After a couple of weeks off over Christmas, I’ve been back into the training in earnest as the reality of La Marmotte starts to sink in.

I ended up riding 219km this week, which is my biggest week ever, so I’m pretty happy with that. Saturday’s long ride of 90km was tougher than expected due to the 35C temperatures and a 30km/h headwind for much of the return journey. I was certainly glad to get home after that one and spent the rest of the day flaked out on the couch watching the Tour Down Under live on SBS.

My MAP test is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully my legs feel OK then and aren’t still dead from this week! Thankfully Tuesday is a public holiday for Australia Day, so I can recover from the test’s exertions then!

The other good news is that I’ve got rid of the Christmas weight gain and am now back to 88kg. My training load has been enough to encourage slow and steady weight drop up to now, so if this continues there’ll be no need for a semi-diet at all.