100th post!

It doesn't seem all that long ago that Ruth suggested I start a blog on my training to hopefully inspire some of our students to set themselves some goals and to work towards them.

At the time I'd been training for a few months and IM Austria seemed so far away. Now, all of a sudden, it is this week. Sunday in fact - or 5 more sleeps… One of which will no doubt be incredibly short as we have to make our way to Edinburgh airport at stupid'o'clock in the morning. I'm guessing that we'll not get much sleep on Saturday night either as we'll probably be too excited / nervous and the alarm will be set for an early start on Sunday in order to get breakfast down and digested before jumping in the lake.

It has been an incredible journey to date, the race is simply the cherry on top of the icing on top of the cake.

I've been incredibly lucky to be training with my wonderful wife, have the support of my amazing kids and extended family and be part of the ATHelite club - thank you all for being so supportive and integral to our journey.

I had some great news today from Jamie, the Boardman UK Sales Manager. He has agreed to replace my damaged wheel as a gesture of goodwill and support from Boardman bikes. So I have this to look forward to on arriving back from Austria. He also mentioned that he passed on my blog details to Chris Boardman himself, one of my all time cycling heroes… I'm chuffed to bits that he may well have been reading some of my electronic scribblings!

My bike is now running smoother than ever after a visit to Willie Bain in Pollokshaws - what that guy doesn't know about bike maintenance frankly is not worth knowing. Now I've built my own home, built my own car and spent a lot of time at Uni, but rear derailleurs are a source of black magic and witchcraft as far as I am concerned. He now has my gears running smoother than ever and has sorted out my front brakes so I should now be able to stop as effectively as I can go. Result.

So what next? Well, packing the bike for the journey springs to mind. We're supporting another British company called Bike Box Alan who have supplied us with some rather tasty personalised bike boxes:

 Mine, all mine!

 Lorna's bike box!

 Lorna's bike with her new red 'bling' tyres

And a little inspirational message for my better half when she's cycling round Austria - custom LASER engraved headset from Kapz (another UK company!!!!)

Thanks to all of you for reading the blog, otherwise the hours I have spent on my computer after the hours of training would have been wasted.

Huge thanks to all those lovely people out there who have sponsored us - your generosity will certainly make a difference and your messages of support are brilliant.

Remember, there is still more than enough time to add to the total - simply click on the link below:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GGall 

Please feel free to leave a comment on the blog - click on the 'No comments' link at the bottom left of each blog post, or add to any comments that are already there  :-)