Something to aim for

Never one to do things by halves, I’ve got a rather impressive goal in mind for cycling this summer

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In my last post I mentioned that I was thinking about a particular goal. Well anyone who knows me on Facebook might have noticed an announcement: I'm doing the London to Cambridge ride.

The ride takes place on 27 July, and I've managed to recruit a friend, the lovely Claire, to do it with me. She lives in Switzerland so we're going to set up an online training plan so we can share what we've been doing. It's about 60 miles, mostly over flat terrain. The ride starts at Pickett’s Lock along the River Lea, which is quite near home, and finishes at Cambridge's Midsummer Common. If the weather's nice it should be a lovely.

I've gone from not having even sat on a bike for about 20 years to being A Real Cyclist in just six months

I am, I admit, a bit apprehensive. I've only been cycling for six months, and so far the furthest I've been in one go is 16 miles. This was on Sunday (12 January), a ride from home to Enfield Lock and back along the River Lea tow path. It was really nice: no roads, lots of wildlife and a good distance for a Sunday ride. The important thing, however, is that I did it with ease. In fact I could have gone further. I'm pretty sure I could easily do 20 miles and probably do 25 at a push.

Training day
My training plan is to continue to cycle to work every day and then go on progressively longer rides at weekends. I’d like to be able to do 20 miles by the end of February and 40 by the end of May. This should mean I can do 60 miles by the end of July. But after Sunday I'm pretty sure I can already do 20 miles. I'm extremely pleased with myself about this. I feel like this is a real achievement – I've gone from not having even sat on a bike for about 20 years to being A Real Cyclist in just six months.

The ride is to support Breakthrough Breast Cancer, so I've got to raise some money. I'll be setting up a Just Giving page very soon. You can find out more about it all, and hopefully sign up, by going here.

The London to Cambridge ride: 60 miles of cycling fun.