Life's little mysteries.

There many things in life that I don't really understand. In fact, as time goes by, I find that there are more and more things I don't understand. It was Bernard Lovell who (it is reported) said in recent years that we understood nothing. He was talking about the universe. My little conumdrums are somewhat more humdrum.

Today we have been to Wilton Shopping Village. This followed lunch at the Sticky Bun tea shop in the garden centre at Fordingbridge. The Sausages in Onion Gravy was just right for bank holiday Monday when it is wet and chilly.

Wilton Shopping Village has changed a lot since we were last there. At first sight it looked as though Pavers (shoe shop) had left. But they have in fact just moved into a different unit. When we went in, I was struck by the the notices on the wall. One of these said 'If you cannot see what you are looking for, please ask out staff'. I resisted the urge to ask where the Sellotape was. Then there was a pair of notices - a blue one reading 'Shoes for Him' and a red one reading 'Shoes for Her'. Since coming home, I have looked on Wikipedia (which does have some basis of fact) and have found that the ratio of male to female (human) population of the UK is 1.05:1. What this means is that in every 1000 births, you can expect that roughly 512 will be male and 488 female.

Of course, I am prepared to believe that there might be regional variations in this ratio. This is, for instance, the case in our household where the girls won 2-0. But I know of a compensating case where it was 2-0 the other way round and another case where the boys won 4-0. Overall, though it should be, apparently 512-488. But even allowing for regional variations (and the Wikipedia page gives a break-down by country) the ratio should not vary by much more than 1 or 2 percent. (I turns out that all over the world, in every country, the males win by a small margin.)

So here is the little mystery. Why was it that 'Shoes for Her' had about 70% of the floor space and 'Shoes for Him' had the other 30%? And in my experience, this seems to be the case in just about all shoe shops, and clothes shops. And on top of that, it seems that shops that cater specifically for ladies/men are in about the same proportion.

There are many mysteries like this. The standard cyclist's problem is why the wind is always in your face. Actually, this is easy. If you are going 20 mph into still air, you are effectively creating a 20 mph wind against you. So unless you are travelling in the same direction as the wind, and the wind is faster than you are, it feels as though you have a head wind. What was nice this morning was going up the hill in Haven Road where I was moving at about 12 mph and the wind was about 20 mph behind me. That will suit me fine if it happens on 13th Sept at the col de la faucile.

Also on the positive side, the new wheels are amazing. They feel about one gear better than the old ones. That is very good news. Just a short ride this morning, but I'm hoping to get a longer one tomorrow morning before we go out and become tourists - I hope this will be the pattern for the week.

Here is the link to sponsor me.

Expect the unexpected

I suppose last Saturday was a portent of things to come. This week has not worked out how I expected and hoped. I knew that I was due in London on Tuesday. But the meeting I went for didn't actually happen. Then on Wednesday I had work to do in the evening, and on Thursday as well. So no gym visits.

Then I took my bike in for its service on Thursday and it wasn't in the diary. So I left it anyway but it didn't get done until Friday. And even then, it needed a part that had to be ordered, so it wasn't ready until today. But the paper with my phone number on it was mislaid so I didn't know it was ready until I rang at 16:30 by which time it was raining heavily.

Before that, Simon (who was going to keep me company on a 60 mile ride) found out that he had a wedding to go to on Saturday and couldn't make if after all.

So the effect of all this has been considerably less miles than I wanted to do this week. However, I have a half new bike as it transpired that I had worn out the wheels to a dangerous extent, and the cassette had taken so much of a bashing on the hills that it needed changing etc., etc. So I'm looking forward to trying it out on Monday - except the forecast indicates that a boat would be more use than bike. But I'm off all week and Tuesday looks promising.

I have been to the gym this evening though and done the usual 12 km on maximum restistance. I'm not sure if it was the frustration or just the fact that I've had a week of nothing, but I took over 2 minutes off the time for this doing it in just under 40 minutes. That is encouraging. I hope I shall be able to repeat this on 13th of next month on the last day of the ride after the 260 miles of the first 3 days. (Ouch - is it really 260 miles in the first 3 days. Yes, in fact probably nearer 270.)

And also on a positive note, I'm looking forward to meeting up with Thommy Brolin (not the footballer, but his namesake, also from Sweden) who works in Zurich and is coming to Gevena to meet up again. He was the closest colleague I have ever had and who I haven't seen for nearly 17 years. We worked together in UK, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Ireland over the course of about 5 years and he was not just a wonderful colleague but a very close friend. It will be so good to see him again.

Not only (but also, for those of us of a certain age), it turns out that Maria and Terry Watton will also be in Geneva at that time, so I will meet up with them as well. Which is fitting, because Maria (on the left of this photo) is one of those people for whom I am doing the fundraising. She has MND and is getting to the stage of having to use wheelchair far more now. She and Terry were recently married. Take a look at Maria's facebook page.

Here is the link to sponsor me.

17 days to go ..

Three weeks today I should be at the top of the col de la faucile. There is a fair chance that I'll be a bit out of breath, but we are told that there may be a glimpse of the Matterhorn in the distance. As log as there is not fog, of course. Or rain. Or snow.

What this means is that there are only 16 days until we set of for Paris - 17 days until we start cycling. At the moment, I feel unreasonably relaxed about it. Perhaps reality will hit home soon.

To encourage me on the way, please add to my sponsorship!. Click here to go to my JustGiving page.

The Art of Improvisation

It is difficult to know where to start with this. I suppose the beginning is the obvious place, but it is not entirely obvious where the beginning is. Let's start with the fact that we asked John to plan a tough route in the Peak District as this is the final get together before the Paris/Geneva ride. John did this admirably, using RideWithGPS.com. The profile of the route was horribly up and down and it was eagre anticipation (otherwise known as trepidation) that we met at 8:30 outside the Premier Inn at Chesterfield West. (If you are looking for a place to stay in that area I can recommend it.) There were four of us this time - Alex, Paddy, John and me.

Off we set. the magic number in my mind was 19. This was the number of miles until the first big test. The weather was a little overcast, but that didn't dampen our spirits. It was not long until we missed a turn. No problem - IMPROVISE! GPS is a wonderful thing and we found that there was another turn just a hundred metres further on. The minor snag was that this road started off OK, but then turned into a stony path with muddy puddles, suitable only for horses (I know this because two horses - with riders attached - came up the path as we went down it). So we had the first taste of walking, rather than riding. This was only half a mile so not too bad.

Then came THE HILL. I can report that this was suitably bad and I will admit to stopping a couple of times to get the heart rate back down to sensible levels before continuing. But we all made it to the top without any walking. On to Chapel-en-le-Frith. The day was already turning into something a bit unusual. We came across a cafe which was run by the Methodist Church across the road. It was a nice little place and had toasted tea cakes so we sat down. Shortly afterwards, an older couple came in and the lady commented on Alex's jersey which was the one we had done for the London/Paris ride 2 years ago. It turned out her brother-in-law in Australia had recently been diagnosed with MND and she gave us £20 by way of sponsorship. They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary that day.

The next piece of improvisation came about 8 miles further on when the decision was taken to change the route slightly to cut out Macclesfield. Having never been there, I can't comment on whether this was a good move or not, although I always feel the name suggests a visit is not of the essence. But it is always a risk changing things when you are not too sure about what the new arrangement means. The gizmos all said straight on. But the sign said 'Dead End'. Luckily, there was a lady doing the flowers at a tiny church (we hadn't seen any houses for miles, so I'm not sure why the church was there in the first place). She was local and seemed to have been local all her life so she was able to give us good advice and pointed at gap in the hills where the road went. She said something about 'a bit of a hill'. What we didn't know (yet) was that this change of route was leading us to another absolute stinker of a hill, slightly steeper that the first one. It is perhaps as well that the sign saying 22% was at the top, after we had struggled up it, rather than at the bottom to advertise how bad it was going to be. It had cut out perhaps 4 miles of distance, but hadn't cut out any of the altitude gain. Roughly translated, that means STEEP.

So to lunch at the Cat and Fiddle and a relatively uneventful leg onto Buxton for tea. Only two more hills to go - about 10 miles, surely no longer than about 45 minutes, even if the hills were steep. The first hill was nasty and needed one recovery stop. Then came the last hill. By this time I was beginning to feel a bit weary and I decided that I would walk 100 yeards at the bottom where it was steepest. The others shot ahead. The gradient slackened a little so I got back on the bike and was suprised to see everyone in a huddle another 400 yeards further up. The 'road' that showed up very clearly on Goole maps was not a road at all. It wasn't even a gravel path. It was moreorless a rock climb. After a little discussion, we agreed to head across a field pushing/carrying the bikes on the basis that the row of posts we could see a couple of hundred yards away looked like the road again. After two stiles and a couple of small streams, we were proved sort of right, except it was still not suitable for riding. To cut a long story short, there followed a 3 mile walk across rocks and fields populated by sheep making a silly noise before we eventually found a tarmac road. Fortunately, the GPS signal had been strong enough to help out and we came out on the main road, just about a mile from the Premier Inn. We are going to suggest to the Olympic committee that this should be considered as a new event for 2020.

So we finished at about 7pm. Alex and Paddy had the job of explaining to their respective wives why they were going to be late. John's wife Alison was waiting for us already, having spent the day in Sheffield. This was undoubtedly the toughest ride of the year (and probably my life). It was also the most unusual. John actually did a magnificent job arranging it. And it also went a long way towards justifying the description of 'flat' that he had used for the last 30 miles of the Chilterns ride in May. The pictures are also mainly John's - thank you.

So I'm as ready as I ever will be for the main event in 3 weeks time. It will be mainly 'maintenace' type training from now on. There will be some longish rides on Saturdays, I hope, but they won't have 20-25% gradients in them.

On the sponsorship side - I have just passed £2000. £3000 is possible and that would do so much good. Click here to go to my JustGiving page.

4 Weeks to go ..

There are times when you ask yourself why you have committed to doing something. It may have seemed like a good idea 11 months ago, but now that we are within 4 weeks of 'the off', reality is beginning to dawn. Clearly I should be ensconced in a straight-jacket and be escorted to the local mental hospital. OK - I like cycling and get out to do 70+ miles whenever I can. But this is 4 days on the trot. And the last day is the worst. My insanity is not in doubt - Ruth will confirm this.

4 weeks on Monday, about 30 people (presumably most of them also insane - and I can vouch for 2 of them) expect to be photographed under the Eiffel Tower at 6:30 in the morning, ready to start cycling in a south easterly direction. 4 weeks on Thursday we all hope to arrive safely in Geneva having raised varying amounts for various charities.

But, on the other hand, I know how much it will mean to those whose lives have been affected by MND to be able to have some of those extras that mean the difference between just fading away and being able to continue with life in a meaningful way. As an example, I think of Mike not being able really to speak for the last 2 years, but having plenty that he would like to say. He has his gimlet that allows him to type a sentence and have it spoken for him - this is such a help. Remember - MND affects the body, but the mind remains as good as ever. How frustrating it must be. Just a reminder that half the money raised will be used directly to help local people in the Bournemouth area who have MND. There are aound 35 of them.

More miles are needed to ensure the fitness levels are maintained. So the alarm was set for 6:30 (on a Saturday! - what more confirmation is needed of insanity) and out of the house at 7:45 to get to the start of the CTC ride at Wimborne. There were 6 this morning, including Mike Barrett who leads the rides - able to join in for the first time after breaking bones in his hand a few weeks ago. This was the ride to Compton Abbas airfield where egg on toast helped fuel the tanks for the return trip into the stiff breeze. There are some pretty villages on this ride, particularly after the refuelling stop, along the Chalke Valley. And there is also a particularly nasty little hill just after Broad Chalke - my 27 was needed for that - it has quite a lenthy section which must be 10% or worse.

A series of circumstances meant that we were rather late all along the ride so at Damerham, all those still with us decided to return via Wimborne while I stuck to the normal route via Fordingbridge to Ringwood and Christchurch. The mileage device reported 72 miles by the time I got home.

So, insane or not, am I ready for Paris to Geneva? I think I'm as ready as I'll ever be and there is not really much time left to change anything.

I have been hugely encouraged by the dontaions already received. If you check my JustGiving page, you will see it reports 95% of the target reached. But my own real target is a bit more than is shown there. I think that £3000 is possible. So, if you haven't sponsored me yet, please do so now.

Oo-er. Only 5 weeks!

Just 5 weeks to go! And these 5 weeks will go very quickly, I'm sure, especially as there is a lot happening at work which is keeping me very busy.

So this week it is back to hitting the road as much as possible. I'm not sure if it is a sign of getting a (little) bit older, but it is increasingly difficult to get up in time to get as much in before work as I would like. Maybe it is connected with Neil (a colleague of longstanding) calling me 'old fella' on a regular basis. So I am relying more and more on the Saturday rides.

I was pleased to see the weather forecast at 4pm yesterday showing dry and partial sunshine. Excellent - plan formulated to join the CTC Saturday 60 ride to Sherfield English. By the time I got up this morning, it had changed. It is amazing how good the forecasts are a few minutes before it happens. The promised showers materialised right on cue the moment I stepped outside. But I have to say that was almost the last of the wet weather until about 12:30.

The first leg is up to Ringwood. It is always worrying when you see the trees bending over but you can't feel the wind. It means that you will be heading into it on the way back. But at least it gave us a help up the hill from Moyles Court towards Bolderwood. Only three of us were on this ride, which is unusual for the CTC rides - there are usually 8-12. Maybe they had all looked at the weather forecast ..

The tea break is at Gilberts garden centre. They had BREAD PUDDING! What else can be better for the hills (acutally, John Bush's wife's fruit cake, but Bread Pudding must come a close second.) After the half hour break, it is back via some pretty villages at the west end of Hampshire, just inside the New Forest Park boundary. One is called Lover (pronounced Lowver). This is where the only other real hill lies in wait for the unsuspecting cyclist.

Then it is back via Breamore (pronounced Bremmer - why don't they spell village names how they sound), Fordingbridge (banana break) and the back roads to Christchurch. This was all into the wind, but we still maintained a good average speed. Home before 2pm and 70 miles completed.

Then there were 5 fence panels to replace.

Finally, I am fascinated by the fact that there are people in Russia and China who seem to be following my story. I would love to hear from you - please leave a comment! And to everyone - please sponsor me if you haven't done so.

Castlepoint has happened.

The Castlepoint event has come and gone. It has brought in about £240 which is OK, but not as much as I would have liked to have raised. But a big thank you to everyone from the local MNDA branch who helped out.

The weather was good - mainly sunny but not too hot.So we arrived at 8am to set up and by 9 all was ready. I started pedalling and waited for the people to come along. And waited some more. The numbers of people passing did pick up a bit by 11am, but I think everyone was too busy with the shopping to stop. Thank you to everyone who did stop and paid the £2 to take a guess at the distance.

It was encouraging to see Mike and Michelle come along. Mike was in good spirits as usual and held a bucket for passing trade. Then he had a butterfly painted on his hand by the stall next to us. He was able to stay for a couple of hours.

We had one or two people who came along who had had recent experience of family or friends who have been affected by MND as well. They wanted help and advice so having some from the branch there was a real advantage.

I took a 5 minute break in the morning, 30 minutes at lunchtime and 20 minutes in the afternoon. So the pedalling time was just about 7 hours. And the distance? 115.9 miles. The turbo wasn't on a high setting, but I feel very happy to have completed a distance that is 15 miles further than any ride before. So it has been a good day combining fundraising with a day's training. I feel tired but not completed done in.

A number of friends come along to encourage me - that you. One of these was Amy who, I think, came to check up that I was working hard enough.

And the competition winners, in order of choosing their prizes are Des Allison, Susan Delaney, Clare Busst, Judith Mills, Mike Spittle, Derek Sercombe and Mike Hardy. I am in the process of contacting everyone which may take a couple of days or so but you will hear from me.

And here is the usual request - if you haven't sponsored me, please do so.