Help with training

having grown up just down the road i can vouch for a holbrook/stutton/brantham/bergholt/bentley/tattingstone/wherstead loop as the best hill training you're likely to get round those parts

the best thing you can do is just get out on your bike and ride it as much as you can. there's no substitute. you don't say how long it's going to take you to do the 403km - presumably it's not a day, but equally you'll be presumably be needing to cycle much farther than you're comfortable with, and on a day-to-day basis. september 2010 is a good way off and that means you've got plenty of time, but make the most of the summer to get your training started, it'll be no fun if you've not got round to it come january and you have to drag yourself out in the cold and dark.

since you say you don't know where to start here's some really basic stuff - apologies if i'm aiming too low!

start small - work on getting comfortable riding for a bit longer than you normally would. make sure you address all the normal beginner mistakes: there's a good post at http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/skills/mistakes.htm and the first three are key: get your seat the right height, position your feet on the pedals properly and learn to use the correct gear, and how to change gears correctly. I'd add to that putting slicks on your mountain bike or getting the bike shop to do it (assuming you're training on the road) and making sure that your tyres are pumped up to the correct pressure (ie HARD), that can make all the difference.

After you've established a base level of fitness you can work on the particular things you'll need to be able to cope with on the ride. these likely to be:

hills: china is probably hillier than suffolk, most places are. but there are bound to be hills you can train on round your way, so seek them out.

distance: you've got ages to work up to the distances you need to cover, so go at it gradually and aim to be hitting the right distances early in the summer before you go

recovery: if you're going to be riding every day, try and do some sessions where you train every day to get your body used to the short recovery period. friday evening, saturday and sunday maybe.

hope this is some help. good luck and keep us posted on how it's going!