........shoes, schools, kilometres but no horses!

Pretty special week this week. I’ll try and keep it short!

Last week I was invited to OAKLANDS School. Where a wonderful teacher, Miss Ward (Lisa, fellow cycling legend) has invited me to visit her class and attend an assembly! Bit scary really, never did well at school... but I was very lucky to meet the GREAT kids of her class. Thanks kids! Was a little bit over the ENDLESS horse, talking horse and other horse related jokes... but I guess when I put I talk to horses on my blog, there was bound to be some ramifications! Anyway, I was presented with 580 pairs of kids shoes from a “mufti day” shoe donation from the school. I was blown away! Not much else can be said outside a warm and heartfelt “THANK YOU”! Thanks OAKLANDS School, Miss Lisa Ward and her AWESOME class! ..................................................580 SHOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good training week... 2 REALLY hard hill rep days, one with Jess who really pushed me... Thanks Jess!

Saturday I did summit road in big gears... dumb move! I'm strong, but while doing this strength training I have inflamed my dodgy back... and I am now finding it really hard to move and sit on the bike. Advice given from Grant at INJURY SOLULTIONS is to have a few days rest, anti inflammatory tablets and keep moving!

Yesterday... well.......... yesterday my old mate Bob Scott (the original horse whisperer) and I set out for a mammoth ride. My first taste of an epic ride with someone else. I was really nervous because when you ride with someone else, over that distance, it can really be hard physically and mentally. You have to make sure that you don’t ride out of you comfort zone. We battled a NE wind all the way to Culverden, where we stopped for bacon and eggs. We then rode up the road 3km and turned east at the red post. Wow what an amazing piece of road that is. It brings you out just 16kms north of Cheviot! If you ever want a sensation ride, drive to Culverden and ride that piece of road... it's awesome. We then thankfully had a side tail wind home. 301kms for me and about 320k for Bob! Bob, thanks so much for helping me ride that distance. It was a great ride, not as epic as my Blenheim ride etc, but all the same and epic ride. It's a bloody long way; it was great to have you there half wheeling me! Haha

I will say this..... I am VERY worried about my ride! I have to do 2 back to back days of 400km then finish off with a 2ookm day on the Saturday! I am well aware of the effort that will be needed! Just for the record, I’ll do EVERY kilometre! My plan is to finish my ride around the 2pm mark on the Saturday... but weather conditions and legs will play a massive part.... so I might very well finish late Saturday night.... remember, the distance is the same as biking from ChCh to Blenheim, then back to ChCh, then back to Blenheim then back to Kaikora! That’s basically what 1000km is!

The donations are going crazy! THANK YOU! To the cyclists that donated at the Canterbury tour on the weekend, sincere thanks! It's tremendous feeling the compassion. To everyone that is donating, I can’t possibly thank you enough. To the people I have never met, I am overwhelmed and humbled by your generosity.

Remember, when you donate, the kids get the donation! Its YOU making the difference to them, NOT ME!

ciao for now, Scotty