Sponser UK providing our Sports Nutrition support

I am really proud to announce that the Swiss sports nutrition supplier Sponser have agreed to provide full sports nutrition support to our ride in August

Having tried sports nutrition products from many suppliers over the last couple of years I was really interested when I heard about Sponser on the Velocast podcast and tried their sample pack.

The main things I noticed quickly were that none of their products are heavy or unchewable and the flavours are subtle and not overpowering like some of their competitors.

The gels (Liquid Energy and Liquid Energy Plus) come in really neat,2 serving tubes with re-sealable lids. Anyone who uses gels whilst riding will know the problems of waste gel wrappers and hot jersey pockets. Sponser make this a thing of the past.

The staff at Sponser have been really helpful so far, and we look forward to planning out our nutrition strategy for training and the ride itself.

But there is more.

By getting YOUR sports nutrition supplies from Sponser UK online and using the code "Reskill Ride" you will not only get 10% off of your order (on anything other than the sample pack, which is already discounted) but each quarter 5% of the total spent with this code will be passed back to us for the Project Mobility fundraising.

Sponser offer this type of scheme to British Cycling registered clubs too, and knowing that we are dealing with a company providing great products and real support to grass roots cycling in the UK makes me really proud to be involved with them .

Food for more than thought

I've just had an email from a leading sports nutrition company offering full nutritional support for our ride.

This is both brilliant news and a huge help logistically.

Stay tuned for the official announcement soon.

C

The benefit of social media

If you are reading this particular entry, there is a good chance you came here after seeing our ride mentioned in a Retweet on Twitter..

For me,as a returning hobbyist cyclist, it's a real honour to have our ride promoted by cycle equipment companies like Prendas (@prendas), teams like Matrix (@onthedrops) , Team DS (and commentator and all round nice bloke of Scottish Cycling) Brian Smith (@BriSmithy) and elite riders like Lizzie Armitstead (@L_ArmiTstead) and Ted King (@IamTedKing)..

Thank you all. your support is really appreciated.

Please keep reading, donating, following (@swordpanda) and Retweeting...

C

Update - "And I would ride 100 miles"

At least, I would have had my knees been OK , more of which later...

The lighter nights now mean that we can squeeze in rides after work. On Friday, I went round our local 10 mile "hilly" loop at a steady average of just over 16 mph.

On Saturday, we planned to do another "50", this time over a new route, looping north past Wokingham then south to Hook and Aldershot before heading north again. To mirror what we are planning to do on the ride itself, we planned to stop at 25 miles to fill up bottles and eat.

The ride went well, with no major problems other than my inability to ride Beacon Hill (past Farnham) at anything other than a crawl. but I DID ride it, without stopping. The same goes for the following climb up to Aldershot.

The ride, including stops, took us around 3 hrs 50 minutes with a rough average speed of 15mph.

Initially we planned to repeat this on Sunday, but on Saturday evening I had problems with my knees leading to fitful sleep and a decision to reduce today's ride to our smaller 26 mile loop (see the Check Test Ride post from the 19th March). The weather was glorious and the ride was good , despite my knees, and the two hills went even better than on the 19th again.

Total for the weekend for me 86miles, for Phil 76 miles (though he will get more riding in this week, more than making up any difference).

Feeling a little tired and stiff, but I'm happy with where we are at the moment and I have "a plan" of where we need to be each month as we get closer to the ride itself.
 

Charity Announcement

It's taken just a little longer to sort things than I hinted at the other week, but as you will no doubt see from the changes to the site, we are proud to announce that we are doing the ride in aid of:

Some of you may remember seeing these guys on Top Gear last year running a rally car for, and maintained by, disabled servicemen. At this time Phil and I were starting to discuss the idea of doing a ride like this and this organisation seemed to be the perfect fit.

Money raised will go towards supporting the Reskill Academy project, setting up a purpose built site where injured service personnel could learn useful skills maintaining and adapting off-road vehicles, as part of their structured rehabilitation programme.

The vehicles can then be used for Project Overland : providing fully tailored off-road safaris for those injured or disabled.

Project Mobility's third stream is the plan to enter a fully disabled rally team in the gruelling Dakar rally (Project staff and vehicles have recently supported rally car builder Bowler in the Tuareg Rally in North Africa)

To find our more about Project Mobility click here

If you wish make a donation in support of us on the ride and help a very deserving cause. please use the button on the right or go to our CharityGiving page and give what you can.

All monies donated are eligable for gift aid (for UK taxpayers) and will go to the charity

We are funding the logistics of the ride ourselves, along with the wonderfully generous offer of a Project support vehicle and drivers to back us up on the ride.

Thank you. 

Route Planning

Tonight we sat down and went through the basic skeleton route I'd created , finding the actual splits and making decisions on which of the "options" I'd hit that we would take. This brings us to the following outline route (mileage figures are approximate and rounded for now):

Day 1 - Lands End to Okehampton (A30) 100 miles
Day 2 - Okehampton to Alveston (A30 to Exeter - A38) 114 miles
Day 3 - Alveston to Whitchurch (A38 - A417 - A49) 122 miles
Day 4 - Whitchurch to Kendal (A49 - A6) 107 miles
Day 5 - Kendal to Abington (A6 - B7076) 103 miles
Day 6 - Abington to Pitlochry (A73 - A706 - A9) 108 miles
Day 7 - Pitlochry to Dingwall (A9) 100 miles
Day 8 - Dingwall to John O'Groats (A9-A99) 107 miles

Giving a rough total of 861 miles

There are some "interesting" profile details (I'm liking the 20 mile, flat , sea level stretch on Day 2 myself)

This means that P can book the accomodation over his easter break.

Check Test Ride

On Friday night we took my bike to our trusty Local Bike Shop (thanks again Dave at Cyclezone) and did a proper setup check to try and address the "contact patch" issues I'd been having.

Changed and checked saddle angle, fore and aft position and a new stem (20mm shorter) all done and felt good on the turbo.

Rode out yesterday (solo as P had a mechanical just before we were leaving) on a 27 mile loop that we've used before. looping out past Bramshill, down to Fleet, round Farnborough and back via Frimley and Camberley. There are 2 notable hills, from Eversley the road rises gently towards Heckfield Heath with the last km ramping up consistenly, with the last 50 or so metres up to the junction being rather steep. then the road drops for 500m then another 1km climb.

The last time we rode this way I struggled on both, yesterday I managed both without stopping (quick breather after the first ramp) and specifically the longer one went well (it also ramps up in the last 200m)

On the whole, the ride went well, not fast, it was never supposed to be, but steady and a LOT more comfortable than I have been.

I'm also improving my pedal stroke, clearly evidenced by the fact that my quads are a little achy today. Out of the saddle climbing is starting to feel a little more natural again too (remember that I used to ride a LOT 20 years and several stone ago. though I'm now nearly 2 stone lighter than when I started road riding again last May). I also felt really good at the end despite a lack of sleep (late night and an early F1 GP), and really ropey nutrition on the Saturday (I really didn't eat enough at all for a number of reasons).

More chat with the charity and we appear to have arranged support drivers and a vehicle (this is a surprise as we had planned to use our trusty Freelander) and a couple of "training days" with them.

I am hoping to sit down on Tuseday/Wednesday and put together the announcement proper. I'm also going to start firming up the actual route this week.

5 months to go...