Hollseey

What a week it’s been! Its safe to say the past 7 days have had more ups and downs than the London to Brighton bike ride!

If you’ve been following me on social media, you may be aware that I’m taking part in three cycles for the British Heart Foundation (You can sponsor me HERE). The first of these was the London to Brighton 54(ish) miler on June 18. The second cycle is a 60 mile London to Cambridge cycle on the 2nd July, and the third cycle will be RideLondon, a 100 miler on the 30th July. It’s all for a great cause and is proving to be a great laugh so far.

The preparation for ride 1, however, didn’t go quite as planned. My week began with my car deciding to not accelerate, which wasn’t ideal. Then the final big cycle before London to Brighton became an absolute disaster. It was so long winded, I could probably give it a blog post of its own. Basically, two blown MTB inner tubes later, I went to ride my road bike and found my rear wheel completely bent and spoke broken. It was way beyond saving, so a new wheel was the solution. I think my lawnmower fell on my bike.

Then my cat Gangster got poorly and started getting really skinny, so multiple trips to the vets were in order. Unfortunately there was too much wrong with her which was an absolute shock as she’d been fine until then and she didn’t make it. I am however, sure that she is now high as a kite on catnip and peeing on all furniture she can find somewhere up in cat-heaven, which I know was her favourite thing to do. The absolute little legend.

London to Brighton, however, was absolutely amazing! Doing the cycle as a group of five was my first experience of long distance cycling in a team, and it was great! The atmosphere was brilliant, there were plenty of laughs along the way and we tackled Ditchling Beacon head on despite the 32c heat! (I’ll actually be writing a separate blog post on the cycle itself).

The next morning I woke up feeling absolutely fine in the legs, strangely with just one achey shoulder and headed off to the Cotswolds to surprise my boyfriend for his 24th. We stayed in a glamping pod for a couple of nights in a place called Notgrove which I couldn’t recommend enough! The weather was absolutely boiling, we had pet alpacas, we hired a boat and just had an amazing time. It was so nice to be in a place with rubbish signal and just switch off.

Then it was work on Thursday and Friday, which for the first time in my career I am really enjoying every day. I get to read, write and learn about football every day, and get paid for it. What more could I ask for?!