Smooth surfaces, slipping seat posts and saddle sore.

End of the second week of training.

I've formulated a training diary on an Excel spreadsheet, and was aiming to do a 35 mile ride this week.The intention is to start sensibly and build up by 5 miles a week. Sort of.I'm reasonably confident that I have decent fitness at the moment. I'm not too overweight. The problem with old blokes like me is that the heart and lungs are stronger than the tendons and ligaments, and it's easy to get injured.

Another factor is the complication that it's still the footy season. I play on a saturday and train on thursday, so although I believe this is good for my aerobic fitness and strength, it also puts limitations on the amount of cycling that I can get in at the moment.

I've done a 41 mile ride this week around the Island. Average speed just under 15.9 mph. Is that any good? I made sure this included some pretty nasty hills and I wasn't completely dead at the end.. so that's OK.

3 observations.

The Island roads are so rough. It's like riding on knobbly off-road tyres all the time. Every now and then you hit a smooth section and it's absolute bliss. Hopefully this is going to stand me in good stead for the Etape because I can't imagine that the french mountain roads are going to all be in good condition.

Secondly.... half way round my route I became aware that my seat post was gradually slipping into the tube. I hadn't tightened the bolt enough. On the other hand, this is a carbon frame and a carbon seat post so I was frightened of crushing the fibres. But this was stupid. I should have at least been carrying a few tools for running repairs.I won't make that mistake again. I sorted it eventually by calling in at the workshop at Dave Death's motorbike shop and borrowed an Allen key.

Simon Jackson, biking guru, tells me to turn the seatpost collar through 180 degrees so that it nips up against the groove in the tube. And , when I'm happy witht he height, to try hairspray on the tube to stick it up a little.

Finally, I have sore bumcheeks. I hope I can grow some callus on my ischial tuberosities, because 125 miles is going to hurt bigtime. I need to do a bit of saddle adjustment because I'm sure that I haven't got the position correct. I'm hunting around the house and garage trying to find my spiritlevel, so that I can accurately check the horizontal set of the saddle. It's hard to eyeball it with the sloping top tube.