Here’s a small confession. I don’t have great balance.

It’s something to do with my middle ear, something that has always been there giving me the occasional vertigo attacks, and the inability to watch action movies on big screen.

So it’s no surprise that ever since I picked up cycling, I have fallen and crashed a lot more times than the average person.

I am simply not a natural.

I needed to learn how to crash gracefully, or, even, not at all.

They say the only way to improve is to keep going and to set yourself little challenges as milestones, so this year I’ve got a few on the calendar so I know the sort of effort I need to put it.

My challenges for the year

First weekend in August, there’s the annual Prudential London Surrey 100. It is 100 miles ride that follows the path of the 2012 London Olympics road cycling circuit, and is one of my bigger challenges this year.

Entry to this event is through a ballot system, and I honestly didn’t expect to get a place, except that I did. I am both excited and a little freaked out, so I thought I’d better get training.

Another challenge I’ve set myself is to compete in London Duathlon in September in Richmond Park. You all know that I run as well, often using running to check out sights that a media trip itinerary misses at our destinations.

My usual run is 5K. If I feel like pushing it I might do 10K. Duathlon will require me to run 10K, cycle 44K (4 rounds of Richmond Park) and then finish with another 5K.

I can do each of these distances in the respective methods easily. However, combine all of it and doing it in one go will be tough, for me, who doesn’t regularly train that hard!

Benching marking myself

Prior to my Tuscany trip I also participated in the annual Isle of Wight Randonnee, which is an 100 Km cycle around the island.

Ok sure, 100 km is very different to 100 miles (for those unfamiliar with the Imperial system, 1 Mile is 1.6 Km). But knowing that I have done it and with relative ease means all I have to do is push that little bit harder and I will possibly survive the London Surrey 100.

However, as a cyclist, I’ve never had any formal training. Any thing I know about cycling had been achieved by watching and mimicking others, and by friendly advice from my cycling peers.

Therefore, I was on the look out for a bit of training to see if I am doing it right…

Seeking expert training advice (and add in a bit of sightseeing…)

So, for the purpose of just testing myself a little, I thought I’d get in touch with a former pro, National Champion of Canada – Alison Testroete – who now lives in Italy and runs tours under Lucca Cycling Club, for some tips and practical advice when I went to Tuscany and took a tour with her on the hills surrounding Lucca.

Before meeting her, I did read her blog, which is full of advice for cyclists looking to improve. Especially the post about How to become a better cyclist, which contained a broad range of inspiration for me to follow.

Now, I am absolutely afraid of descents. You think that climbing is tough on a bike? Try rolling down steep hills with hairpin turns in between.

It is the definition of terrifying.

I found the advice in her post about descending particularly useful (in theory), yet, without some actual practice, I will never know if I can do it or not.

Meeting Alison in person and cycling with her around Lucca was fantastic. Not only does having someone guide me allow me to relax and not having to worry about getting lost, I liked that my guide is a woman cyclist, whom I can really relate to as a person.

(I don’t know if you ever noticed that cycling is a very sexist sport. No? Well, I’ll let you do your own research on that so I don’t have to go into the details because this is not the forum for it.)

Anyway, going around with Alison means I don’t have to pretend to enjoy talking about gears, or whatever FTP someone has, or have to prove myself to anyone.

I can simply just enjoy the ride.

At the same time – we were in Tuscany after all, and the hills roll, on and on and on, giving me the chance to test these legs of mine.

“You know you are actually a decent cyclist,” said Alison as I chased her up a climb and down these scary downhills. “I’ve see slower descents than this!”

If the former National Champion says so, I am going to take it as the biggest compliment even though I knew she was taking it easy on me. There were tougher hills surround us that she didn’t take me on!

So, am I ready?

Well, seeing that it is also my busiest travel season and I won’t have as much time on my bike as I would like, I think I can be ready. What I lack physically will have to be made up by iron will, which I definitely have!

So I may not have stopped falling, and crashing will never be graceful, I know I will improve, so stay tuned. I’ll update when the time comes :)

Alison’s Women’s Tour

For women cyclists out there who enjoy great cycling and the company of other like-minded women, who doesn’t want to spent all day comparing the size of our gears (but instead, gossip over espresso or gelato and maybe do a bit of shopping or girl talk on the side), Alison is a great guide for cycling in Italy.

It’ll be a girls trip that isn’t the typical girls trip.

It’s exactly what we women cyclists will enjoy :) Because we are tough without the need to prove it.