From Zero to Potential Cycling Hero....?
Once upon a time there was an occasional cyclist called Pauline.
Adventurous by nature and an early adopter, she was one of the first people to sign up to the Boris Bike scheme way back in August 2010…
She’d cycle to the gym, a mere kilometre away and if it was sunny maybe home from her job in the city.
As the years rolled by and nothing much changed with this routine until she broke her knee in a freak skiing accident in 2017.
As part of her rehabilitation, Danielle Gould encouraged Pauline to use the watt bikes in the gym
And so began her cycling career….
One or two 45 minute watt bike sessions a week in 2019
In September 2019, Pauline met Simon Lough (an old work contact and Chair of Envision) for a coffee and in response to his
Simple question, do you cycle?
Pauline gushed that she had cycled 40 miles the previous week while on holidays in Lacanau and that morning had improved her FTP* score on the watt bike by a significant 5%
(Oops, what she didn’t say, was that she had cycled 20 miles to the beach…. swam and sunbathed for 5 hours and then cycled back with the brilliant “hand on the back pushing assistance” from Snep as she struggled up the hills).
…… in her enthusiasm, she found herself signing up to Envision’s 210 mile cycle challenge, a trip from the Peak District to London
And so training began…………..
And every week, Pauline did two x 45 watt bike sessions in the gym
Getting a little anxious that June 2020 was fast approaching and still not owing a road bike, Pauline found a social cycle group and did her first road cycle … 15 miles on her vintage city shopper bike on 28th February 2020. That was a good date, psychologically… she had started her training in earnest 5 months … oops 16 weeks before the event….
A trip to Jersey the following week, meant that by the time lockdown started, Pauline had completed two leisurely Saturday morning social cycles….
Lockdown scuppered her plans to purchase a real road bike ……
But that didn’t really matter, because (fortunately) the Envision 2020 Cycle was postponed….UFN
So when in September 2020, Simon told her the Envision Cycle was back on again….
Pauline realised that she needed to think more seriously about her training
Equipped with her wonderful vintage city shopper bike, Pauline joined Greenwich Cyclists and It’s fair to say that almost every Saturday since then she has cycled with a fabulous group of social cyclists….
When the gym re-opened, she also did her regular watt bike session…
In November 2020, Snep surprised her with a road bike and her speed increased from 14kmph to 17kmph on the flat.
Thanks to Santa/Sinterklaas, Christmas brought more presents of cycling paraphernalia
By February 2021, she was seeking out longer rides at faster speeds…………
Paul Scanlon took her under his wings and guided her through her first experience of lap training in Hyde Park….
Saturday rides became more adventurous, hopping on trains to Kent or Essex and cycling 40-50 miles on country lanes…
By May, Pauline had discovered Strava and started to become competitive with herself.
A reconnaissance trip to the Peak District in late May was both exhilarating and exhausting….
The hills out of Sheffield are something to experience…. and Pauline was deflated on Day 1 when a 90 minutes cycle to just beyond the entry edge to the Peak District ….. took less than 30 minutes to cover on the return route back to hotel….
Day 2 was brilliant, 55 miles of rolling hills…. Until a fall towards the end of the day just 7 miles short of the hotel…
Day 3….. well lets’ just say that the hills were too too much and after 7 miles……….. Pauline opted to call it a day and sit in the glorious sunshine..
And because of this, Pauline had peaked too early and the motivation waned in June, with lockdown rules relaxing a little, there were other things to do.
May’s record of 600km in the month dropped to 200km….. Yes, Pauline encountered the Bristol hills, but only just as she was luckily saved by yet another puncture and was able to take a train all the way back from Weston Super Mare
Now it’s 1st August and there are only 11…. 10…. 9……8. Oops 7.5 weeks left to the challenge.
A trip to Dungeness two weeks ago and Pauline proved she could cycle 130km in a day and still get on her bike the following day and do a social cycle with her Envision buddies. (Pssst… don’t tell anyone it was really flat, good choice of routes, Noresh Das Gupta!)
But can she cycle 113km three days in a row at elevations of 1,500 metres (yes metres not feet)?
That’s the £4,000+ question…… You will all be asking yourself?
Pauline’s sure she can, ‘cos finally with the help of Mikey Beder, Pauline has a plan… a clear route map of what she needs to do on a day by day basis over the next 7+ weeks as she countdowns to September 24th……..
So many people are backing her and supporting her on this unlikely challenge. Snep’s even invested in bike racks for the car… so there’s no excuse not to bring the bikes on holidays……
Now all that’s required is fundraising, and this is where I need your help…..
Envision is an amazing charity focused on enhancing the employability and life chances of young people coming from less advantaged backgrounds. Targeting selected inner city schools in Birmingham, Bristol and London, it uses experiential learning programme to enable young people to develop themselves by helping others.
Research has shown that Envision’s Key Stage 5 Programme increases participants’ empathy, grit, resilience, improves their co-operation and problem solving skills as well as attitudes toward education. Real skills that impact and improve real lives.
If you like me, believe you can make a small difference to the youth around us, then please support Envision, by sponsoring me.
