Ok, so it's been a while but after a good week I feel I'm well placed to get writing again. 42 miles on Saturday and 45 minutes on the turbo in front of the first (and best) half of Real Madrid v Bayern Munich on Wednesday - not bad, not bad.  In truth I could have done with an extra drinks bottle on Saturday - the chronic headache will vouch for that but hey ho it was worth it. 

Seeing as it was a Saturday afternoon I popped my DAB radio into my back pocket, one headphone in the ear and I was off with Blackburn v Norwich keeping me company....I know, but it was better than nothing...just.  My error was a wrong turn at Lavant where rather than turning for home I pushed on to Cocking purely so I could make up smutty jokes in my head, the joke backfired though as I'd underestimated the distance from turning to Cocking.....guess what I called myself.

Anyway, training's on track for London to Brighton, I'll be out again over the weekend and I might just plan the route a bit better this week.

Threee is the magic number

Reasons to be cheerful, wishes granted by the lamp's genie, lives in Family Fortunes (ahem) wherever you turn it's all about three isn't it. Well guess what, I'm going to tell you about my three. That's right, since we last met not one, not two but three important things have happened - all in a cycling context you understand. None is more or less important than the other but all are significant and all have put a smile on my face. So here we go in chronological order.

Capital to coast
My dad is tops. He taught me the way of the Hammers, he's run numerous London Marathons and he's an all round top bloke. A couple of weeks ago he called me to let me know he's doing this year's London to Brighton, having never really cycled much before - and did I want to join him. Oh yes was the only answer I could give. A chance to do such a famous ride with my dad....and on Father's Day, of course I wanted to do it. So on Sunday 17 June you'll see me on the various roads and tracks from L2B along with my dad and one or two others. More details to follow once I know for sure who's in  but needless to say a couple of friends have shown a keen interest in coming along for the ride.

Sunday's ride
As promised and documented on this site, I've been loyally keeping up the turbo sessions since the start of the year. Nothing drastic - 35, 45, 55 minutes at a time but with incremental improvements in all dimensions - speed, gearing, time etc.  Sunday was the first team ride for a while and once I'd weathered the gentle ear bending and ribbing about where I'd been since last year (!) we were on and a quick glance around told me I was probably looking to hang on from the very start.  Apparently not!  I felt great. I was up with group from the off, hills no problem, change of pace no problem - the work had paid off. By the end my thighs were telling me the end was in sight but it was by far the best ride for a long time.  All the incentive I needed to keep up the training and look forward to June 17.

Spanish break
So now Dad's got a vested interest in all things cycling and being the friendly, chatty bloke he is, he took the first opportunity to talk to some cycling chaps while walking round the hills and valleys near his Spanish home in Jalon last week.

Stone me! It only turns out to be the BMC and Astana training camps.Quickly he established that they were in early season training for the major tours including TDF!!! So I start to investigate on the tinterweb and a quick look at George Hincapie's Twitter feed confirms that indeed he and the rest of the team - Hushovd, Gilbert, Evans et al - were in Denia thanks to the geo tags on his tweets. Then, what do I see as I scroll down.

It's only George and Cadel at a cafe in Jalon.....where my parents live out there. It's the tiniest village but beautiful and there they are two absolute legends enjoying a break in the sunshine - unbelievable.

Oh and for good measure, here's my Dad's pic of the Astana boys, check out those bikes

So all in all, not a bad few weeks and plenty to look forward to in the coming weeks and months. I'll be keeping you posted on training (and team mates @samknowles) for London to Brighton and perhaps looking for a sponsor or two no doubt.

See you soon

This is not a New Year's resolution...

...it just happens to be early January and I've pledged to make a number of personal commitments as we head into 2012. One (and I stress the point that this is just one) such commitment is to take my cycling more seriously this year, actually it's not that I didn't take it seriously before it's just that I didn't do enough of it or regularly enough. Things get in the way don't they - work, family, holidays, going out, hangovers, magnetic beds - you know the kind of thing.  I've been regularly cycling for the last four years or so and while I've made improvements during that time it's fair to say that while Mr Cavendish had a blinding 2011, the past 12 months were a little less productive for me.

So as we start the Olympic year and I am now officially "late 30s" rather than "mid 30s" then I have decided that I should start the year as I mean to go on. Regular riding, building it up as we go, turbo sessions during the winter and bad weather and glorious summer evening rides through beautiful scenery.

Now, before we go any further there are a number of things we should clear up.

1. We're talking about road biking here, none of your mountain biking here thank you very much. Nothing against our off-road cousins just not for me.
2. I'm not a bad cyclist but I'm certainly not what you'd call good either.
3. I'm not aiming to be the best in the world, c'mon, I'm not aiming to be the best in my team (more of them later) but I would like to be better than I am at the moment and with that will come fitness and less of me (currently 6ft 1in and about 13st 7lb - not expecting to get shorter of course but lighter perhaps)
4. I hate climbing, I hate it with a passion. It's closely linked to being rubbish at it too so if I moan and whinge there's a good chance it'll be incline related
5. I'm not bad on the flat...not quite the Hampshire Missile but I like a sprint as much as the next man. The problem is that if that sprint comes after a climb then I'm doomed...doomed I tell you.

So with all that established, let me tell you how the first few days of 2012 have gone.  New Year's Day - Day off. Start with a rest was my theory, well it was New Year.  2nd and now we're up and running, 24 miles with Sean, good steady ride, decent pace, couple of climbs and a little sprint back into Petersfield - I'll settle for that.

Tuesday and today have both been turbo sessions, 25 and 45 minutes respectively. Ok, nothing special but as I said steady and progressive is the aim of the game. I don't plan to ride every day, couple of times a week will do me but it feels good to start with a bang and see where I go from there.

So that's my plan and I thought a regular little blog would help me along and see how I'm progressing. I track my rides on Map My Ride and upload them so aim to share them at some point and I'll let you know more about where I'm riding and the team I ride with, OCRT, and if I'm actually getting any better.

It's not been a bad start, let's see how the rest of the week goes.