The cycle book & funds total

Well total money raised for the Hospitals so far is now about £700

Temple street children's hospital = 200 euros raised and donated

Great Ormond street Children's hospital = £550 raised and donated

Many thanks to everyone for their support.

Knee swelling is better this weekend so I should be able to at least make a start and put in a few days of training.

Cycle book arrived a couple of days ago - had to get it second hand from america- but well worth the effort- it has many cycle relevant details - such as profile maps - means I can start planning route next week. They show a number of good routes around ireland.

Well the sun is out here again - I have not been able to go out running as even though knee starting to recover - we have had high winds and lots of dust so making it difficult to run in - hopefully tomorrow it will ease up and I can get out on the road for a few miles .

Training hiccups

Training is on hold at the moment due to damage to my right knee and ankle - so I will have to wait until the swelling reduces before getting on the cycle- frustrating but I need to be patient until it fully recovers.

The cycle resistance stand works fine - however with mountain bikes tyres it makes a huge amount of noise ! John has suggested getting a slick tyre and putting the machine in the lowest gear possible - and this should cut down on the noise - a pity becuase the excessive noise ruins such a great idea - well we shall have to just wait until knee recovers and I can start training again...


Cycling book arrived from USA last night - some very interesting points and tips about cycling in Ireland- I may have to modify my route plan considerably -The profile maps in the book are very useful -and for instance the cycle from Dublin to Sally gap and then to Laragh - starts with a 14.4km climb up to about 500 metres ! ouch!

Now I really do have to be very careful in planning not to take too much weight.

In the book they give a route to cycle the whole coastline of ireland in 42 days - this would be a truely amazing challenge if I had the legs and the time !

I have decided to go for some madison pursuit shorts for the cycle ride - these are normal padded cycle shorts but on the outside they are like normal shorts - pockets etc- great for going into cafes or pubs ...

Still undecided about transport of bike - some suggest cardboard box around cycle - old T-shirt cut up- to protect chain and other parts - removal of handle bars and pedals and wheel then strap these to frame...

Donations update and cycle resistance stand

Donations for Great Ormond Street childrens hospital now at £450





http://www.justgiving.com/greendragoncyclesireland2008

Donations for Temple Street childrens Hospital now at 100 Euro

Many thanks for all the generous donations to date.


Plan is starting to formalise - Dublin to wicklow- to wexford - to waterford - to cork - mizen - to malin ...

Friend Olivier has hinted he 'may' be able to give some back up support - which would be superb. . . fingers crossed.

I have purchased a cycle resistance stand -yesterday- as temperatures outside - here in Kuwait- are above 40 degrees and proving to hot for training outside - Only problem with stand is that it generates a lot of noise - I may try different tyre - more slick tyre- later in the week - so the plan now is to start training tomorrow and we shall see how it goes .

Diet - some food ideas before the cycle trip

DIET CONSIDERATONS

Main aims :

Foods that are OUT : chocolate, fizzy drinks , pizza ,crisps, fried fast foods.

Foods that are IN - fruits , FISH , PASTA , natural yoghurts , NUTS , peanuts, protein bars , orange and apple juice, water - I have read that food with lower glycaemic index better for fitness -

BREAKFAST porridge and fruits (replaces cereal with milk), EGGS scrambled & Omlettes with mushrooms or tomatoes - baked beans , natural yoghurt & topped with peanuts, poached eggs

SNACKS - Protein bars , museli bars , apples , banannas, salads various , pasta and rice salads, nuts & seeds (protein)

MEALS - pasta mix with greens, FISH grilled salmon/hamour with veagetables , various soups, grilled hallumi dishes with garnish such as olive oil and sliced tomatoes.

DESERTS - strawberries, rice pudding , sliced apples and pears with yoghurt covering,

When I cycled Lands end to John O'Groats I had a HUGE appetite every day and ate lots of food -if I didnt eat a cooked breakfast then I had big hunger pains by 11am ... however after 6 hours cycling per day I had lost over 5 kgs of excess weight after just two weeks of cycling !

Heath and fitness

Yesterday I jumped on the scales - oh dear ! I need to do some extra fitness work and plan diet for fitness ! I seem to have been spending a great deal of time on work related stuff and not enough on getting my body into better shape for this cycle challenge ....

Anyhow I went for an evening run - just 30 mins easy pace - a reasonable start to the training.

Hopefully I will get time to do some cycling in the desert some training

Extra donations from the New English School have taken the money raised so far to about 450 pounds for the two charities.

One map has arrived

Road map Arrived - not easy to use this to plan for routes in its current format - so I have cut the book apart and placed each page in a see through A4 cover - this make things much easier and means I can also take with me only the maps pages I need for the trip .



Airport in Dublin is to the North and my route starts to south - heading towards wicklow - so this may pose the first problem - do I cycle from Airport through Dublin and find a place to the south on the first day of arrival ? this of course depends on how much I have to disimantle the cycle on the plane and how much 'rebuilding' needs to be done at the airport - also I need to research the accomodation situation in Dublin - will there be places to stay in the south ? More research on this one I think


Charity donations - so far 170 GBP already donated to Great Ormond Street and 100 euros to temple street.



GPS - the Garmin GPS 60 seems like a good model to take as it only requires 2 AA batteries and battery life is 28 hours - main problem I have with current GPS [Garmin rino 110]is that battery compartment is broken - so no longer water proof and it takes 3 batteries and only last for about 12 hours - with rechargeables this means one set every day ! Looks like I might have to bite the bullet and invest in a new GPS.