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!

Christmas Market Fundraiser

I managed to rope in several friends and family members to help me produce some Christmassy crafts to sell at a Christmas market as a means of fundraising. Several lovely colleagues of mine knitted hot water bottle covers, tea cosys and scarfs while my mum provided some knitted tree stockings (I provided the chocolate santas and candy canes to go in them).

I am not especially talented when it comes to all things crafty but I was able to produce some Christmas and Birthday cards, a selection of assorted felt finger puppets, tree decorations and jewellery/gift bags.

My lovely friend April gave up her whole Saturday to help me out and only wanted payment in the form of bacon sandwiches for breakfast.

The day was a great success and I managed to raise £78.15 total towards my fundraising target. I also managed to speak to a lot of people about the event and Link Community Development and have hopefully made some good connections for future fundraising.

Update: The second sale raised a further £45 towards my target. :-)

A well earned rest?

I have been away for 2 week but was determined to still get some training and fundraising in while I was away. I went to Seattle to visit friends so had looked up local cycle routes and came across the Burke-Gilman trail - a 27 mile route popular with bikers and joggers.

In addition to wanting to tackle this route (I say ''tackle'' - it's all flat and I'm used to Devon hills, but it would have been good for distance) I had also planned on two wheels being my main mode of transport - since hiring a car and driving on the wrong side of it, as well as the road, scares the pants off me! However, you know what they say about the best made plans...

The 8 inches of snow that fell the day after I arrived soon put paid to my plans of cycling everywhere. - degrees and icy roads did not seem like any fun!  But, don't be alarmed...in spite of not being able to cycle, I still managed to get a bit of fundraising done! I had a meeting with a lovely gentleman called Scott at Washington State University who not only gave me some excellent fundraising ideas, but also sponsored me!

10 rough miles

This week John was absent from our little biking club so I decided to take on the role of leader and test out a route that I had done in the summer with a friend of mine. It was a much shorter route than last week so I had in my mind that shorter = easier. It definitely did not. I somehow managed to pick a route that was almost entirely uphill. A lot of it was also off road - which was not a big problem in the summer but in the winter it is a very different story. I have a hefty bike with mountain biking tyres (for the first time I was actually not envious of Soo and her skinny road tyres) but even on that it was tough going. Still, we made it (with several chocolate stops along the way) and came to the conclusion that I should not be allowed to plan routes anymore...

19 Miles

Much of the same route as before only with a lot more rain and much colder this time!

29 miles and counting!

A few days ago, my friend Soo suggested nice a Sunday ride to me. Brixham - Dartmouth (about 4  miles). Of course, getting into the swing of training I happily agreed.

One thing Soo forgot to mention to me was the Brixham - Dartmouth, via Totnes part of the ride! We started out at 8.30am (on a Sunday, I know!) and headed off on our ride.

Brixham - Churston - Waddeton - Stoke Gabriel - Aish - Longcombe - Totnes - Tuckenhay - Dartmouth - Kingswear - Brixham.

Suffice to say, I was very very tired after all that biking! Surprisngly though, it really wasn't as hard as I had expected. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination but it definitely wasn't as tough as I had expected. I've definitely surprised myself by what I can already do.

Even more suprisinging is that I still had both the feeling in my legs and the ability to walk on Monday morning!

Again, I realise that 29 miles is a small portion of what I will be doing on challenge days but I'm really starting to feel like this is a manageable task.

Let the fundraising commence!

I did a Halloween cookie sale at College and raised £27 to add to my fundraising total. (Bringing it to £37!) So I have acheived 3% of my fundraising total so far. Putting it like that makes it sound very daunting but the sponsors are starting to come in now and I have a list of fundraising ideas. I have already approached several companies for help so I still feel very positive. I just keep remembering that every penny is a step in the right direction!

Getting started...

I have had a busy couple of weeks so far. I have created sponsor forms, set up a (this) blog, justgiving and facebook sites. I have had my first sponsor of £10 from my lovely friend Adelaide. So far though, all the preparation I have done has been purely admin so I thought it was definitely time to actually get on my bike.

Last Sunday was set aside for a good ride but then the rains came. I was all set to get out there but it was such a miserable day that I quickly lost all motivation and settled instead for writing letters to would be sponsors. This weekend though there was no rain and definitely no excuse not to get out there.

I met my number 1 supporters (so far) Adelaide and her Boyfriend Pete on Widecombe in the Moor, Dartmoor and set off on a 12 mile circuit, taking in Hound Tor, Manaton, Grimspound and the legendary Jay's Grave. Although, it is worth noting that we didn't actually see any of these sights since the fog was so thick.

I am not going to lie and make out that it was an easy ride, it was miserable since the weather was against us, but I do feel a lot more confident about what I have undertaken now it's done. I know that 12 miles is a fraction of what I will be doing but I have 9 months to train and the terrain on the London-Paris ride won't be anything like Dartmoor.

In keeping with the Dartmoor weekend, I spent Sunday taking part in a 13mile walking circuit around Widecombe again for Marie Curie. I am now exhausted but feeling much less daunted by the task ahead of me.   

The trusty steed...

I say trusty steed, I think if this were a horse it would definitely have to be put down!

I realise that I have taken on a massive challenge and that I will need a much better bike by the time I start my official training (February 2011)  but for now this bad boy will just have to do.

Plus, it will make a nice change for this woods accumstomed bike to be out on the open road.

Challenge: noun - a call or summons to engage in any contest, act of skill, strength

My name is Emma and in June 2011 I will be cycling from London to Paris to raise money for Link Community Development.

 In 2005, I took part in the Morocco Hitch and raised money for Link Community Development (LCD, from now on as that's a lot to type). It was a fantastic experience and such a great cause. I've decided that now I am a little bit older, probably not a lot wiser, I would like to get involved in another big event.

I have decided to set up this blog to document everything involved in preparing for this challenge. I hope to keep you entertained with stories of training, fundraising - perhaps with a few pictures along the way (I am new to this blogging business so I can't make any promises!)

I registered today and as soon as I made it official, the previous excitement at the idea of taking part turned to terror at the thought that I will now definitely have to cycle to PARIS in just 9 months time!

I am planning on starting my training next week so watch this space...