I’ve had a really good two weeks running and cycling.

I’ve taken my new remodelled road bike out twice now and managed 67km and 1500m of ascent on my last ride. Thats a pretty hilly ride and I felt really chuffed to manage it. I’m starting to feel more confident that I can get through the 120km I need to on the first day of my coast to coast challenge.

The main difficulty with riding is reading my wahoo computer navigation as I go. This is on a very small screen which sits on my handlebars.

Through my chromatic prescription glasses (basically sunglasses) I can only see the rough arrows I’m heading in but can’t see where my blob is on the map relative to those arrows or how far it is to my next turn. So to help with this issue I’m also wearing my watch, which has a different type of map and routing on it. This is easier to follow but I can only really look at it if I stop. I’m hoping if I keep practicing with both I will start to find it all easier. Currently the whole art of navigation is definitely slowing me down.

Now I’m starting to gain more confidence on the bike my main concern is the running. I intend to try and run 60-70km a day during the coast to coast and my longest run this year is only 28km. I’ve also yet to run with my weighted backpack and haven’t done a long hike in a while.

I intend to spend the next month working on these issues. I will start this next week by doing my Tuesday run with the weighted backpack.

My long runs will get longer but will also start to incorporate some walking, running intervals. Finally I will do a long hike next weekend with my backpack and make that a main stay either every weekend or every other weekend (yet to decide on that point). I really love mountain biking at the moment and would like to fit it in somewhere.

Next week is my recovery week so I will have to ensure a reduction in running and cycling mileage despite the inclusion of the backpack and hike. After that there will be a new four week building block which will be designed to get me to the ‘almost ready’ stage. 😬