After facing personal health challenges, losing my mum to Alzheimer’s disease, and seeing the devastating impact of Motor Neurone Disease on my wife’s family, I decided to take on a challenge that would turn loss into hope.
I’m training for a 60-mile charity bike ride to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society and the Motor Neurone Disease Association, two charities that have become deeply personal to my family.
This journey is about more than cycling. It’s about rebuilding my health, honouring the people we have lost, supporting families facing these cruel diseases, and proving that even after the hardest moments in life, something positive can grow.
The challenge is not just the ride, it’s the fact I also have to lose a lot of weight and overcome some health issues to do it. I’ll be logging my progress below and with the help of some friends, training hard.
Read the full story >Here<
My progress is shown below:
Starting weight: 18st 9lbs (16/07/2026)
Current: 17st 1lbs (01/09/2026)
Target weight: 14st
I will soon be posting links to the donations pages and if anyone or any businesses want to support the effort, please contact me on info@philiphunton.co.uk any support in training, gear or just a word of wisdom is appreciated.
12th August 2026
Training progressing well, 7kg lost and fitness increased. Nightly 3 mile ride getting easier so Im increasing it from next month to 7-10 miles. Huel leaving me filled and refueled, surprisingly no hunger after! (Click here to get yours). Morning 1 mile walk and afternoon rides seem to be building fitness well.
17th August 2026
Training increased from 3k steps and 3.5 mile ride to 4k steps (1 mile 6am brisk walk) and mixing in 3.5 and 6 mile rides depending on how my body is feeling. Nutrition has vastly improved, VO2 is slowly increasing and I have not needed my COPD or Asthma inhalers since starting cycling. Feeling good, will be setting up a team sponsorship on Just Giving, unfortunately it won’t allow me to split 50/50 between two charities but I can create a team and request sponsors to try and keep them equal. Onward and upward.
21st August 2026
Training continues with longer morning walks and introducing strength training with kettlebells, sandbags and elasticated fitness bands. 8KG down and I am aiming for 195 lbs / 88kg. After reviewing my past cycling activities and data I know its possible to reach the goals set, my COPD and Athsma continues to improve with blood oxygen levels going from 93% on average to 97% but theres room for more improvement. Hard but still enjoying it all, my depression has been reduced and overall mood increases with every little step forward.
23rd August 2026
2 Mile walk, 6 miles off-road ride and 1 hour strength training, really enjoying it (afterwards). Now the tough part, to dispose of the nicotine sticks. Using the bike to visit my Father more regularly, beautiful bridleway and a couple of small climbs. Every step forward is good, but Im taking things slower than in the past to make sure I do things properly. Â Still got King Of The Hill on a couple of routes on Strava from years back, wouldn’t mind eventually being back in that form!
25th August 2026
Strength training, morning and afternoon walks for a couple of days, handy for clearing the head after working in the studio. I have managed to avoid being in front of the camera since opening the studio in 2007 as Im acutely aware Im not pretty to look at, something tells me I should record my efforts though, just to look back on and see how hard I worked to get to the end of the road. I thought Id dabble with a little AI to help me create a look for a training diary channel on YouTube, somewhere I can record the highs and lows in a casual way. My 9 year old daughter has been coming out riding with me and she can maybe look back on the diary in the future too. I’m not shedding the pounds as fast as I would like but I hope thats just because fat is being replaced with muscle……thats my story and Im sticking with it for now!
30th August 2026
I finally worked up the confidence to record my first diary video to record the progress (?) visit the YouTube channel : https://www.youtube.com/@Road-to-the-Ride
