I've got until the 5th of July to finish training up for the Marmotte and I'm nowhere near ready enough yet.
I had thought that I had been training well but my recent performance in the Etape Caledonia (4hrs 42 mins) shows that I'm slower not faster than I was last year - I had a puncture which slowed me down more, but without it I would have still been nearly ten minutes slower than previously. I had had ambitions of a sub four hour time. Following that I had manflu and my mileage has really plummeted for this month, I don't think I'll even make my minimum 600 miles.
On the plus side, the EC was a bit later in the year last year and my training was practically at its peak then (if anything I peaked before the actual Etape du Tour, which was my focus for the year).
On the negative side I'm a bit heavier than last year (about seven kilos). I think with better training and a bit of grit I can shift about five of that by early July but any more weight loss than that and I'll compromise my remaining training efforts.
I've got the Chiltern Hundred this weekend and the Dragon Rode a fortnight after - if I can get round that in somewhere around eight hours (or at least under nine) then I think I'll be back on track. Lots to do over the next month or so though.
I think *gulp* that I mght have to suspend beer drinking for the next five weeks.
I'm going to go out and do regular saturday sessions trying to meep up with the fastish boys & girls lapping Richmond Park. I'm going to also do climbing training on my turbo and keep up my mileage (my commute is approx 24 miles per day).
Any suggestions or criticisms?
