2021 is getting back on track and its charity supporting on the road

Now that the UK is emerging from the Covid pandemic, battered but not down, folks like me can now start to take part in events.

I run and coach with Royton Road Runners so it is good to see races appear back in the calendar and I booked the first few... Mossley 10k was cancelled the next week after I signed up!

I am trying to raise money and awareness for SarcoidosisUK, a charity that supports sufferers of this rare disease, I was diagnosed back in 2019 and although I can still exercise, it takes much longer to recover and some weeks I cannot train as the fatigue can be too much.

I have entered 3 cycling sportive events and as you may know, the Manchester Marathon is something put back twice now but should go ahead and this will be my final challenge of the year and my fundraising for 2021

Tour of the Pennines - 41 Miles of Hills - 8th May

Tour of the Peaks - 61 Miles of Hills - 23rd May

Cheshire Cat - 108 miles including "Mow Cop" - 12th September

With my last and final challenge 

Manchester Marathon 2021 - 26.2 miles of running around my home city

If you can spare time to look at their website https://www.sarcoidosisuk.org 

and if you can afford to sponsor me head to my JustGiving 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-kelly57

So my training regime is going to be a mixture of two longish runs with the club, Monday and Thursday's and either a long run or long ride

After the first ride of the year went "wrong" for me last Sunday I have bounced back and committed to getting the training right so that the challenges ahead are "doable"

The running is not so much an issue but the start to the year cycling has been mostly on the turbo trainer and very few opportunities to ride, so rocking up to the Manchester-Sheffield-Manchester I was nervous, to say the least.

Overnight it had snowed and I have very little winter gear so had to brave it out with what I could find (Fingerless gloves and knee warmers) 

On the second to last hill, I suffered horrendous cramp and had to stretch out and push the bike up the short bit to the top.

On the last hill, I had to seek medical help and eventually got to Glossop Fire Station for the feed station. I tried to stretch the legs but the pain was too much, so decided to quit and contacted the event HQ to let them know.

Hopefully, in 3 weeks the weather will be better and I will have learned from my mistakes, not a great deal of time to improve my cycling but will soldier on.

My shoulder is still very painful and after an ultrasound was carried out, it was not a bone spur as first suspected, but inflammatory Arthritis. The physio administered a cortisone injection, which has done nothing and the pain is just getting worse. 

I am waiting for a Rheumatology Physio session if this can be confirmed as inflammatory then it might possible Sarcoidosis related, either way it is blommin painful!

So Tuesday evening I ventured out for a 5k run, the legs were tired and a little achy but the effort was respectable

I don't usually bunch runs together but work was getting on top of me on Wednesday, so decided after a year of working from home, why not go for a lunchtime run! it was fun and a little quicker than the day before, just over 22 minutes

Thursdays RRR group B was a nice pace, I think we had all had a challenging week and the conversation was super as we went around a hilly but simple route.

The groups target pace is 8:00min/mile so it was a more comfortable 9:00 pace, my runs to and back from the clubhouse, I go a little faster.

After the tough ride last week, it was imperative I got some miles in the bank on the bike as the Tour of the Pennines is just 3 weeks away! So warily I rolled out on a quiet, cool but wind-free Sunday morning.

My main effort was the Newhey Climb, which is a hill that just keeps on going, I met another cyclist on the way up and we rejoined as I cruised down the other side of the hill, he caught me up and kindly offered to adjust my seat slightly. Turns out my seating position was not helping my performance!

It turns out he is the "Bike Fit" engineer for a cycling team and has done super long weekends of 400 miles, so quizzed him as much as I could!

So a cheeky 21-mile ride with a total climb of 1467ft around stunning scenery was a superb way to get my training on track. 

So please help me raise as much money for Sarcoidosis, and I will do my best to complete these challenges and spread more awareness of this awful disease and together we can find a cure. 

All the best 

Mark