Schedule uploaded

I've had a few people asking where I'm going to be at certain times so that they can try and meet up with me en-route. Well, now I've managed to look into the routing a bit more, I've managed to confirm roughly where the overnight stays will be and therefore what the approximate daily mileage is. I've done this on the basis of trying to keep the effort equal on each day which means that where there's a significant amount of hills the route will be shorter in distance, and vice versa. I still need to pin down the exact route on the minor roads, and precisely which campsites I'll be staying in for some of the legs, but that's well under way. You can see the schedule on the "Challenge" page of this blog.

Carefree Campers

Just a quick post to say that we've been fortunate enough to have been given both a significant price reduction and a substantial donation to SANDS from Carefree Campers near Derby. What this means is that for the second half of the challenge Amanda and Kieran will be able to follow my progress each day (and be around to help if anything drastic goes wrong) but also that I'll have something resembling a proper bed to sleep in at the end of each day, rather than a patch of wet/hard/rocky ground in a tent. I'm still going to be carrying everything with me on the bike, as that's part of the challenge that I originally set myself, but at least there's a little bit of normality to look forward to each day.

Thank you Carefree Campers, your support is great appreciated.

Training update

A bit of a slow week this week. Work commitments have meant that I've not managed to put the miles in that I would have liked, and with the new wheels for my touring bike only being delivered on Thursday I've not been able to even commute by bike. Just the 75 mile ride last Sunday and a solitary turbo trainer session. Never mind, I've got a day in London today on a Boris bike for the first time! and tomorrow it's the London to Cambridge ride. It's only 60-65 miles but I'll probably end up topping it up to just over 80 miles by the end of the day.

Now that the new wheels for my touring bike have arrived and with all of the other smaller things now also changed, hopefully next week the 50 miles per day commute can resume. Fingers crossed as there a 100+ miles day next Sunday at the Evans Cycles Reading sportive and I'll need the practice.

High5 on board

It's with great pleasure that I can post that High5, the sports nutrition experts, have agreed to support me with this challenge by providing the essential nutritional advice and products that I'll need to complete this ride successfully.

Thank you to everyone up in Bardon. Your support will definitely make a huge difference.

Target reached.....but let's not stop there

Yesterday I was mid-way through my first ride of more than 100 miles when I checked my phone at a food stop and found out that the £1500 target that I had originally set had been reached! Excellent news, and it certainly made all the difference  in the second half of yesterday's ride. The support for what I'm attempting has been superb and I can't really find the words to express my gratitude properly.

I'm also aware that so far there's perhaps £400-500 on sponsor forms dotted around the place that don't appear yet on the JustGiving website so it really does look like my initial target was an underestimate. Perhaps £2500 or even £3000 is more realistic? I really don't know. I won't be changing the target on the JustGiving site as any new target will also be a guess but please don't let that stop anyone from letting people know about what I'm doing, this blog and the cause that I'm doing this for. The more funds that can be donated and the more awareness that can be raised the better.

Thank you one and all.