The Return

I'm back and I've half a good excuse for having been away from this for so long. The first couple of weeks was because I didn't have much cycling to talk about just a bit of running and a lot of night outs and not enough sleep!

However, the past couple of weeks has seen me spending a lot of time in the saddle. The first trip out with the Saturday morning team was very hard, not only was I not in the right sort of shape for 45 miles through the Staffs moorlands, but I hadn't had enough food so I felt pretty awful on the way back home. Having said that I've kept the cycling up since then, doing a total of 80 miles last week, and 65 this week. In addition I've been using the turbo trainer a bit.

The turbo trainer! What an excellent way to tire yourself out in 30 to 45 minutes. I have been getting a seriously good workout and my heart monitor is telling me that I'm working far harder than I normally do when I'm out and about. It is excruciatingly boring though, you can only look around the inside of your own garage for so long before the novelty begins to wear off. Thank goodness for iPods!

I even managed to get up early this morning and have a ride over to Carsington Water on a spectacularly sunny morning. I was back home and in the shower for 8 a.m. feeling very good about the day ahead.

My target now is 55 miles this week which will make it 300 in total since the end of January which isn't bad for me. It's going to be tough as I am away with work for three days but I'm sure we'll find a way.

I have now started a fund raising page for the ride I am training for. If you fancy sponsoring me it's at www.justgiving.com/londontoderby