Saturday, October 29, 2016

Steady as she goes....

Namaste!

First month of training for Tour d'Afrique - Hippie Trail in the bag!  No missed workouts and solid start to my preparation for India.  As always - I feel very fortunate to have the supportive coaching from the Talisman Tri-Club custom coaching packages, as well as the coaching from the classes I'm currently in.

I'm training with Paul this year and so far so good (I think - right coach?). I've known Paul since 2005 when I started at the Talisman and through the bike classes he's coached.  He has mountains of cycling knowledge that he willingly shares, a great sense of humour and he agreed to get me to the start line of this big exciting adventure - even though he and his wife welcomed their second son in early Sept.  Congratulations!

You know when you watch a charity event and at the end they parade out the grand total on one of those giant cheques?  Well, when I sent my cheque to TDA to pay for my trip - I felt like it should have been one of those enormous cheques, because it was an enormous cheque!!  It is going to be so worth it.  I've had my eye on this trip since 2012 as it's one of the shorter trips and I'm finally able to swing it with vacation time from work.

I'm also happy to say I can check off all the boxes in my last post!

Carla has been very patient and extremely helpful in my prep for touring too - thank you friend!  She completed the "big one" - Tour d'Afrique and is also a member of my tri-club.  I may have bombarded her with endless questions from the first day I met her in bike class.  I recognized her from her blog (I know kinda creepy, but that's the internet for ya).  Her sense of adventure and travel knowledge is amazing!

The other thing that's happened in the past month are some kick-ass shopping sales - Bow Cycle 30% off customer appreciation night --> BOOM bike parts list done!  Spin Sisters, MEC shopping night 10% off --> more essentials off the list. Trying really hard to pay cash for all the incidentals for this trip.  I know that Speed Theory also has some crazy bike (i.e.: road bikes) deals on at the moment.... must stay focused on India.

OK - back on the bike....
Ciao Cindy