Whoops, it appears I’ve not been paying my bills, or rather checking my emails. If you happened to visit the site in the last 24 hours you may have seen a godaddy.com splash screen telling the administrator to contact them immediately. Well I have and a small issue over money has been resolved and the website has been resurrected.

Mmmm, not good news. Thought the back pains I had last week after running had subsided. I managed 80 on the bike 2 days later!. However on Friday I started delivering directories and only managed a couple of hours before having to stop. Rested Saturday (still hurting quite a bit) but had to carry on with deliveries on Sunday. Needless to say, the pains have been getting worse each day. Fortunately finished all deliveries on Weds night.
I now rattle thanks to the amount of ibuprofen & paracetomol tablets I’m guzzling, have spent the last two nights trying to sleep propped up on the sofa and haven’t been on the bike for a week. Hopefully the pains will subside a bit over the weekend and I can try a gentle ride on Monday?
Only 5 weeks to go now. Hope its not going to be 3 men , 2 bikes and 1 car!

After Ian’s 67 and now Dad’s 80 I was determind that I too would get in a nice long distance. So following in my Dad’s footsteps or rather cycles, I decided I’d also attempt cycling to and from Farnham. We were travelling up to Farnham and Alton anyway as it was my Uncles birthday so we spent the morning in Farnham before going over to Alton for my Uncles birthday.

The plan was I would wake at 5:30 and leave the house by 6. Strangely enough I had difficulty getting up that early so ended up leaving at 7. Cycling was going well, I didn’t feel like I was going particularly fast but I had conquered the two biggest hills on the route without stopping. Before long I reached the Alton roundabout, the one leading to the highstreet. It was there I noticed I’d picked up a puncture. Eek, I was still a good 10 miles from Grandma and Grandad’s house so I thought I might have to walk it. I pumped up the tyre and managed to get another couple of miles out of it before pumping it up again. I managed to repeat this until I eventually made it. In all the 40 miles took 3hrs 15mins which isn’t that bad given the frequent puncture fixing.

After a hearty turkey roast I got on my way and cycled to Alton (now with a new rear inner-tube). The increased tyre pressure seemed to make a huge difference and got down to Alton in around 45mins (approx 10miles). Spent quite a few hours in Alton and at around 7 I departed bound for Locks Heath. Though my legs were a little tired and I was almost instantly saddle sore I felt ok and averaged a fraction over 15mph for the remaining 40miles back home.

This morning I don’t feel too bad though am allowing myself a day of rest.

The good? Managed an 80 miler on Wednesday, cycling to Farnham & back. Not quick, so we are likely to have some long days in the saddle, but at least 100 looks attainable.
The bad? Todays 21 miler was meant just as a loosener after yesterday, which was fine, but I really didn’t fancy going much further anyway. Consecutive days around the 100 mark is a little scary still.
The ugly? (make your own jokes!), Tried running again on Monday, which started very promisingly and ended up with an aching back and feeling as though I’ve been kicked in the ribs. Looks like running is off the menu for a while, but fortunately I can still cycle……

It’s been a day or two since my last post so I thought I would update you on my training progress thus far. I’ve still not yet conquered that ‘big’ distance and am only really getting 20 miles a day on the saddle. As I mentioned in my last post I have taken up running to boost my training efforts. On Monday I did 3.7miles and last night 2.7 so that is going well though it does make me even more tired in the evenings. One perhaps expected side affect of all this exercise is my waist line, I’m starting to loose some weight. Normally I wouldn’t be concerned, I’d probably be happy but several pairs of Jeans and cycling shorts now don’t fit particularly well. I’ve only lost about half a stone so far which isn’t huge but you know what, I rather miss that extra padding. I’ve still been eating plenty probably more so than I did before but I’ve now started to increase the amount of carbs that I eat so last night made a large tuna pasta salad with lots of extra cheese.

Its been a tough couple of weeks with work, work, raining and training but I am catching up with my training programme deficit rapidly. I’ve totally worn the bearings on my beast out now, so I’ve been using my wife’s chariot as an interim replacement. I spent a few hours servicing the machine, I knew there was a reason why She was SO happy for me to use it, and now well oiled and mechanically sound, I have making steady progress into the weekly requirement.

The road tyres are a welcomed relief but I do miss the Landrover rumble that accompanies you with tow path treads on tarmac, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it, particularly the speed gain. The gears however went AWOL on Sunday. After kicking off early on Sunday I managed to lose the changing facility completely, a tweak gave me three but that shortly failed on Vokes Road whilst overtaking some road works. I soldiered on until a mountain just off the A32 near Alfresford, where I rigged a temporary string mechanism to give me a one up and down change effect, it was good effort for training purposes but doing the downs in mid range gears is very painful on the hamstrings, and I wouldn’t recommend it anyone else.

That said, it was a lovely ride down in glorious sunshine, and the Portsmouth celebrations required a more leisurely and comfortable journey back. I bottled the ride and took the train to Woking, although I did a longer route home racking up another ten miles. The gear system will be restored in preparation for this evenings jaunt, so who shall I suprise tonight, who do I know that make’s really great cheese and pickle sandwiches, and is in on a Tuesday!

I’m starting to get a little worried. Not long ago Dad managed a 47 miler, then this weekend Ian cycled from Woking to Locks Heath, some 60+ miles. Whats the longest distance I’ve cycled so far? …(cough)… 33 miles. Both times I’ve cycled 33 I knew I could go on further but I still don’t know how much further. Anyway, my paranoia forced me to take up running after work. Hopefully this will now become a regular event. I know from recent experience that cycling and running are two very different disciplines and being good at one doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be good at the other but I figure it will be still good exercise. I have been cycling quite a while now and thought my level of fitness was improving quite a bit. Then I tried running and found my legs turned to jelly far quicker than I expected. I ran round the local park today which really handily works out to be almost exactly a mile round the perimeter so including the distance to and from I clocked up 3.7 miles (about 6k). Not far but that felt quite comfortable so maybe next time I’ll do four laps, we’ll see. Thanks again to all those that have sponsored us so far, we are now at the 10% totalizer mark!!!

Got back from this mornings 21 miler to find an old bike dumped on the front lawn. Before I had a chance to phone the council to complain about fly tippers, bumped into Ian in the hall.
He’d just cycled the 67 miles from his house to ours………… It was great to see him, but I admit I was relieved he was catching a train back home. If he had cycled back again that would really have made me feel old and decrepit!
Anyway, gotta go now. Need to phone Dwaine Chambers for some training tips….

Fortunately not as bad as threatened, so left snorkel at home. Clocked up 48 miles, a new p.b.. Hope to have some feeling back in my legs by tomorrow…..

Took a rest day today and the opportunity to do the exciting stuff in life…..like mowing the lawn, hoovering the house and waiting for the gas man to come. Still, that was distinctly more fun than the last five miles on the bike yesterday, which felt like wading in treacle. No particular reason why, but I just seemed to run out of steam, all of a sudden. Hope that doesn’t happen in July….knackered with 80 miles still to do!
Going to have to put in a long ride tomorrow now, but after the great weather we have been having, it looks like I need to pack a snorkel……………….