Saturday 21 May 2011

GETTING READY

Well the time is flying and we are in the process of having bikes serviced, support station boxes packed and clothing selection being made. The logistics of the race are that we have 84 maps from the town centre of PMB to Dimmersfontien wine estate, 25 packets of biltong, 60 energy bars, 26 packets of nuts, 50 chocolate bars, 100 odd packets of energy gels, spare chains, brake pads ( I hope Tim knows how to fit them !!) spare cables, spare cleats, and an assortment of drugs and vasaline to keep the camels away. The rest we will try and fit in and close the lids as best we can !

This week has been a bad week with the sad death of my long time worker, Willie worked for us for 22 years and she tragically was killed crossing the road to come to work, she will be missed very, very much RIP Willie. Another great friend has been diagnosed with cancer all over the place, Ed Shinton is an ex Para Regiment soldier who was an Arms/explosive search dog handler with me in Northern Ireland, he is one of a kind and although the prognosis is bad he is handling the facts very well and with his trade mark humor. The reason that I mention my two friends is that I have seen other sites where people say that this race is on their bucket list, well you never know when tragedy or illness will hit you, so if you have a Bucket List get on and do it now.

Training is still ongoing and the cold seems to be settling in, the forecasts are still for head winds and cold, we have tried to select clothing that will wick away sweat and provide warmth, the problem that we are faced with is that you start off freezing and then start sweating as you ride, so you have to start striping off the layers yet maintain warmth. Its a tricky act to maintain. The average calorie burn is between 6000KC and 10000KC a day so maintaing your intake of carbs and all the other good stuff is difficult, so you eat everything. The average weight loss for the race is between 10 and 15 kilograms, whoopee I have been trying to loose that for the past 20 years. Tim only needs about 1 KG ! I think we will do a weigh in and out for the race and see what the results are.

As this blog progresses we have been looking at the stats and we have had views from South Africa obviously, the UK, Australia, America, Canada, Namibia, and New Zealand, and over 220 reads of the pages. Its a bit daunting when you write these things and hope that your spelling is correct. We are going to try and update the blog daily as we ride and post pictures, hence the picture of Tim fixing his bike, its a trial. We will be posting on twitter and the Freedom Challenge website will have continual updates. you can follow the tweets from the blog. There is also a tracker service from the sponsor Netstar, the link is on the Freedom Challenge website, with the user name and password, all you have to do is log in and tick the box with our names and follow the instructions, this will give you live tracking and routes taken. If the tracker is off we are either in a really bad area or we have turned them off to catch a lift with some kind farmer !!!! who hopefully will not tell the race office !!!

1 comment:

  1. this will be the long and the short of it, and i look forward to following your progress.

    two old farts perhaps, but two TOUGH old farts indeed. good luck boys

    guy

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