Donald King

Out training and cycled just over 10 miles - felt pretty good although stiff afterwards.

Weather was good with a slight wind - but at least it was not too cold or wet. By the time I get out of the lane I am covered with mud being thrown up by the wheels - lane is very mucky and full of puddles.

Went out for a meal with Rod and Heather for Birthday on Sat Night - went to the Mandarin Kite in Cheltenham, excellent place to eat out if you like Chinese food. Ambience is good with music in the background that allows you to hold a conversation - recommend it to you. Heather and Rod are the couple who said they would double their sponsorship money if I cycled wearing my kilt.

Have tried wearing the kilt and cycling but it did not work - am now trying to see what other options I have with it.

Sunday - after eating out and drinking wine meant I was quite fragile - so had a very easy day. Today I have been drinking loads of water and even had a breakfast (for a change)- sensible eating is now the order of the day and three meals per day is a must. I must say that getting up at 0430 in the morning is not the best time to face a plate of porridge. Keep looking for a diet & exercise plan that lets you eat what you want, when you want, little exercise and then you are slim, 100% FIT and able to do anything you want If anyone finds such a regime please let me know.

Bike is going well although I think I need to replace bearings. Should have replaced the bearings when the bike was dismantled for spraying - still you live and learn

No pictures added today as I forgot to take the camera with me - well at least the mobile phone camera.

Need to stop and do some work.

Following the discovery of the break the garage that is undertaking the welding will have it finished on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I will be getting up at 0400 and driving to Herne Bay, doing a days work, and then leaving around 1600 to be home at approximately 2000.

Needless to say the garage will be closed so I will not be able to collect bike until Wednesday.

All these delays mean that from this week on I wil have to increase my daily cycling mileage quite a bit so that I am reasonably fit for the event in August.

It is my intention around May to do a 60+ mile cycle and in July a 100 mile cycle overnight from Bristol to Exeter. All this sounds good but I need to get the miles in.

I am taking the bike to hm on Wednesday so will keep you in the picture.

2007 has had it ups and downs -Christmas morning the dishwasher stopped working, Saturday the oil boiler which does the heating and water stopped working. Around 4.30pm today engineer arrived and eventually worked out we had no heating oil The gauge was showing we had nearly half a tank full when in fact we had nothing - weather here is still very cold so of course we c not get any oil until Wednesday.

Tin bucket in front of the fire appears to be an option or maybe we should stand out in the freezing rain - character building stuff

Hope you are all getting ready for St Valentines day you need to make sure that you treat that special person, to make up for all the other times when you forget birthdays, etc etc.

Will add some more on Wednesday.

Check out the pictures of the bike it is great, in fact I think it is awesome!!!. Steve at Bodytek 01453 899 299 in Unit 2 Cambridge Mills, Gloucestershire has made a great job of spraying the bike and I would recommend him for painting bikes or cars. Thank you again Steve for all your work.

The guys at Motorworld Dursley, 01453 546 254 very kindly put my bike back together and I must say I have always found the very helpful.

It restores your faith in people and Companies that they are willing to help without charging for a good cause.

I went out on the bike today and I felt like a dog with two tails or something similar!!! Training has now officially restarted and I will keep you updated on my progress.

The weather today was warm and it makes cycling such a pleasure look forward to summer days and warm spring weather.

I hit the dreaded 60 in 16 days time and I hope this will not slow me down even more - I guess you are as old as you feel and when I got up this morning at 0330 to drive to Manchester I felt at least 160 years old. Some days I feel like I am 21 again but somehow the body doesn't look or behave like that - maybe now that I am going to reduce my age by 10 years on each birthday it will help me to cycle longer and easier each day

As my training progresses I will be adding photographs to my blog so you can see some of the places I visit during the training - pubs etc.

Take care

Spoke to the Company who are painting the Bike and it will be ready next Saturday. I am like a big (old) kid and really looking forward to it.

The diet really will kick in now so that when I start serious training I will be ready to rumble!!!!

Would appreciate any thoughts yo may have on training, diets or anything that will help me to complete thie journey.

Please continue to read my blog on a regular basis - and if you can spare some money donate to my 2 good causes.