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Bike and trailer at Lake George lookout |
November marks the six months to go milestone in the preparations for the ride. Since the middle of 2006, and the training for the Great Victorian Bike Ride which we completed in December last year, we have been continuing to ride increasingly longer and tougher rides most weekends, ranging from 40-50km circuits of the lake to a 100km loop through Spring Range Rd and Gundaroo.
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Bike and trailer at Lake George lookout |
This month I have completed my toughest test to date, a ride to Lake George and back with about 12-15kg on the trailer and about 5kg on the bike, a day after a normal 50km circuit of Canberra. The total distance was 73km, and involved several tough climbs on the new and old Federal Highways. The temperature was in the low 30s and there was little wind, in fact once or twice I was cycling uphill in air that was exactly matching my own speed and it felt like I had entered an oven until the wind shifted enough to provide a cooling breeze again!
I made the 37km out in one go, and at Lake George found that I only had 600ml of water and nearly a litre in the thermos. I drank a cup of tea and then the 600ml of water, about a litre in total. Although still thirsty I started the return trip and was able to forget my thirst. With about 15km to go I called into the Eaglehawk service station and filled my water bottle, drinking about a litre and a half before heading home. At no time did I feel dehydrated and had energy for the whole ride. Some saddle soreness was evident in the second half of the ride but the legs and knees held up well.
This ride is typical of what I expect to be cycling daily after a month on the road, and provided a good test of how I might cope. I was pretty worn out that night but woke up fine next morning and completed a comfortable 30km ride after work. I am now quite confident that our schedule of 50km per day for the first month increasing to 70-80km per day in the second and up to 100km per day across the top end will be achievable.
Pete has run out of bore water and has been busy setting up a solar powered pump to deliver water from the river that runs along his boundary. This has required extensive research and planning, not to mention preparing the ground and designing and building the infrastructure for a system to lift water over 300' and just over 1km. But in between the travails of life Pete has maintained a training schedule of three rides around the lake per week and at least one ride of 40-80kms on weekends, mostly on the Kona road bike, not the Randonneur. Pete has also started to load up his Randonneur with panniers and ride around getting used to the extra effort required for a loaded bike.