Spending the pennies

So time to get riding. I had an old mountain bike in the garage that hadn't been ridden for years, so I brushed the dust off it and gave it a go. I found it really uncomfortable and quickly realised that it wasn't going to be much use to me, there must be something better than this. A visit to the local bike shop was needed, and a shiny new Tricross caught my eye. With a discount on last years model and 12mths interest free the deal was done!
My first ride was about 15 miles and I repeated it the next day. By the following evening I was sat on the sofa with a an ice wrap around my knee. Perhaps this was going to be harder than I thought! After a few days I started again. This time I concentrated on getting the bike 'fit' right and made all sorts of adjustments so that I had pain free riding over shorter distances. I then slowly got the distances up to about 20 miles.
When we entered the Cornwall Tor sportive it was three months away and attached to the entry was a suggested training program. The program was based on a long ride at the weekends with two or three shorter rides in the week. The longer rides started at 30 miles and over the weeks built up to 80 miles. The mid week rides consisted of short high pace sessions on rolling roads and separate hill sessions. I followed this program pretty religiously and could feel myself getting stronger week by week. By this time I was hooked, I really was enjoying this new sport!