7 weeks to go
I got around to adding a bookmark to the website that calculates how many days until departure. I've done this for previous trips, it's handy to know how many weeks are left to get a feeling for how intense the training is, to know when shipping deadlines for gear are coming up, and that sort of thing. I remember passing ten weeks to go to the European Divide, and thinking that there's now less time at home than there will be on the trip, and it was quite a moment. And when I couldn't get a backup mount for the handlebar camera for the South America trip because it wouldn't arrive in time.
The website says I've got seven weeks before I get on a plane to NZ. But I'm only planning two weeks on the bike. Some unhelpful thought keeps trying to tell me it's too short to be a challenge. But motivation is a problem.
I'm not planning to put lots of training in - it's only two weeks, right? - but I really need to get my fitness to the right level, and it's high time to do some long rides. The Markermeer loop is a nice distance and I haven't been around it recently, so I figured that added up to a good reason to ride it this weekend.
This is the route: https://www.komoot.com/tour/2626359941?share_token=azO93nSc2wgXCTfmRdEOtcxMb2nQKVZlOsDel5yw8V9xG95i35&ref=wtd
It's 145km long. I do like this route; you can see the water for a lot of it. The Markermeer is infrastructure so big it's visibly affected by the curve of the earth, which is always going to be a reason to visit. I'm taking a different way back through Almere, partly to see some new routes, and partly to add some kilometers - I remember this route being a clean 100 miles, but today it's not.
There's also 150m of climbing. The elevation profile is between -4m to +4m above sea level almost the whole time. The one exception is a bridge.
One thing I'd like to do this time, is get a view of Trintelzand and Marker Wadden island .(https://www.natuurmonumenten.nl/projecten/marker-wadden) These are nature sanctuary islands in the middle of the Markermeer, close to the dike. These are artificial island nature reserves, which is a nice concept ... with a price tag of about 75 million euros. But they exist, which makes them worth a look.
I've gathered up the tools and packed them up in a pannier; I'm getting into the routine where everything stays packed up on the bike like it will when I'm away. It means getting into a habit for where everything is stored, and getting practiced with using it, to get familiar with all the tools and to check they all work. But I didn't have the motivation to pump up the tyres with my small hand-pump, I used the nice big one we have at home. I still feel a bit bad about that.
I picked up two sandwiches and a banana from the supermarket on the way out. I remember having basically a departure checklist when I'm away. This time was chaotic: I started the Garmin before leaving the house, but I didn't start Komoot until I was a kilometer up the road, and even had a moment of panic wondering whether I'd brought my cards (I had).
The biggest mistake was that I wasn't wearing padded shorts. It's fine: but I don't want to make a habit of it. Another reason to get into the habit of doing regular long rides to ensure I'm in the habit of doing things properly...
From left to right: after picking up sandwiches at the supermarket. The countryside a few kilometers out of town. An cyclepath that’s average for the Netherlands, but would be gold-tier in most other countries. Selfie practice. Sadly this town is not the cheese capital you might expect it is.
The day was good for autumn but grim by summer standards. Fairly overcast but not cold.
More photos I guess.
From left to right: This is an actual bridge, and not uncommon. This is also an actual bridge, completely out of character for the environment - might be the first signs of a new housing development. Where I stopped for lunch, about a hundred meters on. Wind turbine chain. Canal over the motorway; I have photographed it before.
After this is the Houtribdijk which holds back the Markermeer. The two islands I wanted to see aren’t visible from the bike path; there’s a high embankment that you need to scramble up to get a view. I stopped a few times, but the islands weren’t close and the photos aren’t great.
From left to right: distant view of Marker Wadden. Less distant view of Trintelzand. A ship/playground in Lelystad. Back paths in Almere. Passed some floating houses.
Altogether, an uneventful ride. I stopped twice, once for each sandwich. The weather wasn’t good so I wasn’t really interested in lingering, so I ended up riding pretty consistently. It was about 0900-1730, about 8.5 hours. Komoot thinks I was moving for 7.5 which seems like an excessive amount of time to be stopped, I didn’t think the photo and sandwich stops were that long!
I’m trying to get fit enough to do this daily. And I was in good shape when I got home which I think is good news. I suppose I could do another similar ride tomorrow.
If I had the motivation…
