I'm going to do a week by week countdown and after the ride I'll try to describe each day as best as I can.  Hopefully I'll get some good photographs to brighten things up a bit!

29th July (four weeks to go)

So far all my training has gone pretty well and I'm very close to the 4000mile mark for the year.  Since January 1st my weight has dropped down to 67.4kgs and my strength and overall fitness has rocketed up.  Right now I'm totally ready to go and it's getting a bit frustrating knowing that physically I'm sorted but I still have to wait another four weeks.

My original intention was to ride a mountain bike with slick tyres for the first five days and then switch to a road bike for the final three when I'll have most of my kit carried by car.  Today I've more or less decided to use the road bike for the full length of the trip as I keep breaking spokes and having minor mechanicals with the MTB.  All the problems that crop up are fixed very easily but it's not something I want to worry about when I'm 500miles or so from home.

6th August (three weeks to go)

Training is just a case of continuing to ride over 120 (hilly) miles a week now as I don't think there's much time to improve my overall fitness.  Tested the road bike out with fully loaded bar and saddle bags along with a pack on me.  Apart from a little twitchiness when riding out of the saddle everything feels ok and I'm convinced the road bike is the way to go.

20th August (one week to go)

I've eased off on the training intensity over the last couple of weeks and concentrated more on a relaxed but high cadence and also made sure I enjoy my rides.  All my kit is now sorted and I've had a couple of rides "fully loaded" to so how it feels, fortunately everything seems OK. 

With only a few days to go until I head off there's not much more I can do so I figure a couple of easy rides to keep my legs loose will do.  If I'm not fit enough now I never will be!