6 days to go!

A thought for all of those people in New Zealand including my friends John and Susan who were caught in the Earthquake. It was very frightening even though no lives were lost.

Saturday - 30 miles done and dusted. This weekend I decided to do some cycling but not too much. Saturday saw me setting off along the Bristol to Bath cycle path. Weather was cool and clear. The path is fairly flat so I decided to just keeping cycling until I reached Bath which is 15 miles away. I enjoyed the traffic free experience and it was straightforward. Feeling confident, I did a little sprint at one point and almost killed myself! What happened to my youth?

Once I reached Bath I ate coucous with mackerel, celery and the rest of Claire F's chutney she made last year. Very good. Then I headed straight back. A total of 30 miles for the day. The big thing for the actual event will be to just keep going, breaking through the psychological and physical pain barriers.

Sunday was a much tougher day. I had originally planned to do a repeat of Saturday but decided that I needed some hill work. Boy, did I get hills? Out to Wells and back there were some long torturous hills both ways. Along the way I saw plenty of road kill, but the worst moment for me was seeing the Owl. I think it was a Tawny Owl. It made me so sad. Anyway, the hills. The start is up the Wells Road through Totterdown and Knowle and then out to Whitchurch. The trouble with hills is they are hard work. I could probably cycle 250 miles along the flat with my hands off the handlebars. Hills are a whole different ball game. The only way to do them is head down, and think of England! Of course it's always satisfying getting to the top, particularly if there's a downhill bit the other side. WHEEEEEEE! Of course, Sunday it poured with rain so by the time I got to Wells, I was tired, wet and slightly cold. My couscous didn't have too much appeal so I went into a well known chain of takeaways for a hot chocolate and foot long breakfast meal. It hit the spot. I definitely needed something hot. Then head down and back the way I'd come. The hill which had been such fun coming down into Wells was the start of the journey back. Push, push, push. It was pretty tough going all the way back. 40 miles total. I know that the 250 miles are going to push me to my limit. But in the words of A J Hackett, 'If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!'