Training starts here

Since I signed up to Ride 999 I’ve had an anxiousness in my stomach that I haven’t been able to shake. It kept me up most of the night after I hit ‘join’ and hasn’t really gone away. I think it’s down to three things:

1. What have I committed to?! Will I really be able to ride 900 miles in nine days?
2. Will people sponsor me so that I reach the required £2,000 that the charity needs from me?
3. I need to get cracking on training! (I still have @riderstuart‘s voice ringing in my ears from a call we had yesterday where he said I need to be doing 100 miles a week at this point).

Number 1 is done-and-dusted and not worth worrying about. Number 2 is where my friends, family and the Internet comes in. The only one I can do anything about is Number 3. So, in that spirit, training starts here.

I have two young boys of 7 and 5 years of age and like most families like us we have lots of weekend commitments. I am going to try and keep as many of them as I can whilst doing as many miles as I can. So, at 8am I’m going out in this to cycle a long route over to my eldest son’s football match:

UPDATE: Although the ride was cold, I soon warmed up. The 25 miles out to football felt great. I had a protein bar, watched 40 minutes of football and got chilly. The 15 miles back were a real slog—my thighs were burning and I was slow and hungry. Clearly I have a lot of work to do.