Hopes and Fears

There is so much about our trip that feels unknown.  Churning out the miles in the British drizzle it is hard to imagine ourselves pedalling away through the African heat.  To help prepare I’ve been having a think about the things I am most worried and most excited about.  Let’s start with the worries.

Number 1 – Saddle Sore.  This is every cyclists unavoidable and impending reality.  Recommended remedies range from generous dollops of Vaseline or nappy rash cream to a nice cut of wagyu beef down the pants. Yum.

 

Number 2 – Thunder Thighs.   Apparently this German started with matchsticks for legs – need I say more!?

 

 Number 3 – Terrible Terrain – upsettingly this is an actual photo from our route and makes Islington best attempts at an assault course look like the Olympic Velodrome.

I know that there is little that I can do about these, so instead I distract myself with the reasons that we are really doing this trip:

 

Number 1 - With an average of 80 miles a day under our belts for four months, I’m pretty sure that we are entitled to eat whatever we want/can lay our hands on.

Number 2 - Sunrise in Africa daily- magic.

Number 3 – these are going to be the best days.

Health MOT

Lizzie and I recently joined a gym round the corner from where I work to squeeze in lots of spinning classes, pump some iron, argue on the squash court and then relax in the sauna, although we've only done the first one so far...As part of joining, you get a complementary health MOT, so I went along thinking I would be told I looked great and had lovely eyes, but was just told I didn't need to pay.

As I went through, I had images of me running on a treadmill with an oxygen mask on my face (like you see in sporting documentaries and Lucozade adverts), but instead I just went into a little room where I had my heart rate measured over a few minutes and my finger pricked.

Cholesterol Test - apparently I eat too much cheese!

So what did I find out? My resting heart rate is very low, my VO2Max (ability for body to absorb oxygen) whilst good is only about 2/3 that of Bradley Wiggins, and my cholesterol isn't in danger territory but I could do with eating less red meat and cheese (probably my favourite two things, especially when put together!). My view is that if I'm cycling 80 miles/day for 100 days I can eat whatever I like, especially leading up to Christmas!

Our shiny new bikes!

We have finally got hold of the bikes that will power us (that's the dream anyway...) all the way from Cairo to Cape Town! After settling on the Salsa Fargo, a good bike that is closer to a mountain bike than a road bike, we discovered that one of the few stockists was a stone's throw from our flat, Mosquito Bikes who were amazingly friendly and helpful.

Our shiny new bikes!



We trundled on down for a fitting, got some top tips on how to sit on a bike (which is surprisingly complicated, it turns out), and had our respective Pegasuses/Pegesai(?) ordered to fit like gloves (or a nice pair of slacks). Although they did turn up without pedals which slightly defeated the point of ordering complete bikes, I thought. This weekend will be the first test ride so fingers crossed we like them!

Lizzie and her Argo (she hasn't actually named it that, I am just trying to show off some iota of cultural knowledge)