Days 19 & 20 Training, and Adventures in Chiropody!

So after reaching the elusive 30 mile barrier the previous Sunday, it wasn't until the Saturday 19th of May that I managed to get my next bit of training in for The Long Push 2012.

DAY 19 : SATURDAY 19th MAY 10.4 miles 
Todays training was just a gentle 10.4 miles around the seafront from around 5.00pm. Nothing much to report about this one, although I did stop for a few minutes to loosen both trucks to see if I could straighten out the grip tape that is moving under vibration. It worked...kinda...sorta! But since then it's worked loose again. I may just have to take the tape off around the drop thru slots. Only 10.4 miles, but probably all that I needed just to keep me on track after last Sunday's tough journey.

ADVENTURES IN CHIROPODY!
WARNING! THIS POST INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS OF MY FEET!
Those of a nervous disposition are advised to skip this paragraph and move forward to 'Day 20'! Photo's follow these arrows:
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The things I do for charity!!! 

In all my 47 years I've never been to a chiropodist. I should have! I've been dogged with at least one persistent bugger of a corn/veruca or something for years. Tried to Bazuka it (other foot therapy remedies are also available) and thought I'd succeeded but, alas, no. But now I'm an athlete (ahem!) it seems like the time to get these things sorted once and for all. And both feet were troubling me on the 30 mile journey recently. So, I bit the bullet and took the recommendation to try a local chiropodist who came highly recommended, named ANDREW HANNAH. And he was very good.

Before...with corns on outsides of both feet

After...avec bandages!

He identified the problems with my feet very quickly and made some recommendations about how I should be starting to treat them on a daily basis. Then he got down to sorting out the two corns, one on each foot. I winced and clenched my teeth while he went to work, digging out the offending corns. Andrew commented that he'd rather work on women's feet than men's because women have a much greater pain threshold and are less likley to kick him in the face in a reflex action to the work! He's probably right! Still, it didn't last long and he finished by bandaging them up and telling me to keep the bandages on as long as possible to allow the wounds to heal. Straight away I could feel the difference. Money and time well spent I think. So I wonder why I waited so long to have it done???

DAY 20:  THURSDAY 24th MAY : 14.4 miles
The seafront was the background for this training push again tonight, but this time the temperature was up, so the shorts were on and the sky was blue when I started, with the sun setting behind me as I finished up. I still had the bandages on my feet from the chiropodist visiting, but they were no trouble in my DC's. I varied my route a little on these few miles, just to shake things up a bit. I love Southport seafront for longboarding, but I'm keen to get out of town and skate The Long Push route more in training. All helps in researching the route for anything I may have missed when I planned out the route by car over the winter.

Bright orange In Heat's stealing the sunset's thunder!

Tonight was the first time I'd done any real kind of distance since changing the 83A Orangatang 'Durian's' for the softer 80A Orangatang 'In Heat's. I put on the standard core versions, saving the aluminium core ones for The Long Push itself. I still haven't found time to put the Paris 180 trucks on yet, but I will. 

I was expecting the softer wheels to be smoother, naturally, but with the wider contact profile I was also expecting them to be a tad slower too. Not so. I'd had a quick blast around the promenade the night before, but not enough to call it training. But it had had been enough to get the new Loaded 'Jehu' bearings rolling, and because the seafront area is pretty smooth all the way round, I noticed barely any loss in speed. Good result. Very pleased with the 'In Heat's'. Finished up just as a few people gathered around the sea wall to watch the sunset, while I spoke a few words into the camera again. The only problem I had tonight was a really annoying 'creaking' sound that started. I wasn't sure what it was at the time, but I talk about it in the video.

*VIDEO TO BE ADDED ONCE I FIND A DECENT WI-FI CONNECTION TO UPLOAD IT!*

Thanks again to Kyle Chin at LOADED BOARDS and Richard Birchwood at J&R SPORTS for supplying The Long Push with the ORANGATANG 'In Heat' wheels.

Day 21 training coming soon...

Chris

'ELEVATE AWARENESS - LONGBOARDING FOR AUTISM'

Just taking some time out to tell you about some other longborders pushing long distance for autism awareness this year.

Last year, Daniel Houze and Blake Stassi took a longboard trip from Stanford University to UCLA in Los Angeles, California, to elevate awareness of Autism. I stumbled across this artcle about their journey, on the Skate Further site, just after I'd decided on making my own Long Push for autism awareness, back in November last year. http://www.skatefurther.com/elevate-awareness/

The boys' trip was inspired by their Autistic cousins. They, like myself, felt that so many people were in the dark about the disorder. New figures indicate that 1 in 88 children are diagnosed with autism, and 1 in 70 boys. The boys' goal was to do the trip to gain publicity, then use the media coverage they got to elevate Autism awareness!

Blake and Daniel last year, 2011.

This Year: https://www.facebook.com/elevateawareness?ref=ts
Santa Barbara to San Diego and back: 500 miles! JUNE 15-25





This year Blake and Daniel have a new member riding with them, Jacob Whitaker. He will be riding alongside them on a fixed geared bike.  The boys hope to this year not only raise more Autism awareness but also to raise money for the organization they ride for, The Easter Seals Foundation www.easterseals.com

Three boys who found a way to make a difference.

There are less than two weeks before they set off on their 500 mile journey this year. So please, check them out, tell your friends, give their Facebook page a like, follow them on Tumblr here http://elevateawareness.tumblr.com/ and please donate whatever you can to my brothers across the Atlantic, longboarding for autism awareness. 

Monthly Vital Statistics - May

Charity fund as at end of 31st May

 Here, with the most important figure first, are the stats for May :

CHARITY FUND TOTAL AT 31st MAY  -  £351.00

TRAINING MILES COMPLETED IN MAY  -  98 miles

TOTAL MILES TRAINING TO DATE  -  240 miles

NUMBER OF VIEWS OF THIS BLOG  -  4,044

NUMBER OF FACEBOOK 'LIKES' -  338

The most improved figure through May has been the amount of views of this blog. Up by 993 views, which is amazing.

Facebook 'likes' continue to rise. Up by 47 since the end of April and rising slowly all the time, and that's without much focus on trying to increase the figure. Thanks for keeping sharing the links folks. 400 'likes' by the end of June is quite possible, with 500 before I actually do the full 2 day journey being the goal.

The weather has helped me get out to do another 47 more training miles than last month, 98 miles in total during the month, keeping on target and moving in the right direction. Hopefully that will continue to build during June.

Thanks to all who have donated to the charity fund or contibuted support to The Long Push so far however, the charity fund only grew by £5 last month. Clearly, this has to be my focus from here on in, generating donations to the charity fund. Especially as Just Giving charge FAMILIES CONNECTED £15 per month to maintain the www.justgiving.com/TheLongPush page. So, with this in mind, I'll be writing a specific FUNDRAISING post very soon, with detailing all the work being done by myself and others to try and generate donations and with some ideas of ways that people can help generate donations in these tough financial times.

Thanks,

Chris

Day 18 Training: Sunday 13th May - Marathon distance achieved!

The weekend I did this training day was the weekend of the Chief Ladiga Silver Comet Skate Challenge 2012, a 188 mile route over three days, starting and finishing in Atlanta Georgia. I posted mostly updates from the race on The Long Push Facebook page over the weekend. I'm filled with admiration for all the skaters taking part in such a gruelling challenge. On Sunday 13th May, the skaters at Chief Ladiga were on Day 3 and faced a 94 mile push back to Atlanta. At the same time, here in Southport, England I was about to take on Day 18 of my training for my 100 mile challenge, and hoping to break the 30 mile barrier. I mean, those guys (and girls) are pushing for 94 miles, so I can push for 30...right?

THE CHIEF LADIGA SILVER COMET TRAIL CHALLENGE:  https://www.facebook.com/ChiefLadigaSilverCometSk8?ref=ts

It looked bright and sunny enough, and it was. I'd wrestled with the moral dilemma of doing some training on a Sunday, instead of spending time with my girlfriend, or...watching World Superbikes from Donnington on the TV! But I needed to get some miles in and with Rachael's approval, off I went. I set off straight from the front door again, up through Birkdale village and up to the coast road. Stopped to send texts and ring Rachael before I set off in earnest, get my helmet on and make a start. Pretty high wind; about 15 mph, but behind me so blowing in the right direction...for now at least! Once past the busy part of the seafront I even deployed the Sporting Sail for a while and got blown some of the way down the coast, past the RSPB marshland area. The wind was blowing across me though, as the road curved round, so although it was good, I still could have benefitted from it being a bit windier to really drive me along. So I pushed and pumped alongside the A565 and A59 up to Tarleton where I stopped for a sandwich and to chat to a bunch of boys who came over with the now usual "Wow! Never seen a board like that Mister! That's wicked!", comments. Gave me a chance to explain what I'm doing and why I'm doing it, so it's all good.

My route...

View Day 18 Training in a larger map

Half an hour later I set off for the return journey. Now, I knew this was going to be tough, because I was pushing back into that wind this time. I didn't realise how tough! There isn't much shelter along the A59, but I was pretty close to the hedges, so I guess that took some of the buffeting away. The problems really started when I got back to the coastal road again. I stopped for a breather at the Plough roundabout and rang Rachael, who offered to come and get me. I'd done about 17 miles at this point, so there would have been no shame in quitting for the day there and then,. Like a fool though I said, "No, I'll give it another fifteen minutes and see how I get on". Mistake! Ten minutes onto the coastal road and the wind had increased to 20mph. Every push was getting me nowhere, as car drivers and bikers whizzed past me in the opposite direction, wondering "...what on earth is that fool doing on a skateboard in this wind?" I was struggling. If only that wind had changed direction the Sporting Sail would have been ideal at this time. Still, it wasn't, so I pushed, and pushed, and pushed along the most isolated section of the road. As I reached the pier I met another fellow Southport longboarder who I hadn't met before and stopped for long enough for him to have a quick scoot on the 'Switchblade'. Nick was on a Lush Samba, one of the boards I've got and used on my early training days. Nice to meet you Nick. Catch up with you around the seafront sometime.

I'd done pretty much the same route as when I did my 25.7 miles ride, but I wanted to improve on that, so, despite everything, the tiredness and stiffness, I carried on up the coast road to do a loop back onto the promenade and back home to Rachael's. Exhausted, I collapsed on the sofa. Later I realised that that my biggest mistake, (apart from not staying at home to watch World Superbikes!) was not putting any sun block on. My face was burning red from the wind. A lesson learnt for next time. Here I am a couple of hours later, talking about the journey. At this point I thought my distance was 26.7 miles, but a later recount of the distances on the google map came up with 30.4 miles, and that was the right route so, I'll have that! Result!!

The good news though was my distance achieved. I was going for 30 miles, and when it was all totalled up on the Google Map seen here it came in at...30.4 miles!. A new 'skate further' than I've done so far, and...over marathon distance! The experience left me with nothing but respect for those pushing the 94 mile last day at Chief Ladiga though.

One technical hiccup that's developed recently is the griptape on my board seems to be getting pushed out of place by the baseplates of the Bear trucks. It's a weird thing. The trucks seem solid and secure enough if I try to move them by hand, so I'm guessing it must just be down to vibration over some of the rougher surfaces. One thing my set up didn't have when it arrived was shock pads (thin pads that fit between the truck baseplates and the deck itself on 'drop-thru' decks, and help preserve the life of the deck. It looks like I'm going to need to get me some of those. So shock pads, new deck bolts, a set of bearings and a new set of truck bushings are on my shopping list, come pay day. A bit of maintenance won't do any harm and is probably overdue at 166 miles.

And finally, I've made my first appointment with a chiropodist! Before I set off today, corns of some kind on both feet were hurting me. I survived the day, but they are only going to get worse if not treated, so I've bitten the bullet and Monday 21st the man is coming to see me. I don't know who will enjoy the experience less, him or me?

Next time I do a long push for training I want to try and skate further along The Long Push route. Watch this space...

As ever, thanks to Long Push 2012 sponsors, BIG WOODY'S SKATEBOARD SHOP : DC SHOES (EUROPE) : ORANGATANG WHEELS/J&R SPORTS : SPORTING SAILS and to all the individuals who have supported me or donated so far. Please keep sharing links and spreading the word.

Here's to day 19.

Chris

Design a flyer for The Long Push 2012

Ladies and gents, I'm looking for some help in designing some flyers to promote The Long Push.

I need to get some flyers made within the next week!. I'm going to get them printed here locally, and I'm going for a cheap option of simple black and white (actually black text on a yellow blackground), so any images on it will also have to be in black or 'silhouette' style. They will be A5 size, so half the size of an A4 page. I've put this kind of thing out on forums in the past and that's how we got the current 'LONG PUSH' logo. So I'm hoping some of you graphic designer types might be able to come up with some potential designs for me to choose from because I'm positive you'll all do better than I could do myself!

So, how about it? The person (company) who's design is chosen will get a namecheck on the blog as a  supporter. I need these as soon as possible guys. I need to get them to the printers and be ready by next weekend! I know that's a big ask, but I'm hoping y'all can help me out here.

The flyers must include the following info, but after that I'm open to different creatives. Just remember it's black on a yellow background.:

black yellow LONG PUSH logo(above)
'LONGBOARDING FOR AUTISM AWARENESS' tag line

CHARITY -  FAMILIES CONNECTED and the URL 
www.families-connected.org.uk

ALL CONTACT/SOCIAL NETWORK DETAILS ie. 
BLOG www.thelongpush.blogspot.com 
FACEBOOK The Long Push 2012 
TWITTER @TheLongPush 
E MAIL the_long_push@btinternet.com
 
DONATIONS URL 
www.justgiving.com/TheLongPush

ALL SPONSOR URLS ie 
www.bigwoodys.co.uk
uk.dcshoes-store.com
www.sporting-sails.com
www.orangatangwheels.com 
www.jandrsports.co.uk

Other information you need:
It's a 100 mile journey from Southport to Fleetwood and back again, over 2 days. 50 miles per day.
Taking Place in August.

We neeed a strong emphasis on the AUTISM AWARENESS and  DONATIONS aspect

The flyer could use a strong longboard/longboarder image too I guess, but that's up to you guys. There's a lot of URL's to get on the page, so I thought maybe the sponsors ones could all go round the outside edge, in a border?

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Thanks

Chris

Latest sponsor of The Long Push 2012

I am very happy to be able to announce that The Long Push 2012 will be rolling on ORANGATANG WHEELS distributed by J&R Sports (Tel: +44 (0)151 480 6973)

Over the first few weeks of training rides for The Long Push I tried several different set-ups to try and work out which was going to work best for me on my journey. To be completely honest, I haven't bought ANY longboard equipment over the years that has been anything other than of a really high standard. I think that says something about the passion that people in this business put into what they do. But after trying a few different wheels of varying sizes and durometers, I decided to stick with ORANGATANG Durians; a 75 mm wheel and the 83A durometer version. I've been seriously impressed with these wheels. They've rolled over everything in sight over the 176 miles rolled so far in training, and felt smooth doing it too.

Purple Orangatang Durians still going strong after 176 miles

ORANGATANG/J&R SPORTS have now supplied The Long Push 2012 with two more sets of 75mm, 80A In Heat's to continue using in training and on the 100 mile journey itself, and J&R also included in the package a set of (much needed) LOADED Jehu bearings, and a set of Paris 180's with risers!! Massive thanks to Kyle Chin at Loaded and Richard Birchwood at J&R Sports for making this happen and showing their support for The Long Push 2012.

ORANGATANG WHEELS can be found at: http://www.orangatangwheels.com/

J&R SPORTS can be found at: J & R Sports - UK Sports Distributor 

PARIS TRUCKS can be found at: http://www.paristruckco.com/

ORANGATANG/J&R SPORTS now join BIG WOODY'S SKATEBOARD SHOP, DC SHOES (EUROPE) and SPORTING SAILS in sponsoring The Long Push 2012. If you would like to join them in sponsoring me in my bid to raise autism awareness and raise up to £5000 for the FAMILIES CONNECTED autism support charity, please contact Chris at the_long_push@btinternet.com

In Heats & Jehu's, ready to roll

Please support the companies and individuals who sponsor The Long Push 2012. These are the people who give us the scene we have today and the scene we want for the future.

Thanks once again, Kyle and Richard,

Chris

Days 16 and 17 training

The frustration over not managing to build my distance up continued over these two training days. Not a great deal to say abut them, but just to keep the training diary complete here they are:


DAY 16: THURSDAY 3rd MAY - 8 miles
Another 8 mile push around the Marine Lake training circuit after work. Memorable for little other than a spectacular dismount by moi, having lost my balance on one of the ramps coming off the pier! Sent my board flying down a 10 set of concrete steps. Good job no one was walking up them! More importantly, (ahem!) the 'switchblade' looked relatively unharmed at the time, considering it's belly had hit the steps and it flipped and slid across the pavement upside down. Says a lot about the quality of Landyachtz decks.  Just a few scrapes to the deck and to the truck mounting bolts. Hopefully I'll still be able to get those off and replace them. This deck is definitley the most 'used' of any of my longboards. I may well have to treat myself to another and 'retire' this one after The Long Push itself.

DAY 17: WEDNESDAY 9th MAY - 3.77 miles
Today started as a training day but then I abandoned it when something else came up. Didn't even realise RunKeeper had recorded it, but seeing as it did I'll keep it in as another 3.77 miles pushed.

One thing I will do sometime is post photos and video of the Marine Lake training circuit I keep writing about. Many people moan about living here in Southport, but I tell you, there are many, many worse places to live, and when I show you some photos and video from a sunset training ride, you'll see what I mean.

Roll on Day 18.