So I am at it again. I don’t tend to post or keep this blog, when I am not working towards a big ride or challenge. To be honest, I always felt like who cares what I am doing or thinking about day-to-day. Anyway we are back for a big year. Yes, I will be posting for at least one year, as I move towards the biggest challenge (cycling) of my life.
We will announce all details next week sometime. As part of the build up, I now find myself at 6,500 ft altitude near Park City Utah. The four weeks I’m here hopefully will get me acclimatized to this altitude, ready for a race at the end of the month, The HooDoo 300 which has its highest summit at just over 10,000 ft. The benefit of riding up real mountains for a while and living at altitude, should again be something that improves my cycling skills and overall fitness. It will be interesting to see how the lymphoma, diabetes and mild emphysema all react to this new environment and increased levels of activity. So far so good.
My plan is to walk and ride on the trainer (yes i packed it with almost everything else I own) for the first few days until my SAG or better known as my wife, Deirdre, turns up next week. She flies the 3,000 miles and I drive. Just sort of how we roll I guess.
The reason for the trainer in the garage here is so I can stop, make changes, monitor everything without being in the middle of nowhere, yet still benefit from the altitude. Once my better half arrives here, Ill have “on call assistance” if needed and feel much better prepared to go off wandering in “them there hills”.
The drive here was great. A little long, but it’s all good training for being in your own head for 20+ hours on a bike. Keeping concentrated on the road and traffic, while passing time with the ever changing scenery is a skill. I managed to pass through some states I haven’t visited before and I’m guessing it wont be long before I have been too/or through all of them. This trips newbies where Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa and Utah. Think I just have the two Dakota’s, Montana, Idaho and Washington State left. Oh yes Alaska, not been there either. America is a big place, I mean really big. Our world often gets smaller due to life, social media and many other things, yet I have always loved to roam, wander and explore. This I am sure all comes from my Mother. She managed to bring up two boys (1 and 4 years old) singlehanded with very little money, without us ever knowing we didn’t have anything to are name. Her trick on days off was to load us two boys into a farm van, with a box full of food and drinks. She would set off for an adventure, we were all in. Often we got lost. However she would say “how much fun being lost was, as you got to see places you didn’t know where there and then you get to find your way back”. I guess I’m still having many days like that still.
Anyway hopefully some, all and who knows maybe a few new people will come along for this one year ride which so far includes a 300 mile race with 17,000 ft of elevation gain in 27 hours or less, a 444 mile ride (without a single stop sign or traffic light) with again around 17,000 ft elevation gain in 44 hours or less and a training camp in Mallorca in March. Looks like its going to be one full intense year of cycling and then hopefully back to some golf, social riding and normality.