February 1, 2016
What is going on? Where have the last 5 months gone?
Aims for last month…
I’ve a load of events and announcements to make, so they need to be released throughout December. There will be 4/5 posts this month!
There were a few posts last month including a main sponsor, kit sponsor, my father and a change of training!
I need to make an introduction image thing for the start of all my YouTube videos which will feature my logo and the sponsors.
This is done! You can see an example of this on a Bootcamp session here.
I need to decide what bike I’m buying for the ride, and perhaps buy it!
Annoyingly I was ready to buy this Canyon bike yesterday but I found out there is a FIVE month waiting list. It has really thrown me and I’m now considering what other options I have.
I need get my head down for this next month and train hard to make up for the lost days. No excuses.
I have been training hard.
This month has been a strange one. Other than 2 x 30 mins on the turbo I haven’t rode a bike this year. My trainer took the decision to move me onto swimming and other core exercises in the hope of sorting my bad back. It’s definitely a bit stronger, but until I get back in the saddle I won’t know how much more it can endure. I don’t want to write – or think – too much more about this, the post above covers most of it.
I have one more month until some of my focus will move to promotional aspects of the ride. I was keen to start spreading the word with 6 months to go and then really push it during the last three months. These promotional activities will include me contacting as many magazines, newspapers, businesses, companies etc as possible to see if they can help spread the word. I have some promising leads for promotional events in shopping centre’s, so it would be nice to explore some other avenues and get them officially booked in.
Donations are going really well and I’m just short of £1500 without too much effort. I have lots of fundraising events planned in the 5/6 months leading up to the ride and I will be sending thousands of letters out to businesses and organisations. I’m not overly confident of achieving the £10k target right now (as it’s such a huge amount of money) but as with everything in this ride, I will do my absolute best.
I have spent all this weekend planning the route. It is far far harder than I first imagined and it has changed dramatically since the first attempt. I have also spent the last three weeks running a fitness Bootcamp at work to raise money for the ride. I will be blogging about both of these in more detail later this month.
Aims for this month
- Get someone – preferably with intimate knowledge of American roads – to check over my routes and ensure everything is looking ok
- Make a decision on which bike to buy
- Get some promotional events booked in
Seven months to go! I’m nervous!
Shane
