Strathpuffer24 08

Those of you unfortunate enough to be in my email address book will already have the gist of this, but Strathpuffer24 is a 24 hour mountain bike race held in the forestry near the spa town of Strathpeffer.

Earlier this year, sometime in the spring I think when the buds were beginning to show and winter's chill was fading, I mentioned to Mike that I had bought a mountain bike. A good one, like, with suspension and disk brakes and everything. His eyes narrowed and he asked whether I wanted to take part in an event next January - it sounded like ages away, and full of bravado and warm soup I agreed.

So here we are! January is only 12 weeks or so away... I have kept up my daily cycling to and from work as far as possible - sometimes I need the car to carry stuff and sometimes the motorbike if I have to be somewhere soon after work, but I've pretty much stuck to it, so that has helped me get fitter and faster. On top of this Mike and I have been visiting Glentress and Innerleithen, local mountain bike singletrack developments which, after some initial fear and reservation on my part, is absolutely brilliant fun. Sure we crash, and get knackered, but it's worth it for the downhill sections and the views from the top.

So the Strathpuffer is a reality. We both have a bit of a shopping list - waterproofs and lights seem to be pretty important as will be a Scottish January and 17 hours are in darkness. Brrr. Convincing some good friends and family to act as support crew will be important too - who else will make us soup at 4am if not them??

I'll keep posting exciting training stories and boring techy gadget details as we go along.

And don't forget the donation box on the top right of this page - I'm raising funds for Edinburgh's Sick Kids hospital. I chose it as a kind of taliksman...if I give to them maybe I'll never have to use them ;-)