Training 6

Route: Münster-Gelmer-Gimbte
Time: 1:45 h
Distance: 34 km
Average km/h: 19,1
Top km/h: 34,3
Conditions: Sunny, Cloudy

I am now at a total of almost 250 km of cycling. This is not by any means a large number. Nevertheless, I can feel that my legs are getting stronger and I can effortless pedal 34 km without a break at an average of 19,1 km/h. Nor do I have any problems with the saddle, although it is too early to make any conclusions here. You can never fully train yourself for a bicycle journey of 100 days. There is simple not the time to bike longer distances for a consecutive number of days when you have a regular job to attend to. I am hoping that the few kilometres I can manage on the weekends will prepare me enough for what is to come. It will be a challenge, but that is why I am going on this journey.

This training was an easy ride, and again I was blessed with beautiful weather. When the conditions are pleasant and the surroundings familiar, I tend to focus on the speedometer. The ride is no longer about taking in the ambience, experience the landscape, but merely how fast I can go uphill or on a muddy trail. Although the scenery can be very striking in its way, it has become too familiar to strike my attention. This part of Germany is flat with scattered farms and small secluded areas of trees, barely earning the description "forest".


When the landscape does not grab my attention the smell certainly does. The German farmers must heavily manure all year around, because it stinks. It is not the ordinary smell of cow shit you might think of. This version of dung is probable a mix of the worst shit of all animal races who walk this planet. Luckily humans have two hands, one to cover your nose with.

I pedalled north this time around, joining the Dortmund canal for a few kilometres before heading west to Gimbte. This little town was the highlight of this short trip. A very small town where German perfection rules. Streets were abnormally clean with no signs of a single fallen leaf, houses newly painted where white paint is as white as linen sheets, not to mention the gardens with racer sharp grass borders. The experience was spooky and also very short, for it took only a blunt few minutes to cycle through this odd village. From here I travelled south on a familiar route entering Münster from the north. After 1 hour and 45 minutes I was home again feeling like I just went to get some milk around the corner. That was a good feeling.