The beginning of the end to the start of the beginning....

One month to go - 28 days from tomorrow posse ecosse flies to South Africa to face the Cape Epic.

Just for clarity, it's no charity bike ride, not a holiday riding club and there will be no 'fun' runners in fancy dress. This is going to be the toughest challenge I've every taken on and that includes the 2 ironman and 5 marathons completed. We're going to use every last drop of energy, stretch every sinew, fight up every hill, battle through the dust and heat and cope with saddle sores and exhausted muscles.

The majority of competitors are local. Training in the SA summer and not in the perishing winter that we have suffered in Scotland. Getting out on the bike has been at a premium and biking in the winter, whilst enjoyable for short periods, has been really tough in the exceptional cold.

So this morning I woke early and jumped back on the spin bike. There is no great sense of joy in this but a deep rooted knowledge that in these final weeks we have 2 more hard training weeks followed by 2 weeks of taper time. The taper period is to let the body recover from the hard months put in to date and prepare for the race itself. There is no doubt that we have both put in the hours and worked hard to be as fit as we both are but there is always that gnawing fear that you haven't done enough actual biking.

I think I've done more training for this than for anything that I've done in the past. I'm sure I'm ready but only time will tell.

The other side of the bleak picture is the huge personal achievement once we finish. It will make all of the training worthwhile.

So 1 month to go - time to dig deep and keep going however much the thought of a few days off appeals.....