2013 the future is bright, the future is Orange

A not so commonly used phrase from the popular mobile phone network that gives us cheap cinema tickets anymore (no promo intended) but one which aptly applies to myself and the year ahead

well the future is at least looking tiring

Roadie
My big plans for this year will for the first half at least be focused on road riding and then i hope to change suit in the latter part of the year to put some miles on the mountain bikes
Why?
because i intend on entering and completing LondonEdinburghLondon 2013
What's that?
It's only the longest biggest nastiest audax in the calendar, 1400Km from London to Edinburgh and back again. It comes round every 4 years and has a limited entry of about 750 people.
The ride must be completed within about 120 hours, give or take, I'm not sure exactly, i leave it to my buddy Tim to sort out the details
in order to train for such an event i intend on completing a RRtY (Randonneur Round the Year) series in which i have to complete a 200K event every month for full calendar year, additionally it is recommended that it is good training to complete an SR series which means completing 200K, 300K, 400K and 600K events inside a year from the 1st of November to 31st of October
to do this, one such plan for LEL suggested the below:
Jan      2 x 100K
Feb      1 x 100K + 1 x 200K
Mar      2 x 200K
Apr       1 x 300K + 1 x 400K
May      1 x 200K + 1 x 600K
June     2 x 200K + 1 x 600K
Jul        1 x 200 then LEL
That's a lot of K's

 

My Buddy Tim has found another training plan which gradually builds up K'age from last November so i'll be doing that at the very least as well

Training plan for LEL below:

2012

Week beginning Nov 26, Training begins. 60k

Week beginning Dec 3, 60k

Week beginning Dec 10, 80k

Week beginning Dec 17, 80 k

Week beginning Dec, rest and enjoy Christmas!

2013

Week beginning Jan 1, cycle 70k, then 80 following week, then 90, then 100, then 120.

Week beginning 4^th Feb cycle 90k, then 120, then 150, then 100

Week beginning March 4^th cycle 150k, then 200, then 100, then 150

Week beginning April 1^st cycle 200, then rest a week, then cycle 100, then 300, then 200

Week beginning May 6^th cycle 400, then 400, then rest a week, then cycle 200

Week beginning June 3^rd cycle 600, then 200, then 200, then 600

Week beginning June 1^st rest, then cycle 400, then 200, then 150

Then LEL!

Thus far i have already completed 2 200K events towards the RRtY in 2012 and successfully completed 2012 part of above training plan...pretty much

Frame Builder
In order to complete the above LEL 2013 i shall be building my own audax bike from scratch, something i am both excited about and anxious about, as i have previously mentioned i can get a bit OCD about all things bike which means meticulous researching of every component, not to mention dimension of my new frame and forks, fortunately with my buddy Tim telling me what rides i need to do for training i can focus on the bike build for the time being

Mountain Biker
I have convinced myself after many angry moments that i might like to have another go at doing the Bear Bones 200, 2012 saw myself, my Buddy Tim and another good chum, Ron complete said event,. However, it was hard and we were last in and completed it in 36 hours, i hated most of it but thought somehow i had been beaten by it, but now we have "the knowledge" although i see it will be the same route but in reverse for 2013, i think we can improve, after all the first man back in 2012 did it in 15 hours B*****d
I said afterlast years event that it was aweful and why would anyone want to do it,must be like child birth....you forget the pain and remember the result, we did finish......just....so now we need to finish faster
This challenge will also need a fair bit of training...but one thing at a time
I also hope to use my single speed Evo2 for my weekly short rides