If you managed 40 miles yesterday with 6 more weeks riding you'll manage 60. Get a few longish road rides in on your days off. I'm off Uni now for the summer so am free for a ride sometime if you want. Trio and I keep saying we'll ride out to Southport together one day, so tag along for that if you want? I'd say you'd be better concentrating on upping your miles and pushing your fitness over the next 6 weeks than worrying about dieting. 

As for empty legs on the Man-Liv ride, did you eat and drink enough along the way? A long ride needs fuelling as you go.

I would say its all about pacing yourself and keeping hydrated, drink water and energy drinks, use engery gels and eat small bits along the way.

If ya can do 40 miles, you should be able to do 60 miles in 6 weeks time.

When i did 103 miles in belgium all i had along the way was Torq gel, torq energy drink, water, and two waffles.

Forget the dieting, and as Jumbly says, concentrate on putting some miles in.

Good luck

Putting the miles in helps the weight come off as well.  If you can ride 40miles you can ride 60!!!  The main difference is fuel, I can ride 40miles on water but as the others say longer rides you need to fuel as you go on, practice eating on the bike and see what works.

As to how I do it, alot of training!

The first thing I thought when I read your post was how much did you eat/drink and how long did it take you? With a bit of pacing yourself and decent energy levels you should easily be able to manage the full 60 miles on what you are doing now. It is also not just about what you eat on the ride either are you hydrated enough before hand and eaten well the day before - I personally find that has more impact than getting it right on the ride.

Are you rested enough? if you are commuting everyday and by the sounds of it riding at the weekends may be a few days off or at least very easy in the week before the ride will help, treat the event as a major target and do the same as any top level athlete will do to prepare.

Get a few more longer rides in over the next month, can you extend your commute ( I assume it is 7 miles each way) a couple of times a week say to 15 miles on the way home if not can you alter the route, perhaps include a couple of hills? basically mix it up a bit to give your body a challenge.

Has anybody got an links to any training schedules to help with this?

I'm being talked into this by the guys at work who are convincing me that the 60 miles is going to be a piece of cake if I can do 20 miles of MTB in the Lakes.

 I'm the most unfit and struggle with a spin class at times- I keep looking at the clock to see if I'm half way through the class.

They are probably right, 20miles of mtb in the lakes can be hard going, I know I've done 20mile routes in the lakes that take all day with hike a bike etc.  you are probably fitter than you realise.  I'd recommend that you just try and get some road miles in, you have about a month to go.  So start with 20miles on road - you'll know you can do that as you can do it off road.  Then the next week 25, next week 30, next week 35, next week 40.  If you can do 40 you can do the 60 especially with lots of other people round.  The other thing is to practice eating, work out what works for you and stick to it.  That makes more of a difference, over 60miles I definetly have to eat and over this year i now know what food works for me.  I favour, ham sandwiches, mini mars and twix bars, rice-crispy bars, banannas and torq gels.  I would also use an energy drink on that distance.

Good luck you'll be fine.

Debz, how is your training going?