It All Starts Again Tomorrow

That's it. 3 weeks of mental and physical rest, eating and drinking whatever I wanted and not worrying about it, is about to end. Tomorrow, I start on the long road back to Barcelona; on the way I plan to do a number of sportives and a lot of TTs (something I quite simply didn't do enough of in 2009), and as well as entering Barcelona as part of a relay team I will also be the cyclist in an RAF team at The Outlaw, the UK's newest IM distance race based in Nottingham. With the excellent One Step Beyond team organising this event it promises to be a good one, and in less than 48 hours of race entries opening it has already sold some 40% of available places.

Tomorrow morning I will weigh myself and record the starting point before heading out on an easy ride, come rain or shine (and according to the weather forecast it's more likely to be rain than shine, with a whole bunch of wind thrown in for good measure). I will also be doing an FTP test this week and recording that start point as well. There will be no specific attempt to increase FTP this side of Christmas though, although I expect it to increase slowly just through the simple act of riding. Focus between now and New Year will be strength and core stability, with some steady cycling to keep the legs ticking over.

So folks, it's time to stop resting easy, and time to train smart.

All the best for 2010.