We have had a couple of stand out rides on this adventure of ours; Baines Kloof Pass and riding the dirt roads through the succulent Karoo really stand out but this last ride to Strydenburg was incredible because of the average speed we achieved. The conditions were perfect – we had a wind behind us, the roads were flat and we got into such a great rhythm. We completed the 77 km in under three hours and averaged almost 28 km/hour. Speeding along on a single geared BMX for at that pace for that duration will be hard for me to ever top and I certainly will never forget it. It was exhilarating and one of the best 3 hour moments I have ever had with my Dad. We both got off the bikes with fat smiles plastered across our faces.

The thought did cross my mind while speeding along to Strydenburg whether or not, with the correct training and support during the ride, if a sub 3 94.7 would be possible? Maybe that will be my next challenge??

Fast hey

Check out some of the ride details and my heart rate results… Its mad how, although we were trucking, that my heart rate didn’t get up as high as on previous rides! Kinda shows what can be done when conditions and team work come together. It doesn’t happen often in such perfect synchronicity but when it does it stands out and is remembered. I will never forget this ride!

Riding Heart Rate Stats

Colorful Chart

Neither had we, but that is what has stood out for me on this adventure so far; going to places you would not normally and having the chance to meet amazing people you would never have given yourself the opportunity to. We rode from Loxton to stay with Wilma at her guest house “Victoria Wes Guesthouse”. Hers is the building that is blue and white, where all the others are green and white (this is how we were told to find her). It was the promise of a swimming pool there that had me riding the last 20 km into Victoria Wes like I was on a time trial bike. It was one of my best and most refreshing swims in memory. It is also one of the most memorable Guest Houses I have ever stayed in. If you ever find yourself in this part of the world you HAVE to stay there and let Wilma entertain you and let her place envelop you in comfort and character – a true Karoo gem!

Check out the details of the ride to Victoria Wes below (shhhhhh – did you know that you can push play and watch the ride like you were there with us?? You can even control the cyclist and check out the speeds for different parts of the ride).

Oh oh, also…the Physiology Lab have supplied me with a heart rate monitor for the One Gear Challenge. With the V02 Max test results from earlier this year they have determined my optimal heart rate riding zones that I need to remain in during each stage to allow for optimal recovery. In a single day event, recovery is not key and you can push your heart rate into the higher zones in order to do a quicker time but having to ride on consecutive days it is vital for us to recover well. I was advised to spend as much time as possible in Zone 2 but as you can see I let the flat roads and possibility of maintaining an average speed of 23km/h get the best of me on this ride and I spent most the ride in Zone 3! Sometimes the boy in me takes over – Sorry guys! Guess I will feel that in the morning!

Stage 7 Heart Rate Results

The long flat roads of which I spoke:

Long and flat (yes I am talking about the road)

Yesterday we rode further than planned and ended up doing about 80 km of dirt in order to eat away at today’s required distance. The plan was to turn today into a chilled stage and get some extra rest in… it didn’t happen! It was super hot and dusty yesterday and the sun threatened comfort. Today, in direct contrast, wind, cold and altitude had their way with us. Today we ascended 750 meters in about 15 km up Verlaterkloof pass and although our riding time and Km’s covered is nothing to write home about I exerted more effort on that ride than I have on any other in my life. A gusty and cold North Easter relentlessly smashed us in the face all the way up the pass. The road grew steeper and steeper until it felt like a tar wall – it never let up, it just kept on going and going and near the top steepened just a bit more in final defiance. I was seriously pushed close to my limit and almost got off but with extremely heavy pedal strokes (just enough to keep moving forward) I did summit and scream in triumph (more accurately I swore repeatedly at the pass).

The bottom (as is ass) of Verlaterkloof pass

I was told on numerous occasions before we left that this initiative would test my abilities and limits and that I would learn about my physical and mental boundaries like never before. Today was my first real test. Being only day 05 out of 23 I am now certain that this is only the first of more tests to come – there is no way that we can get ahead of ourselves yet!

The pass takes you up to the small town of Sutherland known for the South African Large Telescope (SALT) that is up here. It is a cool little town and Kambro-Kind BnB where we are staying is absolutely incredible. It is genuinely one of the best and most interesting places I have stayed in. The quality linen and puffy pillows are doing there best right now to distract me from finishing this post.

Kambro-Kind BnB

Check out the GPS track for the dirt road we did yesterday. The lack of signal has prevented me from recording all the rides and in fact will continue to limit us for the next couple of days. We may fall off the map again for a while as we head in the direction of Fraserburg (we hit the dirt again tomorrow and will be on it for at least another 200 km). Keep checking the blog and FB page though – we will post as soon as we can.

stay classy my peeps

Peoples reactions to what we are doing are varied bust mostly something along the lines of  ”Jy’s Fo*#*# mal”. Yesterday we passed 2 cyclists and we were shooting the breeze while riding alongside them for a while; it was fun when asked where we were riding  to be able to answer “Joburg!” When we arrived in Wellington we met Niel from Adventure Cycles and his actual words were the ones in quotations above.

Today was the most amazing day’s riding. The weather was perfect (campaign day some might say) and there was very little wind. Niel organised for a group of 6 riders to join us on our way out from Wellington and we had there company almost all the way to Ceres (minus Mitchells Pass). They were awesome and told us stories of the area the whole way. The mountains around Wellington are breathtaking and the gin colored waters that flow in the rivers and over the many waterfalls are simply mind blasting (don’t you mean mind blowing Ryan? No anything can blow your mind…this was mind BLASTING).

We rode up Bain’s Kloof pass and although we spent most the day ascending, the surrounds kept us so distracted that it ended up being quite a leisurely ride. I really can’t do the area justice with my limited vocabulary so I will post some Trigger Monkey photos in the next post so that you can experience a little of what we did today. For now check out the GPS tracks and results from this mornings unbelievable ride!

We are now in Ceres relaxing at Porterhouse Eleven Guest House with feet up. *whisper* the place is run by De Wet Barry’s folks! Province and Springbok memorabilia everywhere! On that note must find somewhere to watch the Currie Cup final…

So Russel (Biodynamics) has told me that I need to start tapering from next week so I went out for one last big ride this morning. I got in 80km which is about 10km more than what we will need to average on a daily basis! Holy crap, as I wrote that with my tired pins aching below the table, it has just dawned on me what lies ahead.

Anhoooo, let’s ignore any anxiety for now and focus on the fact that the 80km went well. I had a little bit of an ITB niggle at the end but I will ask Russel to work his magic this week in my last 2 sessions with him – all will be Golden! I have said the word “last” more than once in this post; I can’t believe that this is all coming to a head and that we leave for Cape Town in just over a weeks time. It is amazing though how it all comes together and how all our partners have really pulled through for us.

I collected all our USN stuff yesterday – they have gone nuts on providing us with everything we are going to need (nutritionally speaking)! I have protein bars,  protein drinks, recovery stuff, bottles… everything – it is actually mad! I used some of it on my ride this morning and there is no doubt it made a difference. Our biggest challenge is going to be to recover each day before setting out again on the bike. The recovery products from USN are incredible in that way and I am going to be smashing those in my beak with vengeance after each stage!

Check out the deets of my ride this morning below:

They say you can multiply the off road KM’s ridden by 2 to get the equivalent on road distance (obviously – so if you do the math this was a 93.64 KM training ride – Just saying! And yes “they” are the scientific community and its all very scientific and…stuff.

I grew up in Rivonia but for some reason the neighboring suburb of Bryanston has always been a black-hole to me.  To this day I still get lost driving through there.  So when I ventured in on my bike this weekend it was with a little trepedation – no not really. But I did find myself riding on roads, so close to where I live, that I have never been on before in my life; I guess it illustrates to an extent how big and diverse the burbs of Jozi are…and hills, so many hills…and the altitude – so thin the air! It really is a great place to train.

Its not like I have made some kind of breakthrough in the field of psychological research by saying that your perception of a distance, or more accurately, how long it seems to cover that distance, is affected by your state of mind before you set out but this has become more and more apparent to me as I have increased my training distances. At the start of the year 20 km seemed a slog to me but now if I set out on a ride expecting to do 70 km the 20 km mark comes and goes in a proverbial blink – you see where I am going with this? I haven’t articulated the concept very well but what I am trying to say is that covering long distances successfully is really all in your head; getting over the psychological barrier of a particular distance is as much about a mind shift as it is about physical training.

Now I just need to convince my mind that the ride is 3000km and the 1500 mark should arrive unannounced and way before anything fails?! Wait wait…maybe if I trick my little brain into believing that I am riding a unicycle in a clown suit then my BMX will feel like a Ducati?! No?

Check out my last training ride below – I had to get home from the end (another 20 km; the total of 70km I spoke about).

..ing up the km’s