Bake Sale Fundraiser

I have not mentioned much about the fundraising I am doing for Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance since the initial start of this blog so following this weeks success I wanted to mention how grateful I am for all the support I have been getting.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JustynMarshall

This week has been especially great as my team at work all rallied to support me by assisting in a charity bake sale with the proceeds going towards my fundraising efforts.

Joy baked 4 cakes (Apple & Cinemon Crumble Cake, Banana Bread, Gingerbread and “Stuff” aka Millionaires shortbread) and the team also supplied Lemon Drizzle cake, Velvet Cup Cakes, Blueberry and raspberry lime drizzle cake, Carrot Cake, Cheesecake, Rocky road style chocolate tiffin, Salted caramel brownie, Rocky Road.

All of the treats where fantastic and we raised £175 from the sale which has brought my running total to £1064.   Yet again astounded by the generosity of people and truly grateful for the support in my efforts to raise money for this life saving cause.

Listen To Your Body – it knows best

After completing the 233 miles with 12,583 feet of climbing over the 4 days detailed below I had a rest day on 3^rd May and rode into work on Thursday 4^th May.

On the way home on the Thursday I was aware of some pain in the back of my knee and decided I should take a couple days rest so did not ride again till Sunday when I couldn’t hold back any longer as the sun was shining so rode my Alresford 60 mile Loop.  I felt OK to start but my knee was quite painful on the return journey with a throbbing ache behind the kneecap and sharp pain on the inside behind the knee joint.

Being stubborn I then rode into work on the Monday but the pain was excruciating on the way home.  I have not had this sort of pain before so used “Dr Google” to research this pain behind my knee and inside it.  Self diagnosed that I have managed to overwork and strain my hamstring and basically need to rest.

Very annoyed at myself as this wound up being a 10 day break from the bike and reading about the causes that lead to this kind of damage I could have probably avoided this with slower increments of the miles I have been doing and not working my body so hard all the time.

I really must pay attention to the messages my body gives me as it did give me a warning and I chose to ignore it.

To add insult to injury I got drenched when finally got back on the bike last week and subsequently caught a stinker of a cold which had me unable to do any more than sit on the sofa all weekend L .

Thankfully its only May so I still have 4 months to slowly increase my intensity / distance for the big one!

Spot the Gruffalo

Bank holiday weekend was put to good training time and I put myself to the test in order to gauge progress. 

Saturday - Rode on my own down to the coast and back, had hoped to get some good photo’s as the views can be exceptional, especially passing through the South Downs National Park, but it turned out to be a hundred gloomy miles as the sun never managed to break through the clouds so just got one picture from Liss.  Otherwise ride went well and I learned that gulping down a whole Ginsters pastie is not such a good idea at 80 miles as felt really sluggish after eating it.

Sunday – dragged my brother out for a “recovery” ride down to Frensham Pond and back.  The wind was not very strong but it felt like really, really hard work with a big objection from my legs going up a hill into the wind at one point.  Stacey spotted the Gruffalo just off to the side of the road as we rode past Alice Holt forest so we got a picture with it.

Spent the afternoon doing some bits which I have been neglecting around the house and also had a 3^rd attempt at fixing an issue I have been having with the bottom bracket on the bike making unwelcome noises.

Monday – woke up early to sunshine so finished putting the bike back together and was out by 08:30 to squeeze in a quick loop before the rain came.  Setting out I thought legs where better than Sunday until discovered I had been riding with the wind behind me.  Still managed to complete the 50 miles loop down to Alresford before the rain came and the bottom bracket was silent which was nice.

Tuesday – thinking it was a good idea to keep going till I drop I then rode to work on Tuesday but really felt I had passed my limit on the way home as started feeling not quite there / a bit giddy so whilst training seems to gauge pretty well I have a lot of work ahead. 

Carry On Camping

Training ride went well yesterday.  I had to pick up a package from Alton so planned a route going through there and onto Alresford and then heading up to Axford and back through Upton Gray and Odiham. 

My brother (Stacey) was joining me so I wanted to keep it under 45 miles as we are increasing his distances week on week and was at 30 mile rides a fortnight ago.

It was a chilly but glorious day and a real pleasure ride surrounded by fantastic scenery.  There was some kind of classic car rally going in the opposite direction to us for about 10 miles and we saw all manner of fantastic old machines (MG’s, 1950s VW coupe’s /Porsche’s, Jaguar’s, to many to mention) many of which were being put through their paces which was a nice sight but the fumes from some of them where not so great! 

Having completed the route with Stacey and apologised to him for the 45 planned miles actually being 51 (well done bro) I popped back home to drop off the rucksack and have a double helping of cheesecake, a few handfuls of salted nuts and two cups of coffee.

Pockets stuffed with food and bottle full I headed back out and did the same loop but in the reverse direction.  It had warmed up a bit now and the far reaching views made for a good distraction for what my body was having to battle against.  Stopped and took a few photo's en-route to share.  I pass some amazing properties and just the length of the driveway alone for one yesterday was phenomenal so had to get the shot.

Having completed my training ride I took it a step closer to the Lejog experience last night as I camped out in the back garden.  I am very aware that it’s probably going to be cold in September (especially up north) and see the weather now as being as close as can be expected so wanted to see how I fared as I have not camped for 20 years.

  

The answer, not well.  Sleeping bag was not quite warm enough (temp dropped to 6c last night) so I need to look for a warmer one.  Also I need to man up as kept thinking I was going to be attacked by one of the deer, fox or badger that visit our garden from time to time which prevented me from dozing off as I listed to all the rustling in the garden focusing on how just a thin bit of fabric separated me from the BEAST that was out there!