The Good, the Bad and the Ugly News!

First the bad news, my Trans Rockies partner Markie, who as you can remember had a major fall in March, breaking his humerus and dislocating his left shoulder, when we were training in Wales, has had the news from his consultant at East Surrey Hospital, that he is unable to ride for about three months and will possibly need another operation on his shoulder to correct its alignment. This was a devastating shock for him and everyone. We had held out so much hope that he would be going to Canada. I know how much this had meant to him and how grateful I was of his support from the word go. It is a real shame! On the brighter side I have said to him once he is ship shape again we will attempt some other gruelling feat a bit closer to home. We will keep you posted on that one!

To the good news!! My friend Brian Trill has very kindly offered to take Markie's place on the Trans Rockies ride and I am very honoured to have him along as my team mate. Brian lives for his mountain bike, spending many many hours in the saddle and riding all over the country at some of the best venues Britain has to offer. He recently did a fantastic ride in Peru for a charity in memory of his mother who sadly passed away, riding over 500km up through the mountains at high altitude, finishing in Machu Picchu some 2,500m above sea level. A fantastic feat. I look forward to continuing the training over the coming weeks with him.

After the devastating news about Markie a bit of ugly news this time on the ticket front. British Airways - what a disappointment. What we thought would be a simple change of the name on the ticket turned out to cost £850. The miserable sods would not transfer the ticket, into Brian's name so it now becomes null and void. Therefore, we had to buy another in Brian's name, even after explaining the reasons - The injury - the charity - no budging. Well all I can say is 'Thanks British Airways' The world's favourite airline!!! Puff to that!!!!! I will take my bookings elsewhere next time.

Had a slightly easier training week this week just recharging the batteries. We had a good road ride yesterday. Brian, Ben and I took part in a charity ride for the British heart Foundation, 45 miles of Surrey's finest countryside in the rain. Brian had a near miss as he skid off on a sharp corner on the first fast descent. He's now got a bit of a bruised butt I think!! The ride was good training and we were home in about 2 and half hours which was not bad.

At last we have also decided a team name and what could be more appropriate then

'Team Milo'

Have a good week take it easy.

What happened to the Summer??,

Gosh it's so Wintery, the week started with good intention, even managed to get sun burnt on my shoulders on Tuesday when I went out for a ride with Markie, then suddenly Winter appears to have arrived and it has not stopped raining.

Tough week on the training front, but encouraged along with all the kind donations that have been coming in from friends and family - A big thank you to all of you for your kind support!! With Sundays London to Brighton and back ride I managed to clock up nearly 250 miles of cycling this week, amazingly that's just two thirds of the distance expected in the rocks and only about a third of the climbing expected - Gulp!!

With only 44 days to go now I have been looking at the final preparation's of items needed to be taken, the spare room looks like a shop at the moment full of energy bars, isotonic drink mixes, lotions and potions for all manor of possible situations that may arise.

Tested the bike box out on Sunday and phew!!! The bike does fit with a bit of room to spare, had to take a few bits of to squeeze it in though but on the whole its going to protect the bike extremely well.

That's all really at the moment, off to the office now, as I have not been there all of last week as I have been spending as much time as possible training and been very busy on the personal training front.

Have a pleasant week.

Update & Charity Sale at Caterham School

Time is moving faster then ever now and the training is starting to take a new level. The minor injury I got last week has healed up nicely, luckily with very little problem. Managed to get a few extra miles in during the week. Thursday clocked up 40 plus miles travelling to the club on my bike, taking the spinning class, then shooting out for a 15 mile blast for the biking class I take at the club, then cycling home as fast as I could. Started out nice and early on Saturday and managed to get a 48 plus mile ride and topped 6,000 feet of climb the most yet and equivalent to a days ride in the Rockies. Amazingly, I felt fine when I got back.

Next big session coming up is 17th June the London to Brighton and back ride. Currently, it looks like it's me and Ian, taking on the roadies on a blast to the coast and then back, just in time for lunch what, what!!

Had our last charity fund raising sale on Sunday at the Caterham School fayre. It was a beautiful, hot and sunny day and we were kept very busy on the charity stall. We managed to sell lots of items that were very kindly donated to our fund from lots of Companies and Celebrities - a big thank you to all of them and a very big thank you to Caterham School for allowing us to take part. We managed to raise in excess of £400 - which was not bad at all.

Take care and have a good week.

Norfolk & Clue really did not have a clue at the quiz night

Saturday 5Th May 2007 7.30pm - What a fantastic turn out. Over 80 people joined in our first attempt at a quiz night. Richard, who created the questions, did an absolutely fantastic job hosting the evening. A big thank you to my wonderful wife, Natalie, whose massive help made the evening go so smoothly (Luckily she is still talking to me after all the suggestions I have been making about the running of the event). A thank you to Natalie's Mum for helping make some of the food. A big thank you to Geoff for coming up trumps, lending us a superb PA and sound system. A big thanks to all those who came and supported the event and not forgetting the Priory Health club for letting us stage the event there. - I'll stop here!!!! Oh two more pats on the back, one to Hannah & Bethan for selling loads of raffle tickets and lastly one to Olivia for being very helpful during the event. (Pictured team 'The Quizerables')

A very close competition between 17 teams of between 4 & 5 people - the winners with a massive 80% correct answers 'The Slow Burners' -congratulations to them. Team 'Shush' were very popular and the 'Legless Again' were all literally legless again. Every body did very well with a lot of very tough questions. Even aptly named 'Norfolk & Clue' scored very well. even though they were the last team.

A big thank also to Firefly for providing the wonderful soft drinks for the evening. They all went down very well - a great alternative to beer and wine. Also a thank you to State Penn Pretzel Company for providing a variety of pretzels to munch on as well.

All in all a great evening and a massive help for the Charity. Thank you to all those that helped and participated! We all hoped you enjoyed yourselves.

Training

I will be brief on the training this week

Monday Spinning class at club

Tuesday Spinning class at club

Wednesday Resistance training at club. A mountain bike ride out with the dog

Thursday morning Spinning class at club plus and evening spinning class at club plus an hour and a half mountian bike ride with club members.

Friday Spinning class at the club

Saturday Resitance training session at the club
Lastly, Sunday 36 mile jaunt out with the lads

Clocking up some 135 miles or there abouts.

Update News and Quiz Night

Another week has flown by, only 105 days until the plane leaves the tarmac. Training harder then ever now, increasing the distances and pace adding in a few more spin classes - feeling good.

Our Friend Brian is off to Peru this weekend, he is riding hundreds on miles across Peru on his mountain bike in memory of his sadly departed Mum. We all wish him the best of luck! This is after his unfortunate injury just over 6 months ago when he broke is tibia a week before the departure.

We are holding a quiz night on the 5th May at the Nutfield Priory to help raise some extra funds for the Children's Trust and raffle off some of the superb items we have been donated. If you can make it either on your own or if you can muster up a team of up to 5 people please let me know and we will book you some tickets. Don't delay though spaces are very limited.

I hope you all have a good week be in touch soon. By the way I have added a superb new blog video I made of our ride last Saturday 21st April, just scroll down and take a look - Check the surprise appearance of someone at the end ...............

Well Done Richard & Julia

Well done guys you did it! What a fantastic achievement! 26.2 grueling miles of the 2007 London Marathon, pounding through the streets, battling the heat and the vast amounts of other hot and sweaty runners.
Julia battling with an injured knee that she got at about the 6 mile mark but determination took grip and Richard and Julia both crossed the finish line together.

Fund Raising Update

The Support from everyone has been absolutely fantastic. So far we have had a great response from our letters that Natalie has been very busy working on. Sending them out to all manor of businesses and Celebrities around the country, we have literally been inundated with all types of products and donations, ranging from food,(chocolates, crisps & sweets) to days out, golf days books, stationery, cosmetics and clothing, the list is endless. A big thank you to all of those contributors. Once, all of the items have been auctioned, raffled or sold we should be well on our way to our target £25,000.

A massive thank you must go to Richard and Julia Wright for their amazing support. Both of them are very busy training hard for the London Marathon next month, what an amazing couple. http://www.justgiving.com/thewrightpage