Having signed up for the Prudential Ride London again this year for BloodCancer UK (formerly, Bloodwise), I had started the year with a training program in mind, penciled in a few sportive events (in fact, did the first of the year with UK Cycling Events).
Then, Covid…
To cut a long story short, the event has been cancelled. This is disappointing for lots of us cyclists, but really devastating for all of those charities that rely on such events (and the London Marathon, and many other sportives and running events) for fund raising. MrsQ and I, over the London Marathon weekend partook in the 2.6 challenge, where we did 26 sun salutations, which was a lot harder than it seems. Between us, we raised a total of £330 for BloodCancer UK.
Zwift…
I have used Zwift for over 18 months now so my first thoughts were to do the PRL 100 on the Zwift platform on the day of the event, August 16th. Then, I received an email from the events team at BloodCancer UK, reminding us about their “Ready to cycle your way” campaign, “daring” us to do more. So here goes….
If I could ride 1000 miles…
Between July 16th and August 16th I am planning to cycle (virtual & IRL.. in real life…) 1000 miles to raise funds for BloodCancer UK. Initially, I looked at just covering the distance from Lands End to John O’Groats, which I will be, but I have since decided to round up to the 1000 miles.
LEJOG I’ve found out, takes from 9 days (the extreme) to between 10 and 14 days to complete, covering a daily average of 108 miles with average of 5800ft of climbing. For reference the PRL is 100 miles (obvs!) with according to my tracker from 2016 route a total climb of 4338ft. So, 1 day on LEJOG is a tougher ride than the PRL… chapeau to those who complete the 9 day event (not just sign of for it.. JP!!)
The Plan
The plan is to do 900 miles in advance of the 16th August, leaving me to complete the PRL on Zwift on the day of the event. I will be logging all my rides on Strava for scrutiny and publishing weekly updates here. I’ve read that one of the biggest hurdles (apart from the miles and the hills) to overcome competing the LEJOG is cycling daily, so I started this Monday doing daily rides to get in shape.
To put the distance into perspective, for those who might thing that I’m “always” out on my bike… to date in 2020, I’ve done a total of 1427 miles, i.e. an average of 16 miles / 55 minutes (87 rides, virtual & IRL), so in a month, I have to cover my usual 5 or 6 months distance, at the same time, holding down full time job, practicing trumpet (unfortunately, not attending rehearsals yet!), all the usual domestic stuff.. so approximately 30 miles a day over the month.
Fundraising
My fundraising page is up! You know what to do! If you’ve sponsored me for events already this year, thank you! If you haven’t .. please do so now if you can afford it. Charities have been hit very hard by Covid in terms of their fundraising capacity and the workload they’ve had to undertake during this difficult period has stretched their resources. Most cancer patients would have had do shield (and at times having to decypher conflicting advice from Government) so the charities have been working hard to fight for clarity for cancer patients. BloodCancer UK have done some marvelous work during this difficult time.
