Narrowneck - Sunday 13th May 2007

I managed to convinve 4 of my friends that it is a good idea to come riding with me in the Blue Mountains and being the great friends that they are, they willingly accepted!

So, Sunday morning, (left to right) Rebecca, Roelf, Sam Al and myself headed to Katoomba to ride Narrowneck again. It's probably a 40km round trip, well actually maybe 45km for us considering we got lost trying to find the start.

I must say I found it a lot easier this time than the first, I must be improving after all. My fear seems to have gone and I am now more than happy to fly down hills at crazy speeds. The thought that I may hit a rock at the wrong angle and stack it over the handlebars resulting in broken bones or death occasionally occurs but I try and put that to the back of my mind! The uphills are still a struggle but I didn't get off as much as the first time, so I think that may even be improving.

I think everyone else had a great time and for people who hadn't ridden bikes for years and not really offroad I was extremely impressed! I certainly wouldn't have been able to do that at the start of my training. Well done team...look forward to riding with you again soon!

Homebush - Sunday 5th May 2007

Mick and I had planned to head to the Royal National Park to ride a selection of tracks close to Loftus Oval, we met early at Central Station, bought tickets only to discover that the platform was closed and CityRail had decided to do track maintainence - DOH!

So, we racked our brains and decided to ride to Sydney Olympic Park. We left the city via the Anzac Bridge, crusied through the Rozelle Mental Hospital (luckily we managed to escape without them locking us up) and then down to the Bay run and on towards Homebush, was all going well, it's all pretty flat so was fine, until the bike signs got really cofusing and we found ourselves on the highway! Too late to turn back we braced ourselves, peddaled hard and managed to survive the cars speeding past at 100kmph and a seriously scary junction.

We finally made it to Homebush where we crusied around some tracks and eventually found somewhere to stop for lunch. Refuelled we headed back to the city, also via another strange route. For the first 10km or so we were on the Parramatta Road! By some form or a mircle we managed to survive that too and made it home in one piece.

I reckon I rode about 50km and Mick 65km...well done us!

The Oaks - 29th April 2007

Mick and I decided to do the Oaks again this Sunday. We met at Central Station at 8 and got the train 1.5 hours outside of Sydney to Woodford.

The ride went well, I love the 5km or so downhill section, we gunned it and had an awesome time. Managed to make it back to Glenbrook in about 2 hours.

All went well until we were on the home staight and Mick lost a pedal! We tried unsuccessfully to reattach it and Mick then had to push the bike up the hill back to Glenbrook! After a quick bite to eat we caught the train back to Sydney and civilisation.

The Oaks - 22/4/7

On Sunday 22nd April, Sean picked me up at the ungodly hour of 7am. We headed an hour west of Sydney to Glenbrook to catch a train to Woodford, there we picked up Kev and his mate Scott and headed off to the Oaks trail.

The first 5 minutes for me were a little scary, it is open firetrial and some bits are quite eroded making the terrain quite uneven, took me a few minutes to get used to it and figuring out the best way of tackling certain sections. After about 10km the track smoothed out a lot and we reached a long steady downhill section, which was awesome! After that, it was in to the bush, the last 10km is through bushes, which was also a little scary to begin with but I soon got the hang of it!

All too quickly it was over and we found ourselves back on tarmac and facing a massive climb back to the car at Glenbrook. After a quick sausage roll and coffee we headed back to Sydney.

I absolutely loved this track, so much so that I’m dragging Mick there early this coming Sunday 27th April.

The Narrowneck Trail - Saturday 7th April 2007

Early on an extremely rainy and pretty damn cold Sydney morning, Poppy and I set off from Balmain, destination Katoomba, WHY? To ride the Narrowneck trail of course!

After the short drive to the Blue Mountains, luckily the skies cleared and we were left with just some light drizzle. We met Mick and Chris at the bike shop just in time for me (OK Poppy) to fix a puncture on my bike! Puncture fixed, the boys hired bikes and we were good to go.

We headed out of Katoomba past the 3 sisters lookout point and Scenic World. It started off nice and cruisey flying downhill at full speed only to be met by a steep uphill climb. After a short while the tarmac disappeared and we ventured on to dirt.

The track was undulating to say the least, after a lot of nice downhill sections there were a lot of not so nice uphill sections, saying that once we got in to the zone we were doing pretty well. We stopped several times to admire the stunning views below and to take the odd snap.

After about an hour and a half we reached our destination which is a lookout point down towards Warragamba Dam, the view was absolutely stunning, so, we sat down for a short while, ate some lunch and generally admired the views. After we revived and reenergised we cruised back to Katoomba.

The off-road section of the ride is 26km, the entire ride from Katoomba and back took us about 3.5 hours and that included stops…not bad for a beginner hey!

Check back regularly for more updates, Mick and I are going to try and do a ride every weekend til Mongolia!

Fundraising

Poppy and I decided it would be a great idea to get the Balmain Village Voice (our local magazine) to do an article about our trip to Mongolia. Armed with the promise of 2 articles one prior to and one after the challenge, we decided to approach the local businesses on Darling Street for sponsorship and donations for a raffle.

We had a very successful morning and worked our way half way down one side of Darling Street in Balmain. So far we have managed to get the following items for a raffle we will hold in the local area:

• Balmain Blu (Seafood Specialst) - Complimentary Fish and Chips for 2
• Laialy (Lebanese and Mediterranean Restaurant) - Lunch for 2
• Punch Gallery - $50 gift voucher to be spent instore
• One Fish Two Fish - $25 gift voucher to be spent instore
• Balmain Health Foods - 5 x Iridology Consultations
• Trojans (Greek and Italian Restaurant) - 1 x $50 voucher
• Locks Hairdressers - $75 Intense treatment and style blow-ware service
• Damask Bedlinen Collection - 2 pillow cases to the value of $40

We also got cash dontations from a number of sponsors and lots of local business owners contact details to follow up on in the coming week. All in all a very successful mornings work. We will continue to approach the rest of the businesses in the area in the next couple of weeks.

We want to say a huge thank you to all who have shown their support to this worthwhile cause so far.

Making Progress

I got to work in 17 minutes today - And am very impressed with myself!! I now need to find a start doing longer distances...

Training Has Started!

It's been a week since I announced I would be cycling across Mongolia and training has begun!

Training Day 1 - 15th Jan 2007- Pah it's easy!!
Kev brought the bike in for me, so Poppy and I rode 7km home from work...my opinion - it was a breeze! Well maybe not but it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be !
Training Day 2 - 16th Jan 2007 - Ouch!!
Met Poppy bright and early in Drummoyne, thinking we were going to ride directly in to work, however it was very early and I was wondering why we were meeting almost 2 hours before work. Anyway, what Poppy forgot to tell me was that we were going to go do the 8km Bay run before riding in to work!! So, what I thought was going to be a 7km downhill cruise in to work ended up being 15km with hills!! I survived tho although I did need to get off and walk up a couple of hills.
Jan 17th - struck down with a mystery illness! Or maybe a case of dodgy milk!!
Training Day 3 - 18th Jan 2007
Took lots of willpower to just have one free G&T at Cargo Bar and then head home on the bike, really enjoyed it and got home in about 20 minutes...not too bad! Oh and I bought cycling shorts - tragic I know but the seat on the bike is made of rock and 15km on that thing made me change my mind!! So, I bought a bright pink top with a grey stripe down the side, some short black cycling shorts and some normal grey shorts, so, I'm nicely co-ordinated but still look like a moron on the bike! Now don't I look glamorous (see below)!!
Training Day 4 - 18th Jan 2007
Rode home from work again and it's getting easier everyday, maybe because I now know what I'm doing with the gears?!! Think I will have to try and vary my route and try and ride further each day! AND still not sore - result!

I'm going to Mongolia!!

Call me mad (I'm sure most of you will as you read further) but I have decided to sign up to do a 400km bike ride through Mongolia to raise a target of $7000 for the MS Society.

As you probably already know my Mum has suffered with primary progressive Multiple Sclerosis for the past few years. As I am not in the UK to be in a position to help, I thought I would take part in a fund raising event.

The Challenge: 400km Bike ride through Mongolia
Trip Length: 19 Days
Days to complete challenge: 7 days
Fundraising: $7000 for the MS Society
Date: 26th June 2007
Please click here for and overview of the trip
Please click here to view my full itinerary

Joing me on the trip are 3 friends, Poppy Moore, Kevin Donnelly and 'maybe' Michael Dewhurst. Over the coming months we will all be training and fundraising hard. We have less than 6 months to raise $7000 EACH and be able to complete the 400km bike ride, over unknown terrain.

I have very mixed emotions regarding the challenge, I am scared, daunted, currently unprepared but above all excited. I must admit that I have not ridden a bike in around 3 years and never really ridden off-road but am prepared to start training hard in order to achieve this goal.

I will be updating this blog constantly over the next few months, so you'll be able to laugh at all the stupid photos and things that happen along the way. I hope you will all offer words of encouragement (by way of comments) and will assist me with my fund raising efforts. $7000 is a huge amount of money to raise in such a short period of time but I am confident I can achieve it with some help.

OK, so training starts in the gym and on the bike next week. Kev has been kind enough to lend me his bike to begin with so I will be putting in lots of practice.

That's all for now, will update you again next week when I should have hopefully recieved my registration pack and training and fundraising has begun. I will also shortly be providing information about how you can sponsor me.

And just for the record....I am never in a million years going to be wearing cycling shorts :-)