Phaffing to the South - My Africa cycle Trip
Training Session on the 28.03.2010 (Blue Line)
When I woke up this morning, I looked outside. It was cloudy, but there was no rain. I was happy to see this, because I wanted to go out and have a little training session. After breakfast and the usual phaffing about, I got ready to go and cycle.
I wanted to go out today and cycle about 50 kilo meters, but what I didn't see from the comfort of my home was that it was quite windy outside and the temperature was also not what I thought it would be. We had about 8°C and the wind was doing about 10-15 kilo meters.
After the first 5km I thought to myself that it would be OK, because as soon as I will turn and head back home the wind would be in my favour, but as life has tough me „Shit happens“ I found myself turning into the wind every time I had a change of direction.
Then after 25 kilo meters I decide I had enough of this struggle, I turned into a going home direction. I was thinking at that stage that I haven't seen anyone out the entire time that I was cycling and I was wondering what people would do in this type of weather and shortly afterwards I got my answer.
When I got home I had done 30.42 km at an average speed of 19.57 km. Not to bad for the circumstances, but I will definitely have to do a lot of training before the trip because I want to be able to do 100 km/day.
When I got home I had done 30.42 km at an average speed of 19.57 km. Not to bad for the circumstances, but I will definitely have to do a lot of training before the trip because I want to be able to do 100 km/day.
Training Session on the 24.04.2010 (Red Line)
Before setting out for this trip, I always wanted to see if I would be able to do a day trip with over 100 km and I wanted to test all of my equipment. So on Friday evening I pack everything that I will be needing for the long way home into my bike bags.
I wanted to get an early start on Saturday, which didn't happen. I had a very nice snooze on Saturday morning. The early start that I had planned turned out to be 11 o'clock. I had to take the Bicycle and equipment down from my second story apartment in to sessions. The bike and equipment was just over 40 kg and I only used the two back bags for the equipment so it was very difficult to carry.
I started cycling and by 14 o'clock, I was at the Bodensee. The going was tough. I always thought that Germany was flat and it would be easy to cycle even with a heavy bicycle, but I had 420m change in altitude and that isn't the easiest thing to do with a bike that weighs so much.
Cycling along the Bodensee is a great experience and I would advise everyone that goes to that part of the world to take a trip along that lake and take in all of the beautiful sites that it has to offer. I, on the other hand, didn't have a lot of time to admire the sites because I tried to keep my average speed up. I wanted to keep it as close to 20 km/h as possible. I pushed myself really hard to keep it there. Maybe I pushed myself to hard, so by the end of it I was exhausted. When I reached Constance I had done 122 km. with an average speed of 17.3km/h.
I wanted to get an early start on Saturday, which didn't happen. I had a very nice snooze on Saturday morning. The early start that I had planned turned out to be 11 o'clock. I had to take the Bicycle and equipment down from my second story apartment in to sessions. The bike and equipment was just over 40 kg and I only used the two back bags for the equipment so it was very difficult to carry.
I started cycling and by 14 o'clock, I was at the Bodensee. The going was tough. I always thought that Germany was flat and it would be easy to cycle even with a heavy bicycle, but I had 420m change in altitude and that isn't the easiest thing to do with a bike that weighs so much.
Cycling along the Bodensee is a great experience and I would advise everyone that goes to that part of the world to take a trip along that lake and take in all of the beautiful sites that it has to offer. I, on the other hand, didn't have a lot of time to admire the sites because I tried to keep my average speed up. I wanted to keep it as close to 20 km/h as possible. I pushed myself really hard to keep it there. Maybe I pushed myself to hard, so by the end of it I was exhausted. When I reached Constance I had done 122 km. with an average speed of 17.3km/h.
I had planned to cycle around the Bodensee over the weekend, but I knew that I would not be able to do it. When I had planned it, I had calculated a distance of 95km to Constance, but with the usual phaffing about, it was a longer trip. So I decided that I would take the train back home.
Taking the train from Constance to Bad Saulgau involves 3 train changes. This was not an easy task, the time that you have to do this is very limited and the heavy bike doesn't help. At the end I missed the 23:13 train from Aulendorf to Bad Saulgau, which meant that I had to cycle the last 14,40 km at night.
After I had cycled the first 3 km I found a very nice campsite hidden away in the forest so I thought that this would be the best time to test all the stuff that I had along and would mean that I didn't take 25kg of equipment along just to slow me down. I pitched my tent, made a midnight snack and by 1:30 in the morning was tugged in my sleeping bag ready to sleep.
I woke up to the sound of a little mouse, that had helped itself to the rest of my midnight snack. I packed up my camp and was back home by 10 o'clock. A very successful weekend if you ask me.
Total distance travelled 136,40 km
Average speed 17,6 km/h
Time in saddle 7:38:10
Altitude up Hill 822m
Taking the train from Constance to Bad Saulgau involves 3 train changes. This was not an easy task, the time that you have to do this is very limited and the heavy bike doesn't help. At the end I missed the 23:13 train from Aulendorf to Bad Saulgau, which meant that I had to cycle the last 14,40 km at night.
After I had cycled the first 3 km I found a very nice campsite hidden away in the forest so I thought that this would be the best time to test all the stuff that I had along and would mean that I didn't take 25kg of equipment along just to slow me down. I pitched my tent, made a midnight snack and by 1:30 in the morning was tugged in my sleeping bag ready to sleep.
I woke up to the sound of a little mouse, that had helped itself to the rest of my midnight snack. I packed up my camp and was back home by 10 o'clock. A very successful weekend if you ask me.
Total distance travelled 136,40 km
Average speed 17,6 km/h
Time in saddle 7:38:10
Altitude up Hill 822m
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