Three weeks to go! Excitement for the ride is building up!

We hit the road on Wednesday 8th July! 

As we progress towards the start of the ride, plenty of work is going on behind the scenes, as well as in the saddle. Most of the riders are now covering upwards of three figures mileage at weekends, as the legs and derrieres get used to long days on the bikes.

Claire has been working hard over recent months, and has particularly focused on her strength and conditioning to help her develop better endurance across the three triathlon disciplines. Her personal training sessions at the University of East London's Sportsdock have been integral to this – she’s worked closely with personal trainer, Julian Dominique at the £30M Sportsdock facility, which was developed to help the USA Olympic and Paralympic teams prior to the 2012 Games, and is now the home of UEL’s sporting prowess.

Julian hes worked alongside Claire to help her develop core strength, and power in her legs, so that the forthcoming cycle ride in France should be less affected by fatigue. She has already seen net gains elsewhere, as her personal bests for Half Marathon, 5K, and for the sprint triathlon distances have all come down as a direct results of UEL Sports’ and Julian’s support.

In other news, Graham Duguid’s performance saw him taking age-group honours in the Spalding Triathlon, ahead of a GB representative triathlete. Graham is in the last stages of preparation for his half-ironman race at the end of June.

And another piece in the jigsaw will be fitted into place in the next few days, as the team undertake nutritional assessments to ensure we can stay successfully fuelled, and suitably recovered, throughout the length of the ride.

Bank Holiday weekend, and the training continues! 

Trying to find some extra time to fit in training for the ride is always hard, so it was nice to have the luxury of an extra couple of days over the holiday weekend. The forecast looked set fair, so as well as bike miles to help prepare body and soul for the ride to France, we’ve also been running, and swimming to help with variety, and to keep us on point for other race events later in the summer.

And it was a bonus that most of the ‘gang’ congregated at Romford’s newest regular sporting

Raphael parkrun. Free weekly timed 5km

event to put in some training. Raphael’s Park hosts a weekly parkrun event (if you’ve not heard of the parkrun phenomenon, where the hell have you been?!) – in a nutshell, it’s a free, timed weekly 5km run, jog, walk (whatever you want to do, just do it!), organised by volunteers, and held in hundreds of locations every Saturday morning at 0900.

Claire, & Andy (left) at Rapheals parkrun

Claire’s Ironman training appears to be coming together nicely, as she set a new personal best time in the parkrun series, and David brought home age-group honours as he steps up the intensity of his training. Andy pushed Claire around the course immediately after his 50 mile training ride around some hilly lanes and roads in Essex, and Kevin consolidated his swimming build-up with an open water session in his wetsuit.

And afterwards, we all headed over to Cycle Surgery in Romford, for a quick chat with Sam, Adam, and the team. They’ve been brilliant supporters of our efforts leading up to the ride, with heaps of technical advice and pointers.  I picked up my Specialized Roubaix bike there which will be my tour bike in July, and Kevin is currently wrestling on the horns of a three-bike dilemma; He’s using the brilliant ‘Cycle To Work’ scheme to buy his ride down to France, his employer, University of East London, and Cycle Surgery, as a retailer sell bikes using the scheme- find out in the next Blog entry whether he went for a Giant Defy, a Cannondale Synapse, or the Cube Agree! Any thoughts and advice would be welcomed in the comments section at the bottom of the page!

Riders hanging out with the Cycle Surgery team

The Cycle Surgery girls and boys really couldn’t be any more helpful! Half an hour of advice,  questions about the trip, and hearty helpings of technical advice really had us brimming with enthusiasm for our long weekend of riding.  So a huge ‘Thank You’ to Sam, Adam, and the team! So proud to have you on board! We all follow the guys on Facebook - why not pop over there and join their page! 

Duathlon, at the Olympic Park Velopark

Sunday, and a few of us headed over to the Olympic Park velopark, to take on a duathlon. Decent weather, and a friendly well organised event, meant that the 15 mile race ride, sandwiched between a 3 mile and 2 mile run was great event to be part of. If you are fairly new to cycling, or looking for an 'in' to duathlon, these events come very highly recommended. They are a monthly series, and the Olympic park is a beautiful place to bring family/friends, or just hang out in after a fun morning racing! Maybe see some of you along at a future event!

AP

The training is building up for the riders as we get ourselves into spring shape.

Andy completed the London Marathon in 3h 33m

I've just completed the London Marathon, which was my second marathon of the year after Barcelona in March. Five minutes slower in London, I managed to clock 3hrs 33minutes. The high mileage of running training has kept me out of the saddle more than I'd hoped, but my 'general' stamina is probably benefiting from the run training, all the same. I'm now half way through my year's marathon races - Kent Road Runner marathon is at the end of May, and I have a place in Berlin marathon in September!

Half Ironman Events - 1.2M swim/56M cycle, 13,1M run

  Claire and Graham have their eyes on their own endurance events in the late spring. Both are making their debuts at half-ironman, which, for the uninitiated, is a 1.2 mile swim, followed by a 56 mile cycle, and a 13.1mile run. Both have completed Olympic-distance triathlons, and the step-up in distance will set them both fair for the London-Perpignan ride.



 Meanwhile, David and myself will be enjoying the beautiful rolling scenery of the Isle of Wight this Saturday. We are joining some fellow cyclists to ride around the island. We originally planned to combine it with the Isle of Wight's parkrun event, but that isn't taking place on Saturday. So we shall plough on round the island on our bikes. 60 or so miles. Apparently the ice creams over there are delicious!


Kevin is having a bit of a tricky time fitting in his training, as he is currently away in Hong Kong. However, turbo and spinning sessions have helped him build up in the early spring, so he has few
concerns at the moment, as once he's back in the UK, he'll plough on with saddle time! He's also dallying with our friends at Cycle Surgery, as he's set his heart on some new wheels!! Watch this space!



I'll jump back with an update next week. We have enlisted the support of registered Sport and Exercise Nutritionist David Dixon, who we hope will write a blog post in the coming weeks for you regarding the nutritional demands of multi-stage endurance events in summer climate/conditions. He's also going to steer us in the right direction in advance of the ride, so we can optimise our cycling performance, and maximise our daily recoveries, to make the 800 miles a little more manageable! Our friends at Cycle Surgery Romford have kindly sponsored our sports nutrition, and without their amazing support, we know this ride would be tougher than grandma's scones!


Have fun.

Andy

Welcome to our blog! It is the primary source of information for the July 2015 'Pedalling To Perp' charity fundraising ride from London to Perpignan.

A group of riders, family and friends connected with University of East London and with a love of Rugby League, have decided to get together and do something extraordinary to raise some much needed charity funds.


We'll  introduce you to the riders, share news and information from our supporters and sponsors, and give you day-by-day updates throughout the ride itself!


Best wishes

Andy