Training

I've never really been one for 'training' particularly. I've always just done stuff that happens to keep me fit.

I've never really liked gyms either, because I just never got the point of them - people running 20 minutes on a treadmill so...? So what? So that they can come back next week and do it again? What are they doing it for? Nothing.

Well, weight loss/vanity/wellbeing obviously play a part, but as that was something that never really concerned me, I didn't really see it like that.

So introducing the concept of training to myself was something I was a bit apprehensive about. The main focus of the training isn't actually the big trip, but the France trip in the summer. The time constraint I have on it (two and a half weeks - 700 miles) puts enormous pressure on my ability to be able to cycle a long way each day with a loaded bike. When I go on the big trip I will have no time constraint (and by that I mean no work to get back for) so I can do as much or as little as I like, and my fitness can improve naturally as I progress.

In France, though, I have to cycle a lot. So that's what I'm doing now - cycling a lot. How else do you prepare for cycling 60 miles a day, every day? I could go to the gym, I guess.