Month: September 2016

Not having had the opportunity for a holiday over the summer, our family is looking forward to going away with a number of friends from church for the weekend. We’ll be staying at Pilgrim Hall, a big old house set in 12 acres of grounds in the the East Sussex countryside. It’s an idillic setting for a quiet get-away. That said, with everyone that’s going it probably won’t be quite so quiet!

Why am I telling you all this? Well, it’s just 40km from home so I thought, “What better way to start the weekend-away than cycling there? It’s an ideal training opportunity not to be missed!” Being on the cautious side I figured that it would be best to do a trial run in advance. So, that’s what I did yesterday.

Having mapped out my route on mapometer.com I had a nasty shock when I looked at the elevation graph. There was a drawn-out 10km section of up-hill with an increase in altitude of over 160m. After this was a short steep down-hill followed by another long up-hill. In all it was an almost 15km section of uphills. Gulp! Armed with this knowledge I set off.

After almost two hours I reached Heathfield – it had been hard going. Really hard. I was almost in tears as I phoned Chris to update him on my progress; he would be coming in the car to collect me from my destination. Heathfield, as I recalled, was the start of the BIG long hill… I didn’t think I could face it after what I had been through already.

Sometimes it’s good to be wrong. Fearing the worst I took the saddle again and set off. The going didn’t seem to be as bad as I had feared and I was pleasantly surprised to reach my final destination within just half an hour. Heathfield was, it turned out, at the END of the big climb, not the start of it!

I’d pushed it hard and I’d cycled those 40km in 2.5hrs. I was pretty please with that. The only problem was that today, my legs ache, like they’ve not ached before… I just hope I can make it to work okay today!

A big thank you to everyone that has sponsored me thus far. If you’ve not done so yet, or even if you want to again, you can make your donation securely at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/CandyG and if you are a UK taxpayer, please remember to gift aid it too.

Recently I’ve been posting about the two wonderful charities that I’m supporting with my sponsored cycle ride and I’ve made no mention of the training I’ve been doing. Believe it or not, I have still been training! It’s a little concerning how little time we have left until departure; I don’t know that I’ll ever feel ready for it, no matter how much training I do.

The view from my exercise bike at home is not very inspirational. Thankfully, aside from the shorter local runs on my road bike, some of which have been with one or two children in tow, I have taken a few longer runs on my mountain bike round Bewl Water – a scenic local 800 acre site is set in an area of outstanding natural beauty, in the heart of the High Weald. The circuit around the 31,000 million litre reservoir is approximately 20km.

By the time I’ve cycled there, round the reservoir and home again it makes for about a 50km trip. It’s hard work riding on the roads with the big thick off-road tyres. There are some lovely down-hill sections, but rather than being a joy to see, they start to incite dread, after all, what goes down must come up. Even in a low gear, after you’ve been tortured by 4km uphill climbs, even the shorter climbs are hard work. The tracks around the reservoir have been fun to ride and thankfully it’s been dry so they’ve not been too muddy.

Here are a few scenic photos from the area.

Don’t forget, you can make your donation securely at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/CandyG and if you are a UK taxpayer, please remember to gift aid it too.

Thank you,
Candy.