# So, the plan is...



## Arch (15 Jul 2010)

So. I need a plan and targets.

My vague training idea is this: this year, I'll work on getting a bit fitter and faster and just rack up some miles, day in day out. I'll do another imperial century, and a 200k ride by the Autumn. Next year, I'll go for some longer distances, as well as keeping the regular miles up. After that, it's just going further and faster until 2013.

My first training aid is my commute. 4 days a week it's a tiddly 3 mile round trip, the other it's a massive 6 miles in total. A total of 18 a week. But I'm adding in extra loops, and at the moment I'm managing to average 10 miles a day, or more. Last week, I made it 70 in total for the 5 days. I see this as training in two ways. Firstly, it's miles in the legs. Secondly, it's forcing myself to ride the long way home, even when I'm already tired from a physical job. It might not be much, but it's gradually helping to learn to make demands on my body. I wonder if in some ways it's harder mentally than if I had to ride the distance to get home - there's always the tempting shortcut. I'm hoping to add in more extra miles as time goes on.

This year, I had an additional training aid, my holiday. Nearly 900 miles through France, with 7 friends, in a fortnight. All I have to do is recreate that, in less than half the time.

Organised rides are useful too of course. I did my first Audax back in April, the 53km Leap into the Aire, out of Hebden Bridge. Very hilly, not like my home turf around York at all. I did it in 5 hours 15 mins. A great atmosphere, and I'll hope to do more and more as my training progresses. LEL is, after all, an ultra Audax.

Last year I did the Big G sportive, out of Beverley, along with a few other CC'ers. HelenD123 and I did the 60k route. This year, I'm doing the 100k route (while Helen does Canada!). This Saturday. It's another hilly one - nibbling at the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds. I need to get my climbing legs sorted.

When I told my sister I was going to do this, and she'd said I was mad, I realised that a useful training weekend would be to ride to her house and back, in a weekend. She lives in Winchester. Last time I cycled there, I took a week and had a day off in the middle...


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