5 days to go

From Matthew:

Hello supporters of Patrick and Matthew’s big bike ride to Lourdes.

Well in less than 5 days we’ll be heading off from Islington, London and in 13 days we’ll have arrived in Lourdes, France.

Somehow I’ve clocked up about 800 miles in three weeks, assisted by a particularly punishing 126 mile marathon with Patrick last Sunday. We decided to emulate a ’difficult’ day by cycling from London to Cambridge in 4 hours, a 45 minute lunch (lasagne courtesy of my mother x) and then a gruelling dash back to London - chasing the setting sun. I haven’t really experienced leg muscle pain like this before and found that, towards the end, the stopping and starting at traffic lights became a much more painful experience than going up any of the hills. It sometimes feels that what I’m attempting to do is beyond me - the body just isn’t going to cope with this 6 days in a row. But it’s remarkable how the muscles rejuvenate and recover so quickly over night, proving that our bodies are capable of doing so much more than we think!!

The great bonus of all this training is that I get to eat loads and loads of cakes and pasta. I also routinely prepare a selection of chocolate raisins and jelly babies that go in my jersey back pocket. (Patrick prefers his wine gums) It’s quite an art form twisting the left hand round the back and into the pocket for a handful of goodies :) For me, it’s the ‘raisin d’etre !!! (sorry).

I’m going to leave you with a few impressive statistics from Patrick’s bike computer report from his last 2008 bike ride from London to Lourdes:

Amount of time: 6 days
Total Distance cycled: 635.12 miles
Time in the saddle: 44hours 57 minutes 20 seconds
Elevation Gain: 33,077 feet
Average speed: 14.1 mph
Average bike cadence: 72rpm
Calories burnt: 34,570 calories (how many bags of wine gums is that Patrick???)

Please, please sponsor us xx

Lots of love

non, je ne regrette rien

From Matthew Sharrock:

I hope you’re enjoying the glorious sun and have managed to coincide the weather with a well-deserved Holiday

Since my last update Patrick and I have had another cycling session in London. On Saturday 17th we decided to look ‘even’ further afield and discovered a popular cycling circuit around Richmond park. After negotiating the mayhem of central London, embankment and Putney (and some rather sadistic white van drivers) we arrived at an idyllic and well groomed Park. It’s an interesting circuit (about 6 / 7 miles all round) with some rather sharp gradients and less sharp, but equally punishing hills. It’s all accompanied by beautifully managed wooded areas and picnic spots for the families and a perfect road surface to clock up the mileage on. It’s also clearly very popular with other lycra-fetish road-bike fanatics too, which generated occasional spurts of competitive ‘racing-mode’ sprinting. We also managed to practise ‘drafting’ each other, although I must admit I did, at times, find it hard to match Patrick’s pace and fell back a bit in the head wind.

All in all we managed 55 miles in about 3 hours that day so I’m well chuffed :) I’m also managing about 120 miles during the week and just hoping and praying that I’m going to be prepared for those open fields and winding forest roads of France....... ‘non, je ne regrette rien .......’ x

Stay tuned to find out how our first 100 mile session goes – with, hopefully, some video footage to put you right in there with us xDon’t forget to sponsor when you can at : https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/CycleRide2010 and help us raise money for 2 very worthy causes x

More pain

From Matthew Sharrock:

Ok, so it’s taken me about 5 days to recover from the weekend’s intensive bike training with Patrick in London. Saturday was a true shock to the system as I didn’t realise how much actual ‘hill’ training Patrick had in mind. We started with about 8 circuits of Regents park (25 miles) and then it was time for those dreaded hills of Archway / Muswell hill and High Gate. We began with the mildly punishing Archway road and moved onto a variety of other chafing monsters.

All climbs were always complimented by the rather speedy but sometimes hazardous descent down pot-holed / speed-bump strewn side streets. Then came the dreaded ‘High Gate West Hill’ !! The Guardian travel guide says this of it: ‘Highgate West Hill may not even be up there with the toughest climbs in England, let alone the Alps and the Pyrenees, but don't let anyone tell you it doesn't hurt. ... you are suddenly on a hill you won't forget in a hurry. There's a consistently steep gradient from the little roundabout at the bottom of West Hill for about half a mile. Briefly it flattens, only for the sting in the tail to strike when the road turns hard right and the gradient steepens to something like 1-in-5 for the final stretch to St Michael's church .. .’

We decided to finish off with a crawl up Muswell hill and 6 more circuits of Regents Park, totaling 50 miles in 3’20’’, 2 twixes, 4 pints of water and a rather odd lycra shaped sun burn.

On the Sunday we looked further afield to south London and ended up devising a shifty Silverstone style circuit around the Putney bridge / Hammersmith area. I’m looking forward to repaying Patrick with my own ‘Fenboy’ style of cycling retribution when he visits Cambridgeshire ! mwha hahahahha !!!

Bring on the pain (and the sponsorship ;)x x

p.s. Patrick has bought one of those tiny cameras and will be filming his own training – so watch this space ...and don’t forget to sponsor us xx

Cycle for the hills

Dear All Matthew here (or Monk if you want unconditional love)

I’ve just literally finished a rather epic month of training 6- 8am, working 9-5 followed by marking A level papers till 1am every night.

Now the marking is out of the way training has started in earnest as I can bike until the sun doth set.

Unlike city boy Patrick I’m currently a fen boy (fenner?) and, as you know, it’s as flat as a pancake round here. So, in order to find any respectable hills to train on, I have to cycle a good 5 miles out of Shelford. The Saffron Walden monster hill is about 1/5 (don’t know what that means) and seems to do the trick i.e. induce extreme muscle / lung pain and a variety of naughty swear words.

Patrick’s going to introduce me to Muswell hill and Highgate hill in London this Saturday morning, so please spare a thought for our tired aching gastrocnemius’s(es’s’ss?) and tibialis anteriors muscles as we curse the gradient of the hill.

Since Patrick has already completed the infamous 'Islington to the Pyrenees' marathon in 2008 he has been a great source of knowledge and inspiration. He’s been particularly helpful with all my random questions in the last 3 months and offered excellent advice, as well as being a good friend.

I have to say that I’ve never been this enthused about something to do with sport before. I feel a mixture of both excitement and sometimes extreme anxiety about the big bike ride. I genuinely believe that we are raising money for a brilliant cause, which has really helped me focus on the daily task of hill climbing and hedgehog swerving.

Hopefully I’m going to be able to keep up with Patrick in France, through the wind and the rain .... and the hills, let’s not forget those darn hills !!!

Best wishes and hope you’re enjoying the sun. xx

Glanfield Hospitalité Trust Sponsored Cycle Ride

Patrick Noble, Matthew Sharrock & their support team are taking up the formidable challenge of cycling from London to Lourdes in the Pyrenees (a distance of approximately 600 miles in 6 days) to raise money for The Glanfield Hospitalité Trust.

The money raised through sponsorship of the cycle ride will be supporting children and vulnerable adults via two sources – the first, since both Patrick and Matthew have been involved as volunteers, is the Glanfield Children’s Group that has provided respite for children with disabilities & vulnerable adults in the UK for many years. The aim of the group is to offer both a holiday for the children and a much needed rest for their parents who are welcome to join the group if they wish. These holidays provide the children with experiences that their disabilities would not usually permit, such as swimming, a trip to the top of a mountain in the Pyrenees, a day out at the zoo and for some of the older members, a few beers in the pub.

Patrick and Matthew have requested that some funds raised go specifically to enable the Group to provide subsidies for the children and their parents as the cost for this and the activities of the holiday is substantial.

They will also be supporting children at the Derian House Children’s Hospice in Chorley, Lancashire.

The care offered at Derian House is focused on specialist palliative respite and terminal care for children who may not live to reach adulthood. Children, young adults and their families are able to embrace support and friendship in a warm, ‘home from home’ environment, with an honest and flexible approach to meeting their specific needs.

Derian House’s care also continues with bereavement support for the family for as long as required, giving recognition to the need to never forget.

Year on year the cost of providing special care for children increases and with less than 10% of funding coming from official sources the reality is that the Hospice is open 52 weeks a year whilst receiving statutory funding for just nine of those.

The team’s journey will begin on Saturday 14th August 2010 and arrival at their destination is scheduled for Friday 20th August 2010. The team then plan to join the Glanfield Group as volunteer helpers for a week until 27th August.

Sponsor us here.

Three Peaks Challenge 2010

Katy Berezovsky, Lucy Cannock, Stephen Daly, Kathryn Geels & David Pitkin, (accompanied by their resident driver and motivational coordinator Andrew Loynd,) have kindly volunteered to take part in The Glanfield Hospitalité Trust Three Peaks Challenge 2010.

The Glanfield Hospitalité Trust, (GHT) was set up in February this year to support and advance the standard of life for all people in need throughout the world including; those who live in poverty, those with disabilities, those who are physically or emotionally deprived, those who have been neglected, and their families.

GHT aim to provide relief in many forms, such as the provision of vital equipment to enable individuals, organisations and communities to become more self sufficient; food, clothing and accommodation to relieve poverty; work books and materials to educate; and the provision of respite amongst others.

The GHT Three Peaks Challenge will take place on the evening of 15th July 2010 and involves climbing the highest peak in Scotland, England and Wales, within 24 hours.

The Highest Peaks in each country are:
Ben Nevis, in Scotland (1344m)
Scafell Pike, in England (978m)
Snowdon, in Wales (1085m)

Please sponsor us generously to support this truly worthy cause by visiting our GHT sponsorship site here.