I'm doing it for the money too!

In exactly one month from now we will have completed the 90 mile 'Big Boss Bike Ride' and will probably be nursing our sore bottoms and aching muscles. We will also, hopefully, be enjoying a nice cold glass of champagne to celebrate our collective acheivement!

With just a month to go I would like to remind you why I, and the other senior managers, are all doing the ride and the training building up to it. It's to raise much needed funds for Children's Hospices UK. Please dig deep and sponsor me in support of this extremely worthy cause. You can do that at my JustGiving website, where the minimum donation is just £2. Here's the link: http://www.justgiving.com/phoenixbikeride.

Thank you!!

I'm doing this for the love of it!

I took Lucy's advice yesterday and went for a special running shoe fitting. The store had a machine I had to stand on that measured the pressure on each part of my feet to establish the type of support I need. They then made me run on a treadmill and videod me from behind. Apparently, my left foot lands straight and my right foot does not, so I need support on the instep of my right but not left? I tried on loads of shoes all of which had some support (not neutral - not high support) and picked out a really comfortable pair. They didn't try to sell me the most expensive shoes in the shop (although I would probably have paid for the most expensive), which I really appreciated. Thank you Potomac River Running in Reston Virginia!

I took my new shoes for a test drive today and ran 10.2 miles up and down a 3200 foot hill (that's the height of Scafell Pike - England's highest peak). It took exactly 2 hours. And no blisters!! More steak, more potatoes, more spinach please!

I monitor the statistics on the running machines and today I burned 1708 calories. My heart rate peaked at 168 BPM when I was running at 8 MPH up a 5% incline. When I stopped to warm down my rate had dropped to 135 BPM within 2 minutes and 2 minutes later it was 123. I don't know if that is good or bad, but I thought you might be interested! I know my resting heart rate is about 60 BPM. Incidentally, at my age, apparently, my heart is working at 80% of its capacity at 138 beats per minute, so the maximum must be 172. Does that mean I got within 4 beats per minute of crashing my heart??

Lest we forget just how powerful Mother Nature is!!!

I've spent this week working with Phoenix Traders in the USA, from Maryland to Connecticut and all points in between. Thank you Kate, MQ, Liz and Katherine for being such welcoming hosts and for being so positive about your Phoenix businesses! We've been talking about, how to build visibility and brand awareness and how, if you do the activity, you will get the results.

I'm now stuck, unable to get home because of the Iceland volcano. Lest we forget.......... We should give her some respect!

And talking of activity, the weekends are the time when I try to do the big numbers out on my bike. Since I'm nowhere near my bike today, I've just been to the hotel gym and worked out on the treadmill. I ran for exactly 2 hours, covering 10.3 miles up a 2300 foot hill (that's just over half way up Ben Nevis, Britains highest mountain). Without the activity I've done over the past 2 months, there is no way I could have done that today. 10.3 miles is the furthest I have run in one session for more than 20 years. It just shows that consistent activity is the key to success in everything!

According to the machine, I burned 1667 calories, so I'm definitely in calorie deficit today. So now I'm ready for a beer, a 20oz T-Bone steak, a bucket of potatoes and a pile of spinach. I'm off to the bar!

P.S. Lucy, you were absolutely right. I do need to go and get a proper running shoe fitting. I've now got the blisters to prove it. Ouch!

Please tell me that was the hill!

I went out with the local cycle club on Sunday. We did 38 miles at an average of 15 miles per hour. There was one particular hill at about 22 miles that was very steep and seemed to go on forever. They all left me behind and at one point I was going so slowly I thought I was just going to topple over! When I got to the top they gave me a round of applause and took a picture of me with a huge grimace on my face (I will try to get a copy and publish it here). Great group of men and women who were all very gracious to me. Thanks Horsham Cycle Club!

Lesson number 1: Know how your equipment works

I went to the bicycle shop to buy some equipment I had to have if I wanted to ride with the local cycling club; 2 spare inner tubes, tyre iron (or whatever they call it), etc. While I was there I asked the young man serving me to fit a mini saddle bag (for my tubes and iron) and a drinks holder to my bike, which he did - great!

Then I mentioned to him that the extra groovy floor pump, I had bought when I picked up my new bike, didn't seem to be working properly and I couldn't be sure that the pressure in my tyres was correct. I explained that this was because the pump didn't show the pressure when attached to the valve and, that when I started pumping, the gauge went off the scale. He grabbed a floor pump he had been using when I arrived and proceeded to start checking my tyre pressures. That is when I recognised the little cap on the valve one is supposed to take off first before starting to pump (I had taken it off and was feeling very smug). Then I saw him unscrew the even smaller nut on the valve and say "You need to unscrew this and press it to make sure the valve is not blocked before you attach the pump" "Yes, I know" I said, lying through my teeth. It turns out I had only been pumping up the pump and not my tyres with the 'defective' floor pump! Who reading this blog is a technophobe? Dream on. I can't even use equipment that has been in use for a hundred years!

So, then the young man rang up my purchases - £35 to pay. No worries, I had my credit card in the little rucsack Clive (our Group Finance Director) had bought me for Christmas. It was declined - twice! But the young man had already fitted everything to my bike - what was I going to do? Lesson number 2: when cycling, carry cash or more than one credit card! Turns out the credit card company were running a 'random security check' on my card and I had to go back later to pay!

We're on the way...10% and counting!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you to everyone who has made a donation to my sponsored cycle ride so far! We have just reached 10% of my personal target, with over £1000 donated already. Fantastic!

With seven weeks still to go before the 'Big Bosses' day I am really hopeful we can raise the full amount and donate £10,000 to Children's Hospices UK. They are doing such important work and every penny goes directly to their frontline activities, so, if you have been thinking about making a donation, please do!

And what have I done to deserve your support, apart from suffer the 'little round bruises'? Well, this week I have cycled over 50 miles and run about 17. I'm joining my local cycle club on a 40 mile 'trial' ride through the West Sussex countryside tomorrow starting at 9.15am and so, by lunchtime, I will have riden more in the week than the full distance of the 'Big Boss Bike Ride'. And then I'm probably going to sleep for the rest of the Easter weekend!

You can see just what fabulous work the 41 Children's hospices around the UK are doing by visiting http://www.childhospice.org.uk/

Happy Easter!