Veni, Vidi, Vici

I suspect most cyclists have a hill that is their nemesis, one that always defeats them no matter how hard they try. For me this year it has been a hill at a place called Brandsby which is about 13 miles north of York. Its not a particularly long hill and its not too steep but given my pathetic state of fitness it has defeated me every time I have attempted to climb it on the bike so far this year. So this morning I set off on a beautifully sunny morning to do battle with it once again. And this time I came, I saw and I conquered! It was a great feeling to finally get up it and it put me on a high for the rest of the ride. Conquering a hill that has previously defeated you gives you a great psychological boost and for the rest of the ride I raced up all of the hills like Lance Armstrong, I felt like there was no hill that I couldn't climb today.

I did 40 miles today which is probably the farthest that I have ridden in one go for about 10 years. The legs didn't feel too bad at the end of the ride, I could probably have squeezed a few more miles out of them. The odd thing when we you cycle is you get days like today when your legs actually feel better after 25 miles than they did after 5. The 40 miles took me three hours which is not tremendously fast but at this stage I'm more interested in increasing my distance than how fast I'm going.

I had a good day last Saturday when I went down to Christian Aid headquarters in London to meet everyone else who is doing the London to Paris bike ride in July. We met the Christian Aid team and the folks from Global Adventures who are organising the logistics for the ride. there were about 25 of the riders there too and everyone seemed very friendly. We also found out more details about the route. I was expecting it to be quite flat once we got into Northern France but the profile for the three days in France looks decidely hilly. I suspect that I'm going to have to train harder than I had planned! 85 days to go.

Martyn Joseph - The Welsh Springsteen

We had a great night last night. We went to see one of my heroes Martyn Joseph in concert in Otley. Martyn is one of the finest singer/songwriters around today. His influences include Bruce Springsteen and Woodie Guthrie and he writes great songs that have real meaning. He's not afraid to be political and a lot of his songs reflect his Christian faith.

Last nights show was one of his best, I've seen him five times now. The show was at Ottley Courthouse which is a small arts centre which holds about 120 people. The place was packed and Martyn played for over two hours. Its a one man show, just him and his guitar. What I like about Martyn is that he always takes time to come out and chat with his fans after the show, you really feel that you get to know him.

Otley was a pleasant surprise too. I'd never been there before but its a really nice little town surrounded by some lovely countryside.

If you want to find out more about Martyn his website is http://www.martynjoseph.com/

If you would like to know what he sounds like, I've put some links below to some of his videos

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CwNWf7oTJjk&feature=related


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mAJ3K5OKkkc&feature=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Fls_LX2C8&feature=related

Three Months to Go

Well three months today I will be cycling through Northern France on my way to Paris and I'm really looking forward to it.

I finally managed to get back on the bike this week after a two week lay off due to a really bad cold that took me ages to shake off, really frustrating! I've had a couple of decent 12 mile runs though the last few days and the legs have felt pretty good, but then again there wasn't any hills on the route! I thought that my bike had major mechanical failure on Tuesday when the most horrible metallic noises started coming from the back wheel whilst I was riding. Fortunately it was just a spoke that had become detached and was rattling around so after a bodged roadside repair I was able to carry on. The weather has been really nice this week so I've enjoyed being able to shed the winter training gear and dig out my shorts for the rides.

I've been watching the spring classics pro bike races on the television the last couple of weeks which have been really good. Paris-Roubaix was my favourite as ever. How the riders can ride 160 miles in a day over roads that a lot of the time are barely better than farm tracks is beyond me. And they still average 25 miles an hour! It makes doing 80 miles a day sound like a walk in the park.

Well now the weather is improving (its torrential rain outside as I write!) and with the lighter nights I'm hoping to step the training up over the next few weeks. I'm trying to work out a good 20-25 mile circular route around York so I will keep you posted on whether I find one. The problem is always finding a route that doesn't involve cycling on busy roads, perhaps that's why they use farm tracks on Paris-Roubaix!

If you have found this blog via the link on the Christain Aid Week website, welcome. Please leave a comment and say hello.

Sunshine on my Shoulder

Well I'm back from a week with Doorman Priest and all my other Northern Ordination Course friends at our Easter School in Wakefield. It was an interesting but very tiring week with our days starting at 7.30am and not finishing until after 9pm most evenings. I've never quite worked out why people think that there is Christian virtue in getting up early in a morning, surely 9am is early enough in the morning for anything!

On Monday morning I was up bright and early to take a group of young Americans on a walking tour around York. They were part of a choir from Indianapolis who are on a concert tour of England and they were a lovely bunch of people. I felt rather sorry for them though as they were on a rather hectic schedule and were only in York for 2 hours before continuing on to Lincoln at lunchtime and London in the evening.

Later on Monday I was back on my bike after a weeks lay off. It was a lovely day and it was great to feel the sun on my back as I rode the 22 miles up to Byland Abbey from York. I'm pleased to say that my legs are beginning to feel stronger and although I didn't make it all the way up the hill at Brandsby that was the only hill on which I had to get off. I also felt that I'd still got quite a bit of energy left when I finished so I think next time I will try to extend my ride by an extra ten or so miles to finish in Thirsk. I pass through some really nice villages on my route and I will try and share some photos of them with you over the coming months. The village in the photos today is called Stillington which is about 14 miles north of York. It's a typical English village with a lovely old church and daffodils on the verges along the high street.