Greenland? Fit or fat? Plans

Dear friends and family,

I find myself sitting on an Airbus 330 about to fly over Greenland from my start in Seattle. Ready for another bike tour to another country.

I have been training hard to get ready. My time in Wrangell always included plenty of time in their excellent community center with a good weight room, pool, and plenty of aerobic machines to help fitness. A shout out to Lucy and Devyn for what they’ve done to make this such a special welcoming place for even old guys (in my case) to get fit.

I find just riding a bicycle isn’t adequate for my training as I need all around fitness and especially core strength to allow for long and safe rides.  I am a fan of Dr Peter Attia , who wrote Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity about a healthy and active, not just long, life. He uses VO2max as his main measure of the potential for a long active life. So, for aerobic training I do a lot of long slow distances ( zone 2 training for you tech trainers) and then once per week an intensive maximum heartbeat training, typically on the rowing machine. I do compute my VO2max weekly to motivate myself to get into the “excellent” category for my age, as I am just short of it now. Each time a zero birthday is reached the new category seems like it would be easier to reach, but the truth is, it’s not.

I am taking lessons from my friend Mick, who between stages of his “row around the world” endeavor, would bulk up about fifty pounds between stages. Even with that he often returned after a stage down that fifty and up to twenty more.

So, with the increased appetite from the training and lots of time in the boat, never further than six feet from the galley, I worked on my “bulking up”.

Mick ate freeze dried foods in the middle of the ocean. I will land in the food desert of Bordeaux, in the south of France, where this tour begins. It’s entirely possible that the availablity and quality of the food here will outshine his instant meals, so maybe the right wording would be “food dessert”. Just add that one more “s” and it gets closer to reality. 

Maybe it was just an excuse to over eat!

During my last two long tours I told myself that before the next long tour I would take rides of four to five hours on a loaded bike so as to start the trip with less pain of training. The most I have done in training is a little over two hours at a time, so the four to five hour daily rides coming up could be uncomfortable in the beginning.

The good news is, contrary to last year’s ride in  Colombia, which had hills from the beginning, this ride’s first couple of hundred miles should be fairly flat.

The route:

Fly into Bordeaux in southwest France, then follow the river Garonne east to the Atlantic Ocean dip wheels in, then reverse the same course following the Canal de Garonne to Toulouse, where then it follows the  Canal du Midi to its eastern end, and dropping down to Sete on the Mediterranean  Sea. 

From here  I intend to connect to the Velo 8, which is one of the  17 designated routes through Europe sponsored by each country they pass through. Their goal is to promote cycle travel and provide traffic free bike paths to ride. I’ve heard mixed results in my research, so you can be sure I’ll let you know. 

After the French Riviera (that doesn’t sound so awful to me ) along the top of Italy, then follow the coasts of Slovenia, Croatia, Herzogovina and probably end up in Albania, although the schedule and route is flexible.

I can remember the stress of packing an adventure  into a two week vacation, like a lot of other American workers. Now I feel the stress of only getting three months in the Shengen countries, which is a group of 26 countries that let you cross borders without passport controls between them. 

I say that with my tongue firmly pressed against my cheek, as I am completely aware of my privilege. But I do need to be aware of my time in this zone, as the penalty is being banned for several years and fined. But still, isn’t retirement a wonderful invention?

Last year the heat and sun of Colombia was painful. One reason for picking this route in the winter is the expected riding temperatures should be a lot cooler. I expect some rain, but for anyone spending much time in Southeast Alaska, that shouldn’t ruin anything. Sometimes one has to be careful what one wishes for, and I’ll see if I should have been.

We land soon, so I’ll sign off.

Sending love,

Charley