Oh gym, how I have missed thee

So, it turns out that cycling isn't just about your legs. I also needed to get the rest of me fit enough to cope with very long bike rides, over very bumpy ground.

So back to the (groan) gym I went. But this time, with an agenda.

I re-joined a local gym I'd belonged to before I moved away from London. Now, two very good things happened.

Firstly, I was told I qualified to re-join at exactly the same rate I'd been paying before (3 years previously), and without needing to pay a joining fee. Bonus!

The second good thing was that during my induction, the trainer, Liam, asked what I wanted to achieve. I mumbled about general fitness and wanting to lose some of the doughy bits around my middle, then casually mentioned that '... and I need to be able to cycle 400km in about... ooooh... 8 months'.

Liam didn't laugh or call me stupid. He looked me up and down, weighed me, and said 'Yep, we can do that.' And started explaining what else I needed to strengthen. (Pretty much all of me as it turns out.) Or in his words, 'The cycling will take care of the cardio and your legs, I just need to take care of all the other bits'.

All. The. Other. Bits.

Hmmm.

He booked me in for a free training session the following week.