Advent Special – Day 4 #L2P24

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” Benjamin Franklin

When planning a big sporting trip there are many aspects to consider…

Safety in numbers

I announced my plans to run a marathon and cycle London to Paris to my folks and the first thing they asked was “who’s going with you?”.

So for the Brighton Marathon, which I’d signed up to with 3 friends, ended up just being me and trusty Paula! We’d run a total of about 6 miles together all our lives but that was not going to put us off! We agreed that we’d run separately on the day as we had trained at different speeds and Paula had experienced some injuries but we’d stay in contact via Mobile phone for emergencies and our hotel was a short walk (have you ever done a marathon? It was about 100 steps up from the beach to the main road… walk?! Hobble, limp crying more like!) from the finish line where we planned to meet up should we loose contact .

Marathon partner Paula

For London to Paris I recruited a male friend.

He was “just the person I’d need” I thought smugly! Yes, he’d made a nearly successful solo attempt at Lands End, John O’Groats and it was only down to equipment failure that he did not complete. Not only that, he also had a fancy new Garmin (sat nav for bike) and I wasn’t about to spend £350 quid on such an item myself! Perfect… !(?)

Transport

Ok smarty not the bike, I mean transport to the London start line, then the Ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe, and then home from a Paris finish!

Simples? Not so.. the overnight sleeper was about £300! Not an option on the ‘Lorna, post house renovation on a budget’. So we looked at all the options and opted for an early start with a train down to London and then that would allow us to start our cycle early afternoon. London has a lot of stations and I had no idea so many were so close together! Also, most trains require that you pre-book your tickets and reservations for bikes which also get charged extra.

Then there was the Ferry, I made the assumption that, like Scottish Ferries, you buy a foot passenger ticket and your bike goes free… so booked us the 11pm Ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe one way!

And for a luxurious return home we booked the Eurostar train from Paris Gare du Nord to St Pancreas… Where’s Gare du Nord… who cares! I’m sure we’ll be fine to finish the 190 mile cycle navigate straight there to go home?! hmmmm

Then, the return journey from Kings Cross to Glasgow was going to have to be the next day so that demanded an overnight stay at a local hotel in London.

Training

Well I was really committed to my marathon training schedule – I had it worked out, printed out and updated on my wall every week (yes, you are right, I’m good at planning but in reality I only completed 60 % of that training!!).

Cycling was a secondary thought. Anyway, if you train for a marathon you really will be at your peak fitness, right? So I started training for the Brighton April 2015 Marathon at the end of September 2014 and built up to around 20 miles a week by the end of November. Then I got hit with a couple of colds grr back to square 2! In total I managed around 7 training cycle runs between January and May! Yep that’s all! Highlights were

1) a 40 mile cycle around 2 islands (Great Cumbrae and Bute) and back to Largs to finish then a train home to Glasgow.

2) a 72 mile route down into Ayrshire and back up through Largs, over the hill to Greenock and back to Glasgow.

Does a week snowboarding in France count? Hmm thought not!

All the Gear….. (but no idea!)

So I mentioned in my last post about migrating from a Trek 4900 hard tail mountain bike to a Decathlon Triban 3 road bike… well you know what its like… (or maybe you don’t?!) I used to slag off those MAMIL’s (Middle Age Man In Lycra) I’d see on their REALLY expensive bikes which weigh absolutely nothing! I’d say, “yeah but if you lost your 5 bellies you might be able to ride faster?!” and laugh so heartily at my wit! And yet, there at the start of 2015, with some annual benefits choices for work, I was faced with the option to buy another bike!

And since its Rule 12 states the number of bikes you should own will always be (N+1 ) where N = current number of bikes owned, I had to go ahead and start looking for a new stead worthy of #L2P24 http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/

A friend owned a Cannondale Synapse and they get amazing reviews on line for their comfort over long distances… so I contacted my local supplier and put in my order for my first ever FULL CARBON bicycle!! (yes it was FOUR TIMES the amount I ever spent on a bike before! And it will not be paid off until April 2016 but hey ho! It’s because I’m worth it! I have to keep telling myself that!).

2014 Cannondale Synapse full carbon

Rucksack? Yes really!

In short after spending A FORTUNE on a light weight full carbon bike… I then packed all that saved weight into a backpack which consisted of:

1 pair of spare cycle shorts
1 spare vest
1 spare pair of socks
1 spare cycle top
1 waterproof jacket
1 wind jacket
1 microfleece
1 shell cycling jacket (heavy as – wore it for the first 5 minutes from Shawlands to Glasgow then needlessly carried it to Paris!! ARGH)
1 bra (normal variety to get home )
1 pair of pants (no pants required under cycle shorts as they chaff badly!)
1 vest top for return journey
1 pair of leggings
1 pair of flip flops
about 20 gels (High5 various flavours, some with caffeine)
about 20 hydration tables (High5 Zero, some with caffeine)
Battery pack portable phone charger
Phone charger plug and USB
iPod & earphones (Thank the Lord for the earphones… read on)

On bike equipment

2 x 700c inner tubes
toolkit
2 water bottles
Front Moon light- fully charged
Rear Moon light – fully charged

Finally, and most importantly – Route Planning

As previously mentioned, Sean Conway inspired me to do this route, and on his blog he actually provided the Garmin downloadable route.

http://www.seanconway.com/blog/cycling-to-paris-route-gpx-files-for-download

What could possibly go wrong?

Advent Special – Day 3 #L2P24

Posted by littlehappyl

Past adventures & the Big Number!

So what made me think I could achieve such a challenge? OK some people could do this in their sleep, but not most of us!

Well, I started jogging and did my first 10K back in 2002… it took me 1 hour 2 minutes and 45 seconds… I thought I would die afterwards!

Since then, running, I’ve done 8 x 10K’s; 3 half marathons and 2 marathons.

Personal Best times – I’m no athlete.. more of a plodder!

10K 56 min 8 s

1/2 Marathon 2 hr 9 min 50 s

Marathon 4 hrs 34 min 28 s (1: Lochness 2013 & 2: Brighton 2015)

Loch Ness Marathon 2013

Brighton Marathon 2015

Cycling… back in 2010, I did a Skyride in Glasgow and heard about Pedal for Scotland – a cycle from Glasgow to Edinburgh (supposed to be with the prevailing wind). So I signed up with my friend Claire and did my first 46 miler.

Since then I’ve done 3 x Pedal for Scotland challenge cycles (46 miles) but I was on my mountain bike (2001 Trek 4900 hard tail), initially with chunky tyres and then with slick commuter tyres. I was so frustrated at how fast those Lycra-clad people on skinny road bikes were whizzing past me, that in 2013 I got a Decathlon Triban 3 through the cycle to work scheme. In September of 2013 with my brother and ex colleague, we set off on our first 110 mile cycle! After 8 tedious windy, cold, hilly and difficult hours, we got to Edinburgh and jumped straight on a bus home to warm up and refuel!

2001 Trek 4900 Hard tail, front suspension

B’Twin Triban 3

I also walked the 95 mile West Highland Way from Glasgow to Fort William back in 2008 over 5 days and again in 2011 over a more leisurely 6 days.

Then in 2013 I walked the 79 mile Great Glen Way from Fort William to Inverness with my friend Claire and my two dogs. Sadly both Claire and Candy got injured so only Winnie and I made it the whole way. I was always looking for new challenges and constantly surprised at how, with focus, training and determination anything could be possible.

There was one last motivating factor… it was coming up to a big birthday… the BIG 4 0 ! And I thought, wouldn’t it be better to get money for charity than gifts for me? And wouldn’t it be a good motivation to do a big challenge before everything heads south!

So I thought ‘London to Paris’ Bring it on! If only I knew…

Advent Special – Day 2 #L2P24

Posted by littlehappyl

London to Paris in 24 hours epic cycle Inspiration…..

OK, you made it to day 2… I’ll set your expectations so you can skip a few if you like and get to the Lycra clad cycling in the rain…

Wed 2 Dec… I’m going to tell you a bit about how I got the idea (stole the idea) of cycling London to Paris today…

Thurs 3 Dec…. Tomorrow I’ll cover some of my past adventures (short and sweet)… and then….

Fri 4 Dec… a bit of prep about buying a fancy new bicycle, choosing gear and packing for the trip (badly)

Sat 5 Dec… will be the anxious trip to London…

Sun 6 Dec…. We’re off! the train… and we’re off… the bridge… and can we just get started on this cycle trip?!?!

So…. Back to Inspiration… well I’m not sure if you are like me and are just generally inspired by people who challenge themselves and write blogs about it, or books, or if they get really epic, get some TV coverage? Let’s take a prime example… 2012 Olympics… I just wanted to become Jessica Ennis! Not only is she an awesome all round sports queen, she’s also amazingly lovely, accessible and smiley. Her book ‘Unbelievable’ is a great story of her life, her commitment, the pain and the courage to keep going and keep training. She is outstanding. But lets face it – I wasn’t going to compete in 7 athletics disciplines within a year for charity! So I had another think.

Unbelievable, Jessica Ennis

Now there’s Guy Grieve… this Scottish chap, previously an Edinburgh based journalist, got permission from his wife and young kids to chase a dream of building a log cabin in Alaska and living there through the winter on his own (with pet dog and a team of sled dogs) with no supermarket plan B. Epic! But again, wasn’t likely my job would let me take that much time off to probably die alone and cold, in aid of charity… back to the drawing board… !

Call of the Wild, Guy Grieve

Then I was reading “Holding On” by Jo and Rob Gambi. Imagine your a single man, you see a beautiful girl in a pub.. then you find out she’s into climbing – rock and ice and is not impressed that you do neither! So, to win her over, you get climbing lessons! Well Rob Gambi did just that and it could be a nice Disney movie right there but this is real life and although Jo and Rob did get married, they also embarked on a massive challenge (not the marriage). The decided to climb the highest 7 mountains on earth! However, true love never runs smooth and sadly Rob also contracted cancer. Their book is a testament to their endurance of mountain climbing, an endurance of chemo and overcoming it all to achieve their goals (and then some!). After completing those 7 summits they added on treks to the North and South Poles! AMAZING! But yeah… 7 peaks around the world was a bit out my league. I had only done 7 Scottish Munros and all of those were in summer (so far… bro : David, need to speak to you about a bit of ice climbing!). So that wasn’t happening either!

Holding On, Jo and Rob Gambi

FINALLY… found him! Inspiration in a ginger beard! I read a story about Sean Conway swimming from Lands End to John O’Groats and learned that this was actually his 2nd trip from one end of the UK to the other. I was tempted to try the whole length of the country cycling but thought I was taking that a bit far… – that would be around 10 x further than anything I’d ever cycled before! However, I read his blog

http://www.seanconway.com/

and came across an entry where he talked about London to Paris in 24 hours! Bingo lingo clickity click this time I found my sponsorship epic!

Hell and High Water, Sean Conway

Thanks Sean!

Advent Special – Day 1 #L2P24

Posted by littlehappyl

#L2P24 – London to Paris in 24 hrs (cycling).

So you are probably sitting comfortably and cosy and wondering, ‘what on earth possessed you to embark on such a big challenge?’ So before I take you on the journey with me from one capital city to another, let me give you a bit of background…

If you’ve read any of my blog before, you will know I’ve always had a bit of passion for raising money for good causes and more frequently they involve some sort of sponsored sporting challenge. (try saying that after a little festive wine!)

First I raised money for Crohn’s & Colitis after loosing a good snowboarding friend, Paul Davidson, to Crohn’s, far too young. I think of you Paul, every time I’m zooming down a snow covered mountain! You were always the fastest!

I also raised money for an organisation I volunteered for: Destiny Lifeline, supporting vulnerable women in Glasgow to help them regain confidence, self worth and sense of purpose and direction.

Well, this past 2 years I’ve lost too many of my friend’s close relatives to cancer:

John Hopkins

My close friend Audrey lost her dad John Hopkins – a great guy! I have many happy memories of holidaying in Spain with the Hopkins and other times having a wee tipple at their house in Haddington, usually accompanied with a massive spread of food, lovingly prepared by Irene.

Jason Houten

I became friends with Samantha at work 17 years ago and in 2014 Samantha lost her brother Jason to a brain tumour. He was only 34 and left behind two young girls and devoted wife.

Robert Hood

I’ve known David, Robert’s brother, for the last 16 years or so – he was my manager and has become a good friend. He sadly lost his brother to cancer last year.

Pat and Christine Boselli

Through Samantha I extended my friendships to Joanne and other great girls from Greenock! I was so sad to hear that within a 7 month period, Joanne lost not only her step-mum but also her Dad.

Too much loss and too much sadness… I wanted to do something about beating cancers butt.

So I made my decision… I opted for Cancer research UK and set up a Virgin Money giving sponsorship page. Then all I had to decide was what events would I do this time to honour all these wonderful people. It seemed that it would require something big… so I signed up for the Brighton Marathon with 3 friends for April 2015 and I was looking for inspiration for something else… a little bit different to really get people on board to help raise money…..

Behind closed doors – Why Destiny Lifeline Exists

Posted by littlehappyl

So you might be wondering why I wanted to do these 3 sporting challenges and where any money raised will be going? I chose Destiny Lifeline as my charity for donations as I heard Lynn Smillie talking passionately about why she started up the organisation so I met with her to get a bit more insight:

Q: What is Destiny Lifeline?

A: Lifeline is here to deal with the destructive effects that abuse, sex trade (prostitution and trafficking) and prison have on individuals and their families.

Through the past 9 years as I’ve healed from the effects from my own mother being murdered by my father after a life of domestic abuse and I have a burning desire to raise awareness in women and their families on what abuse actually is. A lot of people don’t realise they are abusing others through emotional, verbal or sexual behaviours and it is only now in recent years that the research has shown it comes in many forms. Often it can start with gentle sarcasm and progress to violence and very commonly sexual violence and finally domestic homicide. One of the biggest and most profound discoveries within myself researching back to my own family and in and around my friends and close acquaintances is a thing called ‘love addiction’.

[Love addiction is a human behavior in which people become addicted to the feeling of being in love. Love addicts can take on many different behaviors. Love addiction is common; however, most love addicts do not realize they are addicted to love. Love addiction can be treated with various recovery techniques, most of which are similar to recovery from other addictions such as sex addiction and alcoholism, through group meetings and support groups.^[1] Addictive love is an inclusive term in that it includes “addicts” and “co-addicts”, “co-dependents“, “emotional anorectics”, and “love avoidants”.. ref http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_addiction]

Q: What are you doing at lifeline to support these ladies?

A: Working alongside key Glasgow city projects*; police; social work and our sister organisation Destiny Angels**. We receive referrals regarding ladies of all ages and backgrounds with different types of abuse which is either previous or current and work on an individual basis according to their specific requirements.

*We are currently extending our operations to other Scottish cities – next are Aberdeen and Peterhead with an outlook of Edinburgh later in 2013.

**Destiny Angels is a project supporting the cities most destitute with food and clothing drop in on a Wednesday and a Friday at the Glasgow Gorbals Christian Centre and telephone support line 0333 900 0909.

Our Destiny Lifeline outreach consists of:

Street Outreach
2:2:1 i.e. two volunteers meeting with 1 vulnerable lady in need of support
Groupwork

: Groupwork : Treating the ladies to high tea every week ‘because they are worth it!’

Once contact is established, we carry out an assessment to identify experience and current issues, implementing awareness of perpetrating behaviours in comparison to normal behaviours and also carry out a health, safety and planning programme based on their needs. It must be said that great emphasis is put on the safety of the individual after awareness is given because statistics prove that the majority of domestic homicide happens within two weeks of an individual resisting the abuser.

Q: How do you raise money for Lifeline and how can people get involved?

A: We raise money through selling the crafts created during group work, through the Cafe and through individual and corporate sponsorship and donations. [We are currently setting up the VirginMoneyGiving charity page and this will soon be available]

Q: What happens to the money raised?

A: All money raised for Lifeline first contributes towards taking the women out, materials for group work (includes crafts, reading material, high tea cakes, sandwiches, fruit) and we are working towards our vision of buying and maintaining a restoration home. A safe house to take ladies out of danger.

We want to take them on a journey from their most destitute condition to getting them safe, fed, providing them training and getting them employable again even running their own businesses and becoming fully independent members of society. Given time and restoration we’d love to have them back as Life volunteers supporting and using their experiences to the benefit of others. We currently run a not for profit social enterprise ‘Dorcas Cafe’ and craft shop ‘Dorcas Closet’ selling crafts produced by the ladies and local craftsmen and women situated within Destiny Church, 1120 Pollokshaws Road, Shawlands, Glasgow G41 3QP.

Groupwork – High Tea served to ladies to give them the treatment they deserve…

Groupwork: Arts and Crafts

Dorca’s Cafe:

https://www.facebook.com/DestinyLifeline

https://www.facebook.com/DorcasCafe

https://www.facebook.com/dorcascloset

“give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes“

Countdown begins….

Posted by littlehappyl

Ok, I’m new to this blogging malarkey so bear with me… also not the best at spelling so be gracious (and ping me if you have some constructive editing for me!)

So its:

4 Weeks to go until the 71 mile Great Glen Way Walk (Fort William to Inverness),

10 Weeks to go until the 110 mile Pedal for Scotland Cycle (Glasgow to Edinburgh via the borders!) and

13 Weeks to go until the 26 mile jog and my first ever Marathon (along the bonny banks of Loch Ness…)

Going by my past efforts to do 10K run’s, Half Marathon’s and the 46 mile Challenge Pedal for Scotland my training could let me down!

However, this blog is hopefully going to embarrass me into doing more consistent and frequent training whilst sharing my experiences, sharing about the reason behind the challenge and generating some cash for a very worthy cause!

So where am I at…? I’ve just recovered from a flu and finished my antibiotics to clear my chest infection and I’m raring to go… Challenge number 1, I’m going on a 3 day training course outside of London so I know cycling is out this week and I’m going to take my running kit and get some time out pounding the roads every day! (p.s. no I don’t think I’ll have time for training today as I’m catching a flight after work however, I’ll see how I get on if its not to late when I check in!)

“aye and Pigs might fly or Nessy might appear in Loch Ness” I hear you cry… well here’s hoping… !

Overnoot for day one!

2 Dogs Jog and I blog

All about Candy, Winnie and the Dog Jog Master!

Background

Advent Special – Day 4 #L2P24

Advent Special – Day 3 #L2P24

Advent Special – Day 2 #L2P24

Advent Special – Day 1 #L2P24

Behind closed doors – Why Destiny Lifeline Exists

Countdown begins….