Dealing with the mental challenge of cycling 1000 miles in 9 days

Alongside the physical training I'm doing for LEJOG, I also need to consider the mental side of things too.

I've currently got three plans for tackling that.

The first is to ride through all weathers in the hope that I become mentally tougher by riding through the hard times as well as the good. I tend not to be a fair weather cyclist anyhow but there are occasions where I make preference based on the forecast. I'm doing my best to use the forecast as a heads up on what I'm about to ride in rather than a tool for planning rides, although this only really applies to riding solo. I don't want to ruin someone else's day intentionally!

The second is to get into the head of a long distance cyclist to get a feel for how they prepare and deal with it. To do this I have just bought MarkBeaumont's book The Man Who Cycled the World (ok I'm not cycling the world unsupported but everyone has to start somewhere!).

So far so good, I've got to Poland and it's an engaging read and an incredible challenge. It's useful to read about the emphasis he put on sports massages, something I've not really considered yet other than knowing they have massage tents on Ride Across Britain. Might need to look into this during my training too.

The third is to stretch myself to find out what I'm capable of. This means back to back rides and long days in the saddle. I did my first major, and by major I mean over 30 miles per day for 2 days, back to back last month with this 2 day 187 mile ride to Scotland. I've also done a couple of 100 milers in the last two months, ridden 270 miles in one week last week (a HUGE achievement for me) and am planning to do my longest ride ever on Sunday at 140 miles which includes cycling to and from the start.

I'm no expert on this by any means and the ultimate test will always be LEJOG in September but so far this feels about right.