Wendy has the sniffles

Oh dear, no training this week because I have the sniffles. That is a really good excuse... right??

Poor Wendy!!

Josie and I have been meeting with our wonderful school community this week to share the message about underprivileged girls and the importance of an education in enabling them to change their world. It has been so wonderful to get so much support and we are really looking forward to speaking with the kids. I think it is really important that this journey is not just about money, and if we can make one kid want to do something in the future to change the world then that is awesome. So thank you GGS!

Then in an interesting development, Hugh has suggested that I should do the ride in full evening dress. The feedback I have been getting is that people would pay to see that!! I am just trying to decide if this is actually a compliment! I am thinking maybe not... but as you know, I always like an excuse to frock up... so watch this space!

Anyhoo, he was sharing this with his basketball coach who suggested that she would pay money (a lot) to see me do it with training wheels!! Again, not entirely sure this is actually a compliment, but has lead to a raft of other ridiculous possibilities. Let me write a list, because you know how I like a list:

1. training wheels - well not original, but it important to be thorough
2. clickety-clacks - not sure what they are called, but do you remember the plastic things you could put on your spokes to make noise as you ride - I always thought they were really cheerful
3. basket - with flowers I am thinking, because you can never have too much storage
4. handle bar streamers - because everything looks better with streamers especially if they are sparkly
5. one of those really long flags on the back which bend when you go under a tree - I don't know why but frankly I always wanted one
6. oh dear, only 5 items... not much of a list really. You may have noticed that I always like 10 things in my lists... please me dear friends give me 5 additional items so my list can be whole!

So I am not sure any of this is practical (in fact I think we can be fairly sure none of it is at all practical) but it is food for thought!!

BTW I now have 3 donations so thank you to my wonderful friends and hooray for me!!

W x

Hollywood Glamour

So, why can't I change the world like this??

This is so totally Wendy-Woo! Evening gown, fabulous jewelry and the requisite glass of champagne!
Photo courtesy of Louise Rattray.

Why do I have to wear lycra, and train, and sweat?? Lucky the ride will be flat with no wind and nice weather or I might have a really BIG problem.

So if you read my post about cycling for one whole hour - this was a key part of my intensive training program. Happy to incorporate this into my journey since I can really excel at this!!

And here is one of Josie and me at the Oscars (lucky I have 8 inch heels or you might think I am short!!):

So my brave, amazing friend Josie shaved her head today for this incredible cause. She is now first place in the fundraising for all of the girls on this amazing journey. Way to go Josie!!

Obviously, that is not an option for me since (as one of my clients said) how can I flick my hair and sniff dismissively when someone is being a dweeb in a meeting if I shave my head!! Who knew this was my trademark.

W x

I am so lucky!!

Josie and I received this video link from our Plan coordinator when we approached her about sharing our message with the wonderful kids in our wonderful school community.

It is so amazing to watch. Such a powerful message. Really made me stop and think.

So maybe, I should just stop being a whiny baby about my training... I have an amazing life and I get to do anything I set my heart on... well most anything!!

And best of all, I am doing something really positive to help change the lives of girls like this one.

How lucky am I??!!

W x

One whole hour without stopping

In another hooray for me moment… I just cycled for one whole hour. Without stopping! Who would have thought that was possible!!

I decided yesterday, while taking a day off from riding that I needed to build endurance rather than just focusing on speed. So I set myself a target of an hour of cycling with no target distance.

Goal setting is key? Right? That is what they say on the TV when interviewing famous sports people. So now I have my goal. They also go on about preparation. I believe that may be the second key.

So ever one to leverage the experience and insights of others, I undertook an intensive program to prepare. In the 20 hours between setting my goal and the achieving my goal (did I mention hooray for me??) I was totally focused on my objective.

Let me share my preparation with you. 

1. Get up, make coffee and do three loads of washing
2. Make waffles for breakfast for my beautiful boys
3. Clean up after breakfast
4. Make coffee
5. Go shopping for a birthday present for the sleepover Hugh is going to
6. Get my eyebrows threaded (highly recommended if you have never done it) because I have to look fabulous tonight… but more about that later
7. Buy two books for my boys as a reward for being well behaved last week… they were awesome… as long as I ignore all of the bits where they weren't!
8. Come home and make lunch because as usual when I walk in the door, before I have put down my keys, someone always announces that they are hungry. I know right?
9.  Try on evening gowns for big red carpet Hollywood party tonight. Oh dear, they were all fabulous a few pounds ago. I hate that closet shrinkage! There must be a product which stops expensive fabrics from shrinking while left on the closet… must investigate
10. Drop boys off at sleepover party. Hamish is just visiting for a couple of hours because it is a Nerf Gun party and the big boys need targets! So younger siblings are being paid to be targets. What a fabulous idea!!
11. Rush to the only store near me to purchase fabulous frock for red carpet Hollywood party with my stylist Paul. Need to leave in 1 ½ hours and currently have not done my hair and do not have a frock. But at least my eyebrows look fabulous! So at least there is no pressure!
12. Find fabulous frock by an Australian designer Lisa Brown at a wonderful little boutique called Milk and Honey. It is a little bit long, but luckily I have the most fabulous pair of suede boots which make me nearly as tall as Paul – that is a difference of nearly 10 inches. Note to self, do not wear boots while driving. May end badly!
13. Get home and get fabulous. Can’t do usual ritual of having a glass of champagne while beautifying… have I mentioned Paul is not coming as he is flying to San Francisco tonight. Feel’s weird. I can’t believe he hasn't booked me a car service so I don’t have to drive and can arrive on the red carpet in style. I know right?
14. Paul goes and collects Hamish from party having finished is target duties. Luckily despite the rain he is still moderately l clean, so off we go!
15. Arrive at party. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. Met by the Paparazzi, had a wonderful night. Great food, great company. Won 2 Oscars. Hooray for me again! Collected one on behalf of Paul. Photos will follow!
16. Drove home with Hamish and tucked up in bed by midnight… just.

So this morning after a surprising little sleep-in and collecting Hugh from the wonderful sleepover.. if you are not a parent of kids a certain age. A sleepover is the best birthday party in the world. The parents love you because you get a night off. Bliss.

Anyway, back to my preparation and goal.

So this morning I headed down to the studio and started cycling. I thought my beautiful boys might come down to the studio to cheer me on and give me encouragement when it all got a bit too hard for me… as it now doubt would, despite my intensive preparation… They felt that it would be more beneficial for me if they spent the time playing computer games… they are in the middle of launching a rocket into space and trialing different fuel cells and centers of thrust and centers of gravity.. as you do. So I left them to their important scientific endeavors.

So I was in the studio with all of my friends… not even any web bots for company.. and I did it! One whole hour and I traveled.. wait for it… prepare to be amazed… 19.6 km. That is way higher than I was expecting. So excited!

So for all of the glass is half full people -   I traveled just less than half of my shortest cycling day on my adventure… BUT I prefer to look at life the other way up!

To digress, a great quote from Paul… “The glass is not half full, and nor is it half empty, you have twice as much glass as you need!”

The lesson I am taking away from this is… set your goal, prepare to achieve your goal and you may surprise yourself with what you can achieve!

I can totally do this!

W x

My Bubble is Burst!

So I just checked my blog stats.. It is so exciting seeing that people are coming in a reading how I am going. 28 page views yesterday! Hooray for me! That is so cool. 28 of my friends checked out how I am progressing...

Or did they???

Helpful Paul has just taken a look and he burst my bubble!! Apparently it is web crawlers... oh dear... are they my friends?? Are they excited by my slightly wacky take on cycling and life in general. Am I the talk at the water cooler in the web crawler office?

Do web crawlers leave comments, or google +1 me??

Thanks so much Paul!! I was feeling totally awesome today. Rode 5 km in a new record time. 14 minutes 30 seconds if you are interested my friendly web crawlers.

BTW he also pointed out that it is not even 28 web crawlers, because they visit each post, so I need to divide 28 by 7 - which is 4 - but really that is just too depressing for me to contemplate - so I will just put that aside for now...

Oh dear, another bex and a lie down.

W x

A Personal Best

Still no update on the actual bike, but it is OK because there are 160 days until I actually leave, so I have time!

How do I know it is 160 days you might ask... well maybe, just maybe I took a leaf out of Hugh's book and created a model. But don't tell anyone!!

Yesterday I rode stage 1 of the TdF. Well not the whole thing obviously!! 18km is too much to fit into my very busy schedule. Well OK, while my schedule is indeed very busy the fact is that I could not ride 18km.

BUT I rode 7km in 20 minutes. That is an average speed of 21kmph. AND that is the best I have achieved so far. So hooray for me! And I didn't even have to have a lie down afterwards, so I think that is really great progress and should be celebrated! Maybe with some Bollinger, or maybe Verve!! Mmmmmm. Must go see what is in the fridge!

BTW, I don't need people pointing out the rather large difference between 7km and 86km. My wonderful boys have already done that so I am quite on top of the whole thing! Bless them. But they cheered me on yesterday, so some of the credit for my progress must lie with them.

Thanks to all my wonderful friends who are giving me encouragement and enjoying my posts! Who knew this journey would be so much fun!!

Until next time...

W x

What a great day!

So today has been so great!

Key Statistics:
1. Bikes purchased = 0
2. Riding on an actual road = 0km
3. Training on my trainer = 48km *
4. Donations received = 1 **
5. Comments received = 1 ***
6. Google +1 received = 1 ****

* Well obviously that is a cumulative figure!! There is absolutely no way I could cycle 48km in one day. YET!! I have been training on Stage 1 of the Tour de France. And despite what one of my very helpful and supportive colleagues has said, IT IS NOT FLAT!! I acknowledge its is quite flat in many places, but as you know, I am only cycling on the flat so it is excellent training. Let's for now put aside Day 6 of the Itinerary. I am not ready to deal with that emotionally...

My record day is the first 10km of this stage. Did it in 30 minutes. Hooray for me!! That means I averaged 20km per hour which is pretty good for a novice! Again, let's not focus on the fact that after that I had to have a little lie down to recover.

** I received my first donation!! How exciting is that. From a wonderful, generous friend. I am totally enjoying this journey already, and I only just started.

*** A comment! Also very exciting! Thanks Bill!! My blog was starting to be like being at home. I have many, many interesting observations to share... but is anyone listening?? At home I say Boys have you done your homework? Boys have you tidied your room? Boys have you brushed your teeeth? Boys come and tidy up this mess!! And so on. Does anyone answer? Not usually!! Might as well talk to the wall! Oh dear, sounding like my parents... Also sounding like a total nag! But back to my great day!! I LOVE comments, so please keep them coming!

**** I received a Google +1 a few days ago from a wonderful friend. I have to be honest, I don't actually know what this is... but in my experience very few things are best with a low number. Obvious exceptions, age, interest rates, calories in cake, row number in a plane... So now I want more +1's!!

So back to my great day again... focus Wendy!!

Yesterday, Hugh tells me it is 100 days to Christmas! Who does that? Set's up a model to count the days to Christmas?? I know some of you may be thinking like mother like son... but I can honestly say I never built a model for that... maybe just kept a count in my head... So anyhoo, that lead me to the realization that after Christmas I only have... let me see 6 + 31 + 27 days until I go on my big adventure. So that means I have 164 training days left! Oh dear!! Well actually, this was yesterday so I only have 163. I wonder if I should build a model?? And let's be honest I will have to take a few days off somewhere in there because it is the silly season and I will have parties to attend.  OK, so definitely need to focus on training. My objective is to be able to cycle 80km by Christmas. You heard it. Better yet, I hope to cycle 80km before Christmas without needing a little lie down afterwards!

OK, back to work... so much to do. PLUS I have to prepare to meet with Josie to discuss plans for our Quiz Night which is now again a very scary 53 days away. Another model perhaps??

I seriously need to work on my time management!!

See you next time

W x