How Hard Can it Be!?: July Training Blog, Ride London imminent!

Thursday, 1 August 2013

July Training Blog, Ride London imminent!

This month the training has been all about getting extra miles in on the bike ready for Ride London 100 for the Isaiah Trust with some of the longest bike rides I've done to date!

This small registered charity was started back in 2001 by two friends I work with, Nicky Cuthbert & Tim Broughton. The Trust work with street children and orphans in East Africa, providing homes, rehabilitation, street outreach, training and work programs.

I've been fundraising for the Trust since 2007 when they first got some places for the Great Manchester 10km Run. At the time I'd not run since shortly after leaving school and whilst I went weight training fairly regularly my aerobic fitness was rubbish!. My first runs were awful and I wondered what I'd taken on but with a good training plan I eventually worked up to running the 10km in just under 55minutes. Since then I've run it a few more times before progressing to a full blown marathon and then an Olympic distance Triathlon. What the Trust taught me is that you can put your mind to anything if you give it a go. It must have been very tough and over awing for Nicky and Tim in the early days to know where to start but the work they do and the lives they've changed has been an inspiration to keep myself fit and keep doing sponsored challenges in support.

The fundraising is hard. From raising over £2,000 in 2007 I only managed to raise £120 in 2012 but it was enough to pay tuition fees for a child which kept him in School for another year. Without that money he'd have had to leave the school. Every penny I can raise really will make that significant a difference to a kids life!

You have to be inventive with the fundraising. As well as being a bit cheeky (if you don't ask you don't get)! This year we're running raffles, a cake bake as well as sticking my chin out and asking for regular donations. Folk have been surprisingly and often overwhelmingly supportive! If I can raise enough to keep another few kids in school the aching legs at the end of the 100mile bike ride will have been a small price to pay... and in honesty I'm really looking forward to the event, if more than a bit nervous!

Ride London Cycle Shirt!

The Ride London event is being billed as the London Marathon of cycling, organised by the same team as a legacy of the London 2012 Olympics. The route follows the 2012 Olympic cycle road race where Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Mark Cavendish etc. chased but just missed a medal. To be riding the same route on closed roads finishing on Pall Mall outside Buckingham Palace will be awesome I'm sure!

Thanks to everyone who has supported so far ~ here's the link for those interested ~ https://www.justgiving.com/Daves-IsaiahTrust-RideLondon100

Here's this month's training summary...

01/07/13 ~ 8 mile bike sprint around Winterley & Sandbach in 25mins 49secs
averaging 18.5mph
06/07/13 ~ 84mile bike ride from Abersoch to Barmouth along the Cardigan Bay
coastline in 5hours 25mins averaging 15.4mph

Bike ride past Criccieth Castle

10/07/13 ~ 11.5mile bike sprint around Sandbach
                   in 39mins 4secs averaging 17.6mph
14/07/13 ~ 18.4mile Bike sprint around Hassall,
                   Winterley and Crewe in 1hour 3mins
                   averaging 17.5mph
16/07/13 ~ 5mile check out ride after bike service
                  in 17mins 3secs averaging 17.2mph
17/07/13 ~ 32mile Climb of Mow Cop and loop around
                 Winterley & Crewe in 2hours 14mins
                  averaging 14.4mph
18/07/13 ~ 8mile bike ride to Boundary Water park
                  in 27mins 53secs averaging 17.1mph
               ~ 800m open water swim at Boundary in 20mins 40secs
               ~ 10.5mile bike ride back from Boundary in 36mins 24secs averaging
                  17.2mph
21/07/13 ~ 27mile bike ride around Abersoch taking in the Pwlhelli Tri bike
                  circuit in 1hour 39mins averaging 16.2mph
28/07/13 ~ 31.2mile bike ride from Pwllheli to Porthmadog in
                  1hour 52mins averaging 16.7mph
29/07/13 ~ 13.5mile bike around the Pwllheli Tri course in 52mins 5secs
                  averaging 15.6mph

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Why am I doing this?!

I got drawn in to running in 2007 to raise funds for charity and discovered it's a great way to keep in shape! I expanded the fundraising to open water swimming in 2010 and loved that too which lead to taking up cycling and Triathlon's in 2011! I've kept a training blog for the past few years and found it a huge motivator to get out and do something to report on so here I am again! I'll be keeping a record here of all my training and event ups and downs as well as a few deviations on my hobbies. I'm planning a few events this year for my own benefit and a couple of major events to raise funds again for two charities that mean a lot to me:

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution ~ http://www.rnli.org/

In September 2007 I had an accident whilst sailing my Laser Pico dinghy out at sea off Abersoch, North Wales. The Abersoch crew came to my aid and I'll be eternally grateful ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk6edftmHtg

I spend a lot of time out at sea with family and friends and it made me realise just how dependent we are on this life saving volunteer emergency service funded entirely by charity. I ran the Great North Run Half Marathon to raise funds for the Abersoch RNLI station in 2008 & 2009. In 2010 I taught myself front crawl and swam a mile in open water at The Great Salford Swim and in 2011 rolled it all up taking on the Tatton Triathlon Olympic Distance. 2012 saw me raising funds by competing in a Triathlon team challenge at Capesthorne early in the year and then cycling 180miles Coast to Coast from Morcambe to Bridlington over the August Bank Holiday along the 'Way of the Roses' route ~ http://www.wayoftheroses.co.uk/.
This year I've decided to rope in a few helpers and build on the team Triathlon fund raising of last year which was really good fun... Capesthorne Triathlon on Sun 9th June has been targeted... Watch this space!

The Isaiah Trust ~ http://www.isaiahtrust.org/

A registered charity started in 2001 by two good friends with big hearts, Nicky and Tim. The charity helps kids in Kenya orphaned by aids and surviving on their own on the streets in some of the most apalling conditions imaginable. The lives that these kids endured prior to the charity beggars’ belief. The Trust has and continues to do some amazing things for these kids... Providing outreach and rehabilitation centres to give safe havens and remedial education, setting up orphanages and foster parent programmes. Helping children get back in to the state educaion system and providing 'resource centres' for older child who have missed too much schooling to teach them a skill or trade to earn a living. The Trust is now working hard setting up farms to establish sustainable food programs as well as teaching children farming skills. The trust has helped change the lives of so many kids but there are so many more yet to help...

After a four years of running the Great Manchester 10km Run from 2007 through to 2010, to raise awareness and funds for the trust I ran the Edinburgh Marathon in 2011 which was awesome! 2012 saw me completing the Liverpool Triathlon Olympic Disatance event (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run) and finally breaking the previously elusive 3 hour mark whilst raising further funds.

This year I've entered the Prudential 'Ride London 100' cycling sportif to raise much needed funds. It's a 100mile bike ride covering much of the 2012 Olympic Road race circuit heading out from the Olympic Park, around the Surrey hills and back in to London to finish on Pall Mall... How hard can it be?! :-)