Wednesday 16 December 2015

Last famous words

I remember being very clear when I completed the Spring Ride to Rhodes in 2014.  Never again, uh uh, no not for me...... this is too long I want shorter events.  I was quite comfortable with issuing those confident words and I stuck to them for about 5 months.  Then one evening I was at dinner with Doug, Dave and Dawn and Derek and Sonja.  They were all chatting about RASA and the trail.  All of a sudden I got this urge to want to go on more of the trail.  I firmly sat on my hands and kept my mouth shut.  I had been drinking wine and I know what I am like .....
I kept my wicked desire to myself for about 2 weeks, made sure I was sober and sane (well sober at any rate) and then put it out there.

So the big plan is:

March 2016 -  Race to Cradock
June 2016 - Race to Rhodes
and then, only if I managed the above 2 events in terms of navigation and bike maintenance and being on my own and not panicking (too much!), only then will I look at
June 2017 - RASA.

Ok so the goals are really, really REALLY big!  The thing is I won't have Doug with me.  I was hoping he would do Race to Cradock with me but he isn't.  So I need to be ok to possibly be on my own for parts or all of these adventures.  Colleen Cawood may ride with me but she is definitely quite a bit stronger than me so we may separate (and this would be for R2R and RASA).

Aaaanyway...... here we are.  I have been training with Bikefit - Mark Williams since beginning May.  It is in-door training on our own bikes.  The sessions are very high intensity for anything between 45 mins and 60 minutes.  My strength and fitness have definitely improved but it is so hard to judge when I ride with others as they just always seem to be faster and fitter!

Colleen, Derek (her boyfriend) and I went on a recce of part of the trail (Allandale to Centacow to Ntsikeni to Geln Edward) in September.  Doug and Kayla drove for us (Doug nursing a broken collar bone otherwise he would have been on the bike as well).  Colleen and I were practising our navigation.  It was a brilliant exercise.  I think it gave both of us some confidence although I say quite quickly we had been on that part of the trail in the Spring Ride to Rhodes.

So now the thoughts that mull around my head revolve around maps and mountains and ice-cream boxes and mountains and carrying my bike and more mountains......

I went to listen to Braam Malherbe talk in August.  He ran the Great Wall of China over 100 days which was just over a marathon a day.  It was so inspirational and reminded me that I CAN do audacious things.
Have a dream
Set the goals
Action the plans

The body is the vessel and the mind is the power house.

Impossible or I'm possible.




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