All the motivation you need

As mentioned in my last post, I attended my first Action for Charity meeting last weekend at St Thomas's Hospital in London.  It was humbling to hear from women who were not only challenging themselves to complete this cycle, but were also fighting cancer themselves.

We had presentations from all 3 charities that the Women v Cancer organisation supports -

http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk

http://www.jostrust.org.uk

http://www.ovarian.org.uk

which were very moving and inspiring.  You could've heard a pin drop in the room so I am sure that everyone there felt the same.

Anne Frampton from Women v Cancer presenting at the first Cycle Cuba meeting.  Since it began 3 years ago, Women v Cancer has raised over £2.3 million for women's cancer charities

Anne Frampton, the event organiser, did a great job of getting us all excited about the challenge we have all signed up for as well as reminding us of the great causes we are supporting in doing this.  She also introduced us to Theo Peeters from Dream Challenges who will be looking after us in Cuba.  They have pulled together an itinerary for us which looks amazing but a little daunting at the same time:

Day 1 - fly from London to Havanna

Day 2 - Jibacoa Beach to Matanzas - 5 hours cycling on a mixture of tarmac and compacted earth roads taking in coastal and inland scenery.  One 800m hill to negotiate - 43.5 miles

Day 3 - Matanzas to the Peninsula of Zapata - 5-6 hours cycling on tarmac roads through what was prime sugar can land - 52.8 miles

Day 4 - Cienfuegos to Trinindad - 6-7 hours cycling on undulating country roads - 59.7 miles (the toughest day!)

Day 5 - Trinidad to Sancti Spiritus - 6 hours cycling through a scenic valley with sugar mills and tobacco fields - 47.8 miles

Day 6 - Sancti Spiritus to Santa Clara - 6-7 hours cycling on undulating roads through villages and small towns, finishing at the Che Guevara Mausoleum, one of Cuba's most important revolutionary monuments - 51 miles

Day 7 - Santa Clara to Havana ...... on the bus!!

Total miles cycled - 254.8 (400km)

Getting back up to speed

New Year has been and gone and so has January!  I am not sure how that happened so quickly, but am now rooting around in my head to find the motivation to get going again with training and fundraising as we have taken a couple of months off over the Christmas period.

I have only one notable cycle under my belt so far this year which I am calling the Roast Dinner Challenge - a 32 mile round trip from Marple to my parent's house in Timperley in order to indulge in my mum's excellent roast beef dinner, yorkshires, roasts and all the trimmings followed by fruit crumble and custard.  Fine recovery from the first 16 miles and fuel for the second 16!

I am finding that I need to invent reasons such as this to get me out on the bike in the cold wet weather. It has been made a bit easier with the gradual improvement of my kit - my current look is 3/4 pants over cycling shorts paired with a long pair of football socks.  A fine silhouette!  I have also inherited a marvellous cycling jacket which is way above my skill (and cool) level, but soooooo warm.  Need better gloves and shoes as fingers and toes still objecting to the virtual frostbite they have been subjected to.

Despite my lack of outdoor cycles, I am feeling pretty good about the general fitness programme I have underway.  I have increased my spin classes to 3 a week, occasionally 4.  I have definitely noticed the difference when I get on my bike - I don't feel so saddle sore.  Also now feeling OK about wearing skinny jeans for the first time since turning 20!!

I have also introduced yoga into my life.  It wasn't quite what I expected (was thinking relaxing, gentle, calm) - it is strenuous, demanding and sometimes downright impossible; despite the patient encouragement from my excellent teacher - but I am loving it!  I am becoming a fan of cross training and gaining strength from another practice to help you with your goal.  Still waiting for inner peace, but will keep trying.

Talking of cross training - I have also signed up for the Sheffield Half Marathon as I want to keep up my running as well as the cycling, so needed a point of focus.  It is in May so that gives me plenty of time to adjust my training.

It is now time to start thinking about a proper training plan though.  I need to up my outdoor cycle mileage on a regular basis and start some hill training.  This was made apparent 2 weekends ago when I attended the first Cycle Cuba meeting down in London.  The Action for Charity Team shared the route with us and the fact that they have altered it to make it more challenging/hilly so we don't get bored or find it too easy!!!  Funny.

It is also now time to get together with Gillian and decide what our next fundraising event is going to be.  We have both just changed jobs, so needed to take a bit of time to settle in to our new roles.  We are now both working in the city centre, so I am sure there will be a few strategy meetings required over coffee and cake.  I will share as soon as possible - our ideas that is, not the cake.

Fundraising update

It has been a while since my last post, but we have both been working hard on fitness and fundraising and are steadily improving in both areas!

We have been slowly accumulating funds with lots of little schemes.  Most are thanks to Gillian who has come up with several ingenious ways of making small amounts of cash - my favourite is the 'taxi service' charge for lifts!  People are always happy to donate when they hear about the cause.  It is so close to so many people's hearts.

Our honesty book stall has continued to make money as people donate their unwanted books and buy new ones for £1, and our pot for unwanted change in the company cafe has also been very successful.  The girls in the cafe love it as it is often a source of handy change for them!!

To date, we have generated £954.00 through our Just Giving site - http://www.justgiving.com/CubanWheels and our Coffee Morning final total has risen to £568.14.

When all things are added together we have a current total of £3,229.02.  Our target of £3,000 has been achieved!!

A huge thank you to everyone who has helped us get to this point.  We are, of course, continuing with our fundraising and have set a new target of £6k by August.

Stay tuned for an update on our training coming soon.

Coffee and Cakes hits the spot!

There is a good chance that there was a surge in demand for power in the Cheshire area the Sunday before last, as there was such a lot of baking going on.  Gillian and I, along with many of our work colleagues were preparing for the Cuban Wheels second cake sale fundraiser which took place in the Sports Cafe at Umbro head office on Monday.

We made £242.38 from the first sale back in May.  This was our target.

Gillian and Mandy setting out the cakes and preserves

We were overwhelmed with the number of donations - it took 4 of us (massive thanks to Mandy and Louise for all your help) an hour to set up the stall, lay out the cakes and label them all with prices.  Before we knew it, we had a queue of eager customers.  It took a while for the money to start changing hands though - there was so much choice, people couldn't decide what to have!

Sultana scones, biscuits, choc chip cookies, gingerbread, coffee cake, lemon cake, banana loaf, crispy cakes, cupcakes, chocolate lollipops, rocky road, battenburg, macaroons and much more.  A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO BAKED FOR US.

Thanks also to our colleagues in The Sports Cafe for their support.  50% of all tea and coffee sales for the morning were donated to our fundraising.

It was a lot of fun with people coming up in groups for coffee and cake throughout the morning, holding informal meetings, or just catching up with colleagues over a cuppa whilst raising money for Women v Cancer.

Yet again, it was practically a sell out, with Gillian's preserves flying off the shelf, and a desperate shortage of lemon drizzle cake (must make at least 2 next time!).

A tally up of the takings revealed that out target was well an truly smashed, with a final total of £414.00.  Fantastic!

Thank you again to everyone who supported the sale and helped to make it such a success.

Tatton Cycletta

It is rare for me to experience 6am on a Sunday morning.  I am usually asleep.
Yesterday was different.  Gillian and I,  along with our friend Emma, took part in our first official cycle event - a 55km route starting from Tatton Park in Cheshire, which is one of a series of women only cycle races in beautiful locations.  Click here for more info on future events..

I was woken by the radio alarm playing The Cure, and it was with uncharacteristic enthusiasm that I got up and danced to the shower, past my bike and gear which were prepared, labelled and ready to go in the hallway.  After a quick breakfast Chris managed to manipulate my bike into the car without having to dismantle anything and we were on our way at 7:30 in thick fog.

The event was incredibly well organised, and by 8:30 we had parked up, unloaded the wheels and found Gillian and Emma.  Nerves were setting in now as we waited for our wave to start.

Emma, me and Gillian - ready to go

Garmin ready - waiting to go

The fog was still pretty thick when we set off and it wasn't long before our hands were completely numb with the cold.  Still the scenery was stunning and we soon forgot about the cold as we were cycling down beautiful tree lined roads with the sun desperately trying to break through the fog.

On our way - very high viz!

We thought it would take us over 3.5 hours to finish so we were delighted to cross the line in 2:48:25 (including pit stop time!).  Feels great to have our first cycle under our belt.  We have done the distance we will cover on our first day in Cuba, so just the other 4 days to work on now!

Medals all round

Manchester - Portland - Toronto

It has been a fantastic month of travelling, running and cycling.  A quick update.....

On 20 August I set off on my long-awaited trip to Portland, Oregon to take part in the world's longest relay race - Hood to Coast.  Our team of 12 joined hundreds of others each crammed into 2 minivans to run the 199 mile route from Mount Hood to the Pacific coast at Seaside, Oregon.

Each runner runs 3 legs - mine were 4.7 miles (3pm Friday), 4.2 miles (1am Saturday) and 7.2 miles (3pm Saturday).  The distances aren't too gruelling, but it's the lack of sleep and the cramped conditions in the vans with no time for stretching, or showering that make it tough - you have to get to the next hand over before your runner does to park up and make the exchange.  Crazy but a lot of fun, and running through the forest in the middle of the night with just a headlamp to see by was amazing.

My training up to this point has been focussed on running, with a bit of cycling.  Now the balance is going to change.  After my week in Portland, I meet Chris in Toronto to stay with friends there for a summer holiday.  We decided to hire bikes for a day and follow a cycle trail built on the abandoned Canadian Pacific railway line in Western Ontario.

The cycle to the start of the trail was along a deserted country lane, wide and straight, shaded by trees and virtually traffic-free so we took it nice and easy, cycling side by side chatting as the miles slowly rolled by.  This is my kind of cycling!

At the start of the Goderich to Auburn cycle trail

The trail starts at the port in Goderich on the shore of Lake Huron, and heads out across the wooden Menesetung Bridge which has been restored and provides a spectacular start to the cycle.

Chris on the Menesetung Bridge

It's August, and we expect to see lots of other holiday makers enjoying the sunshine and countryside, but the trail stretches on and on and we only share it with one other cyclist and 2 couples walking.  It's a very different experience to cycling in Manchester!

 We knew that we should have turned round a bit sooner, but the trail was so pretty, and the weather gorgeous, so we kept going to the end of the trail, feeling good.  It was, however, an out and back ride, so we were only half way and still had 15 miles to cycle to get back.  It wasn't until the last hour that we realised we had maybe pushed it a bit too much and both had to grit our teeth and keep going, wincing slightly with each bump in the road!

We made it back and immediately congratulated ourselves for hiring bikes from a shop opposite a bar.  A pint of lager and a large bowl of fries never tasted so good!

Superbia in Proelia

(Pride in Battle)
 MCFC

It is with sadness that I write that our friend and colleague Sally lost her fight against cancer 2 weeks ago.

A memorial service was held for her at St Michael's Church in Bramhall, which was attended by family members, friends and colleagues.  At the family's request, it was an occasion to celebrate Sally's life and spirit, which was exemplified by the bravery and dignity with which she faced her illness.  Her son Josh led the way with this sentiment, choosing the song 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' to close the service.

She worked in the sports industry for 20 years, and football was her passion, especially Manchester City.  The love and respect she had amongst her friends and family was evident from the number of people who were there to pay their respects.  Many of the faces I didn't recognise - people who had worked with her over the years.

We are determined not to dwell on the sadness of the occasion; but, as Sally would have done; with her slightly stubborn, no-nonsense approach; we are picking ourselves up and cracking on with our fundraising.

It's all go in the craft department as I have been preparing hand made Christmas cards for a sale we are planning in October.  I am reliably informed that this is the time when the discerning customer buys their Christmas cards, not the second week of December, which is the norm for me!

Gillian has been furnished with piles of pre-cut card and glittery paper to stick together and our houses are slowly being covered from top to bottom in a fine layer of glitter.  It gets everywhere.  My partner is not terribly impressed that Christmas has arrived in our house before we have had our summer holiday!

As we are in the holiday season, and lots of our family, friends and colleagues are away at the moment we haven't arranged any other events for this month, but when I return from my holidays in a few weeks time look out for our second cake sale - back by popular demand; and the much anticipated Football Quiz Night.

Also coming soon - more training updates including news (hopefully) of my Hood to Coast run and cycling attempts on the trails of Ontario, Canada.