Wingfield has shown this year it is entirely achievable.

2012 Ride Stats:

Total Miles: 4250 (11 months total as injured for November)

Avg Speed: 14.5mph

Time: 299:17:44 h:m:s

Elevation Gain: 97,648 ft

Avg HR: 145 bpm

Avg Bike Cadence: 76 rpm

Calories: 241,594 C

2013 will see some changes for the better I am positive this will occur. My goals are as follows;

Drop to 90kg (ish)

Complete a 10mile and 25mile TT competitively

Continue to ride a number of sportives and include one abroad.

Knock time off Manchester 100 mile time. Hopefully a substantial amount

Increase my average miles per hour substantially. (2^nd half of 2012 avg was nearly 1.5mph faster then the average for the 1^st half of the year)

I would just like to thank everyone who has helped me. All the people who I have ridden with this year. Special thanks to Mark O’Reilly again for his companionship during the year. I am sad (but proud) that he has joined the Army and we will only be occasional riding buddies in 2013. A big thanks to Rich Salisbury from Pedal Precision (http://pedalprecision.com/) who again has advised and tinkered with my setup to help me. A big thanks to Evans Cycles and especially Ted Gordon/Chris Hardisty for the help and support and to the various other people I mither through the year for advice.

I am looking forward in 2013 to linking up with Mercury Performance coaches and hopefully seeing a massive improvement. Also to continue my love affair with cycling after an amazing 2012.

Happy New Year!!

Book Review

2012-11-28T11:52:00.001+00:00

Well I have been off now for four weeks with the knee. This has given me ample time to catch up on some reading. There were a few books I wanted to tackle around cycling and there are still many more I wish to read also. I think it’s both important and nice to learn about the history of a sport so that it is easier to fully understand the rich history, which cycling is famed for. I do however feel like I am writing a school book report so bare with my hotpotch style!

The four books I read are. Tyler Hamilton: The Secret Race, Brad Wiggins: My Time, David Millar: Racing Through the Dark and Merckx Half Man Half Bike by William Fotheringham.

Tyler Hamilton: The Secret Race

I was interested to take a look at this book for a number of reasons. The first and most obvious one is that I have held Lance Armstrong up as a hero for most of my life due to his battling with cancer and his exploits in the Tour De France. Hamilton interested me as he was a long standing team mate of Armstrongs and also rode when I first became interested in cycling when I was a teenager. The book is well written and is a very smooth read by that I mean it is easy to get lost in it and like myself find that I had ran out of pages without really putting much effort in to reading it. It is not a bitter book and in my opinion holds a very introspective narrative. The interesting parts for me where the chapters focusing on Armstrong his character and the doping. Being a naïve kind of guy I hadn’t really thought about Armstrong being a strong personality nore had I read anything of the kind. This book really opened my eyes to Armstrongs character and left me researching other stories online about it as I wanted to verify the claims made by Hamilton. Unfortunately what he says seems to be true. The other aspects of the book that obviously interested me where the descriptions of various races and Hamiltons fight to not just be an average rider but a great rider. This then developed into the story of how he was enticed into the world of doping and is very similar I think to that of David Millar (more later). Overall I would say if you like cycling or have an interest in Armstrong then you will really enjoy this book.

Bradley Wiggins: My Time

I sit here in 2012 knowing that I have witnessed an amazing sporting achievement back in July. Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour De France. This has propelled him into being one of the most famous sportsmen of a generation and catapulted him into the public eye. This was then backed up by his Olympic time trial gold medal at the London Olympics. A good time for a book then! I had read excerpts of the book in The Times and already having had my interest peeked I ordered the book. With excitement I lapped up the pages and thoroughly enjoyed the read. Again another book that flew by without thought of leaving it to sit on the bedside cabinet for a while. The book interested me as there where some snippets of data, which Wiggins gave about his rides in the Tour and in other races. Mainly about wattage but also about VAM. Being a bit of a geek I liked this as I am interested in this side of the sport. The narrative itself was very good it felt intimate and heartfelt and really gave a good view of how Mr Wiggins felt over the course of the last 12 months particularly. It would have been nice to have a little more on his early career but understandably the book is aimed at 2012 mostly. In summary again a very easy read and a good buy for someone who is interested in cycling or sports people in general.

David Millar: Racing Through the Dark

I have been interested in cycling for a long time but the last two and a half years have got involved with riding a bike and also being more interested in the various other raced then the Tour De France. I had seen David Millar pop up in some of the races and on various bits of media coverage advocating clean drug free cycling. The main article which drew me to Millar was one pre-Olympics whereby a ruling was overturned regarding convicted drug cheats competing for GB. Millar fell in to this category. I decided to get hold of a copy of his book and give it a read. The book itself is told from Millar’s perspective from his childhood and encompasses his life to date. This is something I enjoyed as it gives a fuller picture of the guy. It is a fascinating read and draws you into not wanting to put it down. In a similar way to Tyler Hamilton it shows how Millar fell into taking the drugs, although not in such a comprehensive way as Hamilton more of a dabble. Millar goes deep into his feelings on taking the drugs and the effects that the life had on him. A very interesting read and again more cycling stories regarding the racing so another winner for me.

Merckx Half Man Half Bike by William Fotheringham

This book is not written by Merckx himself but is very well written none the less. I enjoyed this book the best out of the four. I had not really focused much attention on the great historical figures of cycling more of a modern day student of cycling. This book however is incredible and riveting. It is a full biography of Merckx from his childhood all the way through to his retirement from cycling. It tells the legendary tales of Merckx riding the Grand Tours and also smaller races in Belgium to earn a living. What Fotheringham has done particularly well is pull a number of sources together. There is opinion from family, friends, team mates and arch rivals inter woven into the narrative, which make for a compelling read. The race exploits of his most famous stage and classic victories are here and described expertly. In summary if you where to buy one book from the four it would have to be this one. An absolutely barn storming read!

Thanks for putting up with the ranting of a cycling fanatic!

New Direction

2012-11-12T15:33:00.001+00:00

It has taken me a while and a lot of thinking to decide where I want to go next and what I want to achieve. One of the aims is still the same and that is to shift this remaining weight but after a fair period of stagnation I have decided to enlist the help of a coaching team. I went to David and Stuart Percival at Mercury Performance Coaching a few weeks ago for an initial assessment and to start to look at where I will be heading this next twelve months. After a battery of tests including a VO2 Max test on the bike the guys took the results away. They have analysed the results and come back with a fully holistic training programme ranging from the cycling to the nutrition. It is something that they will support me on fully sending daily workouts for the commute to work and some indoor sessions involving the Wattbikes. They have also sent me some gym workouts and flexibility programmes. Alongside this will run a nutrition programme. They have worked out how many calories I need to sustain living and how many I will use over the course of an ‘average’ day. Targets have been set and so have food groups. I guess a diet. Most of you will know food is my arch nemesis in that I love to eat and eat lots. Having kept food diaries for a few weeks for the guys to look at it it was obvious even to me that what I was eating was a load of rubbish in terms of sustaining weight loss and getting the correct amount of all sorts of vitamins and minerals. I am now in the process of looking at the diet and making some wide ranging changes. I am sure that I will be able to keep to it but I guess there will be the odd slip knowing me.

This has all been going well I had managed to get a week of following the cycle sessions correctly for the most part and have been making subtle changes to my diet. Then disaster last Friday. Whilst commuting to work a car pulled up alongside me after some lights and made a left turn no indication. This resulted in me ending up hitting the side of the car at around 20mph and ending up sprawled down the side road bike still attached. The car stopped up the road and I got up to go and get the drivers details as the bike, my clothes and I had sustained some damage. The car then drove off. I was gobsmacked. Fortunately a few bystanders had got her licence plate and car type as I was in a bit of shock. I thought that I had definitely broken my arm and had pain in my knee along with road rash. Mr James Jackson came to pick me up (hero) and took me home. After about 30minutes of being at home the adrenaline and shock wore off and I was in a lot of pain. Five and a half hours later in A&E I was to find out that my arm wasn’t broken just cut up and badly bruised. The main concern was the knee which I had to return on Tuesday for another X-Ray due to the swelling. Not broken but still needing crutches and painkillers as I could hardly walk I left and have been camped on the sofa ever since. The Police came around and are looking into the ‘Failure to Stop’ which is an arrestable offence. I am still waiting to see what happens with this. In the midst of all this Bradley Wiggins and Shane Sutton (Head Coach at BC) get knocked off also by vehicles. I am active on Twitter and soon there was a raging debate about whether or not cyclists should be on roads and about the infrastructure of the countries cycle paths etc. There was also a lot of vitriol being spouted by people both drivers and cyclists. Some of the comments where quite disturbing from people one saying something along the lines of lets have a day where we accidentally knock cyclists of their bikes. Gobsmacking. I have started following @cyclehatred who retweets driver’s views/opinions. I may have to unfollow them soon as some of the things I am seeing are making me very angry and are astonishing. Mutual respect is needed as an effort on both parts to obey the rules of the road and try to be a bit more observant of each other.

Ned Flanders: “You were bicycling two abreast?”

Homer Simpson: “I wish. We were bicycling to a lake.”

-- The Simpsons, ‘Dangerous Curves’ (Episode 2005)

Lance Armstrong

2012-08-24T12:38:00.000+01:00

Hey all. A bit off topic to the usual blurb but I wanted to air my viewpoint on the Armstrong vs USADA topic.

I have only really participated in cycling for a couple of years but have always watched the Tour De France as I love sport. The more I have being involved in cycling the deeper I have looked into the history of the sport and come to learn about the individuals who race in the sport. There are a couple of stand out individuals to me and one of these is Lance Armstrong. I have the fortune of remembering Armstrong’s famous battles with Ullrich in the Tour De France and remember being excited by the mountain attacks and ‘the look’. A feeling that has been recently being reignited by Contadors attacks in the Vuelta d Espagna. I have read Armstrong’s books on his fight with cancer, his tour victories and life in general. I still follow his progress post-retirement from professional cycling during his Ironman career and his work through Livestrong.

I am writing this on the day that Armstrong has come out and said he will not be fighting the USADA investigation into his alleged drug taking. You can find an article here http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/lance-armstrong-wont-fight-usada-charges-35040/ This is not on the grounds that he is guilty but on the grounds that he feels that USADA doesn’t have jurisdiction over his case and that the UCI does. This means that a lot of people have come out and said he is obviously guilty. Recently I have been probably 70/30 in favour of feeling he is guilty but I keep having swings from one side to the other. I have a lot of thoughts and questions, which I would like to be answered but I am not sure if they ever will be.

My first point is that Armstrong post cycling has continued to be engaged in top level sport through his participation in triathlons and ironmen. His performance has been at a constantly excellent level which indicates to me that either he is still doping, which is unlikely or that he has always been an exceptional athlete. My second point is that if we look to his build before his brush with cancer you can see it was totally different to his post cancer build. Armstrong even says that the cancer treatment meant he could reconstruct his body to be a better all round cyclist. Call me naïve but being from a Sports Science background I can understand this and so will most cyclists be able to. Climbing a hill is mostly about body composition and engine then anything else. Also the way that Armstrong’s teams rode was similar to the way Sky’s team ride all out for GC at a pace that other teams cannot live with to deliver their man to the best possible position.

If we assume that Armstrong is guilty does that not mean that pre 2005 most cyclists where doping? I say this as Armstrong never failed a drug test so this implies a cover up by whomever his team, the UCI, who knows or that Armstrong was clean and won his titles legitimately. The repercussions for the first implication don’t bare thinking about. I would have to say that anyone who won a Grand Tour pre 2005 must have doping and therefore the heritage of cycling is blatantly flawed. There must have been exceptions to this rule as I refuse to believe that everyone doped but that’s what they must have been exceptions rather then the rule. This means up until a few years ago cycling was a sport dominated by dopers. Not a great history to have.

Saying this I firmly believe that cycling nowadays is mostly clean. There are still people being caught for indiscretions but most cyclists must know that they cannot dope and get away with it. If you look at the amount of scientific knowledge and hard training teams are putting in then the level of performance is going to be very high like other elite sports.

My final musing is that whatever the outcome of this ongoing battle Armstrong’s work with Livestrong to help families coping with cancer and the research element of the foundation cannot be touched and that Armstrong must be commended for his efforts whatever with regards to this aspect of his life.

Manchester to Hull

2012-07-24T09:56:00.000+01:00

Having had a bit of a Summer break from the blog and a bit of a think about a change in the prolificacy with which I churn out material I have decided to go away from writing each and every Sunday regardless of what I have done and focus more on particular events or overviews of training segments I have been doing. The weightloss is still going well and I anticipate that it will only be another three to four months to get to where I am going. My goals are starting to change slightly in that I want to have a go at road racing next year and also some track crits. This winter will be key to those aspirations and I will be changing the training to develop into a faster, fitter cyclist.

This Sunday past, however, saw another adventure on the bike. I decided at the latter end of 2011 that I wanted to tick some trip boxes so to speak. On the list was cycling from Manchester over to Hull. You may ask why, I am originally from Hull and still have family over there and also there is the ‘fun’ element of the ride. I had been glued to my weather app on the phone during the week hoping that the weather would be ok to do the trip and I reckoned the 100 miles or so would take me 7 -8 hours. As it turns out the weather was exceptional and really added to what was going to turn out to be a really enjoyable ride. I was up early for a 07:00 start and after some porridge and a pint of water I made my last checks to the bike and kitted up. I had been researching the route for a few weeks and had a list of the roads I was going to use on my iPhone. In conjunction to the maps on there the list would prove invaluable. I headed out of Manchester on the Oldham Road and as it was a Sunday it was blissfully quiet and allowed me to tick along at a reasonable pace. As I was unfamiliar with the way over the moors I was checking the maps app regularly. I did manage however to get lost twice but rectified the navigational issues and carried on. As I headed towards Uppermill there where some sharp climbs and some nice decents. The local council had decided to close one of the roads over night so I had to detour round that up a particularly sharp climb. Many of you will know I am not a great climber but my spirits where high and I was enjoying the peaks and troughs. Another wrong turn saw me end up going down a really nice decent into Uppermill only to have to turn round and climb back up it to take the turn off. Still I had a chuckle to myself and got on with it. I turned onto Holmfirth Road which would take me over the moors and back into Gods own country Yorkshire. Little did I realise that there would be a bit of a monster climb up to the top. The climb itself was 1200 feet and took me nearly 25 minutes to do. It just seemed to keep going and going. There where two false peaks to. Half way up the climb I heard a hissing noise from the front tyre and I had my first flint puncture. I pulled over and changed the inner tube in rapid time for me of 15 minutes then carried on up the climb. It was hard. I was averaging about 7 mph and my heart rate was 170 – 178bpm all the way up. Saying that I really enjoyed it and had a great sense of achievement at the top. It is probably the biggest climb I have ever done.

As I went over the top a fellow cyclist going the other way shouted “I bet you didn’t break any land speed records” I just thought you are most definitely right sir but I am at the top! The decent into Holmsfirth was unbelievable it went on for four miles with a top speed of nearly 50mph. I was holding back a little as I was unsure of the twists and turns but it went on for ever and was a highlight of the trip. After reaching Holmsfirth I took a small wrong turn and headed to Barnsley. This section was lovely country roads in nice weather and hardly any wind. It was also nice to see a kids road cycling club out with their adult chaperones. They must have been between 8 and 12 years old and I was very encouraged by their enthusiasm. I cycled with them for a bit then pushed on through Barnsley up towards Pontefract. As I headed up the country roads I could hear a distant roar of engines. A few minutes later and I was overtaken by around thirty cars heading to a car rally up the road. The noise was deafening and the fumes these old machines where kicking out where choking. I headed on to a section of dual carriageway next and this gave me chance to think and to enjoy the weather. After reaching Pontefract I stopped bought a sandwich and had fifteen minutes making a couple of calls and texts before setting off again. The roads rolled a bit but nothing like Ireland so I was steady and happy heading towards Knottingly then onwards through to Selby. In Selby again the council had decided to close the road I wanted to use so after a few wrong turns and curses then made my way up the A19 towards the road I needed to head to Market Weighton. At this point I roughly knew where I was and set off down the A163 with some gusto and a feeling of home legs. Little did I realise that the A163 was one of the longest roads ever… whether it was a mental feeling or an actual physical feature it felt like I was cycling along there for hours. I reached Holme on Spalding Moor and stopped for an icecream and some water refills. By now it was midday and the temperature was rising. I had averaged around 20mps from Selby and felt good but I was hot and the suncream I had put on was having little effect. I pushed on and reached Market Weighton which was essentially 7 miles to go. I felt strong and went around Market Weighton and up on to the South Cave road. That is when the wind picked up. From nowhere the head wind became exceptionally strong. I was struggling to maintain 11mph into it and the sun was still beating down. After a last big push I decended into Brough and Lindsey’s house where there was a welcome bottle of water and some icepops!!

Ride stats

Distance: 103.48 miles

Moving Time: 6hours 25minutes

Avg Speed: 16.1mph

Top Speed: 46.8mph

Elevation Gain: 5072 feet

Calories burned: 5007

Ireland Days 7 and 8

2012-06-24T13:32:00.000+01:00

Day 7 – Derry to Carrickmacross

Up early again for breakfast but today was going to be wholly different for a number of reasons. At the breakfast table there was a discussion going on between Chris, Mark and myself. We were debating whether to just catch the bus down to Dublin with the rest of the lads and forgo the last two days of the trip. It was very close to call but I think there was a nagging voice in the others heads saying what the voice in my head was. If we don’t finish these last two days we are falling short of what we promised people when we were collecting donations and raising money for the trip. On top of that we would be dropping the mileage significantly. The final contributing factor to why we had even started the discussion was the weather. We had awoken to find the weather setting in with winds and the threat of rain from some ominous looking clouds. There was no going back now though and we all knew it in our heart of hearts we were going to troop on and finish the whole eight days. The conversation had occurred in a near empty dining room as most of the Irish boys where still sleeping off their party from the night before. The main people I wanted to see however had made it down to breakfast even though they did look worse for ware. Keith, Jody and eventually James had come to make sure we left their country and to have a good chuckle at the unfortunate state of the weather outside. We said goodbye to the guys from Team Aldi who had lightened up our entire week with some very funny comments and their positivity whilst out on the roads. Today was the first day I donned my full wet gear. Turns out I would have needed scuba gear for some of the trip. After a bunch of farewells and promises to meet up and ride again in the future twelve of us set out from the hotel. We had made a promise that we would all stick together and pull each other through today however long it took. Around 20 miles in to the trip it became apparent that this wasn’t going to happen. The group splintered and six of us went on our way. This may sound harsh but by the twenty mile marker two of the lads where already in the van with knee injuries and the rain had started in earnest. The wind again had made an appearance and though it had started out in our favour had decided to turn against for most of the rest of the day. The one morale boosting moment came as the coach full of the Irish lads went passed beeping its horns with all the lads banging on the windows and waving. I would have given my right leg to have been on that bus. By the rest stop at the 30 mile marker the weather had turned really ugly. The support vehicles had dwindled to two and it felt like we had been cast off even though we still had water, glucose drinks and some mars bars left the supply of sandwiches which had been plentiful during the rest of the ride had dwindled to nothing. After this we got going again but the roads turned into dual carriageways and major trunk roads and it was the most tedious leg visually of the ride so far. This coupled with the fact that by about 45 miles we were all soaked to the bone, cold and riding into a vicious head wind meant that I was going through a major mental battle in my head. A large proportion of the argument was that I was cold, wet and no where near the end of the 93 mile day. The other half was a mixture of the kid’s faces from the autism centre and school, the people who had donated and my responsibility to them and my two girls who I don’t think I could have faced if I had got off the bike and took the van. The other thing inside was that I wouldn’t get a chance again to complete the ride if I sat today out. By 60 miles the mental fight was raging we stopped for our second rest stop and I had to give myself a stern talking to away from the group. I was very close to stopping and getting in the van but my stubborn side wouldn’t let me thankfully. We cracked on from 60 miles and every single sign post seemed to be so slow in coming. Every kilometre dragged on and on. The terrain had gone back to long drags but today there would be no respite on the down hills the wind saw to that. I was not doing much for the group which I felt bad about but it was all I could do to keep myself on the bike with my legs turning. We did it though we made it through one hell of a day. Just as we were arriving at the hotel the sun decided to make an appearance. It was not well welcomed by six cold and wet cyclists. I think we shocked the ducks with some of our choice words directed at the sun. We made it through the toughest day I have spent on a cycle and the toughest time I have had doing any sport. Of the twelve that had set out eight of us finished the day. The six of us and two very brave lads back down the road that rolled in an hour and a bit after us.

All smiles but inside was a tired and mentally weary soul!

The hotel was spectacular though as was the evening meal and breakfast. We had to walk through the reception looking like bedraggled tramps whilst someone’s wedding party where waiting for their function room to open. The smell of us and the sight must have been horrific for them. I was proud of finishing today and I was proud of the others who finished to. It was a really gritty day.

Day 8 - Carrickmacross – Dublin

We arose to a nice morning with the sun breaking through the clouds and a fantastic breakfast probably the best of the whole trip. That is saying something as by now even I was sick to death of cooked breakfasts. The food was excellent though and we where in high spirits for the last day. As soon as we got outside though the sun disappeared and a fine drizzle set in. We had all got out wet gear on anyway, which had remarkably dried over night. Eleven of us started the day and we set off from the hotel to complete the 60 or so miles into Dublin and the airport. We met some solid rain after about 10 miles, which persisted to the first rest stop at around 30 miles. Ian our organiser had stopped at a Bistro and we all piled in for some coffee and sandwiches. The food was excellent and boosted our morale considerably for the rest of the trip. We cycled on and where in excellent spirits for the remainder of the day as we knew it were the last day and our crowning achievement. We arrived at the hotel later on that day and a lot of back slapping ensued. After the initial celebration between the twelve of us the reality started to set in that the adventure was finished. The actual achievement of doing the ride wasn’t sinking it but with two of the remaining Irish lads leaving us there and then to go home it was a muted feeling. The hotel again was very nice and the food was great… they had pasta on the menu I was sooooo excited not to be having carvery! We also had a chicken wings starter instead of Vegetable soup. Someone was smiling down on us! After dinner most of the lads wanted to go into Dublin but I just fancied chilling with a few well deserved beers/ciders and winding down so I stayed in the lobby in close proximity to the bar. The night passed quickly as first the football was on then some of the other residents who where staying at the hotel the bodybuilders appeared. It was fun looking at the guys and trying to distinguish which ones where the women, even when they were wearing dresses. I went to bed about 00:15 which was the latest time I had gone to bed by far for a bout eight days. Adventure complete!

The eleven finishers of the 593 miles.

Summary

The whole experience was exceptional from start to finish. Someone asked me on the eighth day at the hotel if I would do it again and without thinking it was a yes, tomorrow if you like. Firstly the setting was amazing. Ireland as a country was beautiful and there wasn’t a day went by where some scene or other didn’t make you say wow. Often there where multiple bits of the most beautiful scenery. It was also great that the weather held for as long as it did for us so we could get the best pictures and views of all the different places. The next thing was the people. The group, the organisers and generally public and hotel staff where so friendly and helpful. The group had an amazing spirit about it with people talking to each other like old friends after a couple of days. No one in the group had a bad word to say all week about anyone else and it was such a nice event to participate in. The organisers did a great job on the logistics and the hotels. The only criticism I could level at the whole thing was that the marshalling was non existent. Saying we only got lost twice was probably a vindication of this though. As the marshals were volunteers also it would be overly harsh to criticise too much. I would love to do something like this again and am already trawling the internet and bike magazines looking for 2013’s challenge.

Ride Facts:

592.73 miles cycled

44 hours 43 minutes in the saddle

23,660 feet in elevation climbed

23,382 calories burned

14 mph average speed

I would just like to say a massive thank you and well done to all involved in the Big Red Bike Ride of 2012 it was amazing and I will remember it and you all for the rest of my days. I would also like to thank all of the people again who helped raise funds for such an amazing cause. I would like to thank all the people who donated also. Altogether we raised approximately £144000 (or Euros), which will really help the children by getting them a new Centre.

These kids are some of the children you helped. Thank You.

Ireland Days 5 and 6

2012-06-22T12:19:00.001+01:00

Day 5 – Sligo to Letterkenny

We set off from Sligo to cycle the 69 miles to Letterkenny a little later today. The thought of a shorter day was appreciated by everyone and I think lulled me into a false sense that the day was going to be an easy one. Clayton Blackmore joined us for the first 2 hours of the ride up to the 1^st rest stop where he was being whisked away to fly back to Manchester. This proved to be a tad destructive as after an hour the pace was clipping along at around 18-20mph so he could reach the stop and be able to get to his flight. This pretty much imploded our usual group of between 15 and 25 riders and there were also a series of punctures along the route. I didn’t feel too bad when we reached the first stop as my training for the week had been at a higher intensity then the 15mph average we had been maintaining. We rolled into the rest stop and thanked Clayton for coming with us for part of the ride. The normal sandwiches and mars bars where consumed and we rolled off feeling good and with a group of around ten of us. The wind that had been stalking us picked up a bit and again we were taking turns on the front so as not to tire everyone out. I was still feeling good and was rotating regularly onto the front to take my turn in the wind. We made good time until going through a mountain pass with a long drag of around 5% consistently the paced slowed due to the gradient and the wind. I had just taken my turn on the front when my body crashed. I felt as though someone had pulled the plug on my legs and taken all of my energy. I quickly went from behind the front to going straight out of the back of the group. Scottish James was also struggling having sustained injuries in a crash the previous day. This had happened just after the decent from the Cliffs of Mohen when a wood trailer being towed clipped James and threw him from his bike. James was lucky to only sustain superficial cuts and a badly bruised knee and back. He also suffered some whiplash. James finished the full six days and with his injuries can count it as a massive achievement. So I found myself out the back of the group with James. Keith came back to us and helped us back into the group and after some water and food whilst riding around 30 minutes later I began to feel better. The feeling was unbelieveable like suddenly having all energy removed from my legs. Something I hope not to repeat again. We battled on through some tough hills which seemed never ending probably because I was lacking in energy. Unlike previous days I was dropping off on the climbs and having to catch up on the descents. Descending being something I do well due to my weight. We finally reached a couple of miles outside Letterkenny when a rare treat presented itself. A descent into Letterkenny around a mile and a half long. I hit 37mph coming down it and I have to say I was tapping the brakes all the way down it was an epic decent. We went round the corner and into the hotel. I had been feeling tight during the day and felt it would be a good point to go and see the physios who where looking after the group so well. There was a list already in place when I arrived totalling probably one hours worth of wait. The hotel had ‘kindly’ dragged down to vibrating plate machines for us to use in the meantime. I had never used one before and took some brief instructions from Scottish James and Jody. You can see from the video below how it went!

After the physio and getting showered and changed we made our way down to the bar. David May was our guest for the evening and I had a good chat with him about matters Manchester United related. He was an interesting guy very straight talking. He joined us at our table for tea... yet another carvery. The food was not great tonight and Mark, Bernie and I decided to go into town and find something to subsidise the meal with. After a long walk we found a McDonalds and ate some more food. Another early night for me at the hotel. I awoke around 00:30 expecting to see Mark in his bed but nno sign of him. A few thoughts of kidnapping or him falling asleep in the lounge then back to sleep. Turns out that Mark had been kidnapped in a way by David May and a fair amount of Guiness and lager had been consumed until 02:30 in the morning. We where awake at 06:15 for Day 6. Poor Mark!

Day 6 – Letterkenny to Derry

Day six was probably the high point emotionally so far. We set off from Letterkenny with Garda (police) escort for the 83mile trip. Not sure if this was to make sure we left or make us feel special. David May had joined us and the group was in high spirits as it was for most of the group their last day in the saddles. The Irish contingent had only signed up to Milan Head/Derry and that was to be there last ride of the trip. The group we had was a lovely group and we had so much fun during the week. I made some new lifelong friends and hopefully I will meet them again at some point next year to undertake another charity ride or sportive. Some promises have been made so we will see what happens. The day was extra special as we were going to one of the Autistic centres on our way to Miran head (the Northern most tip of Ireland). The weather had looked ominous as we set out so we all had our jackets on and wet gear but in the end it held off and we had another sunny day. We reached the Autism centre after about an hour and a half and where greeted by all of the children cheering and clapping. This really did swell the ego’s and re vitalise the tired legs as we rode in to be high fived by every single child. Some of the lads wheeled the kids around on their bikes and we had lots of pictures done for the charity, which was great. It was also the first day we had hot drinks at a stop, which were well appreciated as it was coming in cold.

These are the people it was all about.

A group of the nicest cyclists and people you would want to meet

Brendon our guide for the week. Favourite saying "its flat today lads"

We then waited for everyone and where again escorted by the Garda from the centre and through the town. On the way out of the town one of the schools had obviously heard of our visit and efforts and around two hundred children lined the streets clapping and cheering. Again it was an emotional moment we all felt as if we were professional cyclists for thirty seconds and during the tough times later that day and over the coming days their faces and positivity towards us was something I used to keep going. We left the town generally buzzing and soon began to get back into the Irish rhythm of up and down, with more up then down I have to say. We then climbed into the moors and our group of twenty riders imploded once again. After we had climbed and split up a little bit the wind picked up across the moorland and left us nowhere to hide. We managed to cobble together a group of four then later a group of eight to get to the village of Miran just after the moorland. The wind was horrid and we were doing thirty seconds on the front in single file so we had some protection. At Miran we refuelled and got ready for some tough climbing out towards Miran Head which was approximately 17 kilometres away. On the trip out Richie got his 6^th puncture of the week he was very unlucky to be honest. We stopped and regrouped for the climbs. They where steep and reared up over a short distance but we all made it up as a group then motored on for Miran Head. The signposting to Miran Head was very comical. Miran Head 9 km cycle on Miran Head 10 km cycle on Miran Head 9 km. I was starting to think we were in a cycling groundhog day. Believing the hard work to be done we shifted towards Miran Head at a brisk pace only to see the objective rear out of the ground up to a big rock in the sky. The climb itself was only 500 metres or so but it reared up in such a fashion that to stop would have been suicidal. Everyone selected their lowest gears and went for it getting a hero’s welcome at the top.

Triumphant at Malin Head

Mark the Conquerer

Speck in the centre bottom right is me approaching the Malin head climb

View from the top of Malin Head

Tour De France...No Malin Head

After many pictures we set off again for the village of Miren a short stop and then on to Derry. The wind on the way back was utterly horrendous and I spent some time on the front again shielding the others. We had gotten about 10 km done when I noticed that Scottish James had slipped off the back of the group with Keith for company. I dropped back to help out as the wind was bad and I didn’t want to leave one of the group stuck. James was in a large amount of pain still from his crash and was battling on bravely. Keith and I managed to get James back to the village or Miran and a well deserved break from the gusting wind. James spoke about getting the meat wagon back to Derry but decided to carry on. We set off again in our group and headed for Derry. The pace was alternating from slow to fast and we were rattling up the climbs at a fair pace this was cracking James as his knee was in poor shape. We decided to split into two groups to allow people to crack on and the second part of the group to maintain a slower pace to allow us to get James home and complete the ride. We endured yet more wind and some more long drags up into the moorland before a steep decent led us down to the Derry Estuary and along into Derry. I led out along the estuary and took us through the town of Muff (giggle) and to the hotel. There was a party organised for the evening and Norman Whiteside attended giving a speech. We had undertaken the three course carvery, which by now was making me feel queasy every time I sat down to eat. I decided on the back of the fact the next day was going to be a 93 mile trawl to Carrickmacross with 12 of us setting out to get an early night. I could hear the Elvis impersonator from the hotel room and he wasn’t very good at all. Mark echoed my sentiments. I did however manage to sneak out and get a pizza which I have to say was pretty damned good after all of the beef and turkey I had endured the previous 6 nights.

Ireland Days 3 and 4

2012-06-20T16:30:00.003+01:00

Day 3 – Ballybunnion to Oranmore

The day started with another full spread of breakfast. It was the first day I had a full English breakfast. I wasn’t sure how it would affect my ride but I was very hungry from the previous days riding. I had taken my ForGoodnessShake the previous night and a vitamin tablet as soon as we had arrived at the hotel to try and keep on top of the fatigue in the muscles. This was followed by a freezing shower to try and make sure I was ready for the third day. I also drank a lot of orange juice in the morning to try and make sure I was topped up on vitamin c to keep the immune system functioning through the week. We then mounted up and rode out 27 miles to the ferry crossing to make our way across the Shannon estuary. This wasn’t ideal as we got warm then it was around 45 minutes before we got going again. Keith Duffy had joined us for two days and had been game to have pictures taken with us and chat with us. We got to ride with him and he proved himself to be a good cyclist. He had only been on the bike three times so far this year so credit was given as he did very well. A group of school children met us, or maybe they where there for Keith... and we had our morning brief from Tony our commander in chief then set off. We arrived some 102 miles later after being directed the wrong way by one of the marshals who kindly added a 10 mile extension to our route! We climbed one of the toughest hills as we went towards Galway over the Cliffs of Moher. The descent was kind to us and we reached Galway after 7hrs 30mins. The highlight of today was a stint off of the climb going down the decent on to the flat where I speeded past Keith Duffy doing 30mph on the flat and left him for dead. The last hour or so was a big effort trying to catch up to Chris and Keith who where further down the road after climbing faster than me. I finally caught up with them with about 3 miles to go and we reached yet another splendid hotel after a true Galway welcome of torrential rain for the last few miles. Another three course meal was duly dispatched as was my first beer of the adventure a pint of Coors Light. The Wi-Fi was also good in the hotel lobby which allowed me to catch up with the Garmin updates and the social media worlds of Facebook and Twitter.

I am currently uploading a video to YouTube of the disembarkation. It’s not great as it’s my first attempt so please bear with me!

Machines at the ferry

Daily Conference - Laughter supplied by Team Aldi

Some of the Squad

OMG Keith Duffy!!

Day 4 – Oranmore to Sligo

The day started out again with a Full English and some other breakfast items. I had felt pretty good with this inside me the day before and it had stood me in good stead for the day. With us mostly eating sandwiches, mars bars, snickers and fruit during the day the bigger meals at breakfast and in the evening where helping to maintain the calories we needed. The weather had taken a turn for the worse today. We had intermittent showers for most of the morning and as I had optimistically forgotten my rain jacket had to procure one of the orange marshal’s jackets much to the amusement of my fellow riders. Day 4 was the first day that I had a feeling of having ridden into the ride and I was feeling strong. I took some big turns on the front and when we finally turned for home up the dual carriage way I spent myself acting as a windbreak for a good few miles. I was properly spent for the first time during the trip down to the wind but had an amazing sense of satisfaction that I had been part of the team and helped others out so much. We weren’t breaking any land speed records but the sense of getting through each day and helping people home, whilst also having some excellent fun was making the trip an excellent experience. That along with the beautiful Irish scenery. Again the hotel was excellent and tonight saw Clayton Blackmore join us. I didn’t get to speak to him much. As with the other players it wasn’t something that interested me. I had rode the previous day with Keith Duffy but that was due to him sitting in our group being at the same fitness levels not for a want on my part to fan bash him.

Ireland Days 1 and 2

2012-06-19T13:06:00.000+01:00

I am sitting here three days after completing the Ireland ride and wondering where I should start. There are so many memories and stories not even including the physical data from the rides for those who are interested in where and how we went. The pictures I have nserted are courtesy of the riders on the trip so thank you very much for sharing!

Day 1 - Manchester to Mizen Head to Bantry

The adventure began on Saturday the 9^th June with an early flight from Manchester to Cork then a taxi ride to our first hotel in Bantry. Mark and I met early and got to the airport where we were charged an extortionate amount for a bacon sandwich each. The Ireland fans where already drinking at 07:00 ready for their trip to Poland. We went to the gate and where picked out of the pell-mell of people by Chris and Kevin, mostly due to the fact I was carrying my helmet and shoes in a carrier bag as I had forgotten to pack them! Julie arrived later looking a little tired as she has been at a festival all weekend and had only got back at 01:30 in the morning. We boarded our plane, which had propellers and reminded me of the plane from the Ducktails cartoon (showing my age again) and set off. Arriving at Cork in double quick time we got into our minibus and where on the way. From the off we could all see how undulating the Emerald Isle was going to be and this was setting the alarm bells off in my head... I hate climbing lol.

We arrived at The West Lodge hotel in Bantry and where first there. We got checked into our room, which was excellent and then went to sit down in the reception. Everyone arrived on the coach and there where around 60 odd people clamouring for room keys and luggage. All of this with a small 27mile cycle later on in the afternoon. Mark and I donned the lycra for the first time in the holiday and went down to reception to go and find our bikes. The bikes where being taken to Mizen Head, the most southerly point in Ireland, where we would meet them and ride back to the hotel. The coach drive to Mizen Head was horrendous 55minutes of small back country roads which undulated more than the Loch Ness Monsters back. I felt sick as a dog when we finally arrived but was happy to see the bike again and finally start the cycle ride. You can see the route and particulars on the Garmin data here http://connect.garmin.com/activity/188033632 I was going along nicely and getting acclimatised to the hills and narrow roads when I punctured with about 5 miles to go. Unfortunately I had given Mark my tube as I had presumed we would be riding together but had got separated at the start of the route. A gent called Richie stopped and repaired the puncture for me and this set the tone for the rest of the ride with everyone helping others and looking after their groups in great fashion. I rode in with Richie and finished after about an hour and a half. Not as fast as I would of liked but completed none the less. The scenery was spectacular on the way round as was the weather. I was regretting Manchester Airport securities decision to confiscate my sun cream, in case I made a bomb from it or perhaps squirted it in the pilots face so he couldn’t fly the plane who knows. I was a little burnt and it was only the first day. The ride really blew the cobwebs out and was a great start to the event. The evening meal was an indication of the way things would go for the whole trip, a three course meal which was very nice indeed and satisfied a lot of hungry riders. An early night followed again an indication of things to come for me. I do not do well on less than eight hours sleep and wanted the best start to the next day’s ride.


Big Red Bike Ride Jerseys.

Outside the hotel in Bantry

Day 2 - Bantry to Ballybunnion

Morning arrived and after the chicken alarm had been successfully dealt with by Mark and some lycra donned we left our room for breakfast. An early start at 06:00 for breakfast at 07:00. The breakfast consisted of cereals and toast with a range of juices etc or so I thought. Later after I had left I found out there had been a serving of a full English breakfast. To eager to get sorted and sort my bike out. I am kind of glad I missed it though as the full English became a habit in the mornings and by Saturday I was just eating them for the sake of it and not the enjoyment. We congregated outside and where introduced to our race marshal Brendon. Brendon went through the route and then said we would be best to split into groups. There were four groups altogether and opted to go into group two. I don’t think I could or would have wanted to maintain a high pace all week and wanted to be able to take in some of the ride. Group 2 where designated to average 15-16mph and would be under the watchful eye of a lovely Irish guy named Tony who was in his early fifties. Tony picked a couple of the more experienced riders to lead the group out each day, Keith and Chris and we were told if the lead pair exceeded 16mph we would receive some abuse from his cycle pump...I think he was joking but then again no one dared to exceed the 16mph limit to test his patience. Brandon’s favourite saying across the week was “lads its fairly flat today” I firmly believe that the Irish definition of flat is some way apart from what I would call flat. I certainly wouldn’t call a total of nearly 5000feet climbed on Day 2 flat. In fact I am sure the mountain we climbed wouldn’t call itself flat either. Again the views where amazing over Killarney National Park as was the weather again. You can have a look at the technical data here http://connect.garmin.com/activity/188033607 The descent on the other side of the mountain was great also and we went down single file to keep it safe. Later on we found out that one of the lads had fallen and used his face to halt his fall. The victim was Bernard who became good friends with Mark and me over the week and we had some good laughs with old Two-Face. He was lucky no broken bones even though he crashed at 37mph. Cuts to the face arms and legs but nothing serious. We rolled on through with a group of around 20 riders. There were some crazy Irish drivers overtaking on blind bends and hills but again that seemed to be a reoccurring theme throughout the trip. After the 2^nd rest stop the group splintered up and I spent some time riding on my own. This was the first time I met Scottish James. Although we silently rode along for a good 5 – 10 miles it was the basis for a hello back at the hotel later on that night and the start of a good friendship. The last 10km where hard as so much energy had been put into the climbs earlier in the day and the undulating terrain had sapped the reserves significantly. We managed to team up with Chris and Keith and rode into Ballybunnion. The town itself reminded me of an English seaside resort lots of chintzy shops and amusements with a shed load of bars. The hotel was really nice as was the food again. We were ‘treated’ on arrival to the hotel with a live act on the steps of the hotel...I would like to say Celine Dion esq but it was not that close.

Top of one of the first climbs. Tunnel led through to the other side at the top. Why they couldnt make the tunnel further down the mountain I don't know!!

Watch this space for the next two days! Hope you enjoy this!

Pre Ireland Blurb!

2012-06-07T14:24:00.001+01:00

Hey hey,

This will be my last entry for a few weeks whilst I attempt to cycle 600 miles around Ireland in 8 days. The fundraising, training and packing is all done all that is left to do is put the mileage in! Just want to recap the last few weeks with you and touch upon how I’m feeling about the experience so far and what’s to come.

Monday saw me participating in the Great Manchester Cycle, 52 miles in pretty decent weather and through a nice route round Manchester centre and the Salford Quays. Lots of people out riding for fun and for charity. Physically I felt good around the circuit. The legs have been in good shape for a few months now and the maintaining has been both fun and good work. I am slightly worried about my neck and back as they where both aching at the end of most of the long rides I have done and I have to say they are my primary concern for the Ireland ride. No amount of stretching pre and post seems to sort them out properly I guess it’s just the length of ride which is the problem and with five consecutive days of 80+ miles I am a little worried. I think the first three will be ok then it will be painful for the rest of the journey and mentally I think I have prepared for that well. Marek of www.mhcpt.co.uk has been helping a lot with the physio on the legs and back after rides. I would also like to thank Rich from www.pedalprecision.com for his advice and expert bike fitting. I cannot recommend both these guys they really are top people in their fields of expertise! I wish they where both coming with us!!

The fundraising has been mega hard and quite stressful over the past 6 months and has detracted a little from the ride as it has been time consuming organising and setting up the various events we have done to raise money. I would just like to thank every single person who has helped with the organising, participating and donating and really made the effort to help us over that period. Some people have gone out of their way to help me and it has made me realise what a special group of friends I have. I have thanked each and every one of you but again THANK YOU! I would also like to say I am very touched by all the donations that have been made from friends, work colleagues and people I might not have spoken to in some time. THANK YOU ALL! The fact people I haven’t spoken to have contributed has been touching as have some of the big commitments people have made on the donation site. On the flip side of that if you still want to donate please you can still do so at www.charitygiving.co.uk/jamescrossland all the money is going to a great cause.

I am hoping to put together something special video wise together when I get back so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Wish us luck and fair weather I think we will need a little :-)

Please post some motivational stuff on my Facebook account or Twitter feed all support is really welcome!

Sun Love!

2012-05-27T17:12:00.000+01:00

Hi all, sorry it’s been a few weeks since I have produced the blog. Over the past couple of weeks I had not managed to get out for a big ride due to a few reasons. The weather was pretty poor and both of the people I like riding with had injured themselves. This led to a hibernation of two weeks, a pretty morbid mood and a bad cold for a good 4-5 days. I have still being commuting so have still being getting good mileage per week in but very little in the way of long mileage on single trips. Glad to say I am back motivated to write this week after a really nice week of sunshine and training. I am just going to echo what I have said before that the sun gives everything a rose tinting…apart from the lack of air conditioning at work! The cycling has been revitalised after a bit of a rest and some beautiful weather I have to say. I have covered 126 miles this week and if the weather holds I will be doing more this week. Final ride will be the Great Manchester Cycle on the 4^th June. Then it’s off to Ireland!!

On the charity front the money has been coming in over the past few weeks and this has taken me to £1407 (93%) of the £1500 I have set as the target. All I can ask is that you please donate a few pence if you can! Lee Pickford won the 50/50 raffle and took away £148 as you can imagine she was very happy! Lee drew the ticket for me and picked out her own. You can see the video and I swear on my little girl’s life it wasn’t a fix. We did another bake sale the other week, which raised £110 that was excellent!

A bit of analysis of the sport over the last few weeks as a random topic. Ryder Hesjedal won the Giro D’Italia which was very entertaining and will be sorely missed on my Sky+ after late shifts. Some great performances in the race and a great TT finish. Also being enjoying the IPL cricket and that finishes today…watching as I type. It has been a great series some great innings and bowling spells. Love watching Chris Gayle smashing the ball to all parts very entertaining.

Now the let down of the week England football team. New manager same crap brand of football. I have been watching England since Italia 90 as far as I can remember when I was 10. After the 90’s England’s ‘Golden’ generation has flattered to deceive on many occasions. Each tournament has seen me get excited about the prospect of us finally winning something and yet we are always miles away from achieving anything. The last five years have seen some of the worst football, and players, I have ever seen from England. My thought is that the Premier League is that flooded with foreign talent that our players are only playing a small part in shaping the league and getting the experience they need. You can argue that the influence of better players will make them better but not if an English player is not getting playing time. We used to be a good side I just cannot see any signs of us getting back to being a feared side in the world. For now anyway I will be watching all of the cycling and trying to shut out the International football.

Cheers for reading have a good week and long may this nice weather be with us!

Spin your bodies!

2012-05-07T13:31:00.000+01:00

Ola!

This week has been a week of good things on the most part. I have been to the gym a few times and started to work on some leg squats and flexibility. Flexibility is something I always have in mind but normally end up doing very little about. My brain is telling me its important, the physio is telling me it’s important and the gym staff are telling me its important yet I cant seem to get my head around building it into my routine. I know it will alieviate some of the knee pain and be really beneficial now that the weight is has dropped significantly. I need to sort my head out and get it done! This will be one of my aims for this coming week. On the cycling front it has just been the commuting this week. Totalling around 70 miles and a bit of the spinning masterclass probably 30 minutes. Two gym sessions also with cardio and some toning on the upper body. This will help to drop more weight before the Ireland ride in June. The squats are a new thing for me. Having been watching a lot of the cycling recently you can pretty much say that all of the cyclists have massive upper legs and little of very much muscle anywhere else. With this in mind I have started to incorporate some squats into my routine to build the quads and hamstrings. This should improve my leg strength and help with the efficiency and endurance on the bike.

On the way home on Sunday evening my first aid skills where called into action as the cyclist in front of me was knocked off his bike. The cyclist was going straight on at a fair pace from what I could see from further back down the road when a car decided to turn left without indicating. The chap on the bike went straight into the side of the motorist and ended up in a heap on the floor. When I arrived at the scene a few seconds after the cyclist was unconscious and had smashed his leg and hip up pretty bad. The driver had already called an ambulance and was visibly shaken. I couldn’t really do much for the cyclist apart from making him comfortable and reassuring him that the ambulance was on its way. He was more concerned about his bike and his wife. The police and ambulance arrived on the scene quickly and after giving a brief statement I got underway again. I wonder if the chap was ok in the end. His leg was definitely broken and I suspect his hip dislocated. Morale of the story please please use your indicators and cyclists please be a little less aggressive cycling on the inside of vehicles coming up to make a left turn!

On the charity front this Saturday saw the Stretford Leisure Centre Spinning Masterclass. Jan and Kelly took the session and approximately 45 people turned up to be brutalised for an hour and a half. They where not disappointed. Jan and Kelly did a hard session but everyone really enjoyed it. As you can see from the videos I’ve attached. Apologies for the camera angle I thought that the actual video would adjust but it didn't.

Big thanks to Jan and Kelly. Also James Jackson for lugging the bikes from and to Sale with me on Friday and Saturday! The event raised £106 and we took £48 in raffle tickets. Thanks again to everyone who came down and contributed. On the donations front this week saw me collect £5 from Christina J. Please if you have pledged or would like to make a donation please go to www.charitygiving.co.uk/jamescrossland I am almost at my target of £1500 and every penny helps towards making a better future for the autistic kids. I also have some 50/50 raffle tickets left so if you want to buy one or two please let me know and I will come to you with them!

Have a safe and fulfilling week everyone!

P.S No alcohol or takeaways either :-)

Its all in the legs

2012-04-29T12:04:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone!

This week has been a really positive week. Lots of cycling in including a trip to Blackpool and back on Saturday with Mark O’Reilly in the name of training! We set off at 07:00 in the morning and the weather held all day (apart from the god awful wind). We went there in 3.5hrs which we where both pleased with especially as we both thought we where riding into a headwind…turns out we where not. We had some food refilled our bottles then set off to come back. The first 10 miles where a little windy but manageable then we made about a 45 degree turn towards home… at this point what can only be described as a very strong wind took hold. From our pace of 5 miles every twenty minutes on the way to Blackpool it turned into 8-10 miles every twenty on the back. I have included the links to the Garmin so you can have a nosey if you like.

Out to Blackpool

Return leg from Blackpool

I was still feeling fairly comfortable on the way back my legs where in good shape however I was becoming increasingly more and more uncomfortable as we hit around the 30 mile mark on the way back. My lower back was aching and my hands felt they had pins and needles running through them when I moved them off the bars. I also got cramp in my arm due to the amount of climbs we had to do on the way back. We had taken plenty of food and water so energy remained high until the last 5 miles or so. We also stopped for ice-cream and coffee in a lovely shop in Chorley. Mint choc chip is the best flavoured ice-cream. Having got home and counted the miles we had done 116, which we where both pleased about. I feel like I could go again today no aches and pains. One thing is for sure we are going to have to do some back to back days to see how we cope.

A massive positive for me was that my knee was hurting I had been to see my good friend Marek from MHCPT physio (www.mhcpt.co.uk) on Tuesday and he had found the problem. There was a big know just above my knee in the quads. He was looking for it for some time but when he did touch it I nearly hit the roof. An hour later, lots of pain and some tears brought to the eyes I could feel how much better it was. Big thanks to Marek.

This week I received £20 in donations On Saturday evening we went to the Bridge Pub on Dane Road in Sale and had a really fun evening Race Evening organised by Sally Weatherilt and Mat. In total we raised £216 so thanks to everyone for coming and making the evening a big success! My total is still sitting at £1259 overall, which is excellent and I should make it to £1500 soon hopefully!

Please make your donations to www.charitygiving.co.uk/jamescrossland you can also let me know if you want to buy some raffle tickets for our 50/50 draw, which will see the winner receive 50% of the total raffle fund! The tickets are £2 each or £10 for a book.

Is that a tiger…spinning…

2012-04-22T21:02:00.000+01:00

Around about four songs in after the first set of sprints I knew it was not going to go well if I kept on going for the full class. The cold (man flu) that had been knocking around all week had finally knocked me for six in the morning and it was hard work even climbing the stairs to the met stop. Donning the all in one tiger suit had seemed like a good idea a week earlier but as I sat down after the first climb sweat trickling down the inside of the suit I knew I should have listened to the little voice screaming all week DON’T WEAR THE TIGER SUIT YOU WILL COOK in my head. Instead I decided to get off the bike and torture the Swim Trafford kids with a really hard set whilst trying to stand around where the two massive fans where situated. Everyone enjoyed the session and we raised a really outstanding £87.90. Big thanks to James ‘Lance Armstrong’ Stannard for getting everyone involved.

Spin Session (45min session);

Disco Inferno The Trammps 10:50 Intro Music

Rock da House Tall Paul 3:13 WARM UP

Mountains Biffy Clyro 3:23 WARM UP

Ice Ice Baby Vanilla Ice 4:14 First Climb

Bonnie Tyler Holding out for a hero 6:13 Pairs – Sprint Battles

Tiger Feet Mud 3:52 Last battles/Spin out

Larger then Life Backstreet Boys 3:52 2^nd Climb (Hovers)

Hot Right Now DJ Fresh 3:02 Sprint Intervals

Boogie Wonderland The Emotions 4:45 Dice roll

Call on me Eric Prydz 2:48 3^rd Climb

Doctor pressure Mylo vs Miami Sound 3:25 Standing Sprints

Bonkers Dizzee Rascall 3:00 Number Sprints

Eye of the Tiger Survivor 3:48 COOL DOWN

Stop Spice Girls 3:24 COOL DOWN

As I inferred earlier on in the piece the man flu has really taken its toll this week. From Wednesday I couldn’t face the bike and Thursday and Friday should have resulted in some mileage but they did not. The commute on Saturday and Sunday has been torture. Both days saw the weather teasing me. I woke up to dry roads and reasonable skies but by 06:30 it was pissing it down all the way through until I arrived at work. Cold, wet and lungs of fire from the cold. It would be really nice if I don’t get ill before the ride in June *fingers crossed*. Also hoping for some more decent training weather and good weather for the ride. It would be really nice for the ride not to turn into a slog.

Two of last weeks goals have been achieved. No takeaways and no booze. There is a bottle of Baileys (Mint flavoured) in the fridge so I am trying to resist and so far it is working. Anyone want to claim it lol? The gym sessions still have not materialised as I can’t seem to find time and the extra riding didn’t happen due to the lurgy! I will definitely try the same again this week and a gym session somewhere!

A week today will see the Charity Race Evening kindly organised by Miss Weatherilt and her young man. It should be a really fun night so please come down and support us!

This week has seen a total amount raised of £50 and an overall total now of £1239, which is a remarkable 83% of the overall total needed! The spinning money has been added to the event money, which will be split between Mark and I in a few weeks. That total is standing at £300. If you want to make a donation you can still do so at www.charitygiving.co.uk/jamescrossland We also still have raffle tickets left for our 50/50 draw. If you would like some of these please call, text, facebook, twitter, email or comment me and I will get back to you as soon as possible!!

Bit of a late addition to the blog...Big Congratulations to Mr Rich Salisbury and Miss Zoe Mills on their engagement!

“Better to live one year as a Tiger then one hundred as a sheep”