Everyone has that one friend who takes new year’s resolutions to the extreme, right? Well, I’m about to explain the barmiest yet – I’ve been chained into doing the Pistachio to Pistachio 130-mile bike ride!

I know New Year is a distant thought away, way down the long list of priorities busying our minds at this time of year as we hurtle towards Christmas. Firstly, we must drag ourselves through the final week of work, fit in panic buying our last minute prezzies with extortionate next day delivery fees, and then, before we know it we’re down the pub guzzling mulled wine with our mates on Christmas Eve. Finally, when the big day arrives, there is no end to the turkey, trimmings, choccys, and delicious indulgent beverages warming our stomachs without a care in the world.

I doubt many of you have started thinking about your New Year’s resolutions so early on in December, but at Pistachio HQ we’ve almost been forced to, and it’s a drastic contrast to the aforementioned festive lifestyle we’ll be living this December.

For some reason, our colleague up north (naming no names – ahem CHRIS) thought it would be a brilliant idea to set ourselves the task of cycling 130 miles office to office, Marlow to Nottingham.

And thus the resolution was decided – GET BIKE FIT. And when I say us, I mean I.

For the past two months, before the reality of the ride hit me (like today), I have been putting off joining the gym and have been convincing myself that my twice weekly hot yoga classes would power me half way across the country via bike. I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that 130 miles is a freakishly mammoth distance that human beings prepare for with a year’s worth of gruelling training – so I’m going to have to jump on that typical new year fitness bandwagon, along with the rest of the UK. I’ll be grabbing any January gym offers I can get my hands on. I just pray I don’t turn out to be one of those budding gym enthusiasts that go hard-core for the first two months and drift away, forgetting I subscribed to a year’s membership, with fees sneakily slipping out of my account forever more.

However, this is no ordinary fitness fad we’re enrolling on here. A 100 mile endeavour is what I’ve just found out budding cyclists call, a ‘century’ … with another 30 miles added on top to push us even more over the edge. Sooo, for someone who despised my first (and only) spin class two years ago, and who doesn’t even own a bike, to say this is going to be a tough target is potentially the understatement of the century. Oh, and I forgot to mention, in case we hadn’t given ourselves enough of a challenge, we will be completing this insane commute in just 1 day. So make sure you pencil in 22nd June ’18 if you want to see me crash and burn somewhere between the Midlands and the South-West of England.

As other members of the team exchange banter over leg vs back day in the office, and the oversized countdown timer on our website frustratingly ticks down the seconds to go until the big day, I know I should really get a pedal on! I honestly do have good intentions to… but as the common saying goes in our house “the diet starts Monday.” I’m ever so slightly putting this challenge off until the new year, blocking the terrifying thoughts out of my mind and hoping that my fellow Marlow gym goers will spur me on with their motivational spirit in January.

I’m almost certain that when I do eventually get on the saddle and reality spokes me in the face once again – that there will be plenty of wobbles … but with the New Year brings a new me; a revived, inspired self. I shall wheel into 2018 and handle any punctures thrown into my cycle path to reach the ‘century’.

To be fair, we’re not nutty enough to be putting ourselves through this hell just for the fun of it; although it will be pretty hilarious to see our colleagues in fashionable, high vis, yellow and grey Pistachio branded Lycra. We will in fact be raising money for Brain Tumour Research and the Nottingham Children’s Hospital, ‘The Big Appeal’, so all will be worth it in the end.

With all my positive intentions to bat away the deep-down growing fear this challenge brings, I’ll keep you posted in the new year to see if this ‘new self’ evolves or burns out … #watchthisspace

P.S. Is it too late to ask Santa for a cycle fit body for Christmas?

For more information on our Pistcahio2pistachio bike ride, visit: www.pistachio2pistachio.com