I was talking of punctures - and how to avoid them

Morning enthusiasm had me on the bike at 0720 the next day. One mile out, the front tyre went flat quickly. I walked it home and had an hour down to the sea at Mudeford on our second hand mountain bike. Fixed the bike after breakfast, and no problems since.

Thursday was Naomi's birthday, so apart from checking the tyres on a trip to the local shops, my training was in abbeisance. Friday I had plans on putting the panniers on and cycling up Bison Hill at Whipsnade. That didn't happen. The Garmin navigator with downloadable Ordinace Survey maps of the whole UK on a SD card wouldn't unlock the files onto the Garmin. Naomi,treasure that she is, spent 4 hours trying her computer-literate best to help - to no avail. Garmin have a 3-day waiting list to help, but because lots of folk have problems 9 non-Garmin technical experts offer to assist at £28 a call. I declined.

So today my Garmin told me I expended 4880 Calories in cycling 65 miles around the west of Sheffield in the beautiful Peak district over six and a half hours. I was in some of the first back at the Holiday Inn Express on Blonk Street - that is not a misprint! It is very difficult to drive to unless you know the City. I have climbed and descended bigger hills than ever before, and covered more miles in a day than since I was a teenager. I feel in fairly good shape for tomorrow's 35 miles on steeper hills to the Northwest.

The team is great. One drove the support vehicle with snacks and drinks, and two cycled with us. Our route maps were handy, so we went at our own pace. The morning was sunny, but cloudy from lunchtime and rain in your face from 1500hours. There were two foot deep snow drifts at the tops, and there were rivulets down the road from the thaw. We ascended up Eccleshall road and then Ringinglow, amd returned the same way. The descents at Hathersage and Edale were awesome. The ascents from Bakewell and around Stannedge Edge were humbling. I confess to dismounting on two occasions to push the bike to the summit, when the narrow road had cars driving towards you, and you were struggling with the lowest of low gears. I am delighted with the bike and my level of fitness, but one day of 66 miles is not the same as consecutive 14 days of 71 miles on average. The End-to-End leaders say that if you get through Cornwall and Devon as far as Glastonbury, you are likely to complete.

And so to bed... Thanks for reading this far