Motivation « The Next Challenge

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Bigger, Stronger, Faster

Friday, May 7th, 2010

My forearms rest over the handlebars and my head is down. My body rocks from side to side and my legs keep turning over. I look ahead at the rising road and subdue a smile with gritted teeth.

In the pub last night, the guys propping up the bar all had the same response when they heard where I was heading: Puffed cheeks, shaking heads and a wry smile. Apparently there was a big hill ahead of me in the morning. I looked at the grid lines of my map which continued across the page oblivious to contours. Sixty five miles or so to Preston where a bed and friendly face awaited. Could I do that in a day?

Tomorrow I will be bigger.

Pulling out of the farmer’s field, I turn left and an elderly man stops his car on the other side of the road. He looks me up and down, stares coldly into my eyes and raises a thumb. I’m off.

The road sweeps round the side of rising hills into the mist with a feel of no man’s land and I press down on the pedals without relenting to the gradient. I summit, don another layer for the descent and stuff some chocolate. Coming down the far side I hit 25mph and swerve across the road as I glance at the speedo to confirm as such. My highest gear is seeing unprecedented levels of use this morning as my torso bobs up and down, making the most of gravity to aid the turning of cogs. There is a slight pressure in my head from the exertion and my eyes continually water but my body does not seem to be fading. I press on.

Cars honk their support and passersby wave.

“Keep it up!”, cries a woman flying past me downhill in the opposite direction.

“Hey!”, shouts another, caught off guard but enthusiastic nonetheless.

“Hey”, I offer in response but I’m not looking at him. I’m staring dead ahead.

They’re not cheering because I’m working hard. They’re not willing me to make the distance, maintain the speed, rise to the challenge. They’re cheering because I’m riding a bright yellow rickshaw that clearly weighs a ton and is festooned with banners and a flag. The sentiment is appreciated but today I am fuelled by thoughts of progress and that rare and blissful sense that your body is capable of whatever your mind can put it to.

Today I am stronger.

A fly crawls across the map I have wedged under bungee cords on the front seat. Lazily it walks across the page making a mockery of my efforts, ignorant to my dilemma and oblivious to the heat of my gaze. I maneuver my right wheel around a pot hole and when I look back it’s gone.

Ahead of me, a sign indicates toilets at the next junction but assessing the distance as I sail round the roundabout, I determine it to be a waste of precious seconds, vital yards, and continue to the nearest roadside bush. Before getting back into the saddle I open my food bag and moments later find myself 1,300 calories heavier. I pedal furiously back into traffic and sink another litre from my water bottle.

I am setting no records here. The speeds I’m achieving are laughable. I can’t even catch the granny on a mobility scooter before she turns off to post her letters and every other cyclist on the road passes me with ease. But that is irrelevant. This is about me. I have contrived a sense of challenge and I am relishing it. My body is responding perfectly to the stimulus and it feels good.

I check the speedo as I have done every 30-seconds throughout the day. The impact of each ascent and descent on my average speed obviously lessens as the day goes on but it doesn’t stop me monitoring every minute change.

8.72mph. 25% up on yesterday.

Today I am faster.

I know I’m on the home straight but I’m out of gas. Before my mind makes the decision, my body steers me into a bus stop and I sprawl myself over the front seat and bury my head, almost literally, in a giant bag of Doritos. I don’t have the energy even to maintain a facial expression and the crumbs of tortilla chips spill all over my top as I crunch lazily, staring into nothingness. I mount once more and follow the directions I’ve been given, my glucose-deprived world narrowed to the width of a single lane.

I often find social situations awkward and greetings are some of the worst. When do you shake hands? When do you hug and kiss cheeks, and when do you just stand two yards apart and say “Alright?”. Waiting in the driveway out the front of his house with the garage door propped open, Steve makes the decision easy by spreading his arms out wide and I’m not ashamed to say I fell straight into them.

Posted in Challenges, Expeditions, Living Life, Motivation, Rickshaw, Writing | 3 Comments »

About that World Record attempt…

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

You voted yes. Yes, I should break a World Record. That’s what you said.

I was pontificating over the pros and cons of trying to break the World Record for the longest distance cycled in a rickshaw. I thought it was a slightly silly record to aim for and not really what my rickshaw trip was about but also recognised that it could do me some good and give me another challenge to work at. You seemed to think the latter points outweighed the former. So here’s the plan…

On Monday I will arrive in Aviemore with a rickshaw, some camping kit and, no doubt, some biscuits. My mission will be to cycle back to London whilst following a route that will take me through all nineteen regions of the Special Olympics Great Britain. That’s who I’m supporting. If you’ve not heard of them or thought they were the same as the Paralympics, you should really look here.

I’ve plotted a wonderfully crude red line on a map of where I might go. Google tells me this will be somewhere in the region of 800 miles. For the record, I’ll need about 1000 miles.

The record is not and never will be my raison d’etre. I am not changing the aim of my trip to get into the Guinness Book because I think that really would be a shame. However, I also do not intend to ignore the views of the people kind enough to read my website and take the time to vote. And besides, why call my website The Next Challenge and then not be up for one?

So, I have registered with Guiness World Records. I have set up a cycle computer to measure my daily distances and I shall act in accordance with the record guidelines so long as they don’t impede too drastically on the rest of the trip.

I have a time limit for the journey (about six weeks) and I don’t plan to kill myself over the 1000 mile target but, thanks to you, it will be in the corner of my mind at all times and I shall be very pleased if I get anywhere near the distance in your honour.

Thanks for voting. Wish me luck!

P.S. I’ll be maintaining this blog and Twitter as I go, and I’ll have a map online so you can see how I’m getting on and if I’m coming anywhere near you.

http://thenextchallenge.org/2010/02/should-i-break-a-world-record/

Posted in Challenges, Challenging Norms, Expeditions, Motivation, Rickshaw | No Comments »

Pavarotti’s fear of biscuits – Six of the Best, March 2010

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Here are some blog entries from other peoples’ websites that I have enjoyed or got something from over the last month and think that you might too. Have a look and cast your votes.

No clear winner in last month’s poll – a three-way tie at last check – so you’ll just have to read them for yourself.

Voting is instant, anonymous and only takes a click of the mouse. I’d really appreciate it if you’d take two seconds to vote for any that you read and enjoy.

Enjoyed this? Why not cast a vote in one of my other polls?

Posted in Expeditions, Motivation, Polls, Regulars, Six of the Best | No Comments »

Embrace the Elements – Everyday Adventure #4

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Rain water trickles down my sleeve, inside the back of my glove and sends a chill up my forearm. From my experience in the outdoors, wet gloves means cold hands and that’s a bad thing.

Pause to assess the situation.

I’m on my bike and it’s raining hard but I’m only a couple of miles from home. Frost bite ain’t an issue today and all I need from my digits is the crude ability to grip the break levers.

A large puddle lies ahead of me and I swerve – not to avoid it but, instead, to roll straight through the middle of it. It’s raining and I want to have some fun

I suspect you’re reading this inside a building. I imagine you have a radiator on somewhere and it wouldn’t surprise me if the windows were closed too. Perhaps you drove to work this morning with the heaters or air conditioning on or walked the few hundred yards to the shops wrapped up in a woolly hat and gloves, or beneath an umbrella in a Gore-tex jacket.

We may not yet have machines that can control the weather but modern life has certainly tamed it. We turn dials, select garments and adapt plans to work around meteorology but in so doing I fear we move ourselves one step further away from the world we inhabit, from nature.

This month, dear readers, I request that you embrace the elements. I ask that the next time you see sunshine you fling open your windows and drink in its rays. I beg humbly that when it rains you cower not beneath your brickwork shelters but instead charge into the downpour and jump into puddles with both feet. Should the temperature plummet, then please, for me, jog around the block in shorts and sandals, feel the icy air fill first your nostrils and then your lungs.

Won’t we get cold?

Shan’t we be soaked through?

…and then what? What is so bad about the cold? What happens after you get wet? Half way up Everest these are bad states to be in. Running through your local streets with a grin on your face, they are not. Better, surely, to feel the cold and feel alive than the opposite?

You will get cold, you will get wet, you will feel the sun’s powerful heat and nature’s almighty wind. Your actions will fly in the face of modern life and that, that, is exactly what we strive for. Withdrawal from the sterile world of modern life and a momentary reconnection with raw, with pure, with wild.

This month, if just for one day, don’t fight the elements. Embrace them.

Posted in Challenges, Challenging Norms, Everyday Adventures, Living Life, Motivation, Regulars | 2 Comments »

Adventure from the Front Door – Guest Blog: James Bowthorpe

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

James Bowthorpe is famous for breaking the speed record for cycling around the world and for hitting a wombat whilst doing so. He also happens to be raising a lot of money and awareness for a cause important to him and is a nice guy to boot.

I met him in the pub last week and we quickly got talking about different approaches to adventure and how simplicity is often best. Me with a £100 budget or an everyday mission, and him with his wonderful new idea (below). And so today on the blog we go from one globe conquering cyclist to another…

Dear Readers of The Next Challenge.

Tim has very kindly invited me to guest blog. I’ve never guest-blogged before, but I’m guessing that I should stick to the normal guidelines and tone down anything potentially libelous. I have dipped in and out of this blog and have particularly enjoyed Tim’s recent work; stripping back the job, hacking off the deadwood, doing Adventure for cheap and still having fun. In the bust period we’re working through, its good to remember that Adventure need not circumnavigate the globe or reach the South Pole on golden sleds (you watch, Fiennes will be on that now).

Adventure can start from our front door and continue for as long as we want, mainly because Adventure is about how you experience things around you, not whether you have “Adventurer” under occupation in your passport. Tim’s outlook seems to be encouraging us to open that front door to free Adventure and I think I’d rather his approach to anything that might be on the Discovery Channel. (if you are reading this Discovery, I am looking for TV partners.) I’m guessing a little bit here, but I reckon that part of The Next Challenge is gently suggesting we do something as well, challenging our attitude. If you say something can’t be done (like having an Adventure for £100), then you have just summoned up a self-fulfilling prophecy for yourself; well done!

It was with a small dose of this “Well if you think I can’t do it, then I will” attitude that I set off on my bike last year. Now that I am back in London with little desire, capital or time to unicycle across the Sea of Tranquility, I am turning to more domestic challenges. This is not to say that they are boring or easy, just that they are more accessible and allow me to continue with my overall goal… Which, by the way, is to raise a whole chunk of money for groundbreaking Parkinson’s Disease research. My MO is to do things that will draw your attention and possibly entertain or dismay you to a point where you will donate any sum of money you choose to my cause. If you don’t want to or can’t donate I’d like it if you followed me on Twitter or left me messages on my blog. If you can start a really long comments section that ends up with someone saying that had Hitler been successful at Art College WE WOULDN’T BE IN THIS MESS, then all the better.

This link will send you over there now if you like, where you can learn about my latest endeavour. Its going to be short, sweet and potentially messy, but I’m looking forward to it. If you find yourself wanting to do something similar then please do, time is constantly slipping away.