The hard way...

Jeez, I tell you what - I am not doing this training thing the easy way.

March saw me break my foot and spend 9 weeks in plaster, followed by a very slow recovery. Unknitted bones kept me out of regular shoes and Physio revealed some substantial shortfalls in the stability of my ankle after the break, which then demanded my full attention. Finally in mid-May I was given the all clear to get back amoungst it, and not a moment too late!

As I have built my fitness back up during my recovery and returned to training, I have really struggled to maintain speed for any substantial amount of time. For a few weeks it was taking me almost 90min to trek in to work! And of course, to top it all off, the last fortnight has seen me struck almost completely infirm by the flu. Hundreds of dollars on doctors bills and pharmaceuticals later and I am back on a bike again.......again.

Currently, I am riding through an endurance development training program which has been written for my by Alex Simmons from RST cycle coaching. Legs are burning at every session, and there are plenty of afternoon naps at the moment. On the positive side my average speed has come back up to around 30km/h on the road from the painfully slow 21km/h after I got the cast off. Additionally the threshold training is proving to be quite interesting.

I have signed up for a couple of races between now and 'The Simpson' as a way of keeping in contact with my goals and trying to break it down into smaller more manageable bites. So between here and October there is...
Three Ring Circus 50km
Angry Doctor 100km

the goal is to finish in the top third of the field of both, Mogo's Angry Doctor is going to be a important race in terms to pacing myself and managing my food and water for a day as it is quite close to the distance and time efforts that I will need to put in during the Simpson Desert Classic.

I have also signed up for the Scott 24hr the weekend after the Simpson race, as well as the MS Gong ride, and the Highland Fling 50km. Both of which are in November.

It is all looking very promising!