2018

This is it, now. This is the gig. I don't mind admitting I've been a bit slack over December - very slack, in actual fact - however this was a planned inconsistency that was achieved through complex planning and training from previous adventures.

There are many athletes out there who can happily compete in their sports over and over again, a state of mind I have become familiar with when running. I love to plan a distance, nip out and achieve it, get back and know that I've got those miles in the bag. When training for a specific event though I can find very long runs stagnate and I end up resenting my chosen sport for a period of time until the actual event arrives. I found it with the London Marathon, vowing never to do another marathon again as the training needed to do such a distance is so time consuming and gruelling. After a few adjustments to my training plan I then managed to do two marathons within seven months of each other.

The adjustments were things I'd never considered possible during training - relaxing, allowing myself to fail and reducing training to fit in with my life. Rather than doing four 20 mile runs before tapering I did four half marathons and it did the same job as long as I did some faster short runs as well. Applying this logic to my current situation I'll be using the indoor bike to try and increase my speed which should allow me to ride sensibly and get used to being out on the roads, perhaps making 60 or 70 miles my end goal before RideLondon rather than creeping up to 90 miles. It all seems a bit wishy washy at the moment but consistent riding on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays is a concrete plan and the only thing that really matters when training is consistency. I'll also be running on Tuesdays because I can't bring myself to give it up, even for six months.

Today is the first day of this concrete training plan. This is it, now.