You’d be forgiven for thinking from the title of this post that I’ve put in some big miles on the bike. Miles, yes. Big, no. It was a busy weekend covering over 1,000 miles – only 21 of which were on a bike!
Honestly, I thought I’d be posting something about the training progress far earlier than this. At the end of January, I outed myself for the minimal progress made in month one, hoping it would inspire (guilt) me in to getting out and training properly.
It didn’t.
When I signed up to this bike ride I found an old training plan that had worked for me before. It would allow me a weekend off for my stag do and still have me cycling close to 100 miles by Velo Birmingham & Midlands. Based on this I should have covered 210 miles by now. I’ve managed 28.5.
I’m willing to take some responsibility for this, but I’m also going to blame the weather. I keep hearing what a mild winter we’ve had, but I can recall several cold, if not icy, weekends! I try to avoid going out in these conditions having learned my lesson the hard way when I crashed my bike leaving me with some lovely scars.
Anyway, enough of the excuses. Training is officially under way. It’s mostly been gym based so far but that’s better than nothing. I’m not a huge fan of going to the gym, largely because its painfully boring. I find it hard to take any great pleasure from running or cycling on the spot while listening to the sound of grunting and large chunks of metal hitting the floor. That said, I’m somewhat jealous of people who enjoy this. I wish the gym didn’t feel like a chore for me - it would certainly make maintaining a healthy lifestyle easier. For me exercise is a necessary evil in my life. I shouldn’t complain, though. While I hate doing it, I am certainly reaping the rewards. Not only am I feeling fitter, but my wedding diet is back on track and I feel far more confident, positive and alive on a day to day basis.
Friday I took my training out of the gym and managed just short of 21 miles on the bike with Kyle (who will be riding Velo Birmingham and Midlands with me) before work. It took just over an hour and a half, giving us a great opportunity to catch up about all sorts of things; holidays, experiences growing up and even mental health! I certainly learned a lot about Kyle and I’m sure he learned a bit about me!
The morning of the ride I wasn’t in the greatest of moods. Possibly a result of stresses at work, falling behind on my training, the pressure I was putting on myself to get in shape for the wedding as well as the busy weekend I had ahead of me. Heading out on the bike snapped me out of this, however, and kicked off what would be a fantastic weekend. The ride felt good – I felt like I could comfortably have got more miles under my belt were it not for time constraints. Best of all though, it set me straight. Ready for the challenges Friday would bring (mainly another busy day of work followed by a long drive to Carlisle).
At this point you may be wondering “why Carlisle?”. Well that was the big plan for this weekend – a wedding related adventure with Hollie, my brother and Dad. We arrived in Carlisle late Friday night where we would rest up for the night. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to visit an old friend of my mum’s, before taking the short drive to Glasgow to meet up with Hollie’s Dad and Step Mum for lunch and the final fittings for our wedding attire.
Next up we rushed over to Edinburgh for Hollies makeup trial and dress fitting, making it with seconds to spare. Finally, some time for me to relax! A few hours in the pub with my brother and Dad was just the ticket after a full on 24 hours. We caught up with Hollie, her Mum, Step Dad, some of the bridesmaids and some friends for dinner later, before heading on to St Andrews to catch up with Hollie’s Granny, Aunt and Uncle.
Sunday morning brought the final part of our wedding adventure – visiting the venue (but not before a sensational breakfast at a local farmhouse café). This was the first time our families had seen the venue and they seemed suitably impressed! After a good chat with the team at the venue we left with the details of our day nailed down and a lengthy to do list for us to get to work on!
Wedding plans finished for the weekend, we drove back to Glasgow to drop my brother and Dad off for the Celtic game before beginning our 8 hour, fog-filled drive home. With that weekend's wedding adventure complete it was time to bed ready for another week of real life...
So that’s how things will be for the next few months. At least one road trip to Scotland every month, gym and cycling 5-6 days per week, a wedding to plan, a social life to juggle and a day job to keep.
It's been tiring, but I think its fair to say “So far so good”.