5 months to go

Thought it may be vaguely interesting to keep a training diary leading up to the ride, just to chart in outline the training I've put in.

January 2008...

For the first time (and probably last time) in my life I made a new years resolution, it was made just as the room was beginning to spin round in circles at about 1.30am on new years day, my resolution was to stop drinking for a month and cut down on the amount of trash food I eat. Somehow when I woke up a few hours later I still remembered making the resolution and decided I would stick with it. The results so far have been pretty interesting - I certainly feel significantly less toxic and I've also lost a few pounds as well - my weight for most of the last 15 years or so has been 12 stone 3lb ish and it has now dropped to just under 12 stone. They reckon that ever Kg of weight (including body weight) adds 3 seconds per mile to a ride time, so over a 100 mile ride losing 2 Kg will save 10 minutes, which can only help in the bid to stay in front of the eliminatory "sweeper van".

I've also been looking at doing some proper (organised) training rides in advance of the event - some rides with proper hills. I came across AUDAX UK (www.aukweb.net) which are basically local rides organised by the local cycling clubs all over the country, you pay a few quid entry fee, turn up at some car-park, are given a route-map and off you go.

The first one I'm doing (and the only one I plan on doing in February) is the "Cotswold Corker", a 65 mile trip around the Cotswold's which starts off with a one in four 1km long climb right out of the starting blocks, which with cold legs will be really tough - I have a suspicion that not even my granny gear will get me up that one. Nice write-up of it here: http://www.cambridge-cycling-club.org.uk/pdfs/corker2000.pdf. I have three rides planned for March (albeit two of them are local, so no hills) and will hopefully do a couple in each of April and May. As a final preparatory ride have signed up to a 200k tough ride around the Hampshire downs in early June which gives 3000m of climbing overall - so whilst the profile of the course will be very differant to the Pyrenees (i.e. Hampshire will be lots of shorter, sharper climbs versus the Pyrenees which are less steep but much much longer) it is over a similar distance and climbs a similar amount of metres overall so will be a good "sanity check" if nothing else http://www.cyclegb.co.uk/index.php?main=sportives.

Whilst looking for rides I came across this guys write up of a 600km Audax ride he did. That's 600km non-stop - get up in the morning, get on the bike, ride 30 to 35 hours non stop, apart from a cat-nap by a stone wall... Heather often calls me mad but no, this guy is truly mad: http://www.audax.demon.co.uk/tall/brimstone99.html.

So what have I done this month. Well, no rides of any significance but I have hopefully done enough to carry my fitness through the winter and hit the ground running in Spring. I've been out on my new bike several times for shorter rides, it's really really lovely to ride. I've also been going to loads of Spin classes and also started body pump classes - basically circuits with weights - this will hopefully build up some muscle strength, except so far all I have achieved doing each of the three times I've been is to find *lots* of new muscles which then ache like hell for two days afterwards. After the first session I spent the next day in *lots* of pain and barely able to walk - not amused.

Spin is still proving really enjoyable, to the extent that I got withdrawal symptoms over Christmas, I really missed the classes. Ben (the main instructor) is excellent as ever. As testiment to his popularity he runs one class on Wednedays at 7am - 7am not being a terribly popular time for people to be killing themselves in the gym - his classes are invariably full and usually there are more people in his class then there are in the remainder of the whole gym.

So in summary:

Weight at beginning of month: 12st 3
Weight at end of month 11st 13

Longest ride in month - 30 miles
Total mileage in month - 150 miles on road bike plus another 25 or so miles cross country on my mountain bike
Spin classes attended: 13
Body Pump classes attended: 3
Times that body pump class has caused pain: 3
Alcohol consumed: Nil