My Activity Tracking
2,365
kms
My target 500 kms
I am raising money to support the children of Hands Across the Water because I believe that all children deserve to build a future full of possibilities, opportunities and dreams - a life of choice, not chance.
Hands Across the Water [Hands] started as a charity in response to the Boxing Day Tsunami. Now we support 350+ children living in 7 homes and projects across Thailand.
The kids who come to live in a Hands home are there because they have no choice. This is often the result of one of three heartbreaking situations:
- They have no known family to care for them
- They have a family member who is known to them, but is unable to care for them
- They are living in an unsafe environment and have been placed in our care by the police or government
Hands not only provides the life-saving necessities for the kids in our homes, they also support many families in an outreach program to help keep kids out of our homes.
Just as important as filling their bellies with healthy food and providing a safe bed to sleep in, with the support of amazing donors like you, the vision of Hands is to help these kids see the opportunities that lie before them, to see a life of choice.
My hope is that you will make the choice to join me in this experience and help me reach my personal fundraising goal. Please make a donation today to support these children and provide them with a better future.
Together we can truly make a difference - Donate now!
My Achievements
Updated Profile
Shared page
Received first donation
Reached 50% of Fundraising Goal
Reached 100% of Fundraising Goal
My Updates
Training update 4
Friday 2nd FebSo I’ve achieved the first milestone early - completing a 50km bike ride outside. I specifically didn’t talk about elevation because this is usually the metric for me that increases knee pain.
I think it’s important for anyone over 30 to build progressively and slowly to avoid getting injured - something I’ve learnt the hard way. So the next milestone can be either distance or elevation or both.
No surprises for those who know me well, I’ve decided to do both;
- Elevation goal > 500m in a single ride without knee pain during or post ride.
- Distance goal > 75 km
The elevation goal is crucial for me not to rush - no knee pain is the primary focus. With the most recent ride I did around 150m of elevation without any serious knee pain. Based on this sometime in April seems appropriate to have this complete.
The distance goal I suspect is going to be harder whilst I’m ensuring to not get injured. Based on 10% more per week and a week off, I’m planning to have this milestone ticked off in March sometime.
Do you have any thoughts, suggestions / recommendations to my training? Anything else I should be thinking about?
Traing update 3
Sunday 28th Jan I’ve booked in a rest week next week in Bali - with a focus on recovery. Therefore I decided to push it a little this week by increasing to 4 days riding with one of those days targeting the goal of 50kms outside.I found a suitably flat route in South Australia from Brighton to Outer Harbour - a well known mostly flat and gentle coast ride. Great roads, minimal traffic (and lots of cafe options) made for the obvious choice.
I enlisted the help of Ironman Simeon Finch for pace setting. He obliged, joining me for the 50km+ ride off the coach with swagger and a glint in his eye… what have I just signed up for.
The first half felt incredible - nice tail wind pushing us the whole way to outer harbour with only one spot toward the end finding myself chasing the back wheel of Ironman Finch. To this point we had travelled 26km - so about my normal ride distance max however we needed to do it all again, into a head wind, and I suspect Finch man had a plan in mind. We stopped briefly, discussed fueling, ingested fuel, then continued on, this is where the real work began.
After a few gentle kms, we turned off bower road into I nice (but not too overpowering head wind). Our pace seemed to be increasing and I could no longer ride side by side. I tucked in, head down, locked in on Finch back wheel. For next 15 kms or so, the pace was hefty, I was constantly getting dropped and fighting to get back to his back wheel.
Side note - for those that don’t know, staying close to the back wheel of riders in front of you creates a drag, or towing like sensation, essentially making it slightly easier for the rider behind.
We kept up this pace all the way back to Glenelg - before collapsing (me not Ironman) on the grass. The great news however was the first major milestone had been achieved - 50km outside.
And now I can enjoy the weeks rest in Bali 😂
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Training update 2
Thursday 25th JanAfter the last few months of rehabilitation with my knee, I started a basic riding training plan which was very gentle and had me training three times a week at roughly 20-30kms each session.
To do this consistently I bought a bike trainer (Wahoo kickr core) and signed up for TrainerRoad. This has been paramount to my compliance to the plan as there isn’t ever any weather excuses or other general excuses, and I can ride while multitasking. The indoor training isn’t ever something I could see myself sticking too, even for one ride, but the advent of A.I with TrainerRoad makes it really run and every ride is different.
I recently went through all my ride history for the past 2 decades and noticed I’ve had an average of 12km each ride, so even the 20km rides at this point were feeling tough (I know… I just signed up for 700km ride).
One of the primary reasons for my most recent surgery in my knee was the rapid increase in riding distance and elevation. The plan now is to go very slow and introduce elevation gradually, no more than 10% per week.
The next major milestone will be riding more than 50km outside, once this is achieved it will be the first time in my life and a good first step in the journey toward 700km.
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13 months until the ride - my Everest
Monday 22nd JanSome people may think starting training for an event more than a year away is unnecessary, or even borderline obsessive. These people however may not truly understand the gravity of this challenge and specifically how difficult it’s going to be for me.
This challenges sees participants ride 7 days in a row, each day riding approximately 100km, with the last day climbing over 4,000 meters of elevation - after allready 600 kms and 6 days in the legs.
I’ve just turned 40, and in my life to this point i've never ridden more than 45kms in a single sitting. I’ve had two surgeries (one on each knee) one of which meant ceasing all activities for over 4 months, this one only in the last year. Typically when I climb on a bike I get to anything over 500 meters and I get limiting knee pain.
Thus, this is going to be challenging for me in many different ways. It’s why I’m starting the training early and why I think it’s a proper challenge… Feel free to get behind me and show your support any way you can.
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