A cautionary tale...

I took the new bike out for a test run yesterday...

All went well for the first mile or so until I noticed that the back wheel was catching. When I got off to investigate I thought that the brakes were rubbing. On closer inspection, I realised that the wheel had actually come loose and was resting on the frame! I'm guessing that Halfords, who supplied the bike, are not as thorough in their bike builds as their adverts might suggest! Luckily, I was staionary and not flying down a hill when the wheel decided to shift.

A very nice man was cycling past and obviously noticed my damsel in distress routine and stopped to help. He, being a sensible biker unlike myself, had a tool kit handy and was able to tighten up the nuts and bolts and send me off on my merry way - but not before bestowing some cycling wisdom on me. 1. High vis vests are not trendy but definitely necessary. 2. You're own tool kit is a must (the shame of looking like an idiot girl who cannot fix her own bike pretty much made this a given anyway). 3. Changing both sets of gears at once stops your legs from spinning around like crazy. 4. If you buy a bike from Halfords, make sure you get it checked over by someone who is not a cowboy!

With a safely bolted together bike, with two wheels firmly attached, I managed to do 19 miles. The difference between the new bike to the old one is amazing! I honestly cannot express how much easier it is having a bike with fully working gears. I don't think I could really appreciate how rough the old bike was until I'd been out on the new one. Simple things like being able to peddle when I'm going fast, and keep up with the momentum of the bike, made life so much easier.

I still realise that it is not going to be an easy task and that training is going to get tougher as the week's go on  but with my new bike I know it is definitely an achievable task and much less of an uphill struggle.

With a little help from my friends...

This week has been amazing! On Sunday night I received two messages, within an hour of one another, offering me the loan of a bike for my training and eventual cycle to Paris. My friend Lucy's boyfriend Rob offered me the use of his road bike as it is currently unused and gathering dust in a garage. About 30 minutes later, my friend Marissa let me know that her bike is currently surplus to requirement as she is deep into her marathon training.

Then, when I thought it couldn't get any better, my lovely friend Olly donated me a brand new mountain bike!

So, my ride is now sponsored by, and thanks to, OJ Carpentry.  Having a new bike will make things so much easier - not least because it weighs about a stone less than the old one, and is not made up of 85% mud and rust!

I'm very lucky to have such awesome friends who have been going above and beyond to help me out with this cause!

Read all about it!

This week I made the front page of my local newspaper. I knew that I would be featured somewhere in the paper but did not know I would be front page news - Imagine my suprise when I went in to the shop to pick one up!

 I am very excited as it means that more people will get to know about what I am doing, as well as raising the profile of LCD locally. Karen Perrow, who wrote the article, was kind enough to put in a bit of a shameless plea for support with a new bike so fingers crossed some sponsorship might come out of this... 

January 2011...5 months to go!

Happy New Year! I hope that you had a fantastic Christmas and New Year.

I had asked Santa for a shiney new (or less shiney second hand) bicycle this Christmas but I guess I must not have been a good enough girl! "Santa" informed me that days of bike buying were over, I am now old enough to buy my own bike...Charming!


While I did have a lovely time over Christmas and New Year, there was an unfortunate victim in all the overindulgence...my motivation! I had, somewhat foolishly, thought that I would be able to have a choccie here and a glass of wine there over Christmas and it not really make a difference. I was wrong!

I am a little bit ashamed to say that  training sort of fell by the wayside all over the festive period. It is so hard to get motivated once you have been out of it for even a couple of days, let alone weeks! However, while my training schedule has been relatively non-existent, I have been putting my time to good use by using every social event as an opportunity to let more people know about what I am doing.

As suggested in my fundraising guide, I asked that if people were planning on buying me a present that I would want nothing more than a small donation to my cause. Feeling very festive, lots of people dug deep and brought my total up to £503 (37% of my total goal...but almost 50% of the amount I need by February). I am very excited that I am getting closer and closer with each generous donation!