Another month, another event!
Not long after my last post I received news that I'd secured a place in the Ride 100 Event in London on August 2nd.
The Ride 100 is a 100 mile ride which follows the route of the 2012 Olympic road race with several thousand riders participating. The roads are all closed to other traffic and we get to ride through some of London's most famous spots, starting at the Olympic stadium and finishing on the Mall outside Buckingham Palace.
The other good news is that two of the gents I spent most of the time with riding LEJOG with, Stewart and Phil, have also got a spot so all being well we should have a bit of a reunion ride.
This month has been a bit of a challenge from a fitness point of view. Early on I managed to slightly pull a calf whilst out running that for some reason lead onto me developing a dodgy knee stopping me doing any running for 3 weeks. This effectively put an end to my marathon plans for this Spring so I've switched all my thoughts to training for the London-Nice trip in June.
My training buddy Mark has returned from his worldwide travels and we have managed to get a few miles in and I've also started riding with a cycle group which rides out of AJ's, my local bike shop.
A couple of the AJ's riders are training to ride from London to Paris non-stop this summer. They are doing the Route Verte, which is the route Zoë and I did when re rode to Paris, (although we did Calais to Dieppe rather than London to Newhaven). Others are training for various races, triathlons or challenges so I'm hoping training with the group will improve my strength and increase my average pace.
I'm settling into the new bike nicely. It's much more of a thoroughbred so much more responsive than my old bike. It's also a bit lighter so it's taking me a while to get used to the feel of it and trust it at speed or in windy conditions, particularly whilst descending. The DI2 gears are great and although I've made a few cock-ups, mainly when I've hit the wrong button, I'm finding them very smooth and easy to use. I've also invested in some ID "Bling" for the bike so I shouldn't loose it.
So March will be all about building up my mileage and getting comfortable with the bike. Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit and the rains will hold off.
Onwards and upwards!
