You know when you make a decision because you get over-excited and then sit back and think ‘oops’? Well yeah, I’ve done that. Except that oops isn’t a misjudged outfit or one drink too many, it’s a cycle trip to Paris. From London. On a bike. Without a support vehicle.

Together with Elle, Mollie (both also personal trainers - hence 3 PTs to Paris) and a few others I’m taking on a challenge that I’ll be using to celebrate my 30th birthday as we’ll arrive back in London about 3 hours before I hit the big 3-0. After succumbing to a back injury a couple of months ago I’ve found that cycling is one of the few forms of exercise that doesn’t stress out my back muscles. The triathlon I had in mind for the end of July is out of the picture because with the injury I just haven’t been able to train for it. So Paris it is!

We’ll be doing the 164 (or so) miles over 3 days, leaving London on Friday morning and arriving at the Eiffel Tower on Sunday afternoon. The first day will see us cycling to Newhaven which is just to the east of Brighton to cover about 56 miles. A ferry will then deliver us in Dieppe late Friday night where we’ll stay in a little hotel. On Saturday we’ll tackle our longest day of 62 miles from Dieppe to Beauvais and then cover an easy 45 miles from Beauvais to Paris on the Sunday.

In panniers we’ll be carrying all of our kit and tools but hopefully in mid-July the weather should be good enough that we can get away with minimal clothes! The biggest dilemma at the moment is how to fit in additional shoes so we don’t have to walk around Paris on the Monday in our cycling shoes. Important stuff.

The plan for training is to complete 2 x 1 hour cycle sessions during the week followed by a 2-4 hour cycle at the weekend. I’ll also be doing plenty of foam-rolling and some yoga to help my tight hips and quads and I’ll hopefully be continuing my weekly PT sessions to maintain some strength. Training started well last weekend with a 20 mile cycle swiftly followed by my beloved bike being stolen from inside my apartment block. Yep, they sawed through the bannisters to get it out. As gutting as that was the challenge is getting closer so I had to dig deep and shell out for a new bike which is a beauty.

Keep an eye out for more blogs in the 3 PTs to Paris series to cover how training is going and what kit we’ll be taking with us.