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What have I gone and done now? Only agreed to cycle the length of the country, that’s what! It’s not my fault. It was a moment of weakness. Except I’m quite looking forward to it.

There’s a group of 100 of us, sticking together through good weather and bad, through punctures and chain breaks. By the end of it, we’ll have set a world record (although this seems a little odd given it’s something that can only be done in the UK!), raised £100,000 for Psychiatry Research and had a lot of fun on the way.

My registration was confirmed on 30th June and since then it’s been training, training, training. Ride lengths are increasing and in the last 20 days I’ve managed just under 900km of across and 5km of up. Looks like I’ll need to do quite a bit more up in time for the big event.

Did I mention, I can’t wait!

Bottle of water: don't refill!

Hi Mr Page

Thank you for contacting us to request more information on why we advise our customers not to reuse or refill our Brecon Carreg Water bottles.

I have certainly investigated this further for you and I can confirm that the statement regarding not refilling or reusing the bottle is there to prevent hygiene and contamination issues.

Many people do refill bottles with tap water but in doing this the water or bottle may be contaminated or tainted. When a person drinks water direct from a bottle, saliva and food particles are always washed back into the bottle. If the bottle is refilled, an unpleasant taste and smell can develop.

In addition, if the bottle is reused to store another liquid, there is then the possibility of causing real harm, so again a reason to deter the customer from refilling the empty bottle.

We do however encourage all of our customers to re-cycle through the normal channels.

If you require any further information, please speak to one of our people in store, they will be more than happy to help you.

Please don?t forget to collect your copy of our Health & Beauty magazines next time you’re shopping. They are free to Advantage Card customers and contain offers and articles.

Thanks again for contacting us. Below is a questionnaire, which will help us make sure we’ve provided you with the very best customer care. If there is anything else that I can help you with please contact us with your customer reference number ******* on 0845 070 8090.

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V****** C*******

Finally, I’ve done a 50 miler after work. Today isn’t too bad but I can feel that I’ve worked.

Also need to learn how to use the 705 a bit better – it wasn’t supposed to be quite this long a ride!

I finally found my mojo. It was behind the television.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been out in this much mud. Here are the top things I must remember for next time…
Bike setup must be right – it’s critical when your mech is bunged up with mud!
Tyres are better if they actually shed the mud
Select a route without too much mud (a managed trail centre would be a great choice)
Finally…

Smile.

Spider monkey, whale shark, dog fish, cat fish, sheep dog, spider wasp, tiger shark, tiger prawn, eagle hawk, bird spider…

It’s important to have lists. More later.

Feel free to add to the list.

Finally, after more than two months, I feel like I’m back in the game. A brief mountain bike at Sherwood Pines, a road session and some running. It’s all going well.

Not 100% – there are no tricks yet past the track standing (must learn to do it with the left pedal forward) but it’s getting there.

Target:
climb a Nottingham wall 5a by the end of September
playboating session by the middle of September (15th for argument’s sake)
cycle 50 miles after work by end of August (road)
cycle a 40 mile off-road route before the end of September (may not have the weekends for this but hey, it’s a target)

I’m not as good at mountain biking as I’d like to be. Or as good as I think I am.

Dislocated collar bone

There’s something that I want more of. I’ve tried short-cutting but it doesn’t work. The trouble is, the maximum rate that I can quench my thirst is one day every 24 hours. Even that is an optimum that is rarely achieved.

Experience. It makes everything easier be it in the office, on the road, at home or at play. Maybe some day, we’ll be able to have an experience upload so that we can think like a professional athlete, a nobel prize winner, a chief economist, a war veteran. Or all of the above. Who knows.

‘Til then, I’ll be plodding along. Trying my best to take as much as I can from each day so that by the end of the year it’ll be one where I’ve got as close to 365 days of experience as possible.

When did this start happening all of a sudden. It’s crept in, perhaps from the same place that “whatever” came from. And it’s really annoying, a blight on communication. Can we not start a sentence without the beginning “so…”.

Yes, I do it myself. And I annoy myself with it. So …