phew!

I just did the school run.

Two children. One bike. And me.

Oh and two water bottles, one lunchbox (complete with lunch), one book bag, three spare sets of clothes, two pairs of plimsoll's, one elephant bag, one set of keys, one purse, one chequebook, one glasses case. All of which adds up to one very full and heavy rucksack - but Jack didn't complain so I think he could breathe despite being squashed up against it!

I recon I have about 5 stone of weight extra on there with all that. That makes things a little tricky.

The first challenge is getting everything into the rucksack. That accomplished I have to get the kids all kitted up, plus I 'dress' Jacks bike seat in a high vis bright yellow and orange vest with reflectors. I'm not taking any chances that the traffic won't see us! We all have bright helmets and the boys wear reflective straps on each arm.

Then it's onto the bike. Getting Jack on is fine. Strapping his feet in is a little fiddly but that done, I lift Sam on and do his straps. Then I look at this bike, designed to carry ONE person, with two people all ready on, and this itsy-bitsy space in between them and feel about the size of an elephant. The Rucksack suddenly feels even larger than it did before.

Now in order to get on a bike most people swing their leg over the back wheel. No can do. Jack is in the way. The next option - and the one I have been used to - is to take your leg over the crossbar. No can do - Sam is in the way. So I have no choice but to life my leg OVER the saddle, which is at hip height - and the gap is sufficiently small that I have to point my toes while doing this. Simultaneously I have to hold the bike complete with small excitable children steady and maintain my own balance which is somewhat thrown by the rucksack. No mean feat!

Finally I am on the bike, and tentatively I start to peddle. I immediately lost my balance as I cannot go fast enough! So I stop, switch to much lower gear and try again. We do a loop round the block first before tackling the slightly busier road to school, and I feel confident that this can be achieved!

By the time I have got to the roundabout I am exhausted. By the time I get to school - which is less than half a mile away from home - I am absolutely shattered! I get off the bike and park next to Lynn - who also takes her two children on her bike every day in exactly the same way. I watch slightly amazed as she springs gaily off the seat (she is wearing a skirt - how does she do that?) and looks fresh as a daisy. I then heave my leg back over the saddle and after about three very ungainly attampts manage to put two feet back on the floor. Then Lynn reminds me she has a powered bike! Ha ha! My challenge is therefore to get fit enough to over-take her!

Anyway my legs shake & wobble on the way down to the classroom, so unaccustomed are they to this type of exercise! I rather nervously re-mount to cycle the remaining trip to preschool, but Jack and I make it there in one piece in perfect time. Now according to the elevation on the 'mapmyrun' page (see link below) I have climbed a total of 153 feet (its a slow steady drag uphill all the way) on the way....so you can imagine coming home - downhill all the way and without the children! Bliss!

Am hoping it will be a little easier by November with some decent training. I think when I get on the nice bikes they will provide us with in Cuba, and without the children, I am in danger of becoming air-borne!

This link shows my route.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-kingdom/frome/1201074888 the 'P' is Sam's school and the red flag Jacks pre-school.

and theres more...

Here's what Olive has planned....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Mission Fundraising Event
On
EASTER MONDAY 24th March 2008
2pm SHARP for the BLAST OFF

Laser Mayhem has kindly allowed me to use their facilities for this fund raising event. I will be raising funds to support vital medical research for women starting a family and for babies at the start of their life. The project is called “Women for Women.”
The event is as follows:
· Collect army kit at 1pm onwards.
· Blast of is 2pm sharp
· 2 ½ hours of intense action
· Finishing at 4.30pm.
· £15 for a child.
· £20 for an adult.
· Light refreshments available.
· Team challenge – PRIZE for the winners.
· Please complete the form below to guarantee you a place and send a cheque payable to Olive Lycett.
Thank you for your support.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Plus an auction to come, and her and Alison are organising a school reunion for their old pals from Mary Hare School.

Also, I have been corrected. I thought Alison had a trailer to put two children in. In fact what she had was a trailer-bike - ie half a kids bike to tow on the back of an adult bike for one child. Except she hasn't got it anymore. Why? Alison bought it because it was heavily reduced - but it wasn't until she got it home that she realised the reason it was reduces was due to a lack of pedals. And to replace the pedals cost more than to buy a new trailer bike! So it went back to the man in the bike shop with a piece of Alison's mind!

My crossbar bike seat arrived yesterday amid much excitement on Sam's part - and this morning he managed his first 'its not faiiiirrrr' when i said I couldn't take him to school on it because of the small fact it was yet to be fitted on my bike, and then once at school i hear "Joe Joe, mummy's got me a seat to sit on her bike isn't that coooooool"....so I think it will go down well! Today there are about force 50 gales so I don't think we will be trying out until later - watch this space!

Upcoming events for 2008!

Hi all, and a happy new year!


Here are some of the events Alison and I have planned for the coming months. Well I say Alison and I but we have Alison's Mum, Dad, and other half Mike and my good friend Shirley to thank for many of them! Thanks guys. Am Sure Caz and Olive have some plans up their sleeves too! If you want more info on any of them or want to get involved let us know.

• Golf lunch
• Bridge Lunch
• Walk and lunch
• Beer, burgers and rugby day
• Ladies pamper day
• Pledge-a-pound weekend
• Coffee morning
• sponsored slim
• Somerset community street party
• Easter fair - or maybe two - a somerset and a surrey branch!
• formal dinner and auction
• cakes sales

Just to fill you in on the pledge-a-pound weekend the idea is that our friends and family ask everyone they know in the weekend (16/17th Feb) to give just one pound towards our very worthwhile cause, and the person who raises the most gets a prize! Plus of course great praise and recognition on here! If you want to get involved please let me know.

Also if you would like to attend any of the events please let us know and we can fill you in on the details. They are somewhat scattered, taking place in Somerset, Sussex, Surrey and Yorkshire!

We are also constantly on the look out for good raffle prizes, so if any of you have unwanted Christmas presents that may come in handy for this we would be very grateful!

Obviously it is now time to get down to some serious cycle training, and while Alison has bought a trailer to carry at least two of her three children when training, she has as yet no bike to attach it too! Caz as we know has been up and running with the cycle training for a couple of months now, and I am becoming increasingly nervous about my impending stay with her; when it was arranged I glibly agreed to lots of cycle rides, but have actually barely touched my bike (except for a couple of press photographs and the near infamous 'Scott family bike ride' - see earlier entry) and hence will be fighting to keep up! I may have to blame this entirely on Jack who will be on his rear seat for said rides, because I'm sure his 2 stone of weight makes all the difference and really my slowness will be down to carryng him rather than my complete lack of real training! I also have a cross bar seat on order so hopefully will get to go out with both boys on the bike (cycle paths not roads!) soon - and I am kind of banking on Sam enjoying this a lot so he nags me; "mummy please can we go out on your bike pleease? oh pleaeaease?". Sam has recently acquired the immortal phrase "it's not faaaaaiiiiiiiir" said in the true four-year old whine that only a child who feels a REAL sense of injustice can muster - so the thought of getting this thrown at me all afternoon dare I say we can't go out on the bike, will hopefully muster me into some sort of action!

If you see me doing anything other than running or cycling in the next few months though, please feel free to yell 'On yer bike' at me!

Ruth