4 days to go Walkies.

Toss that bike away! Potter about on your plates of meat instead. Some muscles get overused on a bike while others don't get a look-in, so, for a healthy change, stretch those legs.
I did a lorra legwork today in the normal run of things of the job - a walkabout that, by recording it on Strava, I am able to share with you.

Thank you Nick for your contribution.
And thanks too to Deuan, long suffering/enjoying psycholist - and fellow Action for Children team member!
Thanks to everyone who has supported me and the important work of Action for Children.

5 to go and taking it easy.

The bulk of world opinion on the matter - from the ancient Egyptians and even beyond to the bronze age types - to the Mediaeval Clerics in their unusual tights and things - to the philosophers of the 19th century and now, with the editors of Cycling Plus, - is that it is wise to give the legs a rest after a long ride. And so I ill not use the bike 'til Thursday. I did sneak out on the townie on Monday and it felt as if I was cycling a bike made of heavy wood with wheels of sponge.

Thanks to Sujesh of Volo and cycling compadre, Neil, for their donations.
Here is another happy snap from the Caen Marseilles trip...

As you may notice we were not too far from the birth place of one Edgar Lastic, inventor of the rubber band. OK, that was stretching it a bit.

6 days to go France

If you check out the strava link at the top of the blog you'll see the ten days day-by-day. I turned the gizmo on in the morning as we left the campsite and would turn it off as we arrived at the new site de camping later in the day. Parts of the route look like this - a typical zig zag up a col:

I kept the gizmo in my bar bag, which I would remove and take with me into supermarches and the like hence, parts of the route look like this:

I will create a blog for the whole trip at some point. But, here is a photo to going on with...

Thanks ever such a lot to Sharon and Georgia for their support.

627 miles

13st 12.

20 - 7 France

The guidance for training suggests the final two weeks shouldn't be too hardcore - the bulk for the training having been done over the previous four months. We have followed the plan until now but, instead of taking it easy, we are cycling from Le Mans to Marseilles. 550 miles in 9 days.

The weather is expected to be very hot, with electrical stores especially Curry's.
A big thank you to the anonymous donor of today.

23 - 21 Magnificat Newbury

I am still a wee bit 'cream crackered' after the 82 mile event today. Earlier stats on this 'standard' ride - the Epic was 124 miles - said that the elevation was 2595 feet - not exactly a walk in the park - but much less than the Ride100. The ride actually gained 4190 feet and included rather a lot of unexpected hillage. As a result, today's ride was shorter but hillier than the Ride100. I'd wanted to do it in 6 hours as this would be the pace for my 7.5 hours for August 4th. I sped in at 6 hours and 4 minutes, 17 minutes outside the event's silver classification. This 17 minutes was the time I spent faffing about in the feed stations. I'd spent a ridiculous 10 minutes at the first doing running repairs to the bike. One of the essential bottles cages was preventing me going into low gear - I chucked that cage in bin. Then there was the case of The Hastily Put On Cycle Computer: I had managed to strap it to the handle bars back to front. The rush to get off in the morning had been a rush and I hadn't had time to set the cycle computer to Mph and so I spent the best part of the ride trying to work out how many miles made up 24 km - my average speed.

I was a bit pooped at the end as I'd not organised my eating and drinking too well - this was my first ever 'event'. The lesson will be learned.

Earlier in the week I did a couple of runs to five the muscles some variety.
That is the end of the training.
On Friday I head to France, Portsmouth to Caen, so as to cross over to Marseilles, after taking a train to Le Mans: about 585 miles.

Week: 138 on bike
11 running.

24 Ventoux in Le Tour de France

The Tour de France will ascend The Giant of Provence this week: Mont Ventoux. While the riders on the TdF will manage it in about a couple of minutes, I chugged up it in 2' 40" a couple of years ago:

It is a 22km climb of an unrelenting 9% with one hell of a view at the top. This, of course, has nothing to do with the Ride100 - I'd just thought I'd show off.

29 - 27 Box Hill

My cohorts and I headed for the hills on Sunday at the painful time of 7am - meaning that I left W1 at 6.25. I passed many people on the way home from the night before - celebrating the last night of the 277 year wait for the Tennis Cup Final win, or whatever it is called, by a British person - Tim Murray. 

We fairly hurtled around the hilly 50 miles of the route in increasing heat and no cooling breeze. I continued with my breaking an egg with a hammer policy of riding my bike with lots of extra unnecessary weight attached to it. The ride-bike combo ought to be 6lbs lighter by the big day.

I managed to race up Box Hill at over 10 mph - just for the 'fun' of it. I won't be up to mischief like that on the day - as I'll still have 30 miles to go. Maybe I'll do it at 9.99 mph.

I'd rested up previously in the week after a cramp attack from hell that got both calves and one thigh - and a middle finger. Darn it, that finger hurt.

95 miles for the week.

Thank you Jessica for your support - and Darren too.

34 - 30 Less than a month

It has all got very exciting this week. I received my Ride100 number  - 10900 - and my start time of 08.00 - I am off in the last 'wave', some 40 minutes after my training partners, the cycling equivalent of getting up after lunch. The most awkward issue of the Ride is how I get to the start at the Olympic Park. Closed roads, no parking, no trains, 10 mile ride...maybe have to bite the bullet and my lip and get a cab to somewhere nearby - if they take bikes.
But, that is a month away. Before that there is another ride with the guys tomorrow - a 7am start in Richmond Park and, next week, is the a sportive - my first - an 81-mile circuit south of Newbury. 

On this boiling day, I am indoors waiting for a delivery of a piece of shiny new kit. It is the same old same old - 'delivery sometime between 9 and 5', despite the human race managing to land someone on the moon. They had a specific time for touchdown at mission control, Houston - not 'sometime p.m.' Back in Victorian London there were up to twelve mail deliveries a day. I could order a new velocipede in the morning from the Penny Farthing and General Transportive Devices Suppliers and be out on the road cycling on it through horse poo by lunch.

Velocipede with racing twirly bit