RideLondon Solo Training

88 days until the Prudential Ride London-Surrey 100 and the week has kicked off well with a couple of beautiful early morning training rides. I'm focussing on building my long hill stamina by climbing my local Seaton Down Hill. It is funny how, looking back through my blog and Strava results, it took me close to 20 minutes to make it to the top the first time I attempted it and now I'm driving for a sub 5 minute climb!

Down on Beer Beach - I love this shot - notice the Team Diabetes UK colours?

While I'm in training for my August charity ride, training which includes the Dartmoor Classic sportive next month, there is no shortage of pro events to inspire me. We've had the first Friends Life Women's Tour, with all 5 days excellently screened by ITV4 - a fantastic event it was too, those ladies have so much stamina! Then there is the Italian Giro, three weeks of cycling which kicked off at the weekend and the Amgen Tour of California running at the same time, both of which I'm flicking between, watching via the EuroSport app on my iPad. So I'm never too far from a cycling fix!

Selfie - loving these sunny early morning rides

All has not been plain sailing these past few days though. Over the weekend I heard that worrying tick from the freewheel which brought me to a flying stop a few weeks back when it seized. The BikeShed were good in replacing it under warrantee but for it to be seemingly happing so soon again was not comforting when I'm taking on rides that put me 20 miles or so from home. That's a long walk in cycling shoes! They offered to have another go at repairing it but said it was probably the Californian styled seals which don't need to be so resilient to water exposure. I decided instead on purchasing an uprated European replacement set at cost and my early experience of the rear one has been very positive. I am just now waiting to fit new tyres and the matching front wheel and I'll be flying .. and feeling much more at ease that we will both survive the miles. Pictures and details to follow once I've completed the full upgrade.