I ride

I ride and I ride and I ride.

Since going back to work, I reckon the pedal mileage has gone up rather than down.  All those commute journeys.  It's been tiring but it's kind of worked, and somehow despite not being somehow logistically able to back off, recovery seems to have happened.  The mix of cycling I've been doing is so different to the days when it was mountain bike, mountain bike, mountain bike and although I don't seem to have any uphill push at the moment, it's weird, but I have got cadence.  Provided it's flat.

I have abandoned the concept of a training programme in favour of simply doing preparation.  It feels better.  I want to stop thinking of every ride as a training thingy.  It's about the preparation.  The right jersey so I can get stuff out of the pockets.  The right stuff in the pockets, the right gloves, the right number of layers.  Thinking about bottle cages and water, thinking about saddles, the days before the ride.

I'll be honest, I love preparation.  I like lists.  I like the build up that preparing for something gives you.  I'm leaving for Scotland on Thursday night this week, and already am loving piling up clothes in the goods out space in my bedroom.  Posh word for the gap between the chest of drawers and the wall, but yes, the goods out is excitingly full of things.  Things with lycra and things of merino and things technical.  I could just prepare for weeks in the build up to something.  It's as much fun as setting off or being there or doing. Preparing.  It's good.

Today's ride has been all about the push.  I have, what, something like five weeks of prep left.  If the final two weeks are pretty much about maintenance with no gains to be made, then these are important weeks.  Final chance really to find some power.  So it's about the push. It's the high gears, it's monster shoving of bike pedals round.  Today has been about the push.