The Team's very own SAT NAV in human form strode into Monday's route planning meeting, clutching piles of maps and a briefcase full of state of the art measuring instruments. With the self satisfied air of a man who was certain that he had climbed his Everest (now there's an idea for next year), Will unfurled his enormous cycling map of Northern France, resplendent with over 3,000 colour coordinated arrows, place markers and gradient lines. Will's three inch thick Route Book dividing the trip into 73 stages, with extensive notes on cafes, boulangeries, massage venues and other places of local interest, was undeniably impressive.

While the presentation was good , the content was, frankly, dismal. It quite clearly says "300" miles in the Challenge logo and Will's route was 298.7. He has been told to start again and this time do it properly.

The other youngster in the Team has had a much better week. The loss of his bike on Monday morning was a hammer blow for Rhys but after he was reminded what it looked like (our bikes) he miraculously found it where he had left it a month ago. In Rhys' defence, it "looked different". Rhys was a strong contributor to the route planning debate, arguing for late afternoon starts and no hills. His failure to identify the name of the Channel of water that divides the French and English sections of the cycle is more an indictment of modern teaching methods than of Rhys himself.

 
Seb proudly emailed the Team on Sunday announcing that he had installed his turbo trainer and would finally begin getting himself accustomed to his bike indoors before venturing out on to the road. Ten minutes later, he sent another email informing us that his rear tyre had punctured on the trainer. Seb's battle with his bike continues.

 
With John D finally given the green light by his ITB specialist we at last have a clean bill of health. John is going to do the rest of his training in secret and so didn't join Wednesday's superbly attended communal run. The pace was brutal but that was no problem for Pat and Giles who are now cast iron certainties to break 3 hours in Paris.

Now that we're are all finely tuned athletes, honed to physical perfection by thousands of hours of training, we are looking to extract every possible advantage from the application of the latest sports science theories. We are all learning new shoe lacing techniques which should hopefully mean they don't come undone while we are running. We have all noticed that the longer we run the more tired we get and to combat this, it has been suggested that we each carry a big bag of jelly beans to keep our blood sugar up.

Bulk supplies of all manner of gels, powders and potions have been ordered and there is nothing we won't try. The more scientific approach has come about because each us is so frightened of bonking in Paris or London. There are many different forms of bonking including the muscle-glycogen bonk, the blood-glucose bonk, the everything bonk (sounds good) and, remarkably, the little-purple-men bonk. For more information on the Science of Bonking, please click here for the leading article on the subject from Runner's World which looks carefully at both sides of the Sanctity of Carbohydrates debate.

Massage has been embraced with equal vigour as we all explore the gossamer thin line between pain and pleasure. Roberto is certain to have his hands full.

Our running tops have finally been ordered and Sarah has recalled the Craghopper relaxation trousers so that the 2CC logo can be affixed to the seat of each trouser. By an extraordinary coincidence, Sarah was the winner of last week's guess the Craghopper waist measurement competition.

Less than 50 days to go. There is a feeling that if we're not ready now we never will be.