3 weeks to go

Late post for 3 weeks to go (and 2 weeks to go, shall put this up next) I know, but the last couple of weeks has seen some unexpected developments.

The week saw one of my first evening rides which consisted of a 44km town ride in the evening now that the sunset is that much later. It was a good quick ride on my Fuji race bike - such a great ride! Looking forward to the ride with Dad.

Dad turned up at mine for our ride together with some unfortunate news. Granddad had the end of life care team called out after being sent home from hospital. So the ride with dad essentially meant a lot of thinking and a lot of questions.

We set off together for a 94km ride together with two category climbs (based on mapmyride.com ratings). One category climb was quite early on into the ride and this was a category 4 and the category 5 climb didn't occur until we had reached about 73km. The weather was pretty good to us and the wind too was very kind. There must have been only about 4km of a head wind with our last 10km before reaching home - can't complain.

I set off on this ride on the Dawes Touring bike with both panniers, but not completely full. It was more a becoming familiar exercise for me. Dad has riden with panniers for as long as I can remember no matter what journey he was making – work, pleasure, exercise – panniers were always present.

I also spent some more time on the route planning and now has a total mileage of about 888miles, but the hill climbs are still just as steep and aren't getting any smaller.

I have planned for the Easter weekend a few rides and these should contain two 98km rides with two category climbs (4 and 5) and then a short ride of perhaps 40km in the rain. There is no fair weather cycling for me.

Please donate whatever you can: http://www.justgiving.com/e2ecr