68km Ride - This is starting to get silly

It doesn't seem a moment ago, that I was getting off the bike after a 13km ride to Berkhamsted and back thinking (privately) that there is no way that I'm going to cover 100km.  I'm really chuffed therefore to have done 68km this weekend.

There were just three of us again and Matt, Jason and I headed all the way out to Billington, took a wrong turn which turned the planned 60km into the 68km and then came back through Cheddington, Long Marston and Tring.  I've got to admit I was in bits at the end.  Matt even had to leave me so he could get back home in time to be ready to be back out again for Sunday lunch.  So there is still more work to do, I wouldn't have welcomed getting back on the bike for another 32km put it that way.

Big lesson learned on Sunday was always read the instructions before taking on board energy snacks.  I ate what I thought was an energy sweet after 50km before reading the instructions.  It was actually a tablet to drop into a litre of water.  How we laughed as I foamed at the mouth...

I've also now covered over 500km in training and been in the saddle for over 30 hours.  I'm also delighted that with gift aid I've nearly raised 1,500 pounds.

Is it meant to be this cold in March?

We had a really good, if very cold ride this morning.  We started at 7am (myself, Matt and Jason) and covered 55km in total adding on an extra little loop in Buckinghamshire to our previous 50k ride.  While it was a clear spring day it was deceptively cold.  I'm really chuffed to have been able to cover the distance after two weekends break for Jacob's birthday and then Neil's 40th weekend away.

Only 80 or so days to go, so back on the bike evey weekend from now on and I need to keep pushing up the mileage, just a few extra km every week until we do a final training ride of 75-80km at the end of May.

The fundraising is going well too, with offline, online plus gift aid I think I'm up to nearly 1,400 pounds.  Thanks to everyone who has sponsored me, very generous!