Hey everyone,

so this weekend was a good one, but hard!!! I reckon it must be the best training so far towards the conditions I'll have in the alps.

On Saturday I entered the Pennine Challenge which started from Oldham and then went up into the Pennines. Any thoughts I had that this wouldn't be too hard as it was only 100km soon went out the window. Partly because it was VERY hilly, and partly because half the signs were wrong and we all did extra distance (I did 105km, but apparently some people did nearly 130km!). They also forgot the electronic timing chips so I only know a rough time (about 4 hours 30 mins). This route had nearly 7000 vertical foot of climbing in! There wasn't any really steep climbs, but they were very long, some of them were over 5km of climbing solildly - not as far as the alps challenge, but getting close to some of them.

I then went to Dave B's birthday party (happy birthday again mate), eventually hitting a wall of tiredness around midnight (I was up at 5.15am and had done a very hard bike ride so I felt that was reasonable). On Sunday I got up and went climbing in the Peaks (and again, hit a wall of tiredness after about 6 routes). Overall, a great, but knackering weekend!!!

So I entered the Peterborough 100 last week, 100 miles around the county of Rutland and 4 other counties surrounding. It was pretty hard, but I've decided to up the anti, and am entering some full on tough cyclo sportives to get myself ready for France. Check out the message I sent to all Facebook group members below for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Hi everyone,

I'm still in training for my challenge in the alps, I'm kind of getting a bit more nervous every day - I've decided to enter some full on tough cycle sportives in the UK before the challenge in the alps, which will hopefully mean the alps won't be too bad......

This weekend I'm doing the SWRC May Flyer, 140km of hills throughout the South Downs. I think I'm going to cycle past my Grandparents old house in that one....

http://www.swrc.org.uk/word_docs/2010%20Flyer%20Route%20Map.pdf

Then on the 22nd, I'm going up north again for a mates Birthday, so on the way up, I figured I would get in some exercise and do the Pennine Challenge - only 100km's but its steep!!!

http://www.torelli.co.uk/news_more.asp?news_id=63

Then I've entered a killer - 202km, starting from near the office in Newbury and going pretty much down to the south coast and back. As well as being long, this one has some big hills in.

http://www.cyclegb.co.uk/magnificat/overview

As well as being very very long, I also realised (after entering) that I have a posh ball to go to the night after, so I might be a tad tired for that.

Please sponsor me if you haven't done so. WaterAid needs every penny!

http://www.justgiving.com/Peter-Horn

Cheers,

Pete

I entered the Cheshire Cat 2010 yesterday, the first ride I've been able to do which should be similar to the rides in France, although the hills were not as high - but they were a lot steeper. I managed to get round in 4 hours 54 mins, including the 2 scheduled stops, so my total ride time was probably around 4 hours 30 mins. Hopefully that might give anyone who's thinking of entering the 'Guess the time' competition a bit of an idea about how long it will take me. The fastest guess so far has been 19 hours 30 mins!

I went out on another training ride around Cambridge this morning - took around 2 hours 15 mins, would like to have gone for longer but I had stuff to do. I wasn't concentrating at the end of the ride and stacked it into a pavement - DOH! Scratched my knee a bit but I'll be fine. I've mapped the route on bikemap again. Take a look.

http://www.bikemap.net/route/395754

The Kentish Killer was unfortunately postponed yesterday until the 28th February (due to snow the decision was made last week - I think they could have run it in the end). Instead I went out for a ride around Cambridge - I had a ton of other stuff that I had to do so didn't get out on the bike until 2pm which only gave me a couple of hours before sunset, so I managed 56.5km. There was hardly any climbing though, I think it was around 330 vertical feet for the entire ride.

http://www.bikemap.net/route/378824

One of my training rides from Cornwall - I've just done this on Bikenet to find out what the hill profile was like compared to the Kentish Killer in a couple of weeks. The Kentish Killer hills are bigger!!! Gulp!!!

http://www.bikemap.net/route/372536

Hi everyone, I thought I'd give everyone a quick update. As promised, I've been training around my parents house in Cornwall over Christmas, I've managed 3 rides so far (and had 1 recovery day when it was tipping it down). I'm hoping to get one more ride in tomorrow (New Years Eve) before I go back up country to work and the flatlands of Cambridge.

I dragged my Dad out today to get some photo's of me climbing the hill going up to their house from the Norway Inn (why do hills never look anywhere near as steep in photos - trust me, its steep). I managed that hill 3 times in todays session, and I've also found a steeper hill (Restronguet Passage for anyone who knows the area) and did this one 4 times today.

I've also entered the Kentish Killer Sportive on the 17th January - http://kentishkiller.ning.com/

I've entered the 100km race which is around the same as I'll be doing each day of the challenge. Its one of the hilliest sportives I could find to enter so should give me a decent amount of practise, although it can't prepare me for the part I'm most worried about - which is the lack of oxygen at the high altitudes I will be cycling at.

I've also entered the Cheshire Cat 2010 on the 28th March - http://www.kilotogo.com/index.php?option=event_detail&event_id=11

This is another 100km sportive, which has a huge hill in it (Mow Cop if you know it - from the look of the profile, its 1 in 4 gradient for about 700 vertical feet).

Let me know if you have any more questions, I'll give you all another update soon.

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The challenge is for me to cycle up 6 of the mountains from the Tour de France, in 3 days. Out of the 6 climbs, 3 of them were rated unclimbable by a car when the Tour was first done (it has to be said that cars were a lot less powerful then - but thats still chuffing steep!!!). Two of the other 3 were rated as first gear climbs, and the other (the first one on the trip) was rated as a second gear climb.

Something that will make this challenge harder for me is the fact that I live in Cambridge (where the biggest hill is about 20m high, and from the top you can see for miles in every direction). I'll therefore be going around the country a bit before hand to try and get some hills training in - probably starting with the massive hill outside my parents house when I'm down there for Christmas.

Please donate anything you can. I'll make sure I get some good photo's of the action (and probably me suffering) to make it all worth it for you.....