Get Fit Or Die Tryin'

It's 8 months until the Marmotte, and it feels like I've done the square root of f*** all in preparation so far. Not necessarily a bad thing - you can't keep training year-round without a break, so the time off the bike following the Etape has been welcome. But now's the time to get serious.

I've done a fair amount of work on the turbo this week, and this Sunday is my first post-Etape sportive - the Wiggle Hellfire Corner down in Kent. A speed of 25km/h needs to be maintained around the 140km course to achieve the Gold Medal time, so I'll be aiming for that.

Beyond that, I've got a free couple of days the following weekend, when I hope to get down to Surrey for the first time since the summer, and I'll be following that up with a weekend pedalling around the Brecon Beacons on my lonesome. I'm expecting it to rain.

Inspiration to train hard was revived last weekend after going to the Manchester Velodrome to watch the track cycling World Cup. The speed hit by the sprinters is jaw-dropping (as is the angle of the banking), and watching Laura Trott's breakaway effort in the Omnium scratch race will live long in the memory as one of the most brilliantly gutsy things I've ever seen on a bike.