Sri Lanka is a country I have always wanted to visit, so when I saw the gravel event Ride Sri Lankan, I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. The only problem was that it was six weeks before the start, I didn’t have a gravel bike, and I hadn’t ridden more than 20 miles in ten months.
One of the most common mistakes in a situation like this, and one I have made many times, is to go straight into panic training thinking that hammering out long and hard rides would be the ticket to fitness. To keep my panic in check I enlisted the help of Paul Vousden from Mapdec Cycle Works to help with a plan, which started with a fitness test, “You need to know where you are right now so we know what we are working with” was Vousden’s ominous introduction.
