Hump

Hump day in what has been a pretty okay week so far. After the concentrated frustration of last week, this week has been a veritable breath of fresh air. Main differences between the weeks is that there have been less demands on my time I think and less instances of bad news. All good things.

Things have also been a bit quieter on the coaching front this week, which may be part of the reason why there have been less demands on my time. While I really enjoy the coaching, having a bit more time to myself, spending time with family and also my own exercise has been a great little break. I was able to get in an awesome week of training last week and I so far this week is looking similar. Always nice to feel like you are getting some work done.

Speaking of exercise, the countdown in on until the great 100 mile ride on Friday. Not long now so preparation is well under way. The Di2 battery is charged, the power meter batteries are changed and today cleaned and lubed the drive train of my bike for the first time in absolutely ages. The drive train maintenance was something that I have known I needed to do but I just haven't quite got there for the past couple of weeks, if I am honest I have been feeling a bit neglectful. Hopefully my bike wasn't offended. Coming into this long ride the small maintenance items  were things that I couldn't ignore any longer, besides I suspect I will need all the help I can get for this ride.. All good now though, clean, charged and ready to go. Everything else is ready for the ride and so now it is just a case of rocking up on the day and riding for many hours. Hopefully I am ready too.

As I have mentioned before, the ride will not be quick and it will be in a group, so hopefully it will go relatively smoothly. Even if the riding is straight forward though it won't be without its challenges. Getting a group that large and with a range of experience and fitness levels though 160km unscathed and smiling can be difficult. It means taking it easy, taking a fair few rests and looking out for each other. It also means a very long day in the saddle, racing this will not be. The current estimate is that inclusive of breaks etc the ride will take the group about 8 hours or more. Phew, it will be a long day.

Still, looking forward to the ride. It was a lot of fun last year and I am hoping that this year will be similar.

Hump day is done. The first three days of this week have been good. Fingers crossed that the tail end of the working week is just as friendly.