Resilience for every Kilometer!

Week 23rd-30th of august

The first week my target was 750m elevation, It was easier than I thought overall. Although I did it over 6 days rather than the original five because I had foot trouble, the issue was not enough velcro, which made the foot slide forwards and come undone (that was such a hassle having to stop and do it up every time!) also it was making my knee swell and get inflamed on the inner (medial) side. As a result, it was making lose quite a bit of power which meant it was making me rely on my left side to take most of the load, a fair bit of effort involved! It’s all sorted now, we just modified with some more velcro.  

We’ve managed to finally write something up in the pitch, thanks to help from some good friends. We ended up just doing it in PowerPoint form and it was alongside a media release that was done during the national stroke week (second week).

At the same time, I’ve done the filming for my experience on mental toughness/resilience, and now I’ve handballed the editing off to a friend.

How do I feel about everything… a bit more relaxed, like everything is a bit more achievable with just getting things off the bike done. I’m not so worried about the bike, I believe at the moment that I’m very capable to do the actual riding part.

Week 31st-6th of September 

This last week, the second week has been a solid week, probably the best week of all in the mini 8 weeks training! It might have something to do with it have been national stroke week, maybe I’m not sure….! Anyway I did 160km’s over 5 days, generally I’ve been starting bike training on Tuesday giving me a two-day rest of the Sunday-Monday. I hit that weekly goal with ease.

On the two legs, not the three wheels.

With it being national stroke week (31st-6th), I’ve been hoping that some sort of media would have covered my story in TV form with my media release, to give it more magnitude of what I’m doing, however, I didn’t hear anything from that area. But I did have an interview from a lovely person in the news daily that will be released next Sunday, I’m very excited about that!  

The feels….

I’m very excited about the online news from the news daily, I cant wait to see what the writer comes up with! With the pitch pretty much done, it’s all about approaching the business’s with specific partnership’s, that I can cope with however I’m feeling a little bit pressured with the time ticking and also it being till October-November until we start going back to some sort of normality from this COVID…. I’m trying to back myself and soothe it by saying ‘it’s okay we’ve got time and I can only do what’s within my power at this given time’, that’s all you can do.

I’m feeling really confident with my training at the moment, happy! That’s all I really need to say about it, apart from ill have to change my second goal of my 500m of elevation in one sitting, with the restrictions but I can look at this positively and say it’s a goal that I’ll have to prolong and keep training for that.

So the next two weeks

We will be hoping to hear back from the trike manufacturers about talking of sponsorship deals, that’s the plan anyway, thing’s never go to plan though!

In the meantime what is within my power is the recording on social inclusion in regards to my experience on judgementalism and acceptance, two separate videos, so don’t forget to subscribe and follow on all the social media platforms so you can stay in the loop!

Training wise 750m of elevation this week over five days as well as 3 sessions of gym workouts, thinking Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at this stage anyway. The week after its Goal one of the mini 8 weeks training, 3x50km’s in a row, I’m surprisingly looking forward to it but that’ll probably change on the day haha!

The two-week fix

So over the past two weeks, I’ve been kick-starting my campaign, with delving into social inclusion and my experiences on it. Well to be precise just the opener/intro into it. 

I’m going to be doing over a few weeks, so I can really have a think about what I’m saying instead of it being a complete mess and making a fool of my self, like I normally do! 

Again the pitch has been an ongoing problem for me (way out of my depths) but now one of my friends has come to the aid and I will be shooting sometime this week, ideally, Monday so I can handball it straight over to the film editor and have it ready for national stroke week next week!

So the first of two weeks I was doing hills, luckily pretty good weather thankfully! I was doing one hour per day five days in a row, the aim was 500m of elevation in total. 

The second week of two I think I was a bit ambitious with my target being 42km’s over three consecutive days of indoor training… I didn’t achieve it, mainly because my legs were so sore after Tuesday. However I redefined it as 126km’s over the week, I fell short again, I blew a flat with 9.2km’s to go to my goal…. Then on Sunday when I had fixed the tyre it went flat again, I will tell you it’s very frustrating when you are that close! Alas ill have to make up for that 9.2  and the Saturday class tomorrow as well as doing one hour of hills.

Prospecting for the two weeks ahead, firstly I will be doing the filming cause that is a major priority. Once that is out of the way the focus will be social inclusion and talking about mentality and what resilience/mental toughness and what it means to me from the early stage of my stroke as opposed to the more present time.

On the human-powered vehicle, one of two weeks will be hills, one hour because of the restrictions but ill be aiming for a higher elevation, 750m, ill need to find a steeper hill me thinks!

The second week will be dependant on the weather but I think ill aim to get outside for an hour for at least a few of the days. The target total will be 150km’s over six days that’ll include paramount classes, just to incorporate a bit of variety into my laidback cycling life!

Heaps more to come!

The 8 weeks mini training

The week after the countdown

It was a good week for me on and off the bike, although my legs are sore as! I did all indoor training three days in a row each day for 35kms, the last day was a struggle big time. So i flipped the bike roller around to the easy side, still worked hard but the load was a little bit less stressful on the quads. I also started the 5-week challenge with paramount HFC to keep me accountable at a time like this, we all need a bit of motivation at this time.

During the week I got a phone call from my film mate we had a bit of a chat to work out the pitch and left it at that. But I felt a bit helpless with doing the actual planning. The number of youtube clips I’ve watched and still got no idea what to write and film. But hopefully, the google doc that i created that we can all collaborate on will point me in the right direction. Saying that the time is ticking so I am a little bit stressed…. Don’t worry everything pans out, stay positive, is the attitude I need to take!  

Yesterday I did a bit of filming in regards to my 8-week challenge that I’ve set for my self before I go back to university for my last two units of my degree, this has been a long long journey so it’ll be good to get it over and done with!

So looking ahead, on the bike I’m going to be concentrating on the hills/elevation this week…. The weather is not looking pretty either so it’s going to be FUN! Nah not at all, it’s going to be grueling… two hours then one and a half hours, back to back days, respectively. Then two classes fitted into there as also somewhere, I think ill do a Moga session for sure, work on my mobility, it is needed! And then on Friday ill need to do a 3-hour session again in the hills. The way I structure my program I go week by week, it works best for me.

Filming wise and things I need to do will be, 

Social inclusion series introduction, getting the ball rolling on that. It will take a few hours because it’s me and filming, we don’t go well together! Look out for it though, stay tuned on that!

And then by the end of the week, I hope to have nutted out the pitch and be ready to film the following week, that’s my goal!

Lastly, my feelings towards me writing, I feel I’m getting better and better…. Just you wait i’ll be an author in no time! HAHAHA