To begin with

“Marley was dead: to begin with” Christmas Carol by C. Dickens

Sometime towards the back end of 2019, whilst suffering from a mild-mid-life-crisis, I booked a holiday trip for January 2021.  Some of my friends think I’m being organised.  I’m just thinking that if I don’t put something in the diary, put down a deposit and start slowly paying it off, it’ll never happen, and I’ll spend another 10 years not taking a holiday; only dreaming of travelling.

Whatever the reason – a holiday trip to Cambodia wit Exodus has been booked. Nothing unusual about that.  I’ve always wanted to see Angkor Wat – or as I keep referring to it for some reason Monkey City (no idea where that got into my head from)

However, in my “unparalleled wisdom” however, to quote a recent 2019 Tweet from that  t*@t   Donald Trump, I booked a 10 day CYCLING trip around Cambodia.  Why?

• I like to cycle, although I do so sporadically around London
• I want to see the world from a slightly different perspective, which a cycling holiday should allow
• I feel I should do something energetic whilst the body is still able to do so
• I simply didn’t think through what I was doing 🙂

Few days after booking:

Let’s see.  Few days after booking the trip an the reality of the task is settling in, together with the fact that I hate structured exercise and the minute something becomes a necessity, I absolutely hate it.  So I suspect for someone like me, who’s idea of exercise is getting off the sofa to walk to the kitchen – even that is too much – doing prep over next 12 months, is going to be night on impossible.  

I do like certain forms of exercise like swimming, cycling, walking and hiking, ballroom dancing.  In fact I don’t think of these as exercise – but that’s because I do them when I want to, on my terms.  I do these thing sporadically, and apart from a  couple of weeks back in 2015, when I cycled 10 consecutive days from Canary Wharf to Kensington Olympia – a distance of mere 15 kilometres I have never cycled the distances required on the Cambodia Tour. 

It is becoming increasing clear to me, that I will actually have to do some work and preparation for this trip.  I will need to do exercise; not only will I have to start cycling more often from work, I will need to build up my endurance of distance travelled and continuous days cycling.  There is no two ways about it.  Otherwise, I’m simply not going to be able to keep up with my tour companions, I will probably end up slowing the whole group down, not to mention that I might cause myself a serious injury.  

So, I’ve decidedto keep a little b’log of my journey towards Cambodia readiness.  Let’s see how I do. Both with the blog and the exercise. 

• Days to Trip: 390
• Weight: 90.7 kgs (about a weight of a baby hippo)
• Distance travelled: 0 kms
• Stupidity Level: High, or so high