Getting ready for a bike trip

Well, everyone here already knows that I like cycling and that lately it has become a means of livelihood for me, since I spend some days of the week doing deliveries. I’m also trying to manage at least one long or adventurous ride, let’s put it that way, once a week. This will allow me to discover new places, share with people who cultivate this suffering passion, LOL, of battling against the natural forces that in the end become true trainers not only for the body but also for the spirit.

I often think about it when I feel I can’t go on. The wind turns into a rope that tightens and pulls you back. Just yesterday, when I decided to go with my cycling shoes on that trip I’ll tell you about soon, I sometimes thought the bike was going to stop completely uphill and that I wouldn’t be able to keep going, that I’d fall to one side. Even unclipping becomes a challenge when your feet and thighs are tired. And this is without even mentioning the sun… goodness me, how it burns. No amount of water you carry in your bottles is enough. Ah, but the rural landscapes are so beautiful, so serene…

...until you see a cow crossing the highway just a few metres ahead of you and your grupeta. And then further on you realise there’s a whole herd (about 20 or 25 cows) ready to take over the road. 🤣 There was a leader, they all seemed to follow her, and she looked at us as if to say: either you hurry up or I’ll send my grupeta across and you’re stuffed. 😂

Meanwhile I was shouting oh my God, oh my God, what do we do now, run! And still without unclipping, something that should have been automatic in my mind… Now we laugh about these things because the Universe blessed us, but they are serious matters.

The preparation for a cycling trip like this — I mean those outings that can last a good part of the day, if not the whole day — involves, in the context I live in, external factors that are difficult to control. I, for example, cannot leave home without charging the equipment, especially the fan, having food ready for when I return, and the water tank full. Because I know I’ll come back with the hunger of a thousand demons and wanting to shower, and those are basic things I absolutely need to have guaranteed. After all the sun one takes in on the road, it’s no fun at all to arrive in the middle of a blackout with nothing to eat, no water, and knowing you won’t be able to rest either because of the heat.

To be able to make these trips, another thing I always keep in mind is that I have to work hard during the week and save money for that purpose. I don’t like going far from home without enough money, and I imagine that’s natural for everyone. So you have to push yourself a bit more when there’s a trip on the horizon, because things here are more expensive every day and you spend a lot of money just on food for the week, not to mention other eventualities that may arise.

And you might ask me, perhaps, how much money is enough? Well, everyone will have their own idea about that according to their needs… In my case I need to have 10,000 CUP available for each trip, even if I don’t spend it all, because it gives me peace of mind to have it, because imagine that a soft drink can cost more than 600, and a small bottled water almost 300 CUP. Basically, what I’m saying is that food and everyday stuff here is pretty expensive. It could also happen that there’s a breakdown or an accident (touch wood)… and then you’d have to find a way to solve the problem in order to get back on the bike, or if that’s not possible, you’d have to pay someone to take you home.

To minimise expenses I try to take a snack with me. The day before yesterday, for example, I spent some time making energy bars with rice, cornflour, milk, honey and ripe banana.

The trip was to see my family in Artemisa. One of those I can count as ‘my first time’ because I had never gone there by bike before. Out and back in the same day adds up to a total of 110 km. Nothing, just a trifle, right? My mother and my aunts were waiting for the four adventurers with snacks, cold water and soft drinks. And luckily there was electricity, so we could cool off with the fans. For my grandmother it was a complete surprise. She didn’t recognise me when she saw me with helmet, glasses and all that cycling kit haha… I said: Mimi, I’m your granddaughter, and she couldn’t get over her amazement. But then she started telling stories, laughing, and saying that she had never ridden a bike. Joking, I told her: I’m sure that if you had learned to ride, today at 94 years old you’d be going back and forth from Havana on a bike. And she laughed. How I love making her laugh. I also asked if she was ready for me to read her tarot, and my aunts started saying no, that last time I had left her bewildered with it. Haha… so much laughter. My grandmother says that in her time a woman on a bicycle wasn’t well regarded. I always love listening to her because she has lived almost a century and her mind is crystal clear, she has better memory than all of us together. 😂

My aunt is the handy one in the family haha… I just said look, grab the scissors and cut a bit of my hair because I’m dying of heat, and without hesitation she got on with it. Haha… the boys who came with me — Alejandro, Juanmi and Arnold Camilo — were watching the process and I asked them: how am I looking? and they smiled and said: weeeell… you’re looking.

And the photos were being taken by my mum, who kept asking every so often just to make me nervous: and that patch you’ve left there, and that groove over there? Haha… As soon as I arrived I took off my shoes to rest my feet, but even more to feel connected to that place which was the house where I grew up, ever since my mum brought me from Kiev at three months old.

It really was a super pleasant time, and sharing with my family was something I truly needed. I also went there to pick up a small rechargeable fan I had bought a while ago. The fan lasts a long time because it has a 20,000 mAh battery. So instead of going by public transport I launched the call for a ride in Rodando al Límite, the cycle‑touring group I sometimes go out with, and straight away a few volunteers from the sect of conscious suffering showed up 😅. As always, of course, the call was launched with the promise that it would be an unforgettable ride. And it was! Before we all went home I thought of saying that if they came to mine and there was electricity I’d make coffee to round off the ride. No luck. So instead I offered guavas from my garden and we spent an extra while cooling off on the roof, where at that hour I usually sit to watch the clouds and the birds. They were in high spirits, recalling the incidents of the trip, and seemed in no hurry at all to get back to their homes… 😊

Strava says I got 39 achievements. But come on… what even is that? Haha… I was like 😀. Keep this up and one day I’ll be riding the Tour of Spain. 😁

No, joking aside… looking at the average speed I managed on this long ride, with headwind, the sun, the cows and all the things you come across along the way… a year ago I wouldn’t have gone that fast and I wouldn’t be in the shape I am today either. I don’t feel that tired. Even though I forced myself to rest and not do deliveries, my body recovers really well from such efforts.

In short, perseverance and the desire to improve do bear fruit.

I’ve already written quite a lot. There are many things left unsaid, but I don’t want to keep boring you.

By the way, thanks to everyone who supports my alternative account: @traininglog. I created it so that my bike rides would be recorded and published automatically when my cycle computer sent them to Strava, through the #Strava2Hive service. Sometimes I log in and add a few more photos, and I always try to include a description of the activity.

🙃👋

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