Nobody starts a project knowing everything, even when someone has worked on similar ones before. Each one of them has something different. It is just with Constance, patience and perseverance when things get eased up.
We learn from experience and try to apply our knowledge learned from the road into our long tour. And we still learning about it!
We tell you some beginner mistakes when cycle touring, so you can think about in order to have a great experience.
Check up your bike
Before the tour there is always a good practice to go over you bike and do some basic checks and clean it. By cleaning it you will not only be giving your bike a nicer look, but also you will be making yourself aware of anything that can be malfunctioning and prevent it from braking down in the middle of the tour.
Also it´s a good opportunity to familiarise yourself with your bike and parts. By doing light tasks of maintenance you will gain confidence and it will be easier for you to do some checks when on the middle of the trip.
You can always go to your mechanic for the big stuff!
There is never too slow when leaving the camp
Sometimes the routine can be hideous. Packing everything in the panniers, organise your luggage, re-organise it, making breakfast, eat it, undo the tent… It can be daunting until you find the system that goes with you.
This can appear to be a routine that can extend itself for hours, and also lead to frustration between the members of the team.
Just divide the tasks and routines and help each other. After a couple of weeks, the routines will go faster, and the idea of starting late will not be there.
If you are having the thought of going slow in the mornings, just acknowledge it, accept it, and let it go.
Don’t set big daily distance goals
It will just frustrate youth to set big daily distance goals, especially at the beginning of the tour, when everything is heavier and you are familiarizing yourself with the equipment. Doing less is ok. Listen to your body. Sometimes it tells you when you need to stop to avoid possible injuries.
Always have a good night sleep
When Morpheus calls, we need to listen. A bad night sleep leads to tiredness and frustration the next day, and it will be a difficult and not enjoyable journey.
If you have trouble sleeping I recommend to practice guided meditation. There are lots of mobile apps for this matter that can work off line. I use one called Insight Timer for many years now, and I can´t recommend it enough. In addition, it´s free! People also use others, like Headspace.
Mistakes when cycle touring: Know when to stop
If you are tired just call it a day! and stop whenever you can, or at least, seriously consider it. Your chances of getting involved in an accident get higher. It is important to know when your body is telling you to stop, as it will not get any better.
Always stretch and roll
Our body is the part of us through which we can achieve our dreams. We can’t enjoy cycling with an achy knee.
We tend to forget, or at least to give less importance to the fact of stretching before and after the ride, and that can have terrible consequences for different parts of your body, especially the knees. By the way, a trick to preserve your knees longer is to find the gear you feel comfortable with and shift into one softer. In that way, you will be increasing the cadence. You might get out of breath earlier, but you will be protecting your knees in the longer run.
Also, having a little foam roll to alleviate the pressure of the IT band, quads, hamstrings, your back… is very useful to prevent overloading and overriding muscles and aches. If you suffer from any condition where your legs, knees or IT band gets overloaded easily, triggering some pain in your knees, I recommend you take a travel foam roll (one that is collapsable and don´t take a lot of space on your panniers) with you and practice with it everyday. It really alleviates the pain!
I also have a resistance elastic band to help me stretch, and it makes a difference.
There are lots of great tutorials on youtube about stretches for different parts of the body!
If you want to stop to take a picture, stretch your legs, talk with people… just stop!
Whenever you feel like it, just stop…unless you are trying to beat a world record.
There are going to be times in your trip when you would like to make a good memory, and just because there is a preconception such as ” I’m late”, or “I’m running quite slow today”, you will not stop. Don’t let those preconceptions ruin your trip.
If you see a nice spot or a situation that you would like to take part in, just stop! Don’t forget the reason for your trip
Always eat well. What it goes in goes out
Someone said, “We are what we eat”. That is also true when we are cycling, at least in what applies to energy consumption.
Foods have different properties. Some give you more energy at the beginning, which runs out also fast and you are hungry again. That’s the example of the sugars.
On the first days, we were eating a lot of candies, bakery the first thing that will fill you up and gives you that quick burst, as we were quite down. The problem with that is the kind of food. It burst quickly giving you satisfaction and you might get uphill, but is not sustainable, and earlier than later you will be in low energy mode again. We then realised that we have to balance more our diet into more sustainable energy consumption, and not to have those pikes and lows.
Don´t obsess over social media
I get it. Sometimes it is a nice immediate reward when people is following you over social media, and knowing that people is admiring what you are doing is always nice. On the other side, it can overwhelm you and prevent you from truly enjoying your adventure.
Being off the grid allows you to enjoy the present moment, listen to your surroundings and being there. Some of the greatest adventurers we have met along he way have one thing in common. They regret the fact of having abused of social media during their trips because that was preventing them from truly get the essence of where they were.
