london to paris bike ride :D

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mikep1979

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if anyone is interested diabetes uk are running a london to paris bike ride soon and are still looking for people to take part. i dont have specific info, but they have a contact on their website :) im hopefully going on it as i have wanted something to challenge me for a while now and think this would be a great way to see the sights too.
 
Hey Mike, good luck to you if you do it! I can't (to my eternal shame) actually ride a bike, so wouldn't get past the starting line without mangling myself!

My ambition is to run Europe from top to bottom, or maybe the other way round, along the Grande Randonn?e 5 - that'll probably take about 4 months, and an awful lot of planning!:)
 
I don't cycle, my sense of balance wont allow me, but good luck to everyone doing the cycle ride. Let us know how you get on and especially as it is for all of us.

As it is for all of us, I think a thank you for doing it is also in order.
 
wow what a run that would be northerner!!! i had an idea a few years back to run coast to coast canada but i couldnt get the logistics right and it would have taken a good few months to do lol
 
Hi Mike,

Excellent work. Unlike Northerner I can ride a bike (barely) but I'm positively dangerous on a bike. As members of my school's CCF will testify if they went on the summer camp last July...I doubt that I'd make it to Paris without visiting a few A&E's on the way there....mmm bike prangs. Coast to coast of Canada, wow, that's mental.

Best of luck with it,

Tom H
 
lol seems like a few on here need a good few lessons in how to cycle. tom i didnt say i was safe on a bike lol but i am fast and dont mind a few hours a day in the saddle. yeah i would love to do canada coast to coast running but to get all the stuff sorted out it would have taken about 3-4 months and then i was looking at around 5 months to complete the run too so unfortunately to long off work lol
 
long treks / bike rides

Caroline - have you tried a tricycle - no balance problem with three wheels!

Northerner - I might be interested in joining you for your run / trek.

A couple of guys in their 20s cycled from China back to UK a couple of years ago, one with diabetes - I think they called their trip "Cyclehome".

Nicholas Crane did a long solo walk along mountain ranges of Europe - and wrote a called Clear Waters Rising, published 2003. Seemed to carry an umbrella all the way, like he does on Coast and Mapman series.

I've only had 2 bike accidents in over 30 years of regular riding, wherever I've lived in Uk or overseas - once in Newfoundland when I fell off the bike owned (but not maintained!) by a physio friend, who had accompanied 2 guys who pushed themselves in wheelchairs from Istanbul to Birmingham; and once in Cambridge, when a man opened his car door without looking, resulting in a buckled wheel, torn T shirt sleeve, broken watch glass and 9cm gash in my upper arm.
 
can you get lucozade on an intravenus?! i some how don't think I would be able to bike that sort of distance! I can barely bike to the local woods and back (maybe 10 miles?) Yes I know I'm unfit!
 
fluids and sugar on bike rides

Not quite lucozade by intravenous, but lots of adventure racers carry bladders containing 1 to 3 litres of water, with sugar / electrolyte powder added, which they drink through a tube - Camelback is the best known brand, but there are plenty of others. However, for a 10 mile round trip to your local woods, taking around an hour of cycling, I'm assuming, a creal bar before setting off should be enough, and as you'll probably carry some fluid, might as well carry 1 bottle with plain water and 1 with sugar / electrolytes. Most bikes have space for 2 bottle holders on the frame.

For introduction to adventure racing nutrition (not aimed by diabetes, but lets you know product types and uses), see http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/training.php?article_id=176 For homemade race food (again not aimed at diabetes), see http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/training.php?article_id=180
 
i use camelback and it is my old army one too!!! lol greatest thing ever to be made. i usually fill mine with water and just carry my glucotabs with me as i find drinks of sugar take longer to help my bg levels. i also carry a couple of bananas to.
 
Sadly, I left TA before they started issuing Camelbacks, but I have a cheaper brand version now, and, agree, bananas are great, although I have to remember not to sit on them before eating them, so often use more resilient cereal bars or energy gels eg High 5 (not Glucogel, formerly known as Hypostop, as packs are too small). Only proviso is to ensure you rinse and dry Camelback type bladders and tubes carefully - I have seen people get very nasty intestinal infections from inadequately washed kit, and once spent an interesting evening trying to secure antibiotics for a racer in the Outer Hebrides - see http://www.planetfear.com/articles/Hebridean_Challenge_2006_678.html
 
wow that link was good copepod. all this has made me so sure now that a) im doing the bike ride and b) im gonna do my run next year too. lol i got to keep most of my kit when i left the army. still use my old jump boot when i go out hill walking as i find they are so comfortable lol
 
Arrggh Copepod don't get me started on diabetes and the army.....

Mike,

What regiment were you before you got out?

Tom H
 
i was in the para's tom. loved every minute of it. would defo recommend it to anyone. im also a little peeved with the armed forces stance on diabetes and service, but it will never change.
 
Not if I get my way Mike. My pet project at the moment is to get things changed. I'm willing to do anything to get what I want. If you want some of the stuff that I have found that shows diabetics are just as capable as the next man PM me and I'll send it to you. This is something I have taken up with my MP.

Oh, my granddad was a para. French colonial para. Jumped into Suez in '56 in the middle of a three year national service stint in Algeria. Friggin hard case the old boy.

Tom H
 
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im very interested tom and i too feel that a diabetic with good control can be just as fit if not fitter than an average soldier.
 
hi all i just got my info pack through from diabetes uk for the bike ride. wow it is interesting reading lol. first off it is a deposit of ?99 which is refunded if you hit a certain target of funds raised. now there is 2 levels to raise. 1st is ?999 and wont get you your ?99 deposit back. 2nd is ?1500 and this will allow you to get your deposit returned to you. well in the past 4 hours since i got mine i have already coined ?350 out of my parents lol and have to see my sister later today lol. well folks i think it is a great thing to be able to do for diabetes uk and i will be trying to gain as much support for this off people i know and also local business people to, but i'd like to know if anyone else off here is planning to do this bike ride??
 
I wish I could do this bike ride. Although my cycling is somewhat dubious at the ebst of times I think it would get in the way of university somehow...

Tom H
 
Unfortunately I'm not fit enough to cycle such a distance and I've left my bicycle in Holland when I moved. The good news: if anyone who cannot ride a bike wants to learn in order to participate, I can teach you! :D

Just got the newsletter from Diabetes UK today with a link to the article about this. Is there no way people who are not going can support or sponsor the cyclists?
 
nicky_too said:
Unfortunately I'm not fit enough to cycle such a distance and I've left my bicycle in Holland when I moved. The good news: if anyone who cannot ride a bike wants to learn in order to participate, I can teach you! :D

Just got the newsletter from Diabetes UK today with a link to the article about this. Is there no way people who are not going can support or sponsor the cyclists?
Click to expand...

I ran in the Hague half marathon last year. Had never been to Holland before and was astounded by the number of bicycles! Not in the race, of course! How could you leave you bike behind? A bit hillier around Barnsley, I guess! Actually, I was very amused in the Hague race that they managed to find a hill for us to run up at about 10 miles!:)

When I ran in the Great South Run last year, I set up a 'justgiving' page - anyone can sponsor you through this, and very easy to set up.
 
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