Cycling or alcohol

120 days ago I finally felt compelled to make a change. At the age of 52, with a lot of spare time, and let's not beat around the bush, a lot of spare money on my hands too, I wanted to break a 35 year drinking habit - I desperately needed to break it actually. At least in my younger days spare time and money were so limited that my drinking was reduced to only a couple of days a week. Now, with the shackles off it could easily spiral out of control. That decision may well have saved my life.  The truth is I had a binge drinking addiction. Alcohol affected my brain in such a way that I could not stop once I reached a threshold, a very low one at that. Yes, I only drank 2 or 3 times a week, but considering what I was drinking each time, it was becoming a very dangerous pastime. I've learnt from recent reading and research that this affects many people and is quite a common issue. I certainly know many people with the same trait. One old mate, on reading my blog recently responde...

  relapse / rɪˈlaps / verb (of a sick or injured person) deteriorate after a period of improvement. Day 77 proved my undoing. I saw it coming but seemed powerless to stop it. Once it started I probably didn't want to stop it to be honest.  Marbella looked amazing when we arrived yesterday. After many winter trips over the last few months, the place seemed to have that feeling back again of long, warm, summer days, which makes it so contrasting to the UK. I felt great and texted Arwin to see if he was around and up for a catch up over lunch. He arrived and the conversation started flowing. The sun was warm, the tapas were ordered and my first alcoholic beer for 11 weeks was sunk - just like that, without hesitation and without too much thought frankly. I was warned by those around me but I decided not to listen.  After lunch we hopped in Arwin's car and he drove us back to our village a short drive up the coast from the centre of Marbella. Luckily we travel so light these ...

If a worker bee hatches in the summer in southern Spain he can expect only a few weeks buzzing around the Andalucian countryside. The poor thing literally works himself to death in the heat in around 5 weeks. If he is 'lucky' enough to hatch in the spring though, he can double his workload and can expect his life expectancy from egg to 'death by exhaustion' to be around 10 weeks.  During a recent bike tour a few weeks ago I stopped in the town of Colmenar, north of Malaga, a beautiful little pueblo high in the mountains. I booked a hotel there, ended the day early and walked around the town for a good nosey. Colmenar translates to 'beehive' and I soon found out why. It is famous in Spain for producing honey -  probably the most sensational wildflower honey I have ever tried I thought - very quickly thereafter it became the most sensational wildflower honey I have ever bought.  A worker bee that hatched 70 days ago up there is probably now ending his existence on...

Day 50. Allow me a moment to shout that out loud again - " Yes, it's day 50 without a drop of alcohol" and it sounds just brilliant to be able to say it.  I'm chuffed to bits of course, but when can I truly say I've cracked this whole thing? I don't think I can quantify that question with some arbitrary number of days  - maybe I will just know!   I have to be cautious of course, but I keep asking myself how could I go back to drinking now? Is it too late for that now I've seen the light? Now I've experienced how good I felt every single one of those 50 mornings, seen how my fitness has returned with a vengeance, measured the BMI improvement and even carved a brand new hole in my omnipresent brown leather belt, seen my monthly spending plummet, noted how positive my thoughts are and how content life is - and frankly done so bloody much more with my life? Yes, I feel like a brand new person and suddenly if feels harder to give this new life up than to h...

Sierra Nevada stands 2075 meters high. Ben Nevis, in comparison, the best the UK can muster stands a mere 1345 meters in stature. Even Alpe D'Huez, the most famous and most gruelling Tour de France obstacle only boasts 1860 meters - Phoa! 'small fry' I thought!  Getting there would be the highest ride of my cycling life without a doubt - at times during it, it started to feel like my last - but eventually, very eventually, 35km of agonising climbing to be exact,  it was reached, achieved and duly ticked off the bucket list.  The ice-line appeared around 1500 meters up, by 1750 meters it was minus 2 and thick snow was lying on the ground. Fortunately the main roads near the top had been well gritted but still treacherous in places. The  off road, mountain gravel tracks lower down even more dangerous - thank god for the versatility of the recently invented gravel bike - even so, it took well over 3 hours to complete the climb.  A lot of thoughts flash through you...

'It doesn't matter when in life you do it, just so long as you get out there and do it' I was starting an email to Adam Hugill, a guy that I have admired greatly for the last few years since I discovered his bike touring videos on YouTube. I've watched them all, chronicling his solo adventures around the world. By the time I had watched a few of them I was hooked - duly liked, shared and subscribed!  I soon realised we share many of the same beliefs - to get out there and ride is the most liberating and joyful activity possible on this earth. If you don't do it before you die, you have not lived, to name but one. We used to tour the same way too. Long days in the saddle meeting people from all walks of life across foreign lands, followed by meals and many drinks in the evenings - meeting, singing with and usually hugging many more by the end of the night.  We are opposite in one respect though. Adam did his touring early in life and was late settling down. He bike t...