July 1, 2016
Two months. Just wow, 8 little weeks. I can’t believe how fast it has gone.
Aims for last month
Ride a 10,000ft
Not done this. The way my training has worked there hasn’t really been a suitable weekend. I have done an 8000ft and 7000ft consecutive though.
Do the two day test weekend, review and consider how day-to-day should work in America
Did this last weekend, you can read the review here.
Complete the maintenance course, video it and ensure I know what I’m doing
This is also complete now. I was featured on Evans’ blog off the back of it and I have a post coming next week which goes into more detail.
Other aims I was yet to complete
Order the banner
This is now in my possession, it looks fantastic but I’m not sure how I’m going to get it to America yet! It’s quite large!
Check out insurance
Like many things on this trip this proved much more difficult than first thought. Some wouldn’t cover the trip, others wouldn’t cover the bike and some weren’t willing to pay out long term if I had an accident. I finally got a few good leads yesterday so hopefully this will be sorted soon!
It has been another good month on the bike. I’m finally reaching the required daily mileage (120 miles) and feeling relatively good after. Obviously I’m concerned about doing this for 28 consecutive days but I’ve still two months of training left and I’m preparing myself as well as I can. It is crazy how much my mentality has changed to distance and life in general, big things are seemingly so much smaller now. Things are certainly starting to become – and feel – a lot more real.
I’ve spent a lot of this month trying to sort as much as possible and again I really underestimated the costs and the amount of things required. For example 3 nights accommodation in SF/NY £700, Insurance £200+, Banner £200, Bike boxes £300 Taxis to/from airport etc etc etc. I have a final RV payment of £4000 to pay next month, then add the flights, fuel, bike etc and we are looking at a significant sum. The costs have been made so much easier by my sponsors and I will be forever grateful to them!
I’ve a lot of stuff coming up in my final 8 weekends. A few events that spring to mind include:
- Ride London
- Fundraising party
- Lake district ride
- Ride to Scarborough
- New video shoot
- 2 x weddings
- 1 x stag
Things are getting hectic and my daily routine now consists of getting up at 5am, riding 40 miles, going to work, finishing and eating tea, trying to squeeze a few hours of marketing/organising in before bed and repeat. This process only differs on weekends where I ride for 120 miles or so instead of going to work. It’s hectic but I’m enjoying and taking a huge amount of satisfaction from it.
“My daily routine now consists of getting up at 5am, riding 40 miles, going to work, finishing and eating tea, trying to squeeze a few hours of marketing/organising in before bed and repeat”
I have raised about 3k which I guess is not bad, but I’ve still a long way to go to the target of 10k and I’m freaking out about that. I’m on television next month (BBC2 6th July 8am, also iPlayer after) and I’ve a few really good marketing opportunities coming up so I’m hoping things will start to pick up in the weeks before I go. I’m planning to send thousands of letters out to local businesses and organisations in August, I’m hoping that will bring in a significant amount.
Aims for July
- Draft the fundraising letters ready to be sent out in August
- Ride a 10,000ft
- Ride 1000 miles
