Just received a new email from BV with, amongst other things,  a recommended training schedule for Jan-March. Accordingly, I am meant to have been doing around 300-400km per week riding 3 weekdays and both weekend days (2x 50km rides, 1 x 70km ride, 1 x 180km ride and one recovery 30km ride). Obviously this kind of schedule precludes going to work or having a family or doing anything else useful other than pedalling, eating, sleeping or cleaning the bike. Needless to say I am still wallowing around back in the "Endurance Base Training" phase of the schedule.

I did around 80km through the hills last Sunday morning and decided to wallop myself up the Old Freeway right at the end of the ride. The effect, apart from personal satisfaction at setting a new PB for the upcoming Dogs Bollards, was to render me incapable of climbing stairs or anything else that required use of my quads for several days afterwards. Tuesday was a shortened version of TMMLM and this morning a flat ride out along the beaches. All up maybe 150km for the week. I think my only chance at a nice long ride before the big day will be the Coast to Coast and then to ride home again. Sadly this is on the Sunday before the 3 Peaks, so not the best timing.

I started racing with the Vets this summer and my irregular crit racing in C grade appears to be paying dividends. The crits generally follow a similar pattern of riding around and around for 45 minutes, half of the circuit with a tail wind and the other half I'm blowing a head gasket into a howling head wind. That kind of personal semi-weekly flogging actually seems to have increased by strength and maybe even lifted my anaerobic thresh-hold a little as the ride home into the headwind this morning seemed a lot easier than I remember.

BV have also informed me that the only food (apart from lunch) they will be providing is those Cadel Whinger Bars and Gels. Sadly, no fruit cake, bananas, lollies, biscuits or anything that resembles what I normally eat. Not really a fan of the bars and gels, mostly cos they taste way too unnaturally sweet.