'Proper' training

About this time last year, I was regularly complaining about 'not going well' despite finishing all the events I started.

Looking back this is unsurprising. I was not 'up for' the cycling at all and was somewhat just going through the motions to achieve the goals I'd set myself. Consequently, although I was getting in the miles, these were all on 200km Audaxes (or thereabouts) with absolutely nothing ridden in between.

Quite obviously, this training (lack of a) regime is more Christopher Biggins than Bradley Wiggins, and so it proved.

This year is proving different. I'm a few miles down on last year already, but way ahead in terms of both training, fitness and enjoyment.

I'm even enjoying the turbo, even if I didn't make it to the top of the Galibier on the Fortius Video this morning, coming up about 8km short in 2 hours from the bottom of the Telegraphe. That said, 2 hours, 15 miles and 1200 calories is training enough for icy grip of a snowy January. With continued lard-avoidance, the weight may also be moving in the right direction.

I'm determined that this year I will give the Cheshire Cat and the Etape du Dales a much better go, having suffered on both last year. Hopefully the moving of Mow Cop to 26km into the ride rather than 66km will be better suited to me too. Getting the climbs out of the way early may mean I can grab a tow (or two) when we get out onto the flat stuff.