Q. Have you started training?
A. No, not really; sort of, but not really.
Q. Why not?
A. How does one train for cycling to NZ?
Q. Mmm, good point… (cue head scratching, head shaking, head in hands)…
Q. But why haven’t you started? ARE YOU MAD?

From our experience, the above is a fairly typical conversation regarding our approach to training. In all honesty, it is incredibly difficult (read nigh on impossible) to train for a bicycle journey of this magnitude… cycling 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for a year to prepare, is in fact just undertaking the trip.

This may sound foolhardy (or foolish, or just downright arrogant), however, there has been a lot of consideration given to the training side of the journey.
The plan is that the European leg will (hopefully) prepare both the body and mind for the immense challenges that we are going to face in Asia, and beyond. Roughly, we are intending to cycle 60 km/day for the first couple of weeks, then 80 km/day (for a couple of weeks), and finally 100 km/day; this said, we don’t really have any idea and we will be taking each day as it comes.

Since we first purchased the bikes, we have managed to get out of London on a few short weekend trips (photos here). These trips have given us the chance to see if we actually enjoy cycle touring (thankfully it would appear that we do), test the setup of the bikes (seat height etc…), and to give us some much needed confidence for the up coming challenges.

For all of those of you who live in and around London, we could not recommend the areas we have cycled more highly, particularly the South Downs National Park…

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