Doing the hard yards

As the alarm went off this morning, I pulled the duvet up over my shoulders and pushed the snooze button.  Ann has been in Germany, so my normal routine of snuggling in for a last cuddle before we get up was not on offer.

The weather front that passed last night was stormier than anticipated, and the wind had been whistling it's merry tune down the chimney for hours.  As I lay enveloped by the comfort of the duvet, I could still hear the wind blowing a gale, and my enthusiasm for another long cycling training day wained.

I had done a big ride on Friday all the way up to Kincardine, which I has repeated again on Monday.  My plan was to get in a descent ride on Wednesday and Friday this week as well.  There's a term used frequently in rugby that you have to 'do the hard yards' in order to win the battle.  It's all about putting in the effort, the grunt, the energy, and only if you do that will you succeed.  So with that lodged in my mind, I donned the cycling gear and headed out to face the storm.

Now which way should I head? - into the wind on the way out, with an obviously easier run back was the option I chose, and so it was out to Kincardine again.  Heading along towards Crammond it became clear that the wind had been even stronger than I thought in the night, with another tree down along the water front.  Later in the journey, a bough of a tree had also blown down blocking the track. 

So as I headed out, the first 30 miles were through gritted teeth as I pounded away, sapping my reserves and really not doing the sort of speeds that the energy expenditure warranted.  But I was getting closer and closer to the turnaround point at the Kincardine Bridge, and the thought of a sudden switch from ridiculous head wind to a speed enhancing tail wind kept me motivated.

Now the route up both the north and south sides of the Forth using the two bridges is a popular cycling route and is actually one of the National cycling routes (no 76), so large parts of the journey are on either very quiet roads, or purpose built cycle paths.  When I crossed the bridge however, I forgot all about the quiet cycling route and largely stuck to the main road, as when I got up to speed, I didn't want to slow up for the inevitable pedestrians and dog walkers on the track.  I hit top gear and largely stayed there all the way home apart from the odd hill to climb. 

I'm now hoping for a super strong tail wind for the whole of the journey, which on today's performance on the return leg, would mean we could complete the trip in about 4 days !!!!  Well you can hope eh !!

After this week, I've only got 3 more weeks left to train before I head south to start the tour.  I still have concerns about doing big distances every day for 2 weeks, and hopefully I can do a number of consecutive cycling days in the coming weeks to start getting used to it, but I do feel I'm getting there.  It's etched on my mind now - DO THE HARD YARDS