Training Update

What beautiful weather! The cold, snow, ice and rain of the winter are quickly fading now, to be replaced with glorious sunshine and warm weather.

Did 90 miles last Sunday. And for the first time I did a figuure of eight route, so I stopped at home half way round for a cup of tea and snack. Why the hell didn't I do that in the winter?!! Ok so it was hard getting home knowing I had to go out again, but equally the fact I was refuelled in comfort made a big difference. What a difference it would have made to do that in the winter, allowing a change of lcothes and warmth before going out again. Oh well!

This weekend was back to back 60s. Actually 65 miles on Saturday, 60 on Sunday. Interestingly, Saturday was a slog whilst Sunday (despite being out at a dinner party on Saturday night and drinking too much) felt like I was flying! Slightly sore knee at the end but I was going pretty quick so that's to be expected. I had my small commute into work this morning with no ill effects.

Only 3 more significant rides before Paris...

Nigel's Training Lore #10.
If you can design a figure of eight route it allows you to stop off at home half way round your ride which particularly in winter means you can warm up, change and go out again refuelled. It also means you're closer to home if you encounter any problems.

I did it!

7hrs45. 124 miles. A long old way. But I have managed to cycle from my mothers all the way home! The last 20 miles or so was a real slog and I need to rethink the idea of using a rucsac as my back was very sore, but overall, I got back in much better condition than last week after my 104 miler. So, that's the peak of my training. It's all downhill from here! Hopefully that doesn't mean silly injuries or other problems start here. 5 weeks training to go, including a couple of back to back weekends, and then the main event...

Before the off...

Yellow rape fields along the way

On the way to another milestone

Over the last 7 or so months, the key objective has been Cambridge to Paris in about a month's time. In addition though, I have also had another target on the way- to cycle from my mother's house back home. A distance of around 120 miles. I am writing this (partly to check I can blog on the move ready for Paris!) Halfway home, somewhere near Oundle in Northants. It's a nice sunny day if a little windy and so far, so good. Legs are a little tired but hey, it's not meant to be easy! More later...
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X marks the spot. Pt IV.

Finally, we reach the Labour party. As for the Conservatives previously, I should declare previous interactions with the Labour Party, having met the Health Minister Ann Keen MP and also attended a meeting of the Prime Ministers Strategy group.

That said, I received nothing from my local Labour candidate. I also contacted Ann Keen. I initially received an automated response requiring my full contact details etc. I then got another one that informed me

Where a reply is appropriate we aim to send one within 20 working days.

I received nothing - says it all, doesn't it?! Then, on 14 April (a full month after my email) I received a response from the Dept. Health. Helpfully, this response included the sentence

As you may know, the Department of Health is part of the Civil Service and does not represent any political party.

For information on the future policies of a party, you may wish to contact the party concerned.

Well that's useful - I thought I had done! So, no response from the Labour Party then. For what it's worth, the DoH response informed me that the Neonatal Taskforce has recently published its findings, and also pointed that that the BAPM (British Association for Perinatal Medicine) standards are recommendations not mandatory. So that's a get out of jail free card then!
Very disappointing.
So, what do we conclude from the responses received? They can be summarised as follows...

Green Party
Responded
Committed to 1:1 Care
Committed to better support for families

Liberal Democrats
Responded
Implied support for all of Bliss' manifesto points
Have signed up to support Bliss Manifesto

Conservatives
Responded
Previous good communication with party
No specific commitments

Labour
Didn't respond
Previous good communication with party
No specific commitments
Have signed up to support Bliss Manifesto

At the end of the day, there are many issues that you have to consider when deciding where to put your 'X'. Based on this (admittedly limited) survey however, your choices may be slightly more limited now...

Finally, a reminder that you can contact you local candidates to get their views on the Bliss Manifesto here.

X marks the spot. Pt III.

So, on to the Conservatives. I received a letter from our sitting MP, Sir Alan Haselhurst. Straight off, I should say that Sir Alan has been a great supporter of us since before our son came out of home, contacting various MPs and senior NHS staff on behalf and attending both the Bliss events at the House of Commons that we have attended. His response to my email was as follows (again, edited for brevity by myself)...

• To improve neonatal care the Conservatives will make sure that spending on maternity services keeps pace with birth rate
• They will provide mothers with more information on the performance of maternity care providers
• Tariff payments (funding to hospitals) will be based on performance, including reduction in perinatal mortality and mothers' positive experiences
• Realistically Sir Alan recognised that he cannot pledge to support all causes due to the current budget deficit (but stated he would do his best on this particular cause)

So what is to be made of this? From a personal point of view I accept his pledge to continue to support neonatal care as I have observed in the past. In terms of specifics however, I am not sure that the points made will be that helpful. Firstly, keeping pace with the birth rate surely maintains the status quo (a charge I also levelled at the Liberals here), which as we all know is currently not good enough. Further, as the rate of premature births increases, funding based on birth rate will actually result in a drop in real terms in funding for neonatal care. In addition, whilst funding based on a reduction in mortality on the face of it sounds like a good thing, I wonder whether this may penalise those specialist units developing pioneering treatments on the very smallest or sickest of babies.

Coming up, the Labour party...

World Exclusive: Drowned Rat Cycles 100 Miles!!!

What a day. It was torrential rain overnight (sufficient for us to have a power cut in the early hours) and was still pretty bad when I hit the road a little before 6.30am. It got worse and proceeded to rain for the entire trip of nearly 7 hours. I got a bit lost so called it a day before my original end point, but used a Tesco store as my turn around point. This allowed for hot chocolate, cake, a change of clothes and purchase of clean dry socks and carrier bags!
It's amazing how much rain and wind takes out of you and despite this being only 7 miles further than last week, I came back a wreck and with a sore hip. Hopefully a few days rest will sort that and I'll be ready for a good ride later in the week.
Going 100 miles is a landmark in its own right, but in addition, except for next week which is a bit different (I'm cycling home from my mothers, again around 100 miles or so) this represents the furthest I'll be going in training. It's scary to think I'm cycling to Paris next month!

A landmark! (104.26 miles)

X marks the spot. Pt two and a half

Not quite the next candidate reply (I'll hopefully post that tomorrow), but a plea for support. In the last few days before election day, please help Bliss by getting your candidates to pledge support for the Bliss Baby Manifesto. In particular, By 2020 we want to see:

• One to one nursing for all babies in intensive care
• Access to round the clock specialist transport services in all areas
• Better support for the families of special care babies

Please sign up here.