That's the Tourmalet... I rode up that, I did... I didn't die or anything.
This time last year I had an entry in to a half-marathon, which was enough to scare me into doing some training. I also had (what was then just a potential) six week break booked in which I was going to ride across the Pyrenees.
Well, I did the half marathon (1.37 thank you...) and did ride across the Pyrenees, as documented on these very pages. And it was great. I managed to start the spring fitter than I'd been for a while and built on that so that I didn't die when I rode up the Col de Marie Blanc, my first mountain of the trip.
As a rider, I've unfortunately lacked the 'fire' that people have for riding. I don't 'need' to ride and I'm quite happy to bumble along without riding for a few weeks without it particularly bothering me. I reckon I need a deadline, or some other fearful event to scare/bully me into riding. (Even keen riding partners haven't been able to bully me into riding if I didn't feel like it...)
So I'm going to try to cultivate some fire, borrow some angst and try to get myself back on track. I've found that emotional turmoil is quite good at galvanising some action, so I'll dig some of that out too. I have great riding out the door, I have rollers, I have running shoes. I have few excuses. I'd better get out and start doing something painful, eh?
