Blogs
Tue, 16 Nov 2010
Winter training starts here
By Sarah Storey - Horizon Fitness Racing Team
The sunny shores of the Carribean seem like they are a world away now we are back into the routine of a typical British autumn! High winds, squally rain showers and dark cloudy days are contrasted with quite a few beautifully clear, bright and very chilly days that show our rolling countryside in all its colourful glory.
Barney and I are lucky to live on the top of a hill where the views can be breathtaking, and for every day the weather is truly miserable, there is also a day where the view is quite stunning. When the wind is whipping through the valley between us and the Pennines, or when the sky is so clear you can see Kinder Scout (the highest point of the Pennines that we can see) it's as if it’s being filmed in High Definition.
To the left we look to Manchester City Centre, and then beyond to the hills of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Then as we ride further up our hill we can look across to Lyme Park and, on a clear day, the Welsh hills can be seen in the distance.
It’s the time of year when it takes me about 20 minutes to get dressed for a ride and I’m either wearing far too many layers, or far too few, but you can always be sure there will never be fewer than 6 layers trying to protect my feet! Thanks to the awesome snuggly thermals from Prendas, one of the Horizon Fitness Racing Team sponsors and their superb winter gear, I do love riding during the cold and clear sunny days, and enjoying the colours of the trees as they change colour and drop their leaves.
Of course with that comes the danger of the slippery leaves; those annoying soggy piles that don’t look much but can throw you from your happy ride in a split second! I confused Barney no end last week refusing to go down our normal lane because there were “far too many leaves on that fast corner I like to get my knee down on”! And he was even more confused when I suddenly yelled “LEAVES”, which he thought he’d heard as “Flee’s”!!!
Training rides around our home do give us the best of everything and with so many hills it’s possible to do over 1000m of climbing in a short, but hard 2 hour ride of less than 50km. Obviously the longer rides are the bread and butter of every cyclist and we can get out into Cheshire and traverse the lanes for hours before I always insist on a sharp effort up the Brickworks on the way home. This is one of my favourite climbs and one I use for a whole host of different training rides throughout the year. In the summer I’m found doing 20 second efforts with 40 seconds rest two or three time from bottom to top, whilst in the winter I can always find the energy to head that way no matter how long I’ve been out as I love its change in gradient, and the views from the top are beautiful!
Of course in between all the road stuff it’s time to start getting back onto the track and it was a shock to the system, more specifically to my arms, to do a starts session, even after just a few weeks off! I suppose I could blame it on having my flu jab, but I know deep down the achy arms are more to do with me being weak and having too much fun lying on a beach!
With the football season also being in full swing, there is always a trip to Old Trafford to watch Manchester United every week or so, and with our season ticket seats being moved to the Stretford End, we are now on the second row behind the goal and often in the television shots! The banter and frustrations shouted by other fans can get quite amusing, especially when they start to sound like broken records doing nothing but complain about various players. In fact there is one bloke sat behind us who doesn’t rate anyone, not anyone who ever sets foot on the pitch for United, and he’s always complaining about how far he’s had to travel! Even if they have scored a hat-trick, a player can make one mistake and this guy has him up for sale! I reckon he’d be better off staying at home and supporting his local team. In fact this is a song that the away fans often sing to us. “We support our local team, we support our local team!”
In general, the songs in the ground are usually highly amusing and as we’re getting closer to Christmas there is no doubt we will be singing about “on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 12 Cantonas, 11 Cantonas, 10 Cantonas….. 1 Cantona and an Eric Cantona!”
Outside of training and heading to the footy, Barney and I are also involved in several charities, and just last weekend I was announced as patron of a new charity 'Boot Out Breast Cancer'. This charity has been set up by Debbie Dowie, whose husband is a former player, manager and now a TV commentator. Debbie had breast cancer last year and wanted to set up a charity to help buy equipment for the centres of the NHS which require state-of-the-art diagnostic machines. The inaugural event was a Bollywood Ball and at the start of the evening both myself and former footballer, Alan Shearer were announced as the charity's patrons.
It was a real honour to be invited to work as a patron for the charity and especially important for me as my Mum was diagnosed in the early stages of breast cancer back in 2004. This meant, like Debbie, her treatment was successful and she is now fit and well, so this equipment really does save lives.
In just a few weeks, Barney and I will be attending another Ball, in order to raise money for the charity to which we are both patrons. The Children’s Adventure Farm is a charity based in Cheshire and it provides holidays and away days for disabled, terminally ill and disadvantaged children. They are also able to cater for single parent families in care because of a violent ex-partner. It’s another charity where it is a real honour to be able to work as patron, and together we try and do as much as we can to support the running of the Farm and the young people that visit there.
Our fellow patrons include actors Lee and Jennifer Boardman, Andrew Flintoff and Jason Manford. Visiting the Farm is always exciting and the young people and children who spend time there have such humbling stories. Quite soon there will be a month of Christmas parties where a different group of children visit the Farm every day and get to meet Father Christmas. This can be the most heart-breaking time as some of the children are from such deprived backgrounds that this is the first Christmas party they have been to and so they get very overwhelmed. One little boy was also heard asking Father Christmas, “Why didn’t you visit our house last year Father Christmas?”
It’s stories like that and the excitement on the faces of the children that make the charity one we are proud to be a part of, and the fundraising Ball, which always has some amazing auction items, is the major fundraiser of the year.
My other charities are also quite locally based. The Macclesfield Seals Swimming Club, is a club specifically set up for disabled people. I have been a patron for them for over 10 years, and next weekend we’ll visit their annual festive party and I’ll present some prizes to the club members for outstanding achievement, contribution and other performance awards.
The Salford Foundation Trust is a charity I met as a result of living in Salford for over 10 years. I became patron a few years ago to help raise awareness of the work the Trust does. The aim of the Trust is to provide grants and support to young people in Salford who need financial assistance to achieve their dreams. Many of the applicants come from deprived backgrounds where their parents don’t have enough money to fund their chosen activity or buy the equipment needed to participate. My fellow patrons are Peter Hook of New Order and actress, Maxine Peake. Together with the committee we give feedback on the grant applications and offer specialist advice in our fields.
I also have a patronage with St Dominic’s High School for Girls, a charitable trust in Staffordshire, and the Sport Volunteering North West programme. It’s a privilege to be associated with charities because the very ethos of those charities is to provide excellence to the people it supports. Whilst it sounds like a busy programme and it’s hard to always keep up with everyone, the range of charities match all the things I feel most passionate about; young people, providing everyone with opportunity, and the volunteers that allow every event I have competed in to run so smoothly.
In between all this you’ll mostly find me in the Cheshire Lanes, where I’ve seen more people out on their bikes at this time of year than ever before. It’s great to see so many people on two wheels too!
Happy winter training to you all, keep up with those miles!
Sarah x
For more information about the Horizon Fitness Racing Team, visit www.onthedrops.com.