ks.raw@sky.com

The Challenge
I rediscovered my love of cycling 5 years ago when my twin girls asked me to take them on bike rides, I had just got my 20 year service award with the company I work for and decided with the points I received to get a bike, it was roughly 30 years since I had ridden a bike.
The fun we had and mileage we covered was fantastic and now 5 years later Phil and I have set each other the challenge of cycling 127 miles from Liverpool to Leeds in 15 hours following the canal.
For any one wanting to do this you have to get fit and build your strengh up over a period of time covering further mileage every trip out, you need a very good reliable bike, spare inner tubes and a puncture repair kit not to mention family support food and drinks to say a few.
I am 52 years old in June so for all you old boring fogies out there get on a bike and get fit, I also suffer with high blood pressure and the advise from my Doctor is to keep going, its the best thing you can do to get fit and healthy.
Watch this space for further information or just email Phil and my self if you need any help.
Kim Raw

www.towpathtreks.co.uk/LLC/index.html

The Training

Both Kim and I have started training and building up the mileages. I started back in March with runs from Rodley to Leeds and back then started to extend the miles by heading the other way to Bingley 5 rise locks (Nice cafe at the top good cakes). In April Kim started to push up the mileage with some good runs around 52 miles taking in quite a bit of hill riding getting to and from the canal. For me the canal is much closer to my home around 1/2 mile from Rodley so I get out of the hills only locks and a little bit of road to contend with. A friend of mine Gary Thorpe has joined me on a couple of rides heading out towards Leeds and out to Castleford a great ride as you get to see lots you will never see travailing by car. Just recently in May I have now put a couple of rides in heading out to Skipton along the tow path. My brother James joined my on the first run out and heading out towards Riddlesden is reasonably easy as the tow path is good. Once you get past here the tow path turns to grass with a muddy track that does restrict your speed from this point to Silsden then to Skipton. We both made it there and back with no drama so this weekend just gone I decided to do it again this time on my own. I seemed to be easier the 2nd time so my fitness appears to be approving time to raise the bar some more.

Can we do it?

After talking with a colleague from work Kim Raw who also rediscovered his cycling legs we decided that we will give this challenge a go and now plan to do the ride around August this year. We have decided to set up this blog as a way of documenting our training and preparation to show that ordinary geezers that push pens for a living can achieve this kind of thing. As a point of reference the Team Aldi blog http://teamaldi.blogspot.com/ has been a great help and inspiration to us and we also hope this blog will help and inspire others.

The Challange

After realising I was about to turn 40 I was rummaging around in my garage one day and found my old bike propped up against the wall. After taking it out for a couple of spins around the block I rediscovered the reason I had bought the bike almost 15 years earlier (I loved cycling).

Over the next few weeks I started to regain some of the fitness I had lost over the last 10 years after becoming a pen pusher and having a family. Looking for routes one day on the Net I stumbled accross a blog set up by a Team of guys that rode from Liverpool to Leeds along the the canal tow path in one day 127 miles.

http://teamaldi.blogspot.com/

www.towpathtreks.co.uk/LLC/index.html




That was it - It can be done - I have to do this - So here we go.