Eight hours, 100km and a big grin

So, this is how I spent my day on October 3:

It is 9am, there’s 30 seconds to go before the start hooter sounds, I’m three rows from the front and I’ve got 100km (65 miles) and eight hours of pedalling ahead of me.
It is dry, cloudy and the wind is gusting at around 20mph.
Despite all [...]

My wife made me do it

So the last training ride is completed and now I’m literally counting down the hours until my Minutes Not Money bike ride finally gets going.
I’m looking forward to covering the 100km (62-mile) route starting and finishing at the Coate Water Country Park near Swindon.
Someone asked me the other day why I’m doing this.
The answer is [...]

It is not about the money…well, not always

The Prime Minister’s pledge this week to create a new National Care Service for the elderly has been exercising my thoughts.
The scheme is anticipated to benefit about 350,000 and should be applauded.
But amidst the approval and pats on the back are serious questions about how this scheme will be funded. It is also worth considering [...]

This week I will be mostly juggling and cycling

The run up to this Saturday’s bike ride challenge has generally been a lot smoother than the lead-in to my aborted attempt at the C2C Challenge.
I’m feeling very relaxed about taking on the 100km ride and managing to juggle everything else - even if the weather forecasters are predicting the Indian Summer we have been enjoying [...]

Have t-shirt, will ride

Look at my fab new t-shirt.

It will make its official public debut - on me at least – on October 3 when I ride the 100km I’ve promised to do for the Minutes Not Money idea.
There is less than a fortnight to go now before I take the Just-Bike challenge.
I’m quite excited about it all.
But I figured [...]

The creation of time

A wise old guru probably once said that time is the enemy of…well, something or other.
I’ve certainly felt the full force of time’s deathly grip over the last 18 months.
No, hang on. That’s a bit of an exaggeration.
But it is fair to say that time has not been my friend.
It seemed such a good plan to [...]

Getting a grip

As ever, I’m more than a little humbled at the response of people.
This time it was to my last post concerning a few local difficulties that Rachel and I are experiencing.
Thank you again to everyone who took the time to offer advice, encouragement, a rallying cry, a dinner invite (!) and who reminded me how [...]

To cope, or not to cope…

Hi, my name is Paul and I have a problem.
I’m not very good at sharing.
You know that old expression, a problem shared is a problem halved?
I think its right, but I’m just not very good at putting the theory into practice.
I’ve been struggling with various things for the last 18 months, all of them revolving [...]

The wheels on my bike still go round and round

So Plan B for the Minutes Not Money challenge is about to swing into action.
Actually, it is more like Plan D…or even F…but no matter. Like every good tortoise, I’ll get there eventually.
Unfortunately Plan A proved too much to handle.
But I was determined to complete some sort of challenge in 2009 and more importantly not let [...]

Catching up

It has been a while since I wrote on here.
A simple update since my last post about pulling out of this weekend’s C2C Challenge would read – “stressing, sleeping, smiling”.
The stressing was based around a launch event I was organising in London (which went ahead last week on one of the hottest days of the [...]