Reverse Gear Blog

I know that we are about to ride more than 8500 km and that I should be training to get my mind and body ready for the Blind Guy Biking.  But since I am not athletically-inclined, I can find a zillion reasons for not doing it - “it” being the dreaded “training” word. And here are some recent ones:

1. On Thursday, we were putting new bookcases in the office so I convinced myself that all of the heavy-lifting of boxes of files would qualify as weight training that day. (It does - right?)
2. On Friday, I took my trike in for a tune-up. Doing a long training ride right after to make sure it was well-tuned would have been a good idea. But I thought it was a better idea to go shopping for some new fuchsia gloves and socks to match my fuchsia and black REVERSE Gear warm weather outfit (jersey, camisole and shorts) and red gloves and socks to go with my new RG jersey. And so I convinced myself that the short, fast ride from Urbane Cycle to MEC was “sprint training”.
3. On Saturday, it was raining.  Len said that I will need to ride even if it is raining on the trip, so it is good for me to ”train” in the rain.  My response: “Exactly - so why would I subject myself to it now when I don’t have to”.  So I stayed inside and worked on the route and maps instead.
4. On Sunday, it was cold. Since I have previously been in the Rockies in early June and know it can snow there at that time of year, I felt that I should prepare myself for it, but…  then again maybe it won’t snow this year so I won’t need to train for “cold weather”.  Besides, I rode to the St. Lawrence Market all winter so I already know I can do “cold”!!!
5. On Monday, I had two excuses - my grand-daughter and my music.  I think taking my grand-daughter to the swimming pool is a good substitute for cycling.   I was using my legs as I flutter-boarded across the pool.  Tomorrow when I get around to really “training” those leg muscles, they should be nice and supple (I hope). 
6. This afternoon, I am loading my new iPod.  While it may not be training, it is an essential part of the preparationfor the trip.  I cannot imagine being out there for 3 months without all of my jazz and country favourites.  Not to mention my classical music to go to sleep to.   Hmm, maybe after pedaling for 5-7 hours a day I may not have much trouble falling asleep - just maybe?

Well stay posted to hear more about our “training”, I do intend to start sometime before we leave next week…

This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Blind-Guy Biking, Just life, Recumbent clothing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.