Packing and Panicking

There is only two nights sleep till I need to be at the Watertower Cafe on the Downs in Bristol 7am.

Now normally I leave all my packing to the very last minute, the number of holidays I have been on where I have had to get up in the middle of the night to take washing out of the machine and straight on the radiator is silly. As I am writing a blog I thought I would make one last blog till the cycle ride and this could coincide with being more organised with the packing.

Kit

So the kit prepared out my lounge floor.

• I have my EuroHike rucksack, well I say mine someone I worked with left it at work about seven years ago on the day they left. I contacted them about five times in a two week spell and on a couple of occasions they didn't meet me. I took that as they no longer wanted it, they are actually one of my 'friends' on Facebook. So if you would like it back then let me know (although I gave the shoes inside to charity). It is quite handy because it will be able to take items I may need in the daytime.
• I have a water hydration bladder, this was only £7 from Kathmandu, however it doesn't come with a casing, but it fits nicely in the rucksack. It holds about three litres, enough to see me through the days although when full it is quite heavy, so I need to work out how much I will need especially as there is a water stop everyday we are cycling.
• I have my phone and its charger and my camera. These will be useful in enjoying the ride, taking snaps and my phone has built in GPS which is linked to my blog so you will be able to check how I am getting on throughout Friday to Sunday. I will be able to upload a few pictures from the camera when I get back and post my experiences. I also have a pad so I can write any thoughts down. I just need to find my Bumbag to carry all this on the ride
• I also have my sports watch which cost me £1 from Primark, although the time is a little out it is lucky it is fast.
•  I bought three innertubes on Sunday, I thought it would be best as I have been without a spare after selling it to a fellow cyclist for £4.50. I have also got a tyre lever which is handy when adjusting the tyre.
• I went to Boots last week and I got four packets of Dextro Energy tablets. These are amazing, I do not know if they actually have any real benefits but they give me a mental boost ever since I cycled in Cambodia three years ago and was struggling with the heat I have sworn by these.
• The other medical miracle I am taking is some blackcurrant dioralyte sachets. They are brilliant for the next morning, especially if you have had a few celebratory Beers the night before.
• I have some plasters and germolene for any scraps and bumps. I am hoping the charity may have a bigger first aid kit in case of emergencies
• To keep myself smelling nice I have packed some toiletries. Shoe spray, as I may get a little sweaty and they will need to stay in the room. Also deodorant rollerball as I am not 14 years old anymore I do not need Lynx Africa and also it says it works for 48hours so it must be hardcore.
• I have waterproof trousers and a camouflage pack-a-mac so I also have a fluorescent jacket to make it easier for me to see if it is dismal and rainy.
• Other clothes wise I have one unitard, a pair of tight running trousers, gloves, a number of ankle socks(changeable if it rains because my trainers aren't waterproof) and number of jerseys and t-shirts.

The other half of the blog is panicking, the question I have asked am I ready for this?


I made a big Pasta tonight to eat and consumed a meal for four this should hopefully mean I can give myself a helping start and not lose too much weight over the weekend. I weighed myself at a healthy 11.5 Stone and will do the same Sunday evening, I will make sure I have a hearty breakfast Friday morning to fuel the day

My only worry is around a group discussion on the charity's Facebook page about what the best cycling shorts are for around £120 and talks of expensive Carbon bikes. For efficiency of cycling most people on the ride I assume will have cleat pedals whereas I have one full pedal and one that snapped in half two years ago. So it will be a struggle with the equipment I have but I am confident in my abilities to be able get through the weekend and enjoyed it at the same time.

The ride will also mean I will meet 35 other cyclists so as well as concentrating on cycling for 250 miles I will have to remember everyones names. I am currently running a training module at work where as well as introducing myself I have a sticker with my name on, I am thinking of taking 35 stickers and handing them out for people to fill out but that may make me look like weird. So possibly I will just have to remember a few names and do a lot of apologising!

The next time I blog will be from the comfort of my sofa on Sunday night and the ride will have finished. However, over Friday, Saturday and Sunday you will be able to check my location on the blog and hopefully I may have time to Tweet @spewymonkfish and post on my Facebook wall. Hopefully there may be a report on BBC Points West I am trying to sort out so watch this space.

Thanks

Louis
ps I have raised £912 for the AboveandBeyond CaRE appeal only £88 to go

Mr Berridge Video and Packing

Not long to go now, I really should be packing, ensuring I have all my kit ready for the cycle ride. However I am really enjoying this blogging malarkey. I was scourng the Internet for other blogs when I remembered Hintsch from the Mr Berridge challenge had a blog he was talking about.
I found this video montage on it made by one of the cyclists from Saturday,
Rob from http://www.reallyusefulbikes.co.uk/


I have done a little to my bike recently though, I have had the derailleur fixed which is handy, it now means I will be able to utilise all 24 gears rather than just using the middle set making it a lot easier to climb hills. I have also had my Horn re-attached which means people will hear me coming and I will have fun on the ride.

Claud Butler Levante 2006

The only problem with cycling lots is I am now looking at new bikes. However I don't know whether to go for a road bike or a fixed wheel bike for Polo. I have had my current bike 3.5 years which cost me £300 second hand and has therefore saved me loads on Bus fares and has increased my fitness levels

Louis

Rebel with a cause

Well woke up this morning a little worse for wear.

Why the title?  it has nothing to do with yesterday but I thought it was a catchy title, I better explain what relevance it has with the last couple of days. If you are new to my blog that is a clue, basically up until two days ago around 120 different people had stumbled across my blog (thanks regulars), so to boost readership I thought I would do a bit of promoting on social networking websites.

I used Facebook along with Twitter. I have 261 friends (yes check me out) or 261 people that have lost to me in a drunken breakdancing competition, so Thursday I started posting a link to the blog going through my friends list. After a little while a message came up that I was adding too many posts too quickly; it could be perceived as spamming and I had to type in two words to prove I wasn't an automatic computer program. I then left it a little while and did another batch of names again the message came up, the same happened Friday after work and to my horror yesterday morning I had been suspended on Facebook for what could last between a few hours and a few days.

So that is the Rebel part of the equation, now I will explain to the 100 new readers (as a result of the post rampage) of the blog what my cause is. In five days time I will be embarking on a 250 mile sponsored cycle ride from Bristol to Lands End in just two and a half days. This is to raise money for the much needed renovation of the Bristol Oncology Centre in the Bristol Royal Infirmary, so far they have raised £1.5 million and have only the last £100 thousand to go. Personally I have set a target and thanks to some generous donations I am at £830 which help towards improving the experience Cancer patients have when the are receiving treatment. For anyone that hasn't yet sponsored me you can click on the Justgiving link at the top and bottom of this page or the widget thingy on the right hand side. Just like a big supermarket says Every Little Helps.

I hope the blog has been vaguely interesting I have done a lot of different things when writing the posts like Critical Mass, Bike Polo and to follow nicely on what I got up to yesterday. Last post I mentioned briefly about the Mr Berridge challenge. For those of you that do not know we are in the middle of a two day Bike Festival, in the programme on page 15 I noticed a challenge which included cycling and beer, who could resist. I rang the organiser Hintsch who I then met yesterday morning at the Full Moon pub in Stokes Croft to help set up. I had to lift 12 cider barrels into the back of a van and 3 large beer barrels, it felt like I was on World's Strongest Man on Channel Five. We then got in the van which betrayed what my mother had told me as a young lad not to get in cars with adults you do not know (sorry Mum).

We transported the barrels 13 Miles to Bath and waited for the entrants to arrive.  We had a talk about how we thought the day would go over an Apricot Jam sandwich. The discussion include any problems we may encounter and at this point I had been promoted to co-organiser when Hintsch introduce us to our band of helpers. The bikes were amazing, it was like being in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, some of the work that had gone in to making the bikes was unbelievable. We then assembled Hintsch's bike which was two bicycles side by side with a trailer attached between them. This carried our barrel, I was the co-rider.

We set off at 2.30pm on the Bristol to Bath cycle path (a disused railway line that has been converted to a traffic free route by Sustrans cycle charity) after a group photo. We had a great laugh on the way, especially trying to lift some of the contraptions over locked gates as the were too big to manoeuvre through the sides. After just under two hours we got back to the pub to a fanfare welcome. Well I say fanfare but we arrived five minutes at the end of the set of the first band so we waited for that to finished to received our certificates from the compare to rapturous applause and complementary Cider from the bar. This also gave me an opportunity to test my new phone with built in GPS and use the updating map on the right hand side of my blog, which you will able to view next weekend to see how I am getting on. 

Now you are probably wondering the relevance of Mr Berridge. In Victorian times he cycled 16 miles from the Brewery to the Star and Garter pub in Richmond. To prove you can still transport stuff without cars Hintsch recreated a similar scenario. It took good old Mr Berridge only one and half hours to do 16 miles but I bet he didn't have as much fun as we did!

Then followed another two pints of strong Ciders and two pint of Lager. That is probably why I am not feeling too well or last night when I had a lovely prepared Butternut Squash Lasagne which I couldn't finish and had too go to bed even before desert. So a lesson to add to don't go into cars with strangers (unless you get to ride on a custom two person bike) is do not drink five pints after cycling 13 miles with stomach only filled with an Apricot Jam sandwich.

Thanks
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