Well the week ended OK last week - although slightly short on the projected hours. I managed to get in 14,5 hours (target was 16,5) - the shortfall really being unable to ride by myself and a bit of family pressure!!! My partners bike was out of action for most of the week - and I really found cycling around JHB for 3hrs by myself just plain boring! But excuses aside - I used the week as a recovery week and took a few days off during the week to recover. I felt strong on our 5 hours ride on Sunday - everything on the bike worked smoothly and we even managed a long push on the final hour to make sure the legs were still strong!



I have spoken about this before - but doing the kind of training that is required for the Epic the recovery time during sleep is more important than ever. For those of you with families with young kids you have my sympathy - and I am seeking yours! I am really battling to get sleep at night. I would normally like to get 7hours a night on average - but recently my daughter has been limiting my sleep to under 3 hours... and I am certainly feeling it.

I am feeling it the most in terms of recovery - I feel that my legs are not recovering sufficiently for my ride the following day. Walking up stairs, my legs feel heavy - and when that alarm goes off - I feel dog tired!

Having said that the morning rides once on the bike are brilliant. The temperature is about 19 degrees (C) and gets warmer as the sun gets up. "Touch-wood" - we have been very lucky with the weather and have managed to avoid the rain.

This week we plan a heavy week - I plan to do 10 hours between Monday to Friday - mostly 3 hour rides with an hour gym session on one of the days and then we will do a good 6-hour ride on Saturday and a easy 3hours on Sunday - which I will try and incorporate an hour with the family! That will end my up on a 19hour week which I will be very happy for.

Hopefully also get some sleep...