At 3pm tomorrow I will climb on my bike at Brands Hatch race circuit and then continue to ride it until 24 hours have passed and it is Sunday at 3pm. Some people will be doing 6 hours, some 12 and some 24. Some will share those blocks of time with others. Not me. I’m going “solo”. That means I’ll be doing all 24 hours powered by my own legs and energy, with my two static domestiques in the paddy.

With recent events riding for GB and the ongoing foot saga I have briefly considered not riding, I couldn’t do a shorter distance or time because that wouldn’t give me anymore satisfaction than not riding at all. The answer is all or nothing.

The biggest problem is the foot pain, although it is slowly improving. After all, my decision to ride became easy and very clear when I was out running in Spain. The issue is not a fitness one, whilst I only have just over 4000 miles cycling in the bag this year, I know that’s not my concern. My legs are just fine and my capacity for endurance has never been in question for years. I’m the kind of idiot who could do an ironman tomorrow without really doing focused training. So it’s not an injury per se, it’s more being uncomfortable and hurting but there’s not necessarily any damage going on. At least not that has been seen during assessments.

OK then, what’s our mission? 24 hours exercising pain management. The plan? Drugs. After that? 50 minutes on, 10 minutes off, repeat 24 times. This is the team contract (Note that Charlie has a shorter list!):

And here is the huge list of kit:

So where do you guys come in? I need your support, messages, insults, whatever. Just help me keep going round and round when I’ve bonked, got a mangled head or crying with pain. Or if you see average speed slipping give me an arse kicking for that too. You can use Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, walls, text messages, whatever you choose. If you send me stuff in the hours of darkness then you’ll get extra points. Regardless, everything single one of those words will be meaningful and very much appreciated by me and I’ll owe you big time. I will get messages on my Garmin bike computer and on my phone in my breaks.

Also send love to the support team who are my parents and who are dead looking forward to a night without sleep watching their mental daughter ride around a track continuously whilst being her lackey.

You can track me here:

http://revolve24.com/uk-race-tracking-and-results-2017

And as I have already said, I am doing the solo for 24 hours and racing number 271 .

I’ve known a year about this and I’m still floundering the night before with kit, of course. Standard hurricane Charlie. That means I need to sign off and panic now but I’m going to learn a lot about myself this weekend and will write a more intellectual post after.

For the win.