Cold and wet week, but 120 decent miles done outside so not all bad. Two training rides during the week over Beachy Head, with an easy ride to Hastings on Saturday and some hilly miles over the Downs today.

I went over to Hastings yesterday to get some Proofide for my Brooks saddle, something that should have been done about 400 miles ago... whoops. Oh well, at least it's done now. I bought the Proofide from Bells Bicycles, which is a lovely shop selling old style bikes with a modern touch, including some Tokyo bikes which look fantastic. I chatted to Meg, who owns the shop for a while and she told me off for not having proofed it already. At least she liked the fact that I had the Brooks on though. http://bellsbicycles.co.uk/
So now I also have my Carradice Nelson longflap on the new bike for the first time, weighted down in preparation for how it will feel in a couple of months time.
On the way over to Hastings I went on the "cycle path", this is in fact just some matting put on about 2 miles of the beach. Needless to say, I will not be riding a road bike along it again. There really should be a warning to say that it is not really suitable for road bikes. I can imagine that on a blustery day, it will be covered in the stones from the beach and unpassable on any bike.
Live and Learn.

Before I say any thing else... thank you soooo much to all the people that have sponsored me so far. I did a 50 miles training ride this morning and got back to find that over £160 had been donated this morning alone. All the money donated gives me more motivation for training and to complete this challenge. Thank you all xxx

Well....

As I said above, I have done about 50 miles this morning from Eastbourne to Brighton and back, to see a friend that I have not seen for about 6 months. Good to see that you are keeping well Jason and the new business is starting to be a huge success, long may it continue!
With about 3100ft of climbing, todays ride is about half the distance and ascending that I will be doing each day on the JOGLE, rather daunting.

I have also managed to book my train up to Wick this week, although it went with a little bit of drama. I have had to book both a cabin and a seat on the train to Inverness as Scot rails website would not book in my bike on the cabin ticket, only a seat ticket. How stupid! A complaint has been sent and I will be asking for my £36.40 to be refunded from the price! 1 1/2 hours on the phone to people in Asia, it was not fun. With all the millions unemployed in this country, why can't they earn their dole money by being as useless in a call centre as our friends in Asia? hummph.