No Riding Today....

But I hear Lance Armstrong is pregnant. Maybe his partner will give him hell for cycling so damn much like the rest of us get from our partners.

I am on my way to Berkeley tomorrow where I hope to get in some serious hill climbing. Sunday I am hopefully, weather permitting,  climbing Kings Mountain in San Mateo. I will be riding with my brother in law Alyosha, the Russian Architect, and his Imaginary Friend, Gary, who supposedly makes handbags if he actually existed. I owe a lot to Alyosha, he got me up Ventoux the first time I climbed it, in fact he did such a good job that I actually beat him to the summit. One hell of a motivator I think. I think Alyosha owes a lot to Gary, who he calls the Mozart of Cycling. I should benefit a lot from their wisdom and hopefully they will share it with me after waiting 46 minutes at the summit.

Check out this great site for all you ETAPE nuts wondering if you can get a refund after realizing what you have signed up for. Cyclefilm its called and its got lots of cool stuff to convince you you have made a mistake in participating. They have cool links to YouTube Videos about Ventoux stages of the Tour of France.

Ouch This is Gonna Hurt !!!

7 months.

7 Months from today I am going to do the biggest physical challenge of my life. I am so excited and filled with dread. Excited because I love cycling so much and the training to do this ride is going to get me on my bike for the maximum amount of time. Dreading it because I am not in shape to do it at the moment. And this is what the blog is all about. Recording my training to get to a fitness level which will allow me to complete this ride without killing myself.

My goals are simple but challenging.

I need to lose weight. I currently weigh 200 Pounds (90.6 Kilos) This is too much. My minimum goal is to weigh 180 Pounds or 81 Kilos. But I really am going to aim for 170 pounds or 77 Kilos. My power to weight ratio is bad.

I am going to ride at 400 miles a month. That will be my target But hopefully I will do more as I start doing centuries around March.

This I hope will lead to wisdom, strong legs and a smaller waist. And an excellent Power to Weight ratio

I will expand on all this as I blog.

One more thing. I have climbed Ventoux twice. Once from Sault and once from Bedoin having started at Gordes 24 miles away. I also did the London to Canterbury Cyclosportive in 2007. But the Etape 2009 will be unlike anything I have ever done. Wish me luck.