Sailing – Riding from Pasties to Haggis

Training and Mental Health

It is Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK and I thought it was time to share my experiences of training and how it affects me and what I have done when I find it difficult to keep motivated to train for a distant goal.

It is now mid May and most riders aiming to take part in the Deloitte Ride Across Britain will have been training for at least five months and face another three months of increasing intensity of training in terms of the length of rides and the intensity of some training sessions if using a turbo trainer.

Keeping up that sort of intensity can be very difficult. If you have been training hard up until now you have probably built up a good level of fitness and you may be able to back off the training for a couple of weeks if you need to re-charge the batteries and re-motivate yourself to increase the training over the summer. If you are not at the stage of riding five hour training rides or getting to 60-70 miles in a ride, you may have more of an issue come September. Do talk to someone (or post on the Deloitte RAB Facebook page for tips and advice) and try and keep going – the thought of all my sponsors was a big motivator for me last year when things got tough during training. You will not be the only one having training issues.

In my training last year, very few training rides exceeded 80 miles, but it was relatively easy to knock out that sort of distance. I then combined it with a few 100 mile sportives over challenging terrain, such as the Chiltern 100 in July and the Wye Valley Warrior in August (both have lots of climbing so great preparation for RAB). I’m sorry to say that I believe sticking to 50 mile training rides just will not prepare you for the relentless impact of RAB and nine consecutive days of 100 plus miles, particularly if you want to enjoy the experience rather than survive each day. The RAB “bubble” will only take you so far – no one else can ride your bike for you.

My Post RAB Training

I have found training this year very difficult. I am a “numbers” person and like to compare my fitness level using Training Peaks. It is difficult to accept that my training score compared to last year is down by 25-30 “points”. I am both competitive and a perfectionist – part of my thinks a 40% fall in training fitness is not acceptable. When the more rational part of my brain takes over, I accept that Training Peaks looks at training intensity – my life in 2019 does not revolve around cycling training, I am not going our for 5-6 hour rides on a Saturday and another 3 on Sunday plus three sessions during the week. My FTP is still higher than this time last year, I have just lost a little of my endurance ability.

The last two weeks have resulted in a CBA attitude to a lot of things (CBA = can’t be a@sed); a function of reduced fitness, an early summer cold and a few work commitments that resulted in reduced training. I’ve realised that I need to do some training for the benefit of my mental health and do my best to complete the session rather than giving up at the first drop off in power output. At other times I have to accept that my body cannot “push on” when recovering from a cold. A few completed sessions this week and I feel much better. Hopefully I’ll manage a four hour ride on Saturday. I have the Dragon Tour coming up on 7-9 June – maybe the shorter routes and then see how I feel on the day of the Dragon Ride. After all, cycling is meant to be fun and it is a good way for me to clear my head, even if I’m concentrating to make sure I miss the potholes! If the cycling doesn’t work, I’ll just go for a blast on my catamaran dinghy – sailing is still my main passion.

Why am I supporting Dementia UK in the Deloitte Ride Across Britain ? John Evans (1934 – 2010)

Why I am riding from Land’s End to John O’Groats in the Deloitte Ride Across Britain (a distance of 980 miles in 9 days) to raise money for Dementia UK? The simple answer is in memory of my father, John Evans, who had he been alive would have been 84 today (26 June). Unfortunately John suffered from vascular dementia for well over the last 10 years of his life and had we, as a family, known about Dementia UK at the time, the support and advice we could have accessed could have made what we, and my mother in particular, had to go through so much easier to deal with on a day to day basis.

Dementia is such a cruel disease as you never know how long you have to live with the disease and its rates of progression are so different between people with different forms of the disease. In the case of my father, there were a series declines followed by plateaus. John and the family began to think something was wrong when he couldn’t complete The Daily Telegraph crossword, something he’d been completing for over 30 years. We then saw a loss of short term memory with the repetition of conversations on a 10 minute loop – it was terribly difficult to continue the same conversation when John had no idea we’d discussed the particular topic three times already!

filename-1 — John enjoying a glass of fizz at Caroline’s wedding

John and my mother retired to Dittisham, near Dartmouth in Devon, and I think one of John’s happiest day was walking my sister, Caroline, down the aisle at her wedding. Even then in 2002, the decline had set in and I had the pleasure of giving the “Brother of the Bride” speech at the reception after John had welcomed the guests before the meal.

The odd thing was that his long term memory was fine until he lost his mobility. When we eventually decided to move John into a care home, one day he escaped by climbing over a locked 5 barred gate. This was second nature to an ex-agricultural lecturer and Head of College who would regularly walk the College farm. Fortunately, the escape attempt took place in the summer and he was found several hours later over three miles away having travelled through a few fields!

It was also awful to see the loss of the ability to communicate, particularly for someone who had been so articulate. John must have found it frustrating as well, as one day in the care home he lifted a huge cathode ray TV off its table in the lounge and placed it carefully on the floor – I can only think he wasn’t enjoying the day time telly !

I have a huge amount to thank John for, notwithstanding the obvious! He was responsible for instilling my “values” – work hard, treat people with respect and how you would like to be treated, don’t say anything if you haven’t got anything nice to say and be loyal and generous to your family and friends. I think I also inherited his competitive instinct – anyone who heard his exhortations to himself on the golf course will know what I mean. I can still hear the “Oh John!” shouts following a duff shot!

I also picked up my love of sailing, crewing for John in “Gusty” while learning to sail. We had a series of holidays to Rock in north Cornwall in the 1970s, before it got terribly trendy, trailing the dinghy down the M4 and M5 from Kent.

A real bucket and spade holiday, sailing in the estuary and surfing at Polzeath. John would escape for a few rounds of golf at St Enodoc Golf Club leaving the rest of us having fun on the beach, digging pits, building sandcastles and tennis ball helter-skelters and flying kites.

What would John think about me undertaking this ride? He’d be terribly proud, pretty surprised (as I only took up cycling about four years ago), worried about the amount of training involved (and the lack of tennis I’ve played this year) and fully supportive of my efforts. I have to say I still miss him more than I care to admit.

If you would like to learn more about the great work carried out by Dementia UK you can reach their website by clicking here

If you would like to sponsor me so I can raise loads of money for Dementia UK you can donate via my Virgin Money Giving page here

Spring is here at last !

It finally felt like Spring had arrived this weekend with two dry rides over Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a bit of a surprise as light rain was forecast in the morning. However, the rain held off and I had my first 100 km plus ride of the year (about 64 miles) in just over four hours. I’ve only got to increase the distance to 110 miles to match the distance I have to cover each day in September – all a bit worrying!

Sunday morning was nice and sunny so I thought I’d do a two hour “cake and coffee” ride to Cowbridge and back through the Vale of Glamorgan. Lots of other cyclists had the same idea and both Costa and Cafe Nero in Cowbridge were doing a roaring trade from visiting riders.

You don’t realise how many small hills there are in “the Vale” until you get out on a bike. However, you do get to see the changing seasons in the countryside and signs of life after the rather grey winter days.

One thing that does disappoint me is the amount of litter in the verges and hedge rows. The worst section today was the Old Port Road just above Wenvoe on the way to St Lythans – full of Carling and Coke cans plus discarded McDonalds containers. Perhaps a deposit scheme may reduce the cans being thrown out of cars?

I’ll be saving the “Big Hills” of the south Wales Valleys for Sunday 8th April – the KOM Sportive organised by my trainer Lawrence KOM link. I really don’t have any option but to take part – the alternative would be multiple intervals sessions on a turbo trainer and burpees until failure! I’ll decide on the day whether I do the 130 km or 95 km routes – both have lots of climbing (my pet hate, probably because it would help if I lost a bit of weight). I’ve also entered the L’Etape Wales and the Dragon ride in June – plenty more climbing over three days. It will be a good test for the legs and lungs.

Finally, with a break from the bike, I had my first sail of the year at Sully Sailing Club on the Bristol Channel in the afternoon. I’ve been sailing for over 40 years and it’s a good “release” for me. I sailed a Laser today which is a full body workout, with particular emphasis on core strength – think of doing sit ups for 5 minutes every 10 minutes or so when sailing round a course. A bit of cross training for the bike riding. I even managed to win both races although there were less than 30 seconds in it despite each race being between 40 and 50 minutes long !

Finally, a reminder why I’m doing the Deloitte Ride Across Britain in September and asking you to sponsor me. I want to raise lots of money for Dementia UK, a charity that helps people with dementia and their carers. Dementia is a horrible disease for everyone concerned and any support can make a huge difference. You can visit my Virgin Money Giving page here