Weeks 3-5 - making progress

Apologies for the lack of blogging the past few weeks - Blogger has unlinked my page from my profile, so I haven't been able to update it, hence the new  link!
Nevertheless, lots has been happening and it's all (mostly) good.  My bike has had the all-clear from the friendly bike Dr in Southampton - he did lots of work on it, tuned, tidied and new tyre, and hardly charged me anything :-).  With that and the promise of a decent bike to borrow if mine goes wrong, equipment is looking better.  The Echo article was followed by another, and a spot on Radio Solent, and also a bit in the Portsmouth News. Although I'm not convinced that the publicity raised much more sponsorhip, if it raised awareness of transplants and donor registers then that is a good result.
I have been sticking to my training schedule (which has involved some very early mornings) and am now up to being comfortable on a 20 mile ride.  Hills are still daunting, but definitely improving.  So far I have clocked up 292 miles in training, so I must be getting some fitness along the way?
I've been bravely heading out to new areas,  trusting in my little GPS to rescue me if I get lost.  Mostly that has worked well, but only after I remembered to tell it that I'm on a bike, not in a car!  Oh, and the day I got off course, thought I knew better than the GPS, ended up carrying my bike through bracken and streams and got a tick bite as well.  Hmmmm.
Fundraising is challenging but people have been amazingly generous, and I am now over £500 towards my target, which is fantastic.  Today was a real encouragement, as a random stranger stopped us on a training ride and asked if we were riding for charity.  When we explained what we were doing, she gave us a donation on the spot. Wow!
I should be back to blogging more regularly now, so long as I don't get locked out again.  Pop in and leave the occasional comment to keep me motivated.