Kirkstall Forge |
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Visit Blog
After seeing that the Kirkstall Forge area was becoming a Cycle Friendly Business, I decided to go check it out with a view to supporting
the Ride to Work week.
Here's my (independent) view on what I discovered : Kirkstall Forge blog.
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Bike Ride
Kirkstall Forge have a stong focus on Health and Wellbeing as they develop the site. This is very encouraging to me especially as it is geniunely supported
by a Life team.
Earlier in the year I took a group for a nice little trial ride along the canal since they launched their free pool-bike scheme for workers on site.
During Love To Ride's Cycle September, they commissioned me to take a group for more exploratory ride and picnic which was very popular.
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Play Out |
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Play Out
In order to provide flexible/bespoke activities I have now set up 'Play Out'. This will host walking, running and cycling activities.
This utilises my qualified and insured UK Athletics Run Leader and British Cycling Ride Leader status which includes First Aid and DBS checks.
I continue to support Farsley Flyers and local parent school runs on a voluntary basis, but also provide other activities for public participlation
or construct bespoke solutions for business.
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Couch to 5k : Farsley
Last year (2017) included Parkrun couch to 5k courses and parent school run beginners, some of whom
went on to run Bradford 10k this year.
Some of the issues I find with couch to 5k when run in groups is that not everyone is starting at the same point
and the hard set increments in run-time makes it hard for some to maintain, especially when life gets in the way
and you have to skip a week or so.
Therefore, I have now set up an on-going Couch to 5k run series configured as 3 levels which supports joining
at any time / any level then progressing through the 3 levels when you're ready. The focus is always to keep a group
together for as much as possible as social group running is a strong motivator for mind and body.
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School Drop Fit & Farsley Flyers Running Club
Since October 2017, three to five times per week whatever the weather, I have been encouraging the parents at Daniel's old school (Farsley Springbank Primary School) to head out for a run/walk and sometimes a bike ride
straight after dropping the kids off in a morning.
The reason behind this was that many people were saying they couldn't join evening groups due to having to look after the children. Additionally, it's a perfect time to get activity over and done with for the
day after the initial hectic morning of sorting out kids and getting them to school. Non-Springbank folk are welcome and I'm opening up some days more publically on my Run Together Club.
Obviously I have also continued my weekly leading of groups for Farsley Flyers and I only recall missing 2 sessions all year (once on holiday and another for a meeting at Daniel's school).
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Love To Ride
Love to Ride is a platform to encourage people to ride more often, with an emphasis around commuting. It is utilised by CityConnect to benefit West Yorkshire.
From time to time, I work as part of the Love to Ride and CityConnect teams to visit businesses and public locations to help highlight the local facilities
and offer advice and guidance on all things cycling.
Feel free to read through my introductory bio blog.
Make sure you also register and have a look at my profile too!
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Lets Ride
British Cycling provide ride leadership training and insurance, in return for voluntary lead rides under the Let's Ride programme. One of the bigger events are the days when city centres roads are closed
for family cycling e.g. Lets Ride Leeds (used to be Sky Ride). I have put on a number of local rides (plus see my group) generally focussing on beginner and commuter cycling.
One advantage is that the ride leadership can be used elsewhere, therefore I have also engaged in paid rides including with City Connect. I really want to bring this (and running)
to the business environment to encourage health and also active commuting. Whilst many see running and cycling as casual enjoyment, with experience the leading really becomes a professional service
and I want to progress this away from the voluntary expectation to gain the credit it deserves.
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Charity |
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#NovPlus1 - November Challenge
Getting set to run through November to raise money for Leeds Deaf Children's Society.
I'll be running each day in November, at least the number of miles as that day of the month - making 465 miles in total.
This is to draw attention to fundraise for Leeds Deaf Children's Society, and some of the funds will be going to a street dance workshop Christmas party I'm arranging for the members of Leeds-DCS.
Follow progress on Just Giving - please support! or Search for the hashtag #NovPlus1.
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Farsley Community Initiative |
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Farsley Festival
Once again, our fantastic core team of 9 volunteer folk pulled off an awsome curated Farsley Festival day for thousands with some much appreciated help with on-the-day volunteers.
We believe our festival stands out, partly because we provide everything (except food) for free but largely because of the team's passion to design an artistic and intelligent festival engaging with the community.
It may be hard work to pitch in the hundreds of hours by each team member for year-round fundraising (to allow it to be free for all), grant applications, park permissions,
artist and performer choices and booking, equipment and infrasrtucture sourcing, legalities-safety-insurances, community art project (wings this year) and not forgetting the huge
effort on the day itself with the mop up tasks dragging on for weeks after!
A round of applause please, for the team who really receive nothing in return.
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Strava Games |
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Strava Games
At the age of 11, I began to learn programming on my ZX Sprectrum then on to an Amiga. Originally deemed as "an expensive toy" it lead on to a career in IT design / development / test / project management / business analysis with
some of the biggest global players in the financial, broadcasting and health markets delivering innovative bespoke systems.
I may have recently twisted my focus away from the corporate world, but have now turned my creativity and experience to the health and wellbeing arena.
However, most details in this area are being kept under wraps, though focussing on concepts where I see very little ongoing competition globally...
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