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I read up on other peoples methods and adapt bits to suit my time available.
I got loads of tips from cycling plus and marathon books.
Heart rate monitors can really help if training intensively. Long distance running will give you stamina and I beleive mental strength. A half marathon in January ( York Brass Monkey ) gave me incentive to do more training rides ( no running training, thats horrid ).
It's a good marker of how fit you really are, and how much mental strength you have to carry on when it really hurts ( ... and also when you're nearly last ).
From an early stage I knew I wasn't going to get the "real" amount of training in that I needed for this trip but I've found in the past that mental strength can often carry you through.
The only real commitment to training was to get out once every weekend. I'd read and been told that two hours riding a week would "maintain" fitness and anything more would increase it.
I made a weekly cycle routine. Thursday nights I would get my kit sorted so that on Friday night all I had to do was eat and sleep. Saturday morning would start at 3:45am. Porridge and coffee, fill the small flask and get out. Oh and remember the hand and foot warmers. This let me get home for 10am, when I could then have breakfast and an hour back in bed. That then gave me the rest of the day with family or study ( for my accounting exams ).
I find riding in the dark mornings quite enjoyable as you end up quite far into the ride as light approaches. You surprise yourself by realising where you've cycled to and feel good. Training ride distances have to vary on how good I feel and how the weather is affecting me. I don't mind cold frosty mornings but wind and rain mixed with cold can be miserable. Hand warmers make such a difference to a ride. I remember one morning reaching for the breaks as I approached a hill on the moors to find the levers frozen over, but I was warm as toast.
Rides varied between 20 miles in really miserable weather to 65 miles in better weather. By March I was up to 100 miles but with little climbing involved. I think I only did three 100 milers before the trip but those three were my first rides on the road bike. My winter training had all been done on an MTB with slicks and panniers on. That meant that when I bought my road bike, three weeks before E2E I was able to ride so much faster than training.
The knock on affect of not training on the road bike though was that I had no strength in the right back muscles. This lead to really bad back ache and shoulders hurting.
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