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 :-)