Early days still with my training but so far, so good. Off on my longest ride ever tomorrow – 72 miles – the Wiggle Spring Saddle Sportive. It should be a good challenge although the forecast is for it to be quite windy which I’m not looking forward to.

Over the past few weeks I’ve completed a couple of long rides. Firstly I did a 53 mile Ipswich Bicycle Club social ride, managing to get into a faster group than I expected , which meant I did my fastest 50 miles ever by miles (17.5 mph average)! It was really tough and I ended up holding up the rest of the group towards the end, which was a bit embarrassing.

Last weekend I took part in the Boxford Tornado with my fellow tennis referee Alan. It was a 60 mile sportive around Suffolk with the first half being relatively comfortable but the second half was really tough with a strong headwind. Alan finished much stronger than me, but we made it round in one piece.

Here we are at the finish about to tuck into excellent tea and cake.