Before You Go

I promised a piece on the Ride & Stride team’s preparations for our North Coast 500 adventure, and I have to say that I have been in awe of the dedicated training undertaken by the cyclists and runners over recent weeks and months. When we all met up for the first time as a team of ten, back at the end of April, training had already begun in earnest, with the team’s intensity of effort being stepped up into the sweltering days of the summer.

Our leader Julian has furnished us with Ride & Stride T-shirts, so that we all look the part when training, whilst spreading the message of our involvement in this charity event. Below are some photos of the team, that I have retrieved from our R&S chat-box.

First the cyclists. These four guys have been out riding in all weathers, both individually and with local friends, and also on occasions as a team in organised cycling events. Being a fair-weather cyclist best suited to flatter terrain, I have huge admiration for the efforts of Julian, Phil, Peter and James as their Strava maps of 40- and 50-mile rides in the hills have popped up on the group WhatsApp.

The runners too have been coordinating, partaking jointly in running events as well as pounding the streets alone for many hours each week, all as part of their personal fitness plans. These preparations have taken place over many months, and I’m mightily impressed by the commitment shown by the runners in sticking to their ambitious and prolonged training programmes ahead of our NC500 challenge in northern Scotland.

For my part the spring and summer have been about retaining the fitness I gained from my 200 miles of walking on the Coast to Coast path in April. Without claiming to have adhered to the rigorous fitness plan of many of the others, I have clocked up around 800 miles of ‘boots on’ walking so far this year, much of it with nordic poles. The training has been a joy in itself, and I’ve been fortunate to walk in some fine weather and in some beautiful countryside.

Some of you have pointed out that the link to the R&S JustGiving page on my last Blog didn’t work. My apologies for this – the fault has been rectified now – and so I will share the link once more for those interested:

Many thanks for following Ride & Stride and for supporting the team as our preparations for the challenge enter their final week. I will be in touch again before we leave for Scotland, and then with a daily Blog (with plenty of photos) as our NC500 journey unfolds.

Today’s song title ‘Before You Go’ is borrowed from a number by Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi, off his wonderfully-named debut album ‘Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent’. Another single from the album, ‘Someone You Loved’ also topped the UK charts and made Capaldi the first solo Scottish artist to reach No 1 in the US since Sheena Easton in 1981.