Training in January

So, February is here and the first month of our step up in training is complete.  Many of us have managed over 150 miles and over 8000ft of climbing and this does not include any midweek gym cycling or turbo trainer sessions that I know a few of you are doing.  Given that the weather conditions have been fairly horrendous at times, this is a good show.  We have been out on days when it is only just above freezing and learnt to our cost, that we shouldn’t do this again.  Tim, Andy and I (Simon) had three falls between us in the slippery conditions on the morning of 12 Jan.  We had to walk down one hill as it was so dangerous, but nonetheless we carried on and did a creditable 40 odd miles.  So the fall count for me is 3 since Xmas, including an embarrassing tumble at the top of the hill climbing from Redbourn back into Harpenden, ending up on my back in the brambles with my feet still in the peddles.  I should have know that chasing Jeremy was hopeless.

All of us seem to be losing weight including Mike, even if we have had confirmed reports of him sneaking in a bag of chips on the walk home from the train one evening.

One final piece of news, is that we have all signed up for the Chiltern 100 on 1 June which is a good run out before the big event.  It is 107 miles and 2600 metres of climbing, not as much as we need to do on the day, but there will me many more shorter sharper climbs on this route than in the Pyrenees.  We have signed up as a team under the moniker of this blog site.

Hopefully this month, we will add a few more ride reports on the blog.