Our Bodies

One of the things that we are asked about a lot is what this trip is doing to our bodies and how they are feeling.  It is fair to say that we are getting to know them in an utterly different way; some days we marvel at their power and others we ask them politely why they seem so sluggish and would they mind awfully moving a bit faster.  We have developed a huge respect and appreciation for them – sometimes wondering what gift or treat we can offer our legs in particular to thank them for all the hard work they do for us. A massage is about the best we have come up with so far, so we indulge their desires and trudge off to find masseuses on rest days, and sit around waiting whilst our legs enjoy a wonderful going over.

Our hard working legs requiring some love

As the challenge is physical, it is through this context that we also get to know the rest of the group – we can recognise everyone’s riding style from quite some distance away (this is of course helped by knowing every item of cycling clothing they could possibly be wearing – to don a new jersey at this point in the trip is impossible without extensive comment, often accompanied by rebuke for the memory that another item had been worn for 8 days straight on a prior occasion whilst this new jersey had sat tucked up in the locker).  And it is also the language through which we address one another: where ‘how did you sleep?’ really means how many times did you get up in the night, and ‘how are you feeling?’ equates to ‘is it solid?’

Even when not in lycra it is possible to spot us as cyclists, from the ridiculous tanlines (not just on the lower arms and legs, but also the white feet and hands (except for the top of our fingers which catch the sun from our fingerless gloves and looks like we have dipped our fingers in syrup). 

 Whilst these days we are feeling largely healthy, it hasn’t all be plain sailing and whilst many of our ailments have been bike related, not all have, but they still need treating to keep us ticking over.  Some of the long list include: bruises and grazing from several falls off the bike; heatstroke; carpal tunnel syndrome (loss of feeling in two fingers for several weeks); multiple bouts of diarrhoea; vomiting; trapped wind; ear ache; fever; repetitive strain injury on wrists from off-road downhill; sunburn on scalp (through the helmet); cuts from falling over like small children and opening beer bottles.

It is amazing how the physical nature of the challenge boils our bodies down to their most basic functions – a lot of the time, we do feel like simple machines, with food going in one end, and leg motion coming out the other. It has been wonderful walking into restaurants and seeing the expressions on waiter’s faces as we, a bunch of scrawny white people, order starters, two mains each, ice cream and repeatedly ask for the bread basket to be topped up. However, we are already starting to worry about how to shrink these gluttonous feasts down to American portion sizes and then back to the diet of a regular person. This is going to take some doing…