Past the halfway point now and feeling positive.

Today saw a slight change in the weather with enough of a warming overnight to melt all the frost away. One of my planned routes goes over higher ground so today was the best day to get it done.

It’s not as easy a route as I probably should have been doing with 523m in 62.5km and two fairly significant climbing sections. However, it’s one I haven’t done for a while.

Our Club Xmas night out was last night in Ballybofey. A very enjoyable night but the third night in a row to be in bed between midnight and 1am. Doing this challenge at this time of year it’s difficult to get proper recovery between rides.

I was driving last night and obviously cycling this morning, so I stuck to alcohol free cider. However, four of these late at night meant I still had a broken night sleep getting up multiple times to pee!

I lay on a little after the alarm this morning and left half an hour later than planned at 10am to a chilly but not cold morning. I have a feeling though that this was all relative to the freezing conditions of the previous two days.

My route today took me West up and into Barnes Gap before turning left to head towards Castlederg via Killeter. This is a really enjoyable rolling route with small, punchy hills and descents that are just enough to challenge and then allow recovery. I really do enjoy this section of road and in the right conditions (like today) you can get down in the drops and get some decent speed up.

I could definitely feel the three back to back days and late nights in my legs this morning but it was a strange mixture of tiredness and strength. I can feel my legs getting stronger with the jump in mileage this week despite the lack of good recovery.

The forecast tomorrow is for much the same as today with Tuesday and Wednesday returning to some frosty conditions overnight into the morning. I’ve decided to bring my 100km ride forward to tomorrow to make the most of the conditions and also allow for later starts the following two days if needed. I also think it will be nice to have two shorter days to finish.

• Rides Completed: 4
• Total Distance: 294km
• Distance Remaining: 206km