Training - for the record

Should anyone be thinking of following in our footsteps (or should that be tyre tracks?) here's an approximate summary of the training undertaken, starting when i bought my bike in January.

January, February, March were just building up a bit of time on the bike.  April was hijacked by spending 3 of 4 weeks in Bangalore with work, so restricted to the gym.

The aim in May was to do at least one long ride on the weekend, you get an idea from the graphic that was only partially successful.  he shorter rides in between are my route to work, which i tried to extend to an hour or so by performing laps of regents park.

Regular gym visits however is where I think I built all my hill climbing power - special mention to Jordan here for designing a program that worked around all the various challenges that came up, from my complete lack of flexibility, problems with my back, shoulders and the broken elbow. Along with a friday morning spin class the gym work also helped introduce variety into the training.

Broadway tower  

The longest training ride was 95 miles in the cotswolds when the 4 of us got together, having preceded this with a 60mile ride the day before this was the point we were confident our route plan of 80 - 100 miles a day was achievable, in fact we did start to think would it be too little - but photo stops helped slow us down on the real thing. 

training in the cotswolds

The Costswolds

somewhere near newbury 

If I was to do it again I think joining a cycle club would be worthwhile. The Sunday morning ride with Team Kennet (Sean's triathlon club) was one of the most enjoyable and with a group of people better than you it helps push you that bit more than you (I) do on your own.

Bluebells

Leith Hill

My 3 regular training routes were:
Regents park - completely flat but near my house & 10 laps + a return trip was almost exactly 50km which was a good target

Richmond park - cyclist friendly with some hills, nothing too extreme, but better than flat

Surrey hills - I ventured out on longer rides to tackle the surrey hills, box hill rose to fame with the olympics but is a pretty gentle ascent. Leith hill nearby is on the Surrey 100 cycle route o well known in the area & is a bit more challenging going up to 18% gradient

Box hill