Preparations…

Preparations are in full swing. I love a list but it is getting ridiculous. There’s all the preparations for the ride, researching the route, building playlists and downloading audiobooks, and working out the logistics of teeing up my fantastic support crews of family and friends who are joining me at different stages along the way. And of course, there’s trying to get fit. While holding down my day job, I’m jumping in the saddle whenever I can trying to get my body ready for what I know will be some grueling days ahead. I’ve been heading in all directions out of Perth so getting to see some beautiful parts of this state. Up north, out to the hills, down on the south coast in Denmark and Albany, along the road to Mandurah, and most recently, down in the south west around Bunbury and Dunsborough.

My friend Paul is riding with me for the first 10 days from Perth as well as supporting later on, so he’s been joining some of the training rides. Here we are a few weeks ago on the gorgeous country roads outside of Busselton, with a shot of Paul when we unwittingly hit the cycle leg of the Busselton Half-Iron man and didn’t really have much choice but to join them for a few kilometres before we could jump back on the highway. Although we tried to blend in, we did feel a little conspicuous in our Dutch team orange tops and got a few questioning looks but luckily most of the riders had their minds on other things and didn’t seem too bothered by a couple of intruders!