One Last Spin...

I did my final ride preparation for the trip tonight -- 8 hill repeats on Harlem Hill. I had a great ride Sunday, which was really my first long distance ride since my meltdown a week and a half ago. Between Sunday and tonight, my confidence is rising and I feel ready for the trip. I could be in better shape, but I'm fairly happy with where I am. The meltdown I had recently was very real...it wasn't made up or imagined. It scared me a lot but I realize we can't be "on" every day in life and beat myself up too much over it (the fact is, there were definitely a few mitigating factors).

As far as the overall training goes, I was able to get in the 15 rides I had hoped; although they varied somewhat from what I outlined originally. I ended up doing 531 miles, which is just shy of the 575 I had planned. I didn't get as many hill repeats in as I was hoping for. But overall, I think I did pretty well considering that it was slightly aggressive and things always come up in "real life" that create conflicts. Here's the final report:


As you can tell, I stopped posting the mountain pass overviews. To be honest, I feel like I was tempting fate a bit too much. These mountain passes are pretty serious stuff. I don't want to diminish the challenge or mock them in any way and piss of the cycling gods. I want to respect the challenge. If I finish the passes, I'll write about them afterward.

I realized today that it's likely to be colder than I was expecting on parts of the trip. I need to be prepared for cold weather riding. Better safe than sorry in this respect. The good news is I don't think it will add much weight to my load.
I was planning on doing some pre-packing tonight but I came up with a better idea that will actually benefit me on the trip. I'm going to wake up at 6am tomorrow morning to start packing. I'll finish tomorrow night, go to bed early and wake up on Thursday at 5am. This will ease me into acclimating to European time and give me a better chance of sleeping on my flight Thursday evening.

I may post one more time before I leave, but more likely not.

Ciao.