Moving Forward

Its been an interesting week with a bit of training, some drama and a step forward in planning.

It was the first full week back on the bike and I wasn't able to make much headway. I certainly didn't feel as comfortable on the bike as two weeks ago. I hope that it will return pretty quickly and that I avoid the colds and flu going around. More downtime will be really frustrating.

But I hope that I will develop momentum into this week.

I planned to test my backpack on Saturday and packed it with a lot of the kit I will be taking with me. Man, did it feel heavy as I hoisted it on my back to do a 90km ride with some of the RASA riders. But once in place, it took a while to find my balance and it felt pretty OK. Its a nice light Northface pack that's been tried and tested by the Myth on a 500km adventure race so it has what we call "houding" (character).

But a full test will have to wait. About 6km into the ride through the most spectacular gorge, Doug took a tumble over the handlebars (about an 8 score) but landed awkwardly on his hand. We feared the worst with all the symptoms he was displaying and there were frantic calculations on how long broken bones take to heal and what alternative training options existed. However, the other three wondered more about me bequeathing my hot cross buns to them as they headed on for a 9 hour epic.

Doug and I cut the ride short and 14km later were back at the car and heading to the local clinic. After an hour, the verdict was just deep tissue bruising, nothing broken. Boy, that was a long wait for luckily, great news!

Then I have spent many hours pouring over the maps and trying to get a handle on the big picture. Linking all the maps together makes the route come alive and I really enjoy the process of imagining how it will all pan out.

I also went shopping for snacks for my 2lt boxes. So far, very little healthy stuff - mainly comfort food. Yum, any excuse to indulge in tasty, feel good stuff. I am just not sure how much to cram in. I guess more is better if the space allows. I've gone for a mix of sweet and savoury and stuff that will be easily eaten on the move.

So all seems on track for the first deadline which is the delivery of the boxes to Cape Town by the end of the month.