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Family time and support

For the past few months I have relied entirely on the commute to and from the office to build up a bit of bike fitness in readiness for the North to South Challenge in October for the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation.  I have done the commute countless times and I am pleased to say that bike fitness is certainly improved with the day to day getting to the office being a lot less of a stress than it used to be. The only thing is, in the challenge, the distances to be covered each day are a fair bit further than the commute… 60-100km a day, day after day. oh and there are hills. urgh.

The time has now come to head out on longer distances and to work on my pathetic ability to ‘climb’.  Working these kinds of rides into the weekends generally means forgoing some family and down time, maybe not getting to all the chores (maybe missing the chores isn’t tooooo bad haha) but they still need to be done. My wife isn’t ever really 100% happy with this (shes says she is but I can tell) but she is always 100% supportive, who’s a very lucky bloke?

I squeezed my first ‘real’ training ride into cycling up to the hills before a delightful picnic by an open fire organised by my wife. She drove my girls and one of their friends up, made some awesome sandwiches, packed an esky with cool drinks, packed chairs and a picnic mat and I rode up to meet them. She is a champion and I am indeed one very lucky bloke.

I need your support as well to make my target and get to complete the challenge. I would be incredibly grateful if you could manage to Donate now.

Awesome little web app makes the video below from using strava data, think tour de france flyover map… only slower, much, much slower haha!

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Results

Como jetty

The #breakthecycle fundraising week at Round 1 is now done and I am super impressed by the kind words, support and of course donations that have come out of it. Massive respect to those people that actually did take the opportunity to grab a seat and cheer on (heckle maybe?!) those doing the bike rounds. Who would have thought that not doing the bikes could have been harder or more awkward than doing them?!

So the story in numbers;

  • Total money raised as of this morning is $630 and a $300 coffee machine!

  • Total calories to be covered 2305cal and 23miles(37km)

  • Calories and kilometres done 3726cal covering 107km

Huge thanks to Mike and the team at Round 1 Fitness for allowing me to run the fundraiser and encouraging everyone to get involved, donate and then to sit out the bikes.

Thanks to everyone that donated to the North to South Challenge and I am especially grateful to those brave souls who sat back in the chairs and helped #breakthecycle ! 

Regulars at Round 1 are all familiar with the constant support and encouragement from the staff and everyone else that attends the gym, this past two weeks I have received heaps! Most of the words of support tended to revolve around how crazy I was to take on the forfeited calories. This time of year it is actually a pleasure to ride along the river before and after work, usually at the most spectacular time of the day. Photo: Como jetty at dawn last Tuesday.

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Celebrating milestones

So I have just totalled 1000 kilometres on the bike and raised 1000 dollars, I am pretty stoked, especially that both milestones happened on the same day, how good is that?! Massive thanks to all those who have donated, I am totally blown away by the generosity and support that everyone has shown. Tonnes of gratitude to my super supportive wife for all that she does that enables me to do all the training and fundraising, it all takes time away from my family and she has made it all possible.

I have learnt quite a lot getting here today, first is that being able to undertake the North to South Challenge is a massive privilege and I am so lucky to be supported by our healthcare system, friends and extended family, co-workers, clients and suppliers.

I have written previously that helping the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation take care of children with special needs and health issues is my motivation for doing all this. I now really understand just how much support me and my family have. To be able to help give to other families of special needs children, or even those kids that are abandoned, some support and education is phenomenal and I am humbled by it all everyday.

Everything you can do to support makes a difference, donate, social media shares or even just words of encouragement all mean a lot. Thanks all!

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#breakthecycle at Round One Gym

What could you do if you weren’t doing the assault bike?! Stretch, catch your breath, grab a drink, well, you could do anything you like. Skip the assault bike effort for a day, I will do the effort for you… for a cost. Prefer a week off? I can do that too!

Sounds good? Head to my donation page, make a $10 donation, enter #breakthecycle into the comment field and I will cover your calories, time or distance for a day. Donate $50 and I will cover you for the whole week! I will do the equilavant effort for you in my training for the North South Vietnam Challange in the following week.

Head to the fundraising site and donate before Sunday 4th June then you will be able to pick up your voucher from Round One reception from Monday 5th June to use up to Sunday 11th June. Simply hand the voucher to the Coach instead of doing the bike efforts and do whatever you like instead. If you buy the week, just show your pass and enjoy the break!

I will track all of my bike training time with a Fitbit and Strava so you can see that the efforts are covered… looking forward to seeing just how big a target you all set for me!

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First hundred 

Just over four days since I started this blog and fundraising in earnest (well spamming social media) and thanks to a couple of pretty special people I have banked my first hundred in donations! If you are just dying of curiosity about who these amazing people are then you will just need to select the donate link and maybe see for yourself, while you are there of course wink wink nudge nudge…

Timely too; also since launching blokeandbike.com I have managed to get another hundred kilometres into the legs. Weather has been amazing if a little chilly on some mornings but I am looking forward to cycling in the warmth in Vietnam for the CNCF.

Training total since registration 600km

Funds raised $100

Yay it’s all feeling a little real and worthwhile.