| Day # | 13 | State of Legs | :-) |
| Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Ascent (feet) | Ascent (metres) | Punctures | |
| Today | 0 miles | km | 0 feet | metres | 0 |
| Trip Totals | 666 miles | km | 26855 feet | metres | 0 |
Travelogue
With a big alpine climb ahead of me, I thought it might be prudent to get some rest! So I'm now staying in an Airbnb apartment in Fluelen for two days. I check out on Thursday and head for Andermatt.
Once again therefore, the primary activity is inactivity! Except of course for all those bits and pieces that have to get done regardless.
I've just booked one night at a campsite in Bellinzona, Switzerland. That should be my last night in Switzerland before I cross over into Italy. This campsite wins the prize for MOST EXPENSIVE CAMPSITE EVER! 41 Swiss francs for one night? But of course it is the only campsite in the city and that may have something to do with it. But anyway.... I have somewhere to stay that night.
I've just given the bike a basic clean. It's looking nice and ready for the next part of this adventure! No lubrication required this time.
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| A clean bike is a happy bike. Hopefully. |
And I've just wiped a few "splotches" off the tent's fly sheet, working outside. And I put up the inner part of the tent inside and cleared out the little bit of debris that had accumulated in the sleeping quarters, despite my best endeavours!
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| The tent is free-standing so you can put it up anywhere! |
So, that's most of today's chores done.
But today is also an opportunity to assess the big question. How's it going?
Well, from one point of view, it's going great :-) I'm absolutely loving this trip. No complaints there at all.
But from a more numerical, project management perspective? To answer this, we must first understand goals. When I planned this trip, I allowed for a 2,500 mile route and 10 weeks in which to complete it. The route I have plotted actually comes in at about 2,100 miles but by the time you add detours to accommodation and for other reasons, it will be significantly more and I can easily imagine it being around 2,500 miles in the end. I've actually got 12 weeks in which to complete this trip, but planning to complete it in 10 gives me 2 weeks contingency in case I get delayed or simply decide to hang out somewhere nice for a bit longer.
So, the mathematics are simple. 2,500 miles in 10 weeks means I have to average 250 miles per week to stay on track. That's 41.6 miles per day if I have one rest day every week or 50 miles per day if I take two days off.
I should stress that despite the formal sounding project management style thinking, this trip will be as flexible as I want or need it to be. I don't have to do the exact route plotted. I don't have to be away the entire 12 weeks. But on the assumption that I do continue as I have so far, the question once again is "how's it going"?
I have a spreadsheet which answers this question and this being a rest day, now was an ideal opportunity to update it. It looks like this at present:
To understand the spreadsheet, consider the following:
Progress means distance progressed along the planned route. It does not include extra cycling done to get off the route to wherever I'm staying.
Total distance cycled each day is in the Distance Travelled Today column.
The Progress vs Goal column shows the difference between the minimum daily progress required and the actual progress made. And you can see that this is accumulated in the Cumulative Progress column. The Health figure gives me a visual indication of whether I'm on track or not. And as of now.... I am :-)
The Travelled vs Progress column tells me how much extra I'm cycling over and above the planned route. This is due to detours taken to accommodation, choosing to modify the route on the day (e.g. nasty, dangerous descent - no thank you I'll take the long way around!) and occasionally.... getting a bit lost :-)
So right now, all's well. I'm nearly 200 miles ahead of my loose schedule (remember, this is only a guide). This is deliberate too. I'm resting for two days now and then the next three days will involve crossing the Swiss Alps. I planned to be ahead of schedule by this point so that if necessary I could progress at a snail's pace during this period!
So there you have it. "How's it going"? On all fronts, it's going great!
I'm now settling in for a relaxing time. The Cormac McCarthy book is open on my Kindle and I'm listening to Tomorrow's Harvest by Boards of Canada. Very chilled.
Also on the music playlist today:
- some of my own music (Black W1nt3r)
And in the evening, on my Chromebook I watched Season 1 of Sean Lock's wonderful sitcom, 15 Storeys High and then the movie Silver Linings Playbook.
Mission: Have a relaxing day.
Mission accomplished!
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