Morning/afternoon, I don’t know anymore. I seem to have fallen out of my, what once was, very scatty routine into no routine at all.

Although I don’t know when the ride will happen, I have decided that now is the perfect opportunity to start training.

Thankfully, Sarah (my sister, did I tell you she’s done an Ironman?!) has been kind enough to let me train on her very fancy turbo trainer. For people who have no clue what that is, it’s an exercise bike that you mount your own bike to. Picture below if my explanation doesn’t cut it.

I jumped on the bike a couple of days ago, motivated and ready to beast a workout.

I chose a 40km route thinking it would be around an hours cycle…. 1 hour 45 minutes I was still in the saddle, numb arse, saturated t-shirt and cursing the computer. I am using Zwift which is a kind of virtual cycling world.

Turns out I’d chosen a route with an elevation of 1700 metres. My rookie knowledge shone through.

So, I made the decision while climbing the second mountain of the ride to aim for 1000 metres and get off the bike before my legs wobbled away from me and turned to jelly.

I was pretty happy with my efforts for the first long ride but it made me realise I have got a way to go to get fit for the challenge.

The plan so far is to ride 50-60 miles a day over 7 days, near enough 100km a day, to reach the 400 mile mark by the end of the week.

I will keep the blog updated on my training.

Any cycle advice would be welcome and anyone that’s up for being part of this and recording with me, please holla - rideordirecordings@gmail.com.