Plan A and a go-faster haircut.

Be careful what you pray for. It's blowing a hooley out there with wind and rain coating the house with salty spray. I'm having a rest day, nursing some tender muscles and achey legs. I've just had a go-faster haircut from the lovely Lorraine at Cut'n'Run in the West Wight Sports Centre, who cut off the gay quiff, and skillfully removed any vestiges of middle-age. She actually snips the stray hairs protruding from my ears and eyebrows. Does anyone think I should get some sort of special hair-cut just before the Etape? I've never dyed my hair blond ...... a sponsored hair-do or a sponsored leg shave?

We've waited all year for a decent blow from the south west. Those of us into kite and windsurfing had practically given up all hope of ever getting wet again as our kit gathers mildew in the garage. Even the reliable storm-chasing spring equinox has come and gone with nary a puff of wind. The gardeners are complaining already about the lack of rain, and it's only the second week of May. Perhaps we're in for another summer like that of 1976, when I had the misfortune to be doing my O-levels. Those halcyon days of flares, tank tops and The Osmonds. The Government of the day became so desperate that they appointed Denis Howell to be The Minister of Drought, and then three days later the heavens opened and the drought was broken. That was either good luck or an inspired appointment. What did the Chairman of a premier football club famously say.... 'Given the choice of a brilliant manager versus a lucky one , I'd take the lucky man every time.'

I have to say the fine weather has been a real help to my training. I know I've got to be prepared to ride through anything on July 16th, but there is no doubt that calm, dry conditions with a bit of warm sun on your back makes it all a lot easier. I understand that it is possible to freeze your nuts off even in mid-July on the top of those Pyreneean Cols, but there is no need to suffer unnecessarily on the Isle of Wight in mid-May. I want as much heat as global warming can chuck at me right now. Any day now the mackerel will be arriving in big numbers in the inshore waters around the Island, encouraged to move with an advancing front of warmer water pushing up from the West. With the mackerel come the bass, which has become an incredibly expensive and fashionable fish in the last few years. They are a great sports fish, plentiful and relatively easy to catch, and obviously also great to eat. I'm going to have to sacrifice a few fishing sessions in the next 9 weeks and get out on the bike instead. That will be a tough call, but I really have to knuckle under and keep racking up the miles.

The forecast for tomorrow is more wind and rain, so I don't think I'll ride to work, but aim to do a 20 mile speed session in the evening whatever the weather. A week on Sunday, I'm entered in The Hampshire Hilly 100, which will hopefully be a benchmark to see how I'm progressing. I need to think ahead about my training to try and make sure my legs will feel fresh and strong. I think I'll concentrate on intensity rather than distance in the next 10 days and see if I'm OK. If not..... I'll revert to plan B.