18th September - T+2 days:

THANK YOU: SHARON, ANDY A, IAN N, CASSIE & FRANCES!

Woooh! Back at work today and feeling pretty good all considered. Thank you all again, we are now at £1086, would be great to get to £1250 but we'll see, even £1000 is a great effort.

Photos from the event will be appearing shortly, just trying to get them all together!

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Updated on Sep 16th 2012 at 7:08 PM from the JustGiving API

Job done at just after 4pm, 12.5 hours from start to finish, 10 hours riding time, pace of about 12.5 mph. Time for a bath, then a sleep!

Updated on Sep 16th 2012 at 1:08 PM from the JustGiving API

98 miles down. 27 to go.

Updated on Sep 16th 2012 at 3:23 AM from the JustGiving API

Avanti!

Updated on Sep 15th 2012 at 9:10 AM from the JustGiving API

Team total £1071 btw.

Updated on Sep 15th 2012 at 9:06 AM from the JustGiving API

Wow, £1000 smashed and still going, thank you all so very very much. Funnily enough I'm over the worrying now and just looking forward to it. It's gonna be cold, but crucially it looks mostly dry. Will be updating via this app as I go around so things will a bit different on this page. Thank you all, one more time! Keep pedalling!

Riding 125 miles, over three iconic Surrey hills and across London for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research.

Woking - Box Hill - Leith Hill - Newlands Corner - Brooklands - Richmond Park - Greenwich Park - Richmond Park 

Team Total at present: £919

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13th September - T-3 days:

THANK YOU: DAVE G, MOLLY H & ANDY W!

15.3/980.4 miles (this week/total):

Almost at £1000 for the team, great support from everybody - thanks SO MUCH!

Enigma jersey arrived today - a snug fit at XL but looks great and makes me feel that little bit more professional! Thanks guys! http://www.enigmabikes.com

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12th September - T-4 days:

THANK YOU: SALLY, DAWN, HELEN & HUGH & KEITH!

15.3/980.4 miles (this week/total):

Actively trying to gain weight this week. Need nice, full glycogen stores.

Wow! Fundraising has gone bananas so far this week, thank you all so much for your donations, the team has raised £819 so far and this at the end of a long summer of charitable donations and tough economic times. We'd love to get to £1000 but thank you all for each and every pound!

Yesterday I sat and planned out my route timings for Sunday, I'm going to have to start at 3.30am to get to Richmond by 10am and, even then, it will be tight. I'm determined to ride all 125 miles but, acknowledging that things sometimes don't go to plan I've got a couple of short-cuts and plans B & C which I can deploy if required. I've even lined up a spare bike should things go really badly wrong. 

If I have to cut miles to get there at 10 then I will make them up at the end, I promise!  We should be finishing about 3pm, so there is plenty of time to do laps of Richmond Park, or ride home to Woking!

For those who are interested, and perhaps have nothing better to do on a Sunday than come and say hello (if you are in the area), my timetable is as follows:

3.30am: Leave Woking.

Somewhere about 5am pass 1000 miles ridden this year!

5-5.30am: Arrive at top of Box Hill.

8-8.30am: Arrive at top of Newlands Corner (1/2 hour stop for Bacon Roll!)

Somewhere around 9.30am pass furthest distance I've ever ridden in one day!

10-10.30am: Arrive Ham House/Richmond Park. 

12.30-1pm: Arrive Greenwhich Park.

Just after we leave complete first ever 100 mile ride! 

3.30-4pm: Arrive Ham House/Richmond Park. 125 miles ridden. Collapse in heap. Sleep.

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11th September - T-5 days:

9.1/974.2 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 310.4

I still don't have my official route card, its in the post apparently, but I have downloaded one from the LLR website. I had intended to follow the endurance route back into London if possible and it looks like my bets bet will be to join it, and then follow it round from just south of the M25. So here is my route:

http://runkeeper.com/user/fivepints/route/1585874

In total it comes out at 125.22 miles, but having facilities and signage along the way will be worth the extra 15 miles of pain (that's what I'm telling myself anyway). Keep the sponsorship rolling in!

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7th September - T-9 days:

THANK YOU: DAN, NICK, TEJAL & Enigma Bikes (Jersey providers)!

46.5/950.0 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 295.6

Yikes, the sports day was an eye opener, it turns out that I'm not particularly good at throwing beanbags or using a space hopper but there is hope for me yet in volleyball and the egg and spoon and three legged races.

All in all - quite a novelty to be involved in a sports day and not be the worst. Most of my sports days were spent helping the teachers keep score and on the odd occasion that there was a tug-of-war, being the anchor man. Being the fat kid can have its advantages occasionally!

Anyway - onwards and upwards, new gloves, shorts and recovery shakes arrived yesterday - still waiting for my rise jersey!

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6th September - T-10 days:

THANK YOU: ROS, RUTH, DAVID T & CHRIS!

31.8/935.3 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 290.6 

Brr! When did it start getting so cold! I had to wear leggings this morning - heaven knows how cold it will be starting at 4am on the day of the ride - might need to invest in some new thermals!

Ride jersey should arrive soon, might wear it to work to see if I can drum up a bit more sponsorship, speaking of which - if you have come here as a result of Chalfont News / Colab then thank you very much - your support is much appreciated - say hello when you see me on site.

Old skool sportsday at work today - hoping to avoid any serious injury, egg & spoon race here we come! 

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29th August - T-18 days:

THANK YOU: ANONYMOUS DONOR!

25.1/893.7 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 284.8 

Arm warmers - awesome - where have you been all my life? It's like having two tops in one!

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28th August - T-19 days:

3.8/872.4 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 290.2

It's on! Having just broken the back wheel on the work road bike (not sure what I did - don't remember hitting any pot holes!) I am back on my mountain bike. 

The challenge for the 16th has now changed somewhat. Training has been going very well and I have managed to rope in two work colleagues - John Malget http://www.justgiving.com/john-malget and Tom Jackson-Burton http://www.justgiving.com/thomas-jackson-burton. As these guys have only registered recently they are unable to complete the 75 mile route as it is already full. They are going to ride the 52 mile route from Richmond to Greenwich and back.

I will join them - after completing 58 miles from Woking to Newlands Corner to Box Hill and round the historic Herne Hill Velodrome to Richmond for a 10 am start. 110 miles in total - starting at 4am (ish) and ending sometime mid afternoon. It'll be my first century and I'm super excited.

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23rd August - T-24 days:

THANK YOU: MUM & DAD!

 45.3/846.4 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 286.3

Oooooh. Got an email today saying that my route guide and jersey would be arriving soon - super excited!

I am also very excited about my first ever ride with the Amersham Road Cycling Club, although it's not for more than a week. Hoping that regular rides over winter will keep me in good shape!

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19th August - T-28 days:

THANK YOU: KELLY!

115.4/801.1 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 285.5

Rode from Amersham to Woking yesterday to see my parents for the weekend. Such a lovely ride - and I'm really getting into this long distance thing now (although 35 miles isn't that long a distance, I felt like I could keep going for much longer).

Road bikes really do make life so much easier - I don't understand the prevalence of Mountain Bikes, it must be because you can bash them about a bit more and they get less punctures. They're probably a bit more comfy too - my lower back is uber sore after a few hours on a roadie - and as for that saddle(!) All said - lots of fun.

I'm even thinking about joining a cycling club over winter...

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16th August - T-31 days:

THANK YOU: NICK & CAROL!

45.3/731.2 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 273.8

This cycling thing is actually quite addictive. Yesterday we cancelled the insurance on our second car because we weren't using it. 

As Jess needs the van all the time I am now reliant on my bike (and saving the planet a little bit every day). Yey!

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10th August - T-37 days:

50.9/681.3 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 255.3

Back at work for a week now and have been struggling with th elack of pies & beer. Enjoying the weather though - it's all got a bit sunnier this week - should be a nice weekend too! 

Only 37 days to go til Bikeathon day and I'm only at 680 miles - will have to get cracking if I'm going to make 1000 miles in training pre-event! Time for some long rides methinks.

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28th July - T-50 days:

69.2/610.6 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 240.8

Firstly, boooo you naughty Aussies - you should have gone with the breakaway! Never mind - well done Lizzie Armistead. Right - Olympics over. 

Went for a ride with Dad and Daniela yesterday - great fun - Isobel rode behind me on a bike seat and absolutely loved it. From what she was saying I think it's now pretty certain that we'll have to get our own! Only 62 miles this week but there are an awful lot of hills round here. In 24 miles this afternoon I climbed a total of 2065 ft. My knees are hurting but my climbing is getting much much better. Back on the hills again tomorrow!

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27th July - T-51 days:

39.7/581.1 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 223.2

Been in Cornwall on holiday and been trying to keep up the miles, although between the beach and the beer it's a struggle. All that said, it's awesome down here. The new cover photo is of Widemouth (pronounced Wid'muth - apparently) Bay which is in a depression between two very steep hills! That is a general theme - hills! There's lots of them down here  - but when you turn a corner and get an uninterrupted 270 degree panorama of the Atlantic, the sun is shining and there's a BBQ waiting at home - it doesn't hurt so much.

Box Hill on the tele tomorrow - Go Cav!!

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19th July - T-59 days:

51.2/541.4 miles (this week/total):

Cumulative Mars Bar deficit (58g) : 171.2

Been looking in a bit more detail at the stats from my exercise logging app and, apparently, since the 9th of May I have a calorie deficit of 44523 kcals. That's 171.2 Mars bars. Weird. That's my new stat of the month - Mars bar deficit - I might start trending it.

Awesome.

Ooh - almost forgot - thank you to my two anonymous donors who obviously like The Proclaimers!

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17th July - T-61 days:

16.9/510 miles (this week/total):

500 miles! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM0sTNtWDiI

Made you smile? Donate £1! Text BERN79 1 to 70070

No havering!

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16th July - T-62 days:

0/493.1 miles (this week/total):

5-a-side charity football tournament this weekend so I was a bit wary about cycling beforehand. I had grand plans for a trip to Box Hill on Saturday morning but the lure of coffee and a good book from the library, coupled with covering a lie in for the better half, put paid to that. In the end it seems it was a good thing as my first strike of the ball on Sunday sent a searing bolt of pain up my right thigh rendering me all but useless on the pitch for the rest of the day. Not that that was much of a loss anyway as I am all but useless on the pitch at the best of times!

Played in goal for the tournament and made a few saves, so happy enough, that said, looking forward to getting back on the bike once all these football muscles stop hurting. That's enough football for me this year!

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10th July - T-71 days:

29.6/466.1 miles (this week/total):

Thank you to Elaine & David!

I read Lance Armstrong's "It's not about the bike" over the last two days, it's a great book and really well written by him and his ghost writer. The guy is an absolute leviathan. He says all the way through that he has phenomenal strength and determination, and that his physical characteristics are almost unique and perfectly tailored to cycling and maybe, but equally maybe not, that helped him overcome 33/1 odds of beating testicular/lung & brain cancers.

All this got me thinking though, as great as his story is surely the real, proper legends are the people who face these odds when they don't think they can. When they don't have the best medical team on the planet and they can't consult the guy that invented their chemo treatment. These people don't have a background in endurance sports to show them they have that inner fight, and they probably don't start with Lance Armstrong's mental fortitude, but they still find something exceptional within themselves that helps them manage. Those are the people I'm riding to help.

Lance Armstrong is an inspiration - but the others are the real legends.

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6th July - T-75 days:

56.5/437.4 miles (this week/total):

Thank you to Marlene & Tony and Captain Cornsey!

437 miles in 57 days. With 24 of those days off the bike that's an average of 13 and a bit miles per riding day. Ha ha - take that fat belly!

My aim from here on in is to make it to 20 miles per riding day, 100 miles a week and 400 miles per month, I think that's do-able. I'm beginning to worry about what will happen when the bikeathon is done - I'm too crap a runner to do a triathalon, but I suppose it would be a new challenge. Anyways - let's not get carried away.

One clear benefit to all this though, aside from waist size - is that my blood pressure has dropped from bordlerline high at 160/90ish, to 118/68 at my work medical; and my pulse was only 58. Proper hardcore health benefits in a little less than two months. That has to be a good thing.

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31st June - T-80 days:

109.4/380.9 miles (this week/total):

For the first time ever I've cycled over 100 miles in a week! I'm pleased with that. Although the efforts of the velorati in France at the moment do seem to put me in the shade - just a touch - come on Wiggo!

Had a day off yesterday at my niece's 3rd birthday party. Lot's of fun - but irritated my thigh strain on the trampoline (yes, I know. Yes, it was stupid - but then I got the thigh strain by running at a speed camera for fun so you can see what my baseline level of intelligence is :)

Did 10 miles along the excellent Bristol & Bath Railway Path just to make sure that nothing was torn or broken but feeling OK. Funny old place Bristol though - many, many sports shops and cyclists but you can't buy a thigh support anywhere! Just have to make do with a pack of ethically farmed peas at 95p a bag from Co-op. 

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29th June - T-82 days:

99.4/370.9 miles (this week/total):

Went for a superb ride today in Bristol, from Downend to the Avon and then to Avonmouth culminating with a ride up the Severn to the Severn Brodge (the old one). Oh my god it's windy in the middle of the Severn! Adding in a pointless and energy sapping detour via Thornbury I totalled a whopping 60 miles in just over 6 hours cycling stime.

Feeling a bit tired now though! Route is here: http://runkeeper.com/user/fivepints/route/1399700 for anybody who's interested!

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27th June - T-84 days:

36.9/307.9 miles (this week/total)

300 miles up! Yey - hoping to hit 1000 by the end of August! I'm dropping through the clothing sizes at an alarming rate - so much so that I need some new work trousers. As I'm not sure where this great gut trimming adventure is going to end up I don't want to spend a lot on clothing until I know it will have to last. So thank you Tesco and your £5 trousers (originally £14.99). Mmmmm..... Quality!

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24th June - T-87 days:

7.5/278.5 miles (this week/total)

Cycled out to Wendover Woods to meet the girls there - 9 mile ride but all uphill, good practice for Leith Hill, although Leith Hill is three times steeper so I guess that means I have to ride three times faster.

I got super lucky with the weather, just as we started eating lunch there was biblical rain, then just as we finished our lunch it stopped - result! The only problem was that my new tyres clear water from the tread in the centre so I think I ended up with most of the rain on my face as spray on the way home - and a fair bit of gravel too.

That said - eating gravel was still more fun that watching England in the evening...

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22nd June - T-89 days:

93kg : 2.5/249.0 miles (this week/total)

Disaster strikes! (Well, man-flu). Only 2.5 miles this week (this morning) as a result of a nasty strain of man-flu that's been rattling around work. I'm absolutely gutted - that's 4 days in a row I haven't really felt like riding but I got back in the saddle for the short trip in today and I'm feeling alright.

Hopefully I'll get a bit of a longer ride home and that will add some miles but I'm surprised how much I missed the exercise when I wasn't able to do it!

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16th June - T-94 days:

93kg : 39.0/247.5 miles (this week/total)

Love my new skinny tyres - I feel like Lance Armstrong riding a BMX bike now though - top gear is just far too slow!

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16th June - T-95 days:

93kg : 27.0/235.5 miles (this week/total)

Thanks to Dave C!

Oh dear - looks like Chesham to Bristol is off :( The pre-school where we are hoping to send Isobel is having their open day on the 28th and it is a great opportunity for us to see what it's like. I'm gonna come up with another 60+ mile route though, probably encompassing a ride to Woking and back so if people want to come along anyway then that's still all good.

New tires and helmet arrived today - can't wait to fit them and get out and about - my father's day present is time to fettle with the bike and go for a ride!

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9th June - T-102 days:

93kg : 40.3/208.6 miles (this week/total)

That's more like it - managed to get out for a couple of hours today to do a 25+ mile loop on my mountain bike - goodness me the Chilterns are hilly! Excellent training though - I was going to fit slicks but I may just leave it as it is.

200 miles up in exactly one month - I'll take that - 200 miles a month sounds pretty good. As long as I'm riding further than I'm driving I'm happy (although I am going to Exeter next week - might have to work a bit harder to cover off that distance - Chesham to Bristol should help).

One final note - to the pillock on the Mondeo - I'm 6' 2", the best part of 100kg and almost completely luminous yellow, how the f*ck did you not see me!!!

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7th June - T-104 days:

Thank you to: Pip

93kg : 14.8/183.1 miles (this week/total)

Been a slow old week this one - not many miles covered so far - but it has been the Bank Holiday. I did try to get some distance covered in Bristol but I kept getting bl**dy punctures! Gonna try and get a few hours in after work tomorrow.

Interestingly - to paraphrase a 1980s cartoon which you may or may not remember - it occured to me on the way home in the p*ssing rain this afternoon than "an amazing transformation has occured". I actually quite enjoyed getting soaked to the skin and frozen to the bone, and what's more - it wasn't all that difficult. Time to ramp up the distance methinks. To that end - come the end of June I will be riding from Chesham to Bristol with an overnight stop in Swindon. It's about 100 miles in total - probably 60/40, Day 1/Day 2 but if anybody wants to join me for some of the route then please feel free to come along!

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2nd June - T-110 days:

93kg : 70.0/159.3 miles (this week/total)

Borrowed my father-in-law's 1980s Peugeot Camargue Steel framed 12 speed for a few rides around Downend and Yate. Old and heavy and "ultra-compact" but really solid on the road. Lovely ride - might see if there's any going cheap on ebay!

As for the rest of the week - it's supposed to get rainy and wet - so I may not hurry to fix the slow puncture I picked up on the way home this afternoon :)

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30th May - T-112 days:

93kg : 45.5/133.8 miles (this week/total)

Being a Surrey boy, born and bred, I used to find it hard to believe that there were other counties that were greener and more enjoyable to ride around but I think the Chilterns may have just about convinced me. Spent a fantastic 2 and a bit hours riding along the ridge to Wendover, although in true Bucks fashion some of the roads are not exactly road bike friendly!

Came back along the valley and then up a reasonable climb into Amersham but, aside from a few back issues related to positioning on the bike, and the fact that I managed to melt my chocolate bar, it was a pretty successful ride.

Of course, this morning's puncture (second one in as many weeks) was not so much fun!

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29th May - T-113 days:

93kg : 17.3/105.6 miles (this week/total)

Yey! 100 miles up in 19 days - huzzah! (Yes, yes, I know it isn't that far but it's 105.6 miles in 9 riding days which I am very happy with).

I'm going to reward myself with a 25 mile round trip to Wendover!

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28th May - T-114 days:

93kg : 10.0/98.3 miles (this week/total)

Sunshine - sunshine - sunshi-e-ine! Beautiful biking weather and I've covered a fair few miles over the last week, on both the road bike and my newly repaired mountain bike (thank you Dee's Cycles in amersham for not ripping me off when all I needed was a few small spares!).

Having tested a Specialized Tricross Sport at the weekend (thanks to Evans Cycles Woking) I decided that I would hold out for a full roadie and get some new slicks for my mountain bike so I'll be getting and fitting them today in preparation for a ride in from Wendover with a friend tomorrow. Hopefully they'll make me go a bit faster!

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21st May - T-121 days:

not weighed yet: 3.1/51.8 miles (this week/total)

Wooooooohhhhhh!!!! Neeeeeeeee-oooowwwww. Oh. My. God. Why do we all ride around on Mountain Bikes??? Had to walk to work this morning, but on the way home I borrowed a Cannondale CAAD8, described almost ubiquitously as "entry level" and it goes like lightning. Mucho mucho enjoyable. Think my mountain bike may have to wait in the bike shop for a little while!

Granted - I managed to get a puncture less than a mile in, and memories of many hours by the side of the road with an upturned 1975, steel framed Claude Butler 7-speed came flooding back - but goshy me - I will be signing up to Bike2Work next year.

In the words of Will Smith in Independence Day, "I have got to get me one of these!"

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18th May - T-124 days:

not weighed yet: 35.1/48.7 miles (this week/total)

Oops. Encountered my first minor setback today. riding home my new route of 7.5 miles to and from work my rear deraillieur decided to combust into tiny metal pieces on the road. After twenty minutes fiddling with an allen key and looking for (but failing to find) my chain tool I had to call for the support vehicle (aka my other half) to come and rescue me.

That said - it's a good excuse to get the bike in for a service before the summer - and for me to play with the loan bikes at work.

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16th May - T-126 days:

Thank you to: Helen, Barry, Chris, Neil & Tom B

not weighed yet: 24.1/37.7 miles (this week/total)

Joined the work sponsored health day bike ride today along with 6 of my colleagues. It's fair to say that they were more "senior", by quite some way, so getting left behind on the hills was a bit uncomfortable! That said - I completed the 10.5 miles, including two pretty sharp climbs, in just over 70 minutes.

Not exactly record pace, but they were my 10th to 20th miles so far since October last year, so I'll take that!

New headphones have arrived - huzzah for waterproof, kevlar goodies, although they are a little bit too red for my taste!

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Updated on May 14th 2012 at 9:51 AM from the JustGiving API

Thank you to: Tom B & Kenny

There's an app for that!

Downloaded a calorie and exercise tracker for my phone, amazing what there's an app for nowadays. Apparently there are 200 calories in a bagel. 200! Madness! Who knew?

Anyway, after a weekend of chucking kids around a bouncy castle and pushing prams (and toddlers) up steep hills it's back on the bike in the wind and drizzle :P

New headphones coming tomorrow though, kevlar headband and waterproof speakers. Yey!

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10th May:

Thank you to: Tim & Tom JB

98kg : 6.8/6.8 miles (this week/total)

Euch - wet, windy and cold. It's a morning for mantras. My favourite so far is "The only thing you're racing is your ego. Let it win, it will thank you later".

My mission until the end of June is simple:

1) Cycle everywhere,

2) Get my weight down,

3) Get my fitness level up.

So if you see me eating chocolate bars at work or at home you have permission to call me fatty bum bum! Or some similar derisory comment. I allow it - and I won't get cross. This time. Promise!

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19th April:

101kg : Driving everywhere!

Just put my training plan into the calendar. I spent most of last year cycling to work on and off but stopped when winter came and haven't really got back ok the bike since. First thing I need to do is get the bike back up to scratch and get back on the road. I'm gonna start with a few weeks going to work and back and then begin to crank up the distance. September seems a jolly long way away but I'm pretty sure it will come around quickly!

If anybody wants to join me then feel free! The more the merrier.

Of course, most importantly, a big THANK YOU to all those who have donated money!

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Intro:

Having supported LLR and the bikeathon campaigns since I was a littl'un I felt this would be a great event to get involved in. I guess the two reasons are that;

a) I deplore the thought of children getting cancer and,

b) I enjoy cycling

Acute childhood leaukaemia is the most common form of cancer n children but, thanks to the excellent work done by LLR and others, this prognosis is now excellent in 90% of cases. That's got to be a good reason to keep banging away at the other forms of this wretched disease!

75 miles, including Box HIll & Leith Hill may sound like a lot to some, or nothing to others who regularly pass this distance, but having not cycled all winter, and recovering from chronic knee and ankle injuries (along with chronic laziness) it will be a massive chalenge for me, and that's why I'm asking for just £1 from you.

If 1000 people donate and Gift Aid then that's £1250 to a great cause. So phones out, and please text BERN79 1 to 70070. The money comes straight off your bill/credit - so no faffing with cards or Verified by Visa nonsense. Alternatively - you can give me £1 when you see me.

Thank you!