Amazing

Something happened whilst we have been on holiday that I will remember for ever!

I was in the sea playing with the kids and as you can imagine, the water was cold. Since Kate was stood close by I asked her to look after my wedding ring as my finger had shrunk and the ring was a little too loose for my liking.

Kate gladly took it.

After a short time Kate was reading her book laying on her beach towel with my ring by her side. Some more time had passed and Kate had finished her book got up shook the sand off her towel and walked back to the beach hut only to remember half an hour later that my ring was on the towel when she shook the sand off.

I felt really very sad when she told me and soon we had 7 or 8 people looking in the sand in the area it my have been.

Usually I believe that I can find anything, anywhere, however, with how I was feeling the task in hand seemed even harder than finding a needle in a haystack, all the helpers kicking the sand around, burying the ring even deeper in to the sand, even further away from where it originally was.

After an hour or so the very kind people who was helping us, Kate and myself had given up.

Gutted, Kate and I went for a walk, sat on the beach on our own and talked about how important the ring was and the memories attached to it, we discussed that we could get a new ring and rebuild new memories with it and it was important for me to point out that my sadness was about loosing the ring only and that the emotions had no attachment to anything else such as people (as in Kate and the kids).

We returned back to the beach hut and after 5 minutes Kate got up and walked back out to the beach and I followed moments later to find that Kate had drawn two boxes on the ground to mark out where the ring would be and we started looking for the ring again.

Kate made a comment about my technique for searching in the sand compared to her flicking the sand around technique and in the process flicked the ring out off the ground....a very emotional moment!!!

Now, here's the thing. I have just finished reading a book called The Holographic Universe which suggests that everything we are experiencing on the outside of our eyelids is an illusion and we construct the concrete things around us (yes, it is a head bending book!) do I need any more proof that we create these illusions?

First of all, for what purpose did I want to take my ring off to begin with? I have swam in cold water before and kept my ring on.

For what purpose did Kate forget the ring was on the towel?

And how can it be that 7 or 8 people can miss it for 1 hour of searching for it, where it had been dropped and then nearly 2 hours after Kate deciding that she was going to find it, no matter what and it appearing with in moments of making this decision.

I have little concern for the answer as we have found the ring, however, how was the illusion created that the ring wasn't where we had previously being looking and then for it to be there!!

Amazing.

Ready

Today we are setting off to start our ride tomorrow (Wednesday). First I am doing a test on next years Yamaha YZF 250 which will be really good fun. I have woken up early this morning so I am going to go swimming before riding motor bikes! I have done little swimming recently and I'm looking forward to getting back into it on our successful completion of our ride.

I am totally rested now that I have had a fantastic time on the coast, in the caravan, with my family, good times, for 5 days and it feels like a month since I did any training!!

Training has gone to plan.

On my first training bike riding I had worked out that by the time the trip began I would have cycled as far as we where going to ride in the week. My odometer reads 900miles at the moment - how cool is that!

Also, I had decided that I wanted to build up to doing the distance we are covering in one day before the ride so I know what to expect. In the 12 weeks of riding, I had two opportunities to ride 90+ miles and once to do 135 miles and perfectly timed intervals in the 12 week period. I find it cool that without writing up a schedule these opportunities arose at just the right time.

Its amazing what your unconscious mind will create when you know what it is that you want to do!

I now have everything ready - vitamins, drinks, food, clothing and a serviced bike, all we need now is good weather and clear roads :-)

Todays training....

...was a pleasure to ride :-)

Setting off, I had my awareness all around me, taking in the traffic, the road and the view of the trees and fields as I cycle by. I love the start, going for it, check out what is going on all around and then settling down into a great pace.

Once into the groove, its time to check on the inside! I have a look at my internal engine, checking on how my leg muscles are all firing in harmony.
With each combustive beat of my heart, fuel is firing my leg muscles into action and making my feet circle around the crank, giving me the drive to achieve my goal of beating my best performance to date.

I can hear my breathing, as air is rushing in to my lungs and taking even longer to exhale, I have a continually smooth rhythm. As I check on the outside I love the noise of my tyres whirring on the warm tarmac and the ticking of the chain set as I pedal along at 20+ miles an hour.

It feels great, powering on to the pedals, having a warm, slight burning feeling on my leg muscles, chest raising and falling and feeling of riding fast is very satisfying!

On the last part of my training ride, I realise that this is going to be a good performance and an excellent time. I want to beat my best time, I feel good and know the road ahead, I've been monitoring my bodies performance and I know that for the last 10 to 15 minutes I can push and make that extra effort.

I must admit making the extra effort feels great, there is nothing going on around me, I'm just griding out the last few miles with the image in my mind of looking at my watch and seeing that I have beaten my time and achieved my goal.

I beat my time by 1 minute 45 seconds......go figure :-)