How it all started.

Last summer I started cycling with some friends, rides of forty odd miles taking in a couple of pubs and a few pints. I was riding a very nice Raleigh M-Trax mountain bike, light weight no suspension.
Two of my mates had racing bikes a Specialized and a Le Monde.
So time to change my old Raleigh for something a bit faster. I didn't have a huge budget but I did want something quite tasty not a bike I would have to keep fidling with.
I think I looked at the Specialized Allez and the Trek 1200, but decided on the Giant OCR 1.
What a great bike I have clocked up over 2500 kilometers since October, some of that on the turbo trainer, and other than the initial service and cleaning, all I have had to do is keep pedling.

Anyway once I had made my mind up I had to justify this extravegant purchase. So I thought I would do a charity bike ride, if it's for charity it must be ok to buy new bike. (don't tell my wife)!
So what to do; I wanted the challenge to be original and tough, my chosen charity had to be the Samson Centre Guildford, the Chairman and ex rugby team mate John was born in Truro, so that settled the ride.
Start Saturday morning overnight stop arrive Guildford Sunday.... easy.... mmmmm that's no good, so is it possible to do 240 miles in a day, some quick research of the internet said it was... so I must be able to do it (fool) .
The rest was a lot of planning and heart ache over the training what to do and how to prepare for such a challenge.
I researched the internet for a programmes for endurance, it's all there in bits and pieces, but very difficult to extract a programme without buying them from "cyclo-core Graham Street" or such like.
Then I got lucky I contacted Triathlete, Iron man and former manager of my gym Ben Rankilor he was very was keen to help. Although he is now working for David Lloyd racquet club in Southend which is not exacly around the corner, we have manged over a few meeting and emails to hammer out a strict and hard training regime....thanks Ben! Ben does not take any prisoners with his training routines.
So here I am, did lots of turbo training sessions in January and February, March the serious stuff started and tomorrow I have my first hundred mile ride, with another one on Thursday.
This weekend has been rest refuel and recover..... fantastic. Still no beer though :-(

Training when it's raining.

Turbo Training: I have spent about eight hours a week doing various different sessions on the Tacx Flow turbo trainer in my garage since the beginning of the year.
The most important elements were a TV and a good fan (no not my wife). The Winter Olympics helped pass a couple of weeks and it was also good to watch the rugby Six Nations matches, the only problem was keeping a constant cadence as I tended to get carried away when Scotland looked like scoring a try.
I am starting to build up the miles now and I am up to 80 miles at 18mph as my longest ride. It's tough!

My Mission..

My name is Glenn Karpeta, and having only recently taken up cycling for pleasure, I am undertaking a sponsored solo bike ride of 240 Truro and Guildford. The ride is on 10th June and my aim is to complete this in 15 hours or less in the saddle. My coach and mentor, Ben Rankilor assures me that the ride is possible, but adds that it will be incredibly tough and that I am “probably certifiable”. I chose to raise funds for the Samson Centre as its chairman, John Hambly, is a long-time personal friend and former team mate with Old Actonians Rugby Club.I am putting in hours and hours of training and still have over 2,000 miles of training cycling to do before the big day. Obviously sponsorship is the whole point of this ride – to raise as much as possible for the Samson Centre so please help by digging deep into your pockets and making a pledge or a donation.Your sponsorship will be hugely appreciated and put to great use at the Samson Centre. Sponsor me on-line at http://www.justgiving.GlennKarpeta or send sponsorship money to Mrs S. Bower, 17 Oak Tree Road, Milford, Godalming, Surrey. GU8 5JJ if paying by cheque, please make your cheque payable to “MSTG (G) Samson Centre”.
Many thanks for your support, and visiting my page.

Glenn

The hardest part of all this is the 'no alcohol allowed' rule –first time in 25 years!