1. A method of pre-loading instructions from a variable-length instruction set into an instruction cache, comprising: setting an instruction cache line offset indicator identifying the offset, into a data block corresponding to an instruction cache line, of a first valid instruction; executing a preload instruction operative to retrieve from memory a data block including at least one instruction from a variable-length instruction set and to load the instructions into the instruction cache; and successively pre-decoding the instructions in the data block beginning at a first instruction, in response to the instruction cache line offset indicator; and writing the instructions and pre-decode information to the instruction cache.