Sponsorship Update

Sponsorship is going really well. If you head over to our justgiving.com site you'll see we've had £140 pledged there, Fiona's done about £240 in her office and we're slowly working our way around mine and Andy's.

What I do have to report is the very kind generosity of the following few companies who through Hire-It have supported us:

Martin Bell and the crew at Landscape Excel -http://www.landscapeexcel.co.uk/

The team at the DRP Group - http://www.drpgroup.com/

Jack Brothwell and all at Brothwell and Miles Ltd

Bryan Taylor and everyone at Just Trees - 01562 746976

These are all lovely peeps who are helping out our cause. Please check them out and use their services,

I think we're about half way to the £1000 minimum but lets see how far we can go. We still need some personal sponsorship (£175 x 3) towards the manufacture of some cycle jerseys (see blog) so if you can or know of anyone who can help out please get in touch ASAP chris@crazyhamstercrew.co.uk

Thanks everyone,

Chris

Update

Just a short blog to say we're still both here. I've been recovering from my mountain marathon - it really did take four days till I could walk downstairs without holding the walls! I thought it was a good time to take a few days off too. In a bizarre twist, I bought a kayak at the weekend and spent two days in the sea paddling away, maybe we can do something water based next year? Hmmm... Round a Caribbean Island.... The Amazon.....

Andy's dedication showed when he shortened his family holiday in France to return to the UK to keep training - oh? what? it was actaully the rain in France? OK so he's kind of back but I think he's headed to Malvern and you can bet he'll be telling me about all the hills he nailed on his bike whilst I've been in my boat :o(

Back to it this weekend....

Blogging from Heaven

... well I think I am. Mainly because I'm sure that yesterday, I died.

Ok, Ok, back a couple of steps then. Right, I kept this away from the blog mainly because even up until Thursday night, I didn't know if I was going to go through with it. With what??? I hear you ask. Well, on Friday I met up with my team and on Saturday we competed in the 2007 Snowdonia 7's challenge (see t-shirt for details).....

For those of you too lazy to click on the T shirt, it reads "22 miles, 8000 feet, 7 Summits, 1 Challenge". I can honestly say I think it is possibly the hardest single event I've ever done in my life. Oh, it was a running event too, no bikes this weekend :o(

This picture is a 3D map and I've drawn on the route but it basically went like this:

730am on Saturday, get over major anxiety of day before and get to start line in Llanberis. 8am GO!!! 74 teams of 4 race up Snowdon and boy did we go. We got to the top in 92 minutes, the pace was unreal. From here, we doubled back to another peak (Two down) and then back again before heading off Snowdon down to Pen-y-pass. I think we got here in about 2hrs30ish. My groin was killing from the run down through paths which better resembled waterfalls. Did I mention it had rained from the start? Well ok, it was raining. Loads. We stopped for 6 minutes to fill up water bottles and stretch before we got back to it and headed for the Glyders. Not direct, we had a river crossing to do where the water went above my waist (and almost to Dave's nipples!) and a trek across some bushy stuff before we followed yet another waterfall up, up and more up. The third peak was one of the Glyders and by now, my left foot began to cramp up. No shin splints, but this niggling away at the sole of my foot started to slow me. We pushed on through the weather (did I mention it was raining?) to the second of the Glyders and then down to the time check with 9 minutes to spare. If you didn't get here in 6hrs, they stopped you. My legs resembled Bambie's by now, not thin (like they ever will be) but very unstable.

Onwards meant another climb to the fifth and six peaks. We've been over 6hrs by now with only that one stop and Dave and I were lagging. Ryan and Simon were spurring us on though. After the sixth, there was a big descent, a horseshoe and then one final climb to a very craggy peak. As we left the seventh behind we caught up with some of the other teams and overtook them. There were lots of tired legs but the thought of being only an hour from the end pushed us on. When we hit the flat of the lake we were about 2Ks from home. From somewhere we all found spurts of energy to break into the odd run and thanks to Ryan bellowing at me we all crossed the line running. 8hrs 53 minutes. Of sheer hell :o)

The event organisers said it was the worst weather in the event's history. In total 74 teams took part. Only 26 finished. Three other teams did it from the salon and all four of us finished. The veterans came home about 40mins ahead of us, the girls (who won the female event - woop woop! well done) were about 20mins ahead of us and the mixed team about 20 mins behind so we were all very close together. We think we finished about 20th but await confirmation.

So....That was last week's training. Looking forward to the next ride now, see you soon,

Chris

Oh....you want to know how I feel now? Well, I can hardly walk. My left foot is killing and I hardly slept all night as my legs kept cramping. Going up stairs is OK but I just had to resort to my bottom to come down. If you want to know if I'm doing it next year, give it at least a couple of weeks before you pop the question.

Biggups - Dave, Simon and Ryan. I'd have never got round without the encouragement. Gordo and Dave for scaring the living daylights out of me on Friday with their pre-race planning. Ruth for the ONE text of encouragement I received all day (OK so I didn't tell you all that I was going), and Becki and Aide for the cups of tea this morning which kept me awake for the drive home. Legends all of you.

Lycra wasn't made with me in mind!

Breaking news.....

The CHC are entering a new era....today we opened our very own business/charity bank account with the lovely people at HSBC Bank in Bromsgrove. A big thank you to Ben who helped us out & gave us advice.

Well, what can I say, Chris is now officially a Secretary, of the CHC that is. I personally have become the chairman of the board but only because I look awful in a short skirt & high heels. Unfortunately, Chris is on his way to Snowdon to compete in a mountain challenge so there's no way he can defend himself. (unlucky!!) but I'm sure that you ladies out there can give him advice on how to stop those hairs poking thro the fishnets, oh my god, what a terrifying thought. Can you believe that he threatened to "break my legs" if I blogged him....
Fair play to him, he has been a little anxious today but with the support of his colleagues, I'm sure he will only stay in intensive care for a week or so.

I am off to France on Saturday to sample the wine & cheese. I have managed to "hide" my bike in the boot so I can get a few rides in whilst I'm away.

I have no doubt that Chris will take the opportunity to diss me whilst I'm away but just remember this.....who's the chairman?

Later....

The psychology of cycling

Right, it's late, I'm tired and I'm worn out from football but I just had to put this up. The title might be misleading but bear with me...

Don't get me wrong, I am loving road cycling...but... peel back the lycra, throw away the fingerless gloves and use vaseline only for chapped lips, I AM A MOUNTAIN BIKER. Through and through.

From the age of 7 my parents bought me a Raleigh Mustang. 7 Gears, nobbley tyres. Since then I've gone through a Claud Butler with a flex stem, a Grisley with my first front shocks, a custom built Sintesi (god I loved her) and right now I have the most beautiful Specialized Fsr Xc Pro hanging in my garage needing a little TLC. I go out in any weather, get muddy, fall off (granty too!), break bits, break bits of me. I love it. I will always do it. I AM a mountain biker.

So, why is it that when I am out disguised as a roady on my skinny tired race machine and I nod at my homeys on their fully sussed, multiple inches of suspension mountain bikes, they look the other way?! Inside, the mountain biker in me is screaming "Guys? It's me, really! It's Chris the Mountain Biker. I'm one of you! This lycra is just temporary!" But to no avail.

It's like a click and I think it sucks. So long as it doesn't have an engine, if it's got two wheels we should all nod at one another.... we'll see eh?

Weekend Ride part 2......

As Chris has already mentioned, Saturdays ride was quite a tester with the heat & the hills. I have to agree with the boy (although i hate to admit it) that it was one of the best ride outs we have done. Had quite a rewarding feeling at the end even if I did fell like I was going to be sick once ot twice!It started at about 3 miles out when Chris attacked a short climb, his cadence must have been about 150 and he looked like he was riding a turbo charged hamster wheel. Things settled down after that but I reckon that was because he was trying to find his heart that had popped out earlier. The hill that took us up to the top of Clent was a beast. It was probably about a km if that but the gradient was...well, you had to be there....

Onto other things and the addition of a new team member. Bob has joined us and guess what, another mountain biker. To be fair, he will ride any type of bike he can get his hands on and is a currently taking part in a 24hr endurance race.

I would like to say thank you to Torq Fitness who have agreed to give us energy products at a good price. Torq supply all the usual products but also act a Performance Consultancy. Matt Hart is the main man & a nice guy so click on the following link to look at what they have got to offer, oh & mention us when ordering.. http://www.torq.ltd.uk/default.asp

Finally, I'm off on holiday in a weeks time to check out some French property but I think I have convinced my other half to let me take my bike so I can keep up the training. I can only agree with Chris (not again) that it is a far friendly cycling country than the UK.

Weekend Ride

Firstly apologies for the lack of blogging last week, a combination of working a few late ones but also I backed off my training for a week. After my second game of footy on Wednesday I could barely walk without an agonising pain in both my shins. A bit of google research and I came up with these: shin splints :o( Ok so I'm no Doctor but what I was feeling pretty matched their description. The main remedy for these is rest. Not good when you're training for the Alpe D'Huez but I took it as an opportunity to put my feet up. Note: Andy has still been getting out loads!

So we planned a three hour jaunt for Saturday meeting at Andy's. We set off into Bromsgrove and headed for Droitwich. I'll add in here, that we learnt on the London Paris trip last year that 1. The French Roads are lovely, smooth, no pot-holes, and are never dug up and filled with inferior tarmac & 2. French Drivers respect and expect cyclists, give them room and politely pap their horn when they are about to overtake. The UK has neither of these so we choose to head out on the quieter main roads as the country lanes we've been training on are getting very cut up.

So...Bromsgrove to Droitwich on the A38. Not too bad, a couple of short stabbing climbs but nothing too taxing. I read last week that a good training tip for the Alpe is to attack any climb whilst training in a lower than normal gear and pedal at 90rpm - yeah, you try that when you're out next, I nearly bloody died! My heart was jumping out of my chest for the next ten minutes. I'll stick to big leg muscle power for now. Right, Droitwich to Kidderminster was nice. Saturday here was roasting and this road is shaded so kept the heat off. Then we headed the back route to Hagley which has a couple of fairly big hills and we were about an hour into the ride by now. Then we hit Hagley. From here we could've turned left straight back to Chez Millerz but in front of us were the mighty Clent Hills. We had to, just had to. So we hit the hill up to Hagley Top, then the A456 past the obelisk and Badgers Set pub. What a climb!!!!! Steadied ourselves for about a K and then took the country lane right onto the top of Clent. We then did Walton Hill before heading back down to the M5 and the North Part of Bromsgrove. "One more hill?" cherps Andy!?!?!, well why not! So we powered (like that nice positive vocab?) up onto the lop of Lickey before the downhill to his house. What a ride. Quite possibly the best we've done yet I think. The stats: I think it was about 53K's but the hills made up for the shortened distance. We did that in about 2 1/4hrs. And did I mention it was hot, very hot.

So, onward and upward. I might sneak out for a quick hour this afternoon if I can but I'm defo (big bro reference!) going to take it a bit easier at football this week. I think we'll have to get one last ride in before Andy heads off on his hols next weekend.

Sponsorship is going well, almost £100 online, Mrs Millerz got us over £100 at work on Friday and we've had a fair few promises too. We've got our fuel expenses covered, are trying for a minibus but no news on shirt sponsorship yet so if you are interested, get in touch.

Happy Cycling!

Hammy

Big thanks Angela!

I could not think of a finer way to thank the wonderful Angela (in the office @ Hire-It) than by dedicating this post to her. Today, Angela has single handedly folded and inserted no less than 200 Crazy Hamster sponsorship forms to be sent with Hire-It's outgoing mail.

Angela you are a star.

from the Crazy Hamster Team x

PS, We've heard you not getting much male attention at the moment so feel free to pop by and rub our legs anytime!

Weekend Ride

Wow, where did that come from? We just blasted 55k's in two hours dead. That's an average of 27.5kph which is up about 3kph from anything else we've ever done.

I gotta say I was a little worried when I turned up at Chez Millerz at 4.30 this afternoon to find Andy pedalling away on his Turbo Trainer. He's obviously taking this one seriously I thought, or he's been reading the blog whilst he's been away and seen how much I've been doing.

The ride went well, both my good shorts were in the wash so I had to wear some old ones which still chafed a bit (sorry!) but as for the legs, they feel great. A bit strange but of anything, it's my arms aching tonight.

Anyway, it was proven today that Andy isn't actually bionic....

He'll probably make up some rubbish about checking out the wildlife!!

Millerzz returns from his training camp

Well, another week has passed and whilst Andy's been chilling out in Spain, I've been taking the opportunity of putting in some graft. An hour of five-a-side on Monday helped to shake off the stiff legs from the weekend. I planned to head out for a ride on Tuesday when I got a call from my mate asking me to fill in for his five-a-side game. I decided to do both which was all good and well until some idiot started on me at football and tried to headbutt me - looser. All's ok with this Hammy though!

I headed to my third game of footy on Wednesday but by 30minutes, I'd cramped up pretty bad and resigned myself to the goal. So, the best part of 120Ks and three games of footy in 7 days isn't too bad by all accounts?

Spoke to Andy earlier and welcomed him home. Needless to say we've planned a ride for tomorrow already! I think it's going to be a long one too :o) And maybe a run on Sunday, who knows?!

Oh, big shout out for all those who've emailed me with support. You know who you are, thanks x