Posts Tagged ‘D-Day’

Cycling & Cruising – Thank God for Both

Posted: May 3, 2014 in charity, COPD, Cruising, Cycling, Health, Travel, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

I’m not going to say too much this week, mainly because I haven’t got much to write about. This is possibly a good reason to seek out another adventure, most likely on a cruise ship. There is however a couple of news worthy items (in Podge’s world they’re news worthy anyway) I will mention.

1) My breathing has improved, though there is a twist 😦

2) WheelsForRotary – Ride to Remember in July is Cancelled, though all is not lost.

Health – Having reported to my Vet (more correctly referred to as a Doctor 🙂 ), ready to extoll the virtues of a dairy free diet I noticed his preoccupation with my pulse and readings from my recent ECG and blood tests. With respect to my blood test, he informed me that my glucose reading was 8.3 which could be a cause for concern but he wanted a 2nd test (with no food for 12-hours beforehand) before we got excited over it. My heart however was racing too high for his liking and the ECG suggested an erratic nature. This meant my heart was  not very efficient and so not oxygenating my blood properly. So, next stop for me 1) Blood Test (Again) and 2) Cardiology. Boo. But on the up side, my breathing is improving. Yay.

WheelsForRotary – Clearly, I was over ambitious. Following the success of last years inaugural ride and raising over £5K for charity, my goal this was to repeat the event but on a grander scale and tweak the route so that we could visit the D-Day Beaches in recognition of this year being the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings. And, as it was the 70th Anniversary, I really wanted 70 riders to ride 70 miles a day for 7 days (70 days would have pushing it a bit). Well, I got a lot of good / positive feedback and positive responses from likely riders but I’m afraid the ride wasn’t to be. Confirmed riders just didn’t materialise – and so with such few riders, the event simply wasn’t viable.

There is however, an upside.

The ride has been rescheduled such that all we do is to ride [over a long weekend] from the town of Ligueil in France to  its twin town of Hungerford in the UK but still making a stop at Pegasus Bridge to recognise the D-Day event. And Asthma, COPD, Arrhythmia, Diabetes, whatever I’ve got will not stop from doing this ride and we’ll still raise funds for Warchild and Bruce Trust Barges.

So, it ain’t so bad after all. Yay.

Still means I’ve got to cycle 260 miles though. Boo.

So, with all this going on, Mrs Me and I feel the need of another cruise. Fortunately, we have a short cruise at the end of May when we join the Azura sailing to Bruges and St Peter Port with Alfie Boe. Not literally with him of course but he’ll be on board singing. I have ideas for next year (The Amazon) and even for the following year buy I need to turn them into reality. So for this long Bank Holiday Weekend, I will be perusing the Cruise Brochures and websites to see where I [need] to go.

I might also be getting my bikes back out of the garage to see if the wheels still go round, which I’m sure they., or, should I seek out a new one: Do I really need another one.

Mind you, Colnago have brought out the shiny new Colnago C60 for my 60th Year. Slurp.

2014 – A Year to Remember

Posted: January 12, 2014 in charity, Cycling, Travel
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

So, this is to be my first post of 2014. What I’d really like to be writing about is our special cruise coming up in February this year, in fact less than 6-weeks away but I’m afraid I’ll have to wait a couple more weeks before I can do that. Save to say, that the event fills me with excitement, even more so than my 60th Birthday cruise.  No; this post is about a ‘call to arms’. An unashamed attempt to attract fellow supporters / cyclists and even wannabe cyclists. What am I on about? I hear you think. Well:

I want to raise £35,000 for two causes that I genuinely believe are worthy of significant support: Bruce Trust Barges and War Child UK.

How? By taking a maximum of 70 riders to cycle for 7-days in France visiting  Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno & Sword D-Day Beaches while also dropping south to the Loire Valley then heading back north to Argentan, a town which itself which was severely impacted by the D-Day events; and finally, onto Pegasus Bridge and Café Gondrée to regroup, exchange stories and bask in our own satisfaction that we risen to the challenge given and succeeded.

But, be assured, this is not in any way a race. This is not an event where only cycling whippets can take part, though they are welcome. This ride is for anybody and everybody, male, female, old, young, or even ancient like His Podgeness here. You don’t have to be an athlete by any means, those that know me can attest to that. For last years event we took one gentleman who was the wrong side of 60 and only used to the occasional ride between 5 & 10 miles. Yet, our structured / social training rides prepared him such he completed the event with comparative ease. Even for myself, with less than 50% lung effectiveness, and now the wrong side of 59 🙂 such an event is possible, though I do acknowledge I may be a bit slower and recognise the true meaning of a ‘Push Bike’. So, if there is anybody out there who wants to join me on this amazing adventure and help me raise that money for two really worthy causes, then either contact me direct though this medium, or register your interest via the website: http://www.wheels-for-rotary.info.

In the meantime, I shall start to compose my writing on our next, very, very special cruise.

 

Milk: Good Food? Bad Food?

Posted: October 13, 2013 in COPD, Cycling, Health, training
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
4

I’ve recently been talking with a respiratory friend of mine who says that milk is bad, really bad. In fact all dairy products are bad. [This conversation was brought about by my recent bout of chest infections and my sulky reference to how COPD sucks :-)] She told me that I must give up all dairy products if I wanted to help my lungs and get back out cycling. Now, my problem is that I like my breakfast cereals and they need milk; I like coffee and that ‘needs’ milk; I like tea, custard, chocolate, cream cakes, hot chocolate with whipped cream; I like it all but it was not being able to have my the breakfast cereals that really hurt me. It was suggested that I tried Soya Milk: Well, I’ve tried that stuff before and I’m not trying it again. So, in desperation I asked my friendly respiratory lady if using lactose free milk will be a good alternative. Her response was very sternly thus:

Lactose free is just as bad, sadly – it’s the cows’ milk protein as well as the lactose that causes many problems.

Lactose is a milk sugar that we don’t produce an enzyme for after infancy (lactase). No other mammal drinks the milk of another species – they are not designed to and neither are we.

Cows’ milk protein contains bovine lactalbumin a and b that we also don’t have enzymes for and cannot digest. What happens is that it leaks through, undigested into our bloodstream where it shouldn’t be (because of leaky gut – hence the Saffron* also helps to prevent this) and your bloodstream and immune system treat this protein like an invading bacteria (because it is labelled Cow, not Human) and attacks it, usually having been primed to do so in infancy.

Giving babies (especially our generation, but it is still bad today) cow based formula sensitises us to CMP when our guts are immature. Babies’ gut walls are designed to be leaky, to let all those good white blood cells and antibodies through into the bloodstream, that we should have been getting from our mummies. Giving cow, soya, wheat (rusks), corn based foods younger than 4-6 months sensitises babies to these foods; gives them food and other allergies and makes them ill because their immune systems start fighting them instead of viruses and bacteria.

Hence the reason why I am also a qualified Lactation Consultant in my spare time, helping women who are struggling to bre*st feed.

Most of us (around 70%) covertly react to cows’ milk protein, because we were bottle fed or given formula in hospital at a very early stage, even if human-fed the rest of the time.

It is at the root of most of the chronic diseases of the western world; asthma, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

* I had been previously recommended to drink Saffron Tea

She also told me to breath the fumes of Calvados, and even drink it as well 🙂 as the fumes have been shown to kill off TB Bacteria. I haven’t got TB but I’m more than happy to go with this last one and, given the sternness of the response and my needing to get back on my bike, and breath well of course, I decided to go for it and cut out dairy products. I’ve cut out all milk related products altogether and today is the last day of the first week without milk. How do I feel? Effin Brilliant. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ready to run a marathon, nor am I ready for any significant cycling but after the past 6-weeks I am genuinely feeling so much better.

From a dietary perspective it hasn’t been that much of a challenge although splitting up with breakfast cereals was probably the real wrench. For a few days, I replaced these with sausage and egg rolls (yummy) but this can’t continue so it will be toast & jam from now on and maybe fruit but definitely no milk.

Next week, I shall start out on the turbo trainer (indoor cycling) to start to get my legs moving and stretch my lungs and go from there. I’m not going to rush but I’m still targeting next years the 2014 Remembering D-Day Cycle Challenge.

Another bloody good reason for sorting myself out is that I’ll be 60 next year and I’m not ready to start being old, though the ‘Victor Meldrew’ part of being old does have it’s attractions. 😉

As for COPD, well, it still sucks and I still challenge the diagnosis, even though I know they [the doctors] are probably right.

Must keep pedalling: Must keep pedalling.

Am I Ready

Posted: July 5, 2013 in charity, COPD, Cycling, training
Tags: , , , , ,
0

I started my training proper on the 7th April and over the subsequent weeks, increased the ride mileage from the initial 14 mile ride to the longest ride at 74 miles.

Over that time, My average speed has gone up by 2.5 mph while my average heart rate has dropped from 130 to 118. These facts suggested to me that I must be at least more ready than I was for the Hungerford to Ligueil Cycle Challenge. So, when the time came for my regular respiratory test, I was quite naturally upbeat.

how misguided was I!

After numerous goes at getting my best blow into the machine, nearly passing out each time, the results came back worse than they were in March. The figures suggested that my COPD had deteriorated from moderate to severe. The nurse could see that I was clearly downbeat, especially with all my efforts over the last three months and she tried to impress upon me that irrespective of the results, the main thing was how I felt in myself and I must be doing all the right things: nevertheless, my lung performance had dropped.

disheartened? Of course I was, and very upset.

But, having had time to mull it over, I decided, I’m not going to give in. I’m going to complete the challenge: I’m going to lose even more weight: I’m going to keep on cycling; and when I can cycle no more, I shall organise and support cycle rides by whatever means I can. The one thing I’m not going to is resign myself to becoming inactive. Neither am I going to quit cycling. Now, it truly is what I live for, and Debbie of course who is just so supportive: I’m not sure what I’d do without her. And then of course there are her two boys, Matt & Nick who carry on my passion for cycling. I love them all though in slightly different ways…..

So, until the Good Lord decides otherwise, cycling shall be my driver for life. After this years ride, I start to prepare for next years ride to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings. My aim is to find 70 riders. Tall order, but it’s the stake in the ground. Give me nudge if you might be interested.

Must Cycle Harder

Go Podge, Go