About three weeks ago I said goodbye to Louis (if you don’t know who Louis is here is a blog I wrote on the day of his dad’s funeral).
Since the time that Tim died, I’ve tried to look after Louis as best I could and we’ve become friends and we would ride our bikes together and even compete in triathlon races together in relays.
Inadvertently and by mistake (certainly on my part) he became my daughters boyfriend last summer.
He's now become a bit of a fixture at our place, both in terms of training with me but more as Rosie’s partner.
He doesn’t live at my house though (at least one night a week he doesn’t) so two weeks ago, I had to send him away.
On a very small scale compared to everything else that’s going on, it broke my heart because Rosie was so devastated and so was Louis.
We all love stories like this, this is not unusual in these times.
What is slightly unusual though is Louis reaction and response for someone who is 17 in this circumstance.
He started to train harder, not softer.
In a fantastically resourceful way, he figured out how to train at home and to continue to get fitter as a triathlete,not lose his fitness.
He's recently filled up a paddling pool in the back garden and can tie a rope around his leg, in order to allow him to do swim sessions!!
What he’s also decided to do though on the 16th of April, is to cycle the equivalent of the height of Everest on Zwift (an online avatar-based cycling platform).
It’s likely that this will take him in the region of 11-12 hours of cycling in the room at the top of his house on a turbo trainer, connected to a laptop.
He’s decided to do this for Nottingham Hospitals Charity, to support the people on the front line of the NHS.
Quite an extraordinary gesture for a 17-year-old lad in self isolation, who can’t get to see his girlfriend.
I hope you think it’s worthwhile chucking a few pounds Louis way (which of course won’t go to Louis but will go to other people who need it more than him or me).
If you can manage to do that, it will put a smile on his face and probably a smile on many other peoples faces that could do with it.
The Link is here, sorry to ask but thanks so much for any consideration you could give to this, if you do decide to do it then give him a message too. If you are on Zwift and you want to ride with him during the day, I think that could be sorted too so just email me here.
Blog Post Number - 2336
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