Training Details

Although we had planned the TransAm for more than two years we took this "Whale of a Tour" to be the serious starting point for training.

We had planned to do all sorts of great mileage as a lead up to the start of the big one, alas we have found a million reasons not to. 

One of the reasons for the distraction to our training resign was that a Bush Fire went through our area and came close to taking our home. The summer heat together with very little rainfall fuelled by long wild grasses made for very dangerous conditions, a simple spark or heat source and instant raging fires can occur.

We lost our fence, cloths line (with numerous cycling clothing hung on it), trees and shrubs, reticulation to mention a few of the things. The insurance company paid for most of the losses but there is no price you can put on care, time and energy in tending and developing a garden. 

At the six weeks from departure date we are doing about 300 kilometres per week.  

In January we took a 75 kilometre ride to a resort hotel north of Perth and rode back the next day. This was the first time we had pulled the BOB trailer along behind us. We had read conflicting reports on Loaded touring either using a Trailer of using Panniers. We were so pleased with the trailer. Whilst on the road, and particularly on the flat it was easy to forget the trailer was even behind us.

 Admittedly we only had about 15 kilograms on board but it was such a relief to see how well it performed.

The weekend we christened the BOB trailer was very cruel. On the  Saturday the temperature was 40'C and on the Sunday it was 41'C. VERY HOT. The ride proved to us that we can cope with the worst of the heat we will encounter during our TransAm ride.