Enforced break

Due to a combination of a small bout of illness (one of the many benefits of working in a hospital!) and the surprise instalment of an indoor swimming pool in my living room, the last two weeks have had practically no training whatsoever.

I had planned to have an easier week over Xmas as part of my loosely planned four week training blocks, but didn't anticipate a complete layoff from sport - unless of course you count the repeated sprint work involved when suffering from norovirus! 

I'm not adverse to training in the wet, however when the wet comes into the house it makes drying off after training slightly more challenging. This was thanks to the river cuckmere flooding and expanding into my house, although we were fortunate not to have it as bad as those in the West Country, it did introduce the need to wear Wellies to go to the kitchen!

However as NYE approaches, the water has receded (for now at least), and both my lounge and body have now dried out meaning that training is back on, and tonight I eased into it with a gentle 30min run around the lanes by head torch. A rare free weekend with only exam revision on the cards will no hopefully result in a few hours on the bike to escape the books and kickstart the New Years fitness program. 

Entered!

I am now officially committed!

This week the deposit was paid and training started for the challenge of cycling from London to Paris in June 2013!

The trip takes place over four days when we shall be cycling (rain or shine) from the centre of London to eventually finish under the champs de élysées in a mark cavendish style sprint (hopefully!).

As part of the challenge, I have joined a motley crew called the Green Army and will be fundraising for Demelza Children's Hospice. The fundraising target is huge £1600 per rider - meaning over the coming months i will be asking everyone to dig deep and pledge what they can.

In return for your hard earned cash I promise to suffer all the way to Paris (and during the Sussex hills training), and upload the trials and tribulations on here.

Over the coming weeks I will be uploading more information on the Demlza Children's Hospice, and provide a link for where you can help a truly deserving cause.

Thanks

Nick

The squeak..panic!

On a recent daily commute, a lovely motorist decided to overtake me on an rural road leaving with me to ride on the crappy part of Tarmac - unfortunate but not unusual- especially at night.

However due to the local councils highly successful road maintainence scheme, this particular section of black top was was littered with craters comparable with the Grand Canyon - which I duly cycled into.

Cue massive Bang!

In skill similar to that of lance when he did that cross country thing in the tdf, I managed to stay up and coasted into the car park of the local garden centre to check for the inevitable double puncture/shattered forks and resultant long walk home. 

Relief! Nothing was broken (apart from a slightly bruised perineum) so continued my journey feeling heavily relieved. A few miles later however, after stopping at the traffic lights in town, I heard a squeak - immediately thinking the worst, I pictured the rear derailleur hanging on the floor, however due to the fact I was still peddling this was clearly not the case. 

Bizarrely, the squeak seemed intermittent and not linked to any pedal strokes, so I assumed its something to do with the wheels-perhaps a broken spoke?. 

Instead of stopping and checking, i thought I would slow down and coast home. Weirdly the squeak got louder the more I slowed, until eventually at barely walking pace, an older chap on a rusty old mountain bike with tesco shopping bags hanging on the handlebars creaked his way past me!!!

Panic over, and with a little laugh to myself I picked up the pace and re-overtook the chap, leaving him to contently cycle his dinner home. I can only assume he joined me when I was stopped at the traffic lights outside tesco. Phew!

New Gloves!

As the south east is now in the grips of an Arctic-like winter, the commute to work has become a battle between wearing enough clothes and looking like the michelham man! 

Last winter I treated myself to a decent winter jacket and a number of different undershirts, whilst this kept my torso fairly toasty, my lack of a decent set of gloves left me unable to use my hands until at least lunchtime (even when wearing two pairs)...not any more! 

Normally, I am loathe to spend a lot of money on cycling apparel,  however on a recent trip to Evans bike shop, I got caught up in the spirit of Xmas shopping and splashed out a massive £35 on a pair made by Sealskinz.

 Money well spent?? ABSO-BLOODY-LUTLY!!

Lovely toasty hands all the way to work - although that did mean I was able to use a pen at 9am and be productive!; maybe I will 'forget' my gloves a few days a week from now on.

Now just to work out how to stop icicles forming on my nose.....

The name!

The title of the blog originates from a nickname bestowed on me on a hockey tour (read drinking tour) circa 2007. At the beginning it also had a little rhyme to go with it although this was a little too long to be 'sang' every time I entered the room!

The second part is my mild interest ( full blown obsession) with triathlons. Although I have now competed - in the loosest sense of the word, in a number of sprint distances and one half iron distance triathlon, you could be forgiven for thinking that I would give the Brownlee's a run for their corn, alas I am quite securely a middle of the pack athlete!

Hence rather than compete, I rather 'Tri' and a blog title was born!

Hi!

 I have committed to riding the London to Paris cycle ride in June 2013 in aid of Demelza Hospice care for children.

I've created this blog as a story of the trials and tribulations along the way (hopefully more tribulations!). Over the next couple of months leading up to the event I will be posting blogs about the training I am doing, attempting to avoid cookie's/chocolate along with juggling the added goals of the Brighton Marathon, a hockey season and full time work!

Perhaps it's a sign of what's to come that the week I confirmed is also the coldest of the year! First purchase done : a new pair of thermal cycling gloves!

Take time to have a read, hopefully it will make you chuckle (and even donate?!)

Nick