Two Weeks

13 days until I cycle from London to Paris and I have mixed feelings. One of those is elation, the other dread. The elation comes from having hit my fundraising target! To those who have sponsored me and wished me well: I’m grateful for your remarkable generosity and support. Especially Steven Houghton-Burnett who got me 'over the line'!

The dread comes from the thought of cycling the 300+ mile journey to raise money for Sands. It’s important, tons of people have helped me to get where I am, and I don’t want to fail.

Progress

Broken bones, covid, and a succession of minor injuries kept me off the bike earlier this year. I recovered, and my mojo made a triumphant return.

50+ mile rides became de rigeur, I was enjoying my cycling and getting faster, until about 6 weeks ago when I went down with a chest infection and couldn’t train for a month. Thanks for the germs, kids!

As it stands, I’ve been back training for a week or so and I’m struggling to regain fitness.

Preparation

I recently met Chris Paton , former Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Marines and strategic advisor to the UK government.

Learning from Chris about how the military plans was fascinating, and Chris is an expert in planning in fluid situations; he was responsible for the strategy to extract all UK combat troops and their equipment from Afghanistan - the UK’s largest strategic change programme in over 60 years. Cycling to France would be a doddle for Chris!

Chris taught me about the pre-mortem - a way of adding robustness to a plan by imagining that the project has failed, then working backwards to determine the possible reasons for that failure. It’s not exploring what might go wrong, it’s asking what did go wrong.

It’s not too far removed to imagine my abject failure to get to France, so I’ve set about making my plan more resilient in ways I can manage whilst recovering: mechanical preparation being one, injury prevention being another. Graeme Watt 's early end to his LeJog attempt was a timely reminder of this. There's only so much that can be done, but I plan to ride defensively, take precautions, wear bright clothes, and I've got a set of new tyres for the ride.

I’ve also had to work on my motivation: being out of action, I spent more time with my kids. Working with Erika Clegg DL on values brought my motivation to the forefront - my first value was 'family', and that’s really why I’m doing it.

The pre-mortem has made my plan more robust: it has reminded me of my “why” and helped maintain motivation by doing something useful whilst unable to train.

Thanks for Your Support!

I’m not an accomplished cyclist, nor did cycling come naturally to me. I took it up in my 40s - an unsporty middle-aged dad of leisurely proportions and an enthusiastic supporter of Britain’s heritage breweries.

Getting this far has been a journey, and I can’t wait for it to continue. I don’t know at what point you become a cyclist, but in my mind I’m still a bloke with a bike. Maybe that will change once I’ve made it to France.

Thanks again to everyone who’s been kind enough to support me. You keep me motivated and you’re supporting a brilliant cause – saving babies’ lives & supporting bereaved families.

• You can follow my progress on Strava here, and
• You can donate here.