Performance anxiety

It's Easter weekend, which meant two days off work and two extra days to go riding. I managed three days in total, riding 170 miles between Saturday and Monday. I had a day away from the bike on Friday to sort out some things at home and prepare for my Cycling City talk at Howies.

This weekend was supposed to be my biggest with x3 80+ mile rides before LEJOG.

As ever, life got in the way. On Saturday I managed 72, in spite of the heavy rain and a hole in my front tyre. I got 65 under my belt on Sunday, riding the last 30 into a stiff headwind, before arriving at Helen's auntie and uncle's near Yeovil. And today I could only get 32 in before meeting my family in Raglan, near the foot of the Brecon Beacons.

Part of the difficulty of a ride like this is being single-minded enough to fit in the training required, and I'm weak when it comes to turning down requests from friends and family!

So over the last seven days I've ridden 219 miles.

Tuesday: 5 miles commute + 10 miles at the gym (PB! 22m 33s)
Wednesday: 2.5 miles commute + 27 miles after work
Thursday: 5 miles commute
Friday: 0
Saturday: 72 miles to Gloucester
Sunday: 65 miles to Stoke Sub Hamdon
Monday: 32 miles to Raglan

That's more than I've ridden before but somehow I still feel like I've cheated myself out of some miles. I should have done further today (Monday) and I should have gone out on Thursday or Friday had work and rain not got in the way.

This Thursday I'm going to Berlin on a stag do so I won't be doing much riding between now and next Tuesday. Then I'll have 15 days until I leave. As ever, there's too much to do and not enough time to do it.

To end on a positive note though, I rode my fastest gym 'time trial' this week (taking a whole minute off my previous personal best), my 3-day riding weekend was generally good and I've felt few aches and pains, and I found some stunning Somerset countryside around Norton St Philip and Kingston Deverill. It's not all doom and gloom...