Why am I doing this?

OK, what am I doing? Somehow I have been persuaded to cycle from London to Derby on 26th May to raise funds for my children's primary school. One hundred and forty miles in a day. It doesn't look so bad if you don't use the figures.

I'd feel happier if the ride was towards the end of the summer as I would have longer to train, and it would be in decent weather. As it is I got my bike out of winter hibernation last Sunday and did 25, yes 25, miles in and around Alton Towers in a howling January gale. because there is no time to waste. It wasn't too bad, but then I was expecting the absolute worst. The wind is the hardest thing to overcome, I thought the speedo had failed at one point it was registering such a low speed. Still, I managed to average over 14 miles an hour, which I need to do for ten hours.......blimey!

Since then, I've been running twice and to the gym for 45 minutes of cycling. Somehow it doesn't feel like it's enough, but tomorrow should really find me out.

I'm meeting up with half a dozen guys who cycle 55 to 60 miles every Saturday morning. I have a Saturday off from coaching an under 9s football team so I'm joining them. Again, I'm not expecting too much from myself and am already looking forward to getting home into a hot shower. There are three or four of these guys doing the ride with me in May, they might be needing to lay a trail of flour behind them for me to follow.

Part of the logic for undertaking this is that I reckon it can't be too hilly between London and Derby so doing most of my training in the Peak District should stand me in good stead. I don't know, we'll see. Oh and I need to sort my back tyre out as well, I bought a super grippy rear tyre for cycling in the winter and I have put it on back to front. Easily done, bike upside down, wheel off bike, could happen to anyone and always does to me. the upshot is that the super grippy tyre is super slippy.