65 miles...

I managed 65 miles today and am extra pleased with myself as the training goal for today was 50 miles.

I went out with a friend from work and it made such a huge difference to ride with someone rather than by myself. He set the pace and I was happy to keep up. He rides a lot faster than I do but I think that's good as I was pushing myself, whereas normally I would dawdle.

It was also nice to take in a completely different route than I have been used to. I've found that to be one of the most difficult things about training so far. I will pick a place to ride to that I think is pretty far away but when I get there I'll realise it's not that far and I still have mileage to make up. I also find that I have been doing the same routes, or slight variations of, for the past few weeks which is getting a bit tired. 

I did fairly well timewise, doing it in about 6 hours with 3 stops (one fairly long one towards the end to re-fuel physically and mentally). Towards the end of the ride I definitely lost the will a little bit which is where I think riding in a group will definitely come in handy on the actual ride.

Having got a fairly big ride under my belt now, I feel a lot more confident about achieving the 95.