Day 5 sharing the message to the kids
Big day, started at 4.30am rise to breakfast at school, not many where there before we headed off early for big day of 220 on the seat. We stopped at an amazing school who treated us like rock stars but we scoffed lunch to hit the road. It wasn’t a good move as everyone was feeling the fatigue. Our group is very fast so still quite furious pace. We then decided to play a short game to pass time. After a quick stop I moved to help in the front. The engine room up the front is made up of 6 people taking the lead at each 5 km mark so you have 2 lines of riders and just the two out the front at one time. We sat on anywhere from 30km up hills to 50+ down the hills and 38 on the flat on a cross wind. It was great to take part in all the areas of the group and especially show that the women can ride just as strong as the guys.
What we are doing each day is extremely draining both physically and mentally. I’ll try to put it into some kind of perspective.
Each day we get out of bed at about 4am. This is after a maximum of 6hrs sleep. During each day we will maintain between 6 and 8 hours of hard exercise. This in itself is very hard to back up day after day. This is the physically tiring aspect of the ride. Believe it or not, this isn’t the hardest part though. For that entire time riding you need to have full concentration on what you are doing and what is going on around you in the group. For those that aren’t aware, when you are riding in a group there are a few thing that you need to concentrate on to keep yourself and other riders safe. To get the most advantage from riding in a group you need to ride directly behind and as close to the rider in front of you. When I say close I mean about 30 – 50cm from your front tire to their back tire. This is called drafting and it aids in conserving energy. This takes a lot of concentration to maintain this small distance between you and them. While doing this you also need to maintain a consistent speed and direction so that the person behind you doesn’t either run into you or fall out of your draft. Apart from these things you also need to look out for obstacles and potholes on the road. If you can imagine how draining it is to drive a car for 6 – 8 hours in a day, the concentration levels of riding in a group are much higher. So this is what I mean about being mentally draining. The problem is that the more physically tired that you get the harder it is to maintain this concentration. Mix this with not getting sufficient sleep to enable our bodies to recover fully, each day gets tougher and tougher.
I don’t really complain though as it is nothing to what people are going through with treatment. A speaker was taking about what he went through tonight with treatment and we have really nothing to complain about. Life in this place is great and it is nice to embrace each day with a challenge.
If you give you will receive. I don’t mean money, it maybe just time or a hug.
Enjoy each day as we are very blessed
Half way and over 820km so far and a mountain to climb.
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