More training & other updates

Sundays have pretty much now been set aside for training routes, with each week getting progressively longer. This week's trip saw us circumnavigate (?) Knole Park, before heading around the back roads of West Sevenoaks and up to Sundridge. Following this, we headed back along to Chevening, through Chipstead and home again. The journey took roughly 90 minutes, and we are now confident in being able to ride to Westerham and Edenbridge next week.

Our maps should soon be on the way from CTC, after I ordered them earlier today (wednesday). We have also started looking into flights from Southampton Airport to Inverness, where prices are reasonable (though extra baggage costs would be incurred for the bikes). Finally, we also have a date in mind - which we will hope to confirm and reveal in the next few weeks.

First ride of the new year

Today was the first time that myself, Joffie and Angus had ridden together since the announcement of our cycle. We undertook a (seemingly!) gruelling twelve and a half mile ride around the outskirts of Sevenoaks - Chipstead, Chevening, Dunton Green and Otford - in around 70 minutes.

Our aim over the coming weeks is to repeat this, with the gradual aim of being able to cut our journey time down to 45 minutes - I might add that had Joffie and Angus not been so patient with my weary legs, they may well have finished in an hour!

The difficulty in the coming weeks will be finding a time where everyone can train together. Ed was working today, whilst Alex had football. Tom also has to make the journey from Ightham and so planning our training sessions will be vital to the success of our adventure - the school holidays may be very important indeed! Nonetheless, today's ride was extremely useful in looking for routes to practice on and how difficult it will be to travel 70-80 miles a day.

Developments

So far, little else to talk about. We have secured the services of Alex Edwards to accompany us on the journey, so we now have a full team once more! We are still trying to organise a date, but at the moment the trip is looking likely to take place in August of this year - so let's hope it's not too hot!

We are already 8% of the way to achieving our overall total in sponsorship, however we are hoping to at least double this overall. If you are interested in donating to the cause, then please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/sevenoaks7forwillcarus

Thanks for reading, we'll hope to update you soon.