Well, we're here - the final week of full training and it's another big one. 600km is the goal again this week and it's looking like even more of a challenge than usual. With the Betfair Caribbean Summer Party on Friday night and a Stag night to attend on Saturday a few of us are already scratching our heads as to how that's all going to work! Actually the sensible ones have stopped thinking about it, written it off as impossible and are already trying on their best Caribbean beachwear. Sadly it's now two sizes too big for them!! :)
Dan and I, however, are both stubborn and less smart and threw ourselves back into the breach again yesterday morning. Akin to some form of Stockholm Syndrome, we are both clearly becoming accepting of (or maybe resigned to) the routine that comes of being a LifeCycle hostage. Seemingly incapable of original thought, we religiously got up at the same time and set off on the same route around the island again. The route we have mapped out is long enough to give us the mileage we needed and in this depleted mental and physical state it was, to be honest, just a little too hard to plan a new one. Despite the wind still blowing we soldiered on and completed just shy of 70km before heading to work.
Mondays Ride Stats
But we're not alone in our routine you know. We see many of the same faces every morning as we tour the island. Malta is a hive of activity in the mornings and evenings as we cycle around the coast. I love how the Maltese embrace walking as a form of exercise and have managed to combine it with meeting friends and family every day to make it a social, and far less dull affair. Regular as clockwork we see them powering up and down the roads and beach fronts chatting away to each other, putting the world to rights away from the heat of the day.
The ones we see after sun up on the coast are the sane ones. Not only because they, unlike us, have figured out that the Maltese roads are no place to undertake any form of safe exercise. But they've also figured out how to combine their sociable exercise routine with being able to appreciate the fabulous environment for exercise created by the early morning sun.
What I can't figure out is why so many others choose to get up in the middle of the night and walk the streets of Naxxar and Mosta in the pitch black at 4am when they don't have to!! Are they mad? Is there some kind of vampire sub culture that exists on the island and only comes out in the hours of darkness?
Yesterday evening we had another team meeting where Amy Zahra and Priscilla Buttigieg came to share their experience of suffering from renal failure with us, joined by Liz Micallef from the backup team who talked about how the illness impacted her father.
Three stories with different beginnings and endings but all delivered with honesty, humour and emotion and telling of unimaginable bravery and determination in the face of adversity. These meetings are known for their chatter and background noise, but yesterday there was total silence as everyone listened to the stories unfold. Without exception everyone left the meeting in total awe of how and what the patients deal with and with a reinforced determination to complete the challenge and raise as much as possible.
Today marks the 100th day of training and, although daily life seems to be nothing but a never-ending round of cycling and all things LifeCycle, the last 3 1/2 months have flown by in a blur. So far all talk has really been about how things have gone, and how things have improved or not. "How far did you go last week?" "Excellent, I managed to average 24kmh yesterday" Obviously that wasn't Lenny - He said "I managed to average 30kmh yesterday" Everyone is looking back at the training done and looking for the improvements made.
The 40+ remaining cyclists have seen the mileage and the effort crank up a notch every 3 weeks. Weekly targets of 180km became 250km, then 330km, 450km and finally 600km. Steadily getting tougher and tougher and each time being able to look back and feel the pain but also see the improvement.
The 40+ remaining cyclists have seen the mileage and the effort crank up a notch every 3 weeks. Weekly targets of 180km became 250km, then 330km, 450km and finally 600km. Steadily getting tougher and tougher and each time being able to look back and feel the pain but also see the improvement.
But, the 100th day of training also marks 20 days before the ride kicks off in Venice. 20 more days before all of that training is going to be put to the test and the toughest 12 days any of us has experienced will begin.
What is interesting is the subtle but evident shift in conversation and mind set in the last few days. We are all mentally and physically preparing for what is to come now, rather than looking at what has past. With this last week of intense training, and two weeks of tapering remaining, there are no more new heights to aim for, except the ride itself. And finally it's close enough to see as real.
Reading the packing list in week one many of us novices stared at the bike parts list with an "as if!" grin on their faces. Now the full horror has well and truly dawned on us and we're discussing how many spare chains and how many spare spokes to take. And it gets worse....
"What tyres do you have?" has become "Are they the 2.0's or the 1.6's?"
"Do you think I'll need chamois cream?" has become "How much chamois cream have you used already? And how much are you legally allowed to take with you?"
It may be a huge challenge in every way - a year in the planning, 80 particpants/victims, 16 weeks training, 12 days cycling, 2000km covered, 7 countries visited - but ultimately success or failure is going to be down to the little things being done right. It's a level of detail that no one has really given a second thought to until now, but we all now appreciate that the devil is in the detail. If we weren't obsessed already, give us two more weeks and we will be!
20 days and counting....... :)
No iPod today, but I heard this playing through a car window today that helped raise the pace to the office. (and no Dan, it's not the taxi driver cruising Sliema seafront blaring out "I will always love you" at full volume)
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