Chobham, here I come

The exercise bike that my friend promised me has arrived.

The kids are intrigued: the four year old nearly lost his fingers trying to get them into bits of it that no-one else even knew were there: that's my boy! And the pair of them were at the wrong end of firm words from dad when they tried to ride it tandem!

It's nowhere near as derelict as I thought it would be: it has a good solid base and electronic read out (although I'm not sure that anything other than the timer works), so I'm really chuffed.

Anyway, I managed to put in a ten minute sprint and work up a sweat before my shower this morning and now have that lovely glowing feeling that only exercise can give you.

I can feel the muscles at the top of my legs recovering from the shock, and I just know I'll hurt a bit tomorrow, but not nearly as much as I would if I rode the whole 100 miles unprepared (suspect I'd get no further than the first drinks stop without the help of this machine).

Enthusiasm can carry you so far: from there on in it's hard work.

But I now feel really optimistic and like I really may actually stay the course: take the bets off me guys - I'll see you at the finish in Chobham!