Category Archives: Personal

It’s not always, all about the bike

It’s not always, all about the bike !!

Today I put my running shoes on and went to Sheringham to meet my friend Gina, due to Covid it’s been along time since our last meeting, and even longer since I last did this LDWA Poppyline route that we so enjoy.

We decided to do the route in reverse today, which made it feel totally different, like always when doing these longer routes we like to run/ walk them. We don’t use any set ratio, but always walk the up hill bits, as this saves energy.

As usual I like to take photos on the way round and we stopped at mile 6 and 12 for snacks. Today we were very lucky with the weather, it rained on the way there but stayed dry while we were enjoying our run/ walk or our 4 hour long chat !

We have a 26 mile event booked for September so hope to meet up a good few times before then and get some more chatty miles in and my feet definitely need to toughen up again !!

Surviving Lockdown

A whole year has passed since we first went into lockdown, at the time I really wondered how I would ever cope, I was already finding things hard after the sudden unexpected change in my life.

Today out on one of my favourite walks I realised a year ago I didn’t even know this walk existed, then I got thinking about all the other things I have discovered and learnt about myself and the local area, during the past year.

So many wonderful local walks and places discovered and explored, including Roydon common,Leziate and Massingham, I have a home I actually love and now I am home more I have found a love for gardening, including cutting the grass, which was always a job I hated.

Much to everyone’s amusement, I have gone from the music hating Sally to having my own Spotify account and loving music,I even bought headphones for when I run on my own,It helps fill my mind with happiness.

At the beginning of 2020 I lost my biking mojo, I really thought I would never return to the long bike rides I so loved but during lockdown I have rediscovered my love of biking and enjoy stress free girlie rides more than ever before, we have so many plans for this year and they may not include going back to big group riding.

I have really missed  my running events, my running club, Lynnsport Ladybirds and doing my longer run/walks  with my Norwich friends but hopefully this will all be changing soon, starting with the return of the Ladybirds this week.

So I have survived lockdown and Covid,  kept my Smile, and hopefully  I will have more exciting things to blog about soon !!!!

2020 medals and looking forward to better times

2020 was the year of virtual runs and very few medals.

I especially like the wooden medal for doing the NYE Ely 10k, I have done this event since 2015, it was lovely to finally get a medal, especially as I sadly think I will move onto other things now.

All the events I had booked have been carried over to 2021 but I suspect a few of those will be postponed, so far I have….

May …GEAR,

June… Sandringham Half

September.. Coastal Marathon

November…. George Munday

I have the Lap of Anglia booked for August too

It’s also my 60th Birthday this year, I have yet to decide how I shall celebrate, but it will no doubt be with friends and involve running, cycling and walking, all the things that make me happy.

Waving Goodbye to 2020

I entered 2020 feeling broken, Covid then broke me a little bit more.

All the things I had planned to help me cope, slowly got cancelled one by one, although before the Lockdown I did manage a walk with the Norfolk Legstretchers, something I hoped to repeat but then lockdown happened.

I really wasn’t enjoying riding my bike, so the first lockdown in March gave me a good excuse to stop, During this time I did a lot of solo walking and exploring, discovering Roydon Common, Reffley woods, and Leziate, beautiful places all on my doorstep. As the nicer weather came I longed to be back out on my bike, so I started off with some short solo rides, something I thought I would never enjoy but they filled me with Happiness.

As soon as we were allowed I started riding with my friend, Sue, as our confidence grew, our rides got longer and longer, then when it was safe Lynne also started cycling with us. We loved cycling together, having fun, discovering new places, taking photos, having picnic lunches, all our rides became a pleasure with no pressure and no one shouting at me if I got a puncture!

Just for fun, we got our own cycling shirts and became known as the FFF girls (Fabulous Fearless Females) next year I am sure there will be more of us !.

Our biggest achievements was a 100-mile ride to Ely, then after joining some Audax Guys I knew from my Audax riding days, we did their Halls 200km route, which we just loved.

As well as all the riding, and even though all my running events had been cancelled I was still enjoying my running and run/walking, I missed parkrun dreadfully so I started meeting up with Maria on Saturdays encouraging her on her road to recovery, over time she improved and we were able to do the George Munday 10km as a virtual run.

The ladybirds were also a huge part of my healing process providing lots of support and laughter where needed, just like my wonderful colleagues at work who I know felt all my pain more than anyone.

My big plan for 2020 had been the Coastal Marathon, which of course was cancelled but I did manage the Coastal half route a couple of times, a 15 miler around Sandringham and a 13 miler in Wymondham all with various friends.

Now as we wave goodbye to 2020 and move into 2021, I find myself stronger happier and more confident than I have ever been.

There are lots of plans for 2021, including The Lap of Anglia, Sandringham half and the Coastal marathon plus lots of long rides with the FFF girls……

2021 is definitely the year for lots of Laughter Fun and Naughtiness !!

Roydon Common

Roydon Common, a magical place I discovered just before COVID 19 and lockdown. 

Disappointing weather over the weekend meant biking plans had to be canceled, so, after a  drive to Thetford to drop off a bike with my son I  made the most of a blowy showery day by getting out for a walk across the common with Sue.

Roydon Common is looking stunning after the rain, So much has grown since the beginning of lockdown and those lonely solo walks, there are so many wildflowers out now with an array of stunning colours, it won’t be long till the heather is in full bloom either

Luckily we got round the 6 miles without getting wet, unfortunately, I arrived home to find my waterbutt had been blown over in the wind but at least it wasn’t me getting blown off my bike!

 

Moving on to new adventures…..

With Geoff’s sudden and unexpected departure from my life, its been a difficult few months, much harder than I expected or have let on !! I have tried to keep myself busy forcing myself to go out on my bike, weather permitting, knowing if I stopped riding now I would never ride Annie again, which would be so sad !!

Things felt slightly better once I admitted to myself that I no longer wanted to run Cambridge half marathon, I was worried about letting my friends down but really couldn’t face the thought of going to Cambridge. Once I made the decision it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and it was nice to make Amanda’s day by transferring my place over to her.

I have also learnt that there is more to life than biking, running and driving up and down the A10 ! I have re-discovered the joy of reading and going to the cinema, but most of all I have learnt how to love myself again and discovered what wonderful marvellous friends I have.

My life will never be the same but who knows in time it may be better so now its time to plan some new and wonderful adventures!

Positive Steps Forest Festive Challenge

Little did I know when booking this event that it would not turn out to be quite the Festive event we had planned. Geoff returned from Bangkok on December 4th and dropped a bombshell, He intended to put his house up for rent and return to Bangkok ASAP leaving no room in his life for me, anyone that knows me will know how devastated I am.

It would have been easy to take time off work and hideaway for a while but that’s not my style and on Saturday 7th December I found myself driving to Kings Forest in West Stow Country Park to meet Gina and Jayne for our 20-mile challenge, an event put on by Positive steps in aid of the St Nicholas Hospice Care.

The event had a nice festive atmosphere, most people had made the effort to wear some kind of festive clothing, including me !! and the whole event was very well organized.

The half marathon distance and the 20 milers start together and stay together until the 20 milers go on to complete an extra lap. After all the rain in the week leading up to this event we were very lucky to get a nice dry bright day and much to our surprise there was little mud or sand on the route, it was just nice and springy underfoot.

The marshalls were fantastic friendly and very encouraging, and we had some of the Famous cheesy feet at the feed station, along with cinnamon trees and other goodies. We did wonder if we would dislike the fact that the route was made up of 3 laps but you actually don’t notice.

While enjoying a cup of tea at the finish it was nice to chat with some of the volunteers, one man was telling us how much he loved marshaling at these events, was also interesting to hear there had been 82 nonstarters, which is a shame when so many others wanted a place. and amazingly £6500 had been donated to the hospice.

All considering it was an enjoyable day and good therapy for me surprisingly we did well with a moving time of 4.34 and elapsed time of 4.46…..

Next it’s the ELY NYE 10km then the LDWA 26 mile Stansted stagger

Suffolk Lanes Extravaganza 200km Audax (20th July 2019)

In 2016 we rode the 100 miles of Suffolk Lanes Audax and enjoyed it so much we thought we would do the 200km as part of my RRTY, the weather forecast was for thundery showers but this was not going to put us off.

Not quite such an early start which is always good for me when riding on a Saturday but as we arrived in Bildeston at 8 am we were greeted by a heavy shower of rain, luckily it had blown over by the time we started at 8.30.

I reminded Geoff about how he hates starting off at the front and how its best to let the faster guys go tearing off first, a mistake we made on our last Audax, so we hung back for a few minutes then had a good start alongside Fixie Mick Ady and Jayden all from my TTT rides and Simon from Cambridge CTC.

For us, it was a very fast start as Geoff was determined to keep up with Fixie mick, at one point I almost lost them. We stopped at traffic lights and while I was helping Simon out the lights changed and the others were off like a bullet while I got caught by the lights again, then I had the dilemma of should I try and catch them or hang back with Simon, in the end, I decided to try and catch them. Just when I thought I would never catch them I found Geoff waiting at a junction for me and before long we were back in the group. Making it to Halesworth and the first coffee shop with an avg speed of 16mph.

Everything was going smoothly, in fact, I was very impressed with Geoff he certainly rides his Fixie much better than his geared bike! Then just before we reached Orford, I got a puncture, which meant we lost our little group as I told them to go on because we could hear the thunder in the distance. It took 2 attempts to mend the puncture as we discovered one of the new inner tubes had a split near the valve, by this time the thundery shower had blown over and we realized we would never catch the others up.

Shortly after getting our card stamped at Orford Geoff got his first puncture followed quickly by 2 more, luckily Simon who is an expert on puncture repair helped us out, combined with the help of a car driver who happened to have a track pump in his car !! We never did find the problem, although it could have been the cheap inner tubes, anyway, it was solved by using a liner in the tyre where it kept puncturing.

After all this Geoff had lost some of his enthusiasm but once we reached Framlingham and re-fueled we continued on our way with Simon, finishing the ride with no more dramas !!!

Interestingly it was the highest avg speed for Geoff on a 200km so he definitely does better on his fixie, due to the faster pace I only took one photo, at Orford, the rural route was  beautiful especially Orford Castle which is the only castle I saw out of the 3 we were meant to pass on the route !!!

This Audax was number 10 out of 12 for my Audax RRTY, next month it will be the Mildenhall 200km ….. after I have done the Lap of Anglia.