Training and
preparation
Purposefully
trained for about 10 months, gradually increasing weekday interval “turbo” sessions,
and long rides at weekends.
Felt
good during the training, felt strong and comfortable with the mileage.
Didn’t
reduce other demands of my life and experienced sudden fatigue or “ran myself
into the ground” a few weeks prior to the event – questioning whether I was
going to do the event or not (up to a few days before departure).
The ride
Decided
to give it a go and managed 570 miles in total before ill health stopped me
from continuing. Loved cycling through Scotland and generally the north of the
country. The last couple of hours of
each day were difficult and needed to just “switch off and turn the pedals
over”.
Was
much more of a “military operation” than I had expected and we didn’t have
evenings to relax and wasn’t very social until the final night. Would do the event over 10 days next time to
make it enjoyable rather than just “doing it”.
Bike and equipment
Used
a Ribble carbon bike, did the job excellently. Attention to detail regarding
nutrition / fuelling was essential and worked well.
If I could do it
all again…
In
hindsight - when training, resting is just as important as … training. Also, don’t just focus on the mileage you
need to cover, get used to being on the bike for 9 hours a day.
The
only trouble now is that I am left with some unfinished
business…
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