Less than 3 months now till the MTN Trails 24HR mountain bike event. My training has ramped up in volume and more importantly quality and structure. It has become very apparent that the quality of the training and the science behind it is so important especially if you are time poor. Junk kilometers and hoping for the best are a complete waste of time. Lots of core strength and upper body endurance required to cope with the stresses they will get during the event so as much off the bike training as on it.

I should be nice and fit after all this if my old body holds together OK. I have a small left knee injury at the moment but it looks like the physio is getting me back on track with some strapping and specific exercises mainly for my lack of flexibility in my quads. There are a few areas I am very deficient in flexibility from my hips down, some common to cyclists others just me. Surprising how some strapping and targeted stretching has helped in a little over a week. I did have to shave my knee as pulling all the tape off was murder, Sharon couldn’t watch! Maybe I should shave my legs for the 24HR to save a few seconds?

There is slightly over a month till the Cranky Penguin MTB race. This will be at the end of my first training block so we will see how we go in that one. I didn’t get to do it last year so it was on my list of races to have a go at this year and with the cancelling of the Blue Dragon race it is the only long distance MTB race leading up to the 24HR other than the regular short 2HR events.

Still fine tuning my training plan to get the right balance of required elements and the training blocks to line up with the next couple of events. Stay tuned it’s going to come around quickly.