Back to basics 3 - one week to go

Well this weekend leaves just a single week to go before the Witches Curse Sportive and I'm wondering how well prepared I am, and how much I can do in the last week. Last weekend a road ride with a bit over 2,000 feet of climbing left me struggling to hold off cramp on the last climb.

So every time I could ride a bike this week I've been pedaling a bit harder than normal and I've cycled around 150 miles - probably more than I've ridden in a week for a good number of years.

I've commuted on my Brompton and my MTB and taken the long way around when I could. Finally a weekend ride on the road bike around the West Pennines. This time the route was about 37miles but included about 3,600 feet of climbing including four big climbs and a difficult headwind on some of the longer climbs.

To my great relief the "back to basics" training over the last week and a half had worked quite well and the same final climb, with a strong headwind this time, was tough but there was no sign of the cramp from a week ago.

The only draw-back to the ride every chance using a range of bikes was the need this afternoon to wash three bikes - I don't think I had to do that even when I was a keen racer cycling over 300 miles a week!

I expect to commute to Manchester a few times this week and I'll aim to ride as much as possible but not to arrive at the weekend tired.