Cycle Slam D-136

A wet & grotty day outside, but a good session on the Turbo inside! I tried one of Sam's training tips & put the bike in top gear, climbed the cadence to 100 rpm & held it there for a count of 10 - I did three of these today & i'm sure i build this as time goes on!
I've booked my Bikefit at http://www.primera-sports.com/ in the 2nd week of January.
Goof news on the sponsorship front - I can't remember if I mention it, but Kia Motors http://www.kia.co.uk/ were first off the blocks with a fabulous £500 donation to my fund - many thanks to an old colleague of mine, Beverley Packwood who generously organised it (I'm driving a Kia Sportage at the moment & i have to say it's a cracking car!); Today i had confirmation that Renault http://www.renault.co.uk/ have set aside £300 for me - thanks to Tom Clifton and my Westover colleague Chris Swain!
Right quick shower & then Liverpool are playing Newcastle - let's hope Liverpool don't do their usual of late & dominate the game & end up with a draw - a resounding victory will be fine!

Cheers & Happy New Year!

Andy

Cycle Slam D-139

First ride out with Sam & Jack for about 3 weeks, this morning! We clocked 21 miles (well on endomondo, Sam & Jack's speedo, but not my new one!!), got a decent average & i got my cadence over 80 for the first time! Great to be out with Sam & Jack and on the quieter roads we managed to ride three-abreast which was smashing!!
Jack got a new water bottle & holder in his 'Secret Santa' which was good as last time we were out he managed to lose his bottle out of his holder & nearly de-rail me - the closest he came today to such an event was a part of his energy bar dropped in my path!!!
I've done some sums for my speedo & adjusted the settings, so hopefully next time it'll be in line with all the others!
A huge thankyou to Linsey's Mum & Dad - Dennis & Gill who've kicked off my fund raising with an awesome donation - I'm really grateful - www.virginmoneygiving.com/AndyNeill is the place when you're ready!!
Today's song was abit worrying - 'Deck the halls with bows of holly' - thankfully i cleared that from my brain cell quite quickily & got Bon Jovi's 'Fast Cars' in my head before I lost the will to live!!
I got a Dallaglio and a Flintoff book for Christmas - need to decide which one to read first!!!

Cheers

Andy

Cycle Slam D-142

Christmas Eve! The Cycling Jersey that i designed on http://www.owayo.com/ arrived yesterday - I have to say they did a fantastic job; service was great & I'm really pleased with the quality!
I squeezed a 15 mile ride in this morning - again it was only 5/6 degrees but with the new shirt - I needed to show it to East Dorset! Cadence was good again today (for me anyway) & i upped my average speed from the last few weeks - even with the disruptive trafic through Colehill!!

Merry Christmas for tomorrow!

Enjoy!

Andy

PS Fantastic result by Mark Cavendish to win Sports Personality with nearly 50% of the vote - first time i've ever voted, but well worth it - Good luck Mark for 2012 - You're a great inspiration!!

Cycle Slam D-149

Less than 150 days to go!! Luke's team won their match this morning & therefore won the league too - Well done fellas!! He also played a friendly this afternoon - which his team won as well - Very good wicketkeeping & even better batting - great stuff Luke!!
In between the 2 matches i managed to squeeze in 11 or so miles - cold though 5/6 degrees & a harsh wind in places - I say 'or so' because although i measured my front wheel's circumference & input this in my cycle computer - it measured it at 11.04; Endomondo said 11.45 & when i drove it in the car to get a definitive - the car said 11.25!!!! aaarrrgggghhhh!!! Still cadence keeps going up - averaged 77 today & i'm getting used to my new bike with the 4 extra gears & different gear change mechanism.
Off to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park tomorrow - should be great!!

Cheers

Andy

Cycle Slam D-151

Our Trip to Paris was awesome! Thanks Linsey!

Good birthday too - my new cycle computer arrived & is now fitted - so I'm back with cadence count at last! Having read Cycling Active this month I invested in some good quality winter tyres 'Schwalbe Durano Performance' which I got from Wiggle - as ever the service from http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ was excellent & they arrived today! My big disappointment of my Bikefit at Primera in Bournemouth today being cancelled (malfunction with the equipment) was offset as it meant that i used my half-day holiday to complete the fitting of my cycle computer - it's a Sigma Sport one; popped on the new tyres & got out for a 9 miler before the gloom & rain arrived. Infuriatingly the Sigma Sport measured it as 8.92 miles & Endomondo as 9.25 miles!! makes a difference to the averages - I used the preset coding based on the size of the wheels to program the computer - I think I'll have to measure them at the weekend & calculate.....aargh!!

Hopefully the weather will be kind & I'll be out with Sam & Jack on Saturday pm for a good ride, after Luke's indoor cricket match in the morning - if his team wins they'll have one the league!! come on Luke!!

Cheers

Andy

Cycle Slam D-159

A good session on the Turbo Trainer tonight - a pile of homework meant Sam & Jack couldn't join me going out so I settled for the TT!

No training this weekend as my lovely wife & I are off to Paris to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, although we do have a baggage allowance of 20kg & my Boardman is only 8kg................!!!!

Cheers

Andy

Cycle Slam D-160

Good PR news today - the Tweet I sent to the Dallaglio Foundation linking to my first entry on my blog got retweeted! Thanks guys! Also I emailed my Westover Press Release to the local 'Stour & Avon Magazine' on Sunday, along with pictures & details of who I am etc - and I got a reply from the editor today saying that she'll do something in the New Year editions - thanks, Marilyn http://www.stourandavon.co.uk/ !

Only a week to go until my birthday when, amongst other things (hopefully!) I'm getting a new Sigma Sport Wireless Cycle Computer from http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ . My Bikehut (dare i say it?!) one has given up the ghost & I'm hoping the Sigma will be top! I use Endomndo to also track routes and climbing - it's a free app for the iphone amongst others and links to the website http://www.endomondo.com/ - it's really good.

The Halford / Bikehut staff that looked after me when I bought my Boardman Team Carbon last week were excellent & I couldn't have asked for better service - I know they get a bit of a bad press at times - but with the Boardman, they were exceptional - thanks guys - i used the Ringwood Road store in Poole!

The weather & other events conspired against us tonight for a training run - but we're planning for tomorrow!!

Cheers

Andy

Cycle Slam D-162

It's Sunday - so it's training day with Sam & Jack & my first proper outing with my new Boardman! We did just under 21 miles & it wasn't too cold, once we got going!!. Jack did very well - in truth we probably sacrifice 2-3 mph average when Jack's with us - he's only 13 after all & still growing into his bike - however the rides with Jack are brilliant for cadence & Sam & I had a number of out of the saddle charges up hills - great fun!!

Today's song was Flood by Take That - my favourite for singing while I'm out (in my head!) is Bon Jovi's Back, When We Were Beautiful - help's me stay focused!!

Love the Boardman - it even got a wash when we got home!

Cheers

Andy

Cycle Slam D-163

Right! Let's get this blog into the saddle & on the road!

In short, i've joined the Lawrence Dallaglio & Freddie Flintoff 2012 Cycle Slam which covers a 5 stage ride from Olympia in Greece all the way to our Olympic Stadium in London. I'm riding in stage 5 from Nancy in France to the finishing line over 4 days and 350 miles, finishing on May 18th 2012! The aim is to raise £2,012,000 for Lawrence's & Freddie's Foundations which support cancer & children's charities, amongst others!

All the details are at http://www.dallagioflintoff2012.com/

You can sponsor me a www.virginmoneygiving.com/AndyNeill

I plan to regularly blog my training and adventures along the way!

Cheers

Andy
.