With yet another night out last night and a bedtime well after 1am it was hard work dragging myself out of bed this morning. As it was, my estimated start time of 9:30am soon became 10am.

I had planned to do my second 100km long ride today but part of me was screaming to do a shorter 60km. In fact, a significant part of me was advocating to simply stop and forget about the challenge altogether and that took a certain amount of effort to quieten.

As with most things once I was up and about with a couple of boiled eggs, soda bread and tea in my belly, the headache began to fade and the scratchy throat was gone. Unfortunately, they weren’t a cure for the dog-tired legs!

Today’s route was basically a repeat of Xmas Eve and Day 1 using my East Donegal Audax route. However, with some extra distance in the bank from the first 4 days I decided to shorten it slightly.

The amendment was at Raphoe. Instead of doing The Broadpath climb into Stranorlar yet again, I decided to head across country via Carnowen and into Liscooley. Instead of going straight home I went as far as Killygordon village before crossing the river to give me an extra 5km and 96km in total for the day.

Today was the first day I experienced some saddle irritation. I had on my best shorts but the back to back days seem to be mounting up with some irritation today. I’m actually blaming it on Saturday’s choice of shorts. I’ve only worn them on 40km rides up to now and think 60km was just too much for them. I’ve taken all necessary precautions since I got home so hopefully it doesn’t cause me too many issues over the last two days.

Frosty conditions returning overnight tonight so I’ll wait and see what it’s like at 10am before deciding which route to do tomorrow.

• Rides Completed: 5
• Total Distance: 390km
• Distance Remaining: 110km