First Dry Run

I'm thinking that I may have left the 'training' a little late. For various reasons, this weekend was the first time I've ridden my End to End bike fully laden. Rather than just have a quick run around the block to see how things felt, I decided to have a mini-weekend tour. The journey started in Loughborough late on Saturday morning with a trip to Penkridge - a large village between Stafford and Wolverhampton. On Sunday I came back to Loughborough. Total distance for the trip was about 110 miles, but this felt a little bit harder than I'd expected. The pace was around about 10 m.p.h on average, which was fine, but my legs now hurt in ways I've not experienced before (not after a bike ride in any case). Nevermind, it'll all come right on the day/week/weeks/months (?).

I know its pointless, as they'll most likely never ever read these words, but I just want to say thankyou to a few people who helped me out with water during the weekend, including the slightly reluctanct chap in the pub at Packington (nice club sandwhich), the kind lady in Blithbury who provided it from her garden hose and the publican, in the pub whose name I can't remember, at Worthington. I was also lucky to get free entrance to the Curborough Sprint for half an hour or so, during the practice session for an even that afternoon, and found that tea and 'triple' (bacon, sausage & egg sarnie) were delicious. Its people like this who, although they don't know it yet, will make the ride possible.

So, plenty to work on before the big day arrives on the 16th.