There was something that was just right about the arrival of the last Silk Route rider to Shanghai, Jan Kramer. Here it was: less than 12 hours before the first kilometers of a 12000+ kilometer cycling journey across seven countries, the gear for the entire tour lying out, half-sorted, in the parking lot of Shanghai’s Panorama Hotel. That was when Jan rolled up, with four months of gear strapped to his bike and his back, looking equally absurd and awe-inspiring. Airport shuttle? Not for Jan; he’d ride his bike. For the final piece of the puzzle, this seemed exactly right.



During the last several days Shanghai has been an appropriate backdrop to assemble of the tour’s intricately interlocked pieces. The bold ambition of the Silk Route finds a perfect home amid the city’s audacious energy: it feels like a place where anything can happen. For Silk Route riders the hours here have been a blur of preparations large and small: shuttles from the airport, jet-lagged 5AM along the brick-cobbled Bund, map study and meeting notes, beguiling authorities at airport customs and the hotel reception desk. Most importantly, it’s also been a time for riders to introduce themselves to the likeminded cast of riders who will share some very high highs and very low lows over the next months (many of which will happen while wearing cycling shorts). Everyone has been busy: In roughly the same time it takes a rider to navigate scooter-gnarled streets to replace a bent bike spoke and slurp some hand-pulled noodles, the tour’s chef barters her way through the city’s culinary market to build mobile kitchen from scratch.



The first informal ride – to “get the cobwebs out” as one rider put it – was last night, when Bill Gaylord, leader of Shanghai’s SISU cycling club, led a 36k ride under the Technicolor glow of Shanghai’s futuristic skyline. Passing the site of the 2010 world expo, the tour included a healthy dose of insight about China’s vibrant southern city. And while the first impressions of China included plenty of moments of singular, surreal beauty – kites floating over the skyline rigged with LED lights to resemble UFOs, a crowded ferry ride across the dark currents of the Huangpu River, the glistening sparkle of a freshly constructed Louis Vuitton shop  – when the group got split in half at a frenzied stoplight and was forced to violate a fair share of the city’s loosely observed cycling conventions, it was also a good introduction to one of the tour’s fundamental elements: the importance of staying cool amid chaos.



Tonight, on the eve of the convoy ride out of Shanghai and official opening to the tour, riders and staff retreated to their rooms sharing a heady mix of excitement, anxiety, apprehension and elation. But then again, if you didn’t have butterflies on the eve of facing the most unpredictable suite of physical and psychological tests, check your pulse.

  -- Nate Cavalieri

Mental Toughness

I shared in a recent guest post at a friend’s web site about a story of one of my toughest Road Races when I first started racing. It was about how I decided I wasn’t a very good climber and how I just couldn’t seem to do well when the roads turned up. My coach was out riding the course with me and he shared some great tips with me.

I was complaining about how hard and long the climbs were and that I wasn’t any good at climbing. He stopped me in my tracks and said. “As long as your thinking that way you wont be good at climbing.” We rode along and talked about Mental Toughness and positive self-talk and how it could be applied in my case. It was a great lesson that I think back to often.

What can we learn from Olympic athletes?

I love watching the Olympics and hearing the athletes being interviewed. You will hear the athletes say that almost all athletes participating are on equal ground when it comes to fitness and ability but that winning or loosing comes down to mental toughness.  So what is mental toughness you might ask?

Mental toughness is having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to cope better than your opponents with the many demands (e.g., competition, training, lifestyle) that are placed on you as a performer.  David Yukelson, Ph.D., Coordinator of Sport Psychology Services Morgan Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes, Penn State University

But I am not a competitive cyclist

All cyclists could learn and apply the characteristics of mentally tough athletes to their event rides and tours. Doctor David Yukelson, mentioned above, has provided four easy to remember characteristics that everyone can learn from when trying to become mentally tough. I am going to adapt these to be more appropriate to the tour and expedition rider but they will still be applicable to competitive athletes. So here are some characteristics of mentally tough athletes.

Self-Belief

You must believe in your ability to complete your cycling goals! You must also understand that you bring unique abilities to your ride that allows you to complete your goals.

Motivation

You need an unflappable desire to train and ride in order to meet your goals. You must not look at training or riding setbacks as the end to your goals just as new challenges.



Focus

When things aren’t going to plan or your body is not living up to it’s potential you need to be able to remain focused on the task of training, riding and touring. You need to be able to discern what is a distraction and what is a priority.

Composure/Handling Pressure

I like to think of this as “Grace Under Pressure”. The ability to not cave in to negative self-talk when the ride gets harder than my body or mind is use to. This may be the hardest to train for.

While its helpful to read over tips on mental toughness it requires a consistent and concentrated effort and practice to develop mental toughness. In training we need to recognize that all training is planned, training doesn’t just happen.

If you find that you are no longer enjoying riding due to one or more aspects of your training, riding or touring you need to ask yourself why. If you cannot find the answers to this question I strongly suggest you seek out more knowledge on sports psychology or even speak to a sport psychologist.

I hope you have enjoyed all of the articles and come away with some knowledge that has helped you on your way across the Silk Route. In the final article for Silk Route participants I will be answering some questions from readers and providing some common questions and there answers too. I look forward to hearing how everyone does on Tour!

I hope you found this article on mental toughness helpful and if you have questions related to this or other articles please feel free to email me.

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” - Vince Lombardi

Have a great ride,

Coach Rob


Coach Rob Grissom is a competitive cyclist, runner and duathlete who coaches both competitive and recreational cyclists. Rob is also the owner of Positive Performance Coaching and the co-host of the popular Cycling360 podcast. When Rob isn’t racing, training or coaching he can be found spending time with his wife and two children at their home in Central Kentucky. 

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I get asked all kinds of questions about sports nutrition as a coach. What I share is practical knowledge based on my own experience as an athlete and a coach. It also doesn’t hurt to be coached by one of the best Sport Nutritionists in the industry, Kelli Jennings of Apex Nutrition LLC.

What I am going to share is just the basics of in ride nutrition strategies. I also want you to think of nutrition on the bike as fuel!

When fueling for a ride you must first think of the day in its entirety not just the time you are on the bike. When you eat and what you eat will play a very large part in how well you do on the ride.

What I eat during the day

On the day of a race or a long training day I like to keep it simple. My daily nutrition consists of whole foods with little to no processed food. I will consume more protein than your average person due to my high volume of training. My protein sources come from lean meats, fish and whey protein. When I am concerned with daily carbs I also like to limit it to fruits and vegetables. I try to limit/remove sugars and starchy carbs as well as they can lead to insulin spikes and the inevitable low energy crash. The healthier I eat the more this “crash” is noticeable when I cheat and eat something I shouldn’t.



So where do all of the gels, sports drinks and protein bars come in?

In normal weather conditions I only consume sports drinks, gels before and during rides and races lasting longer than 1.5 hours. If it’s hot and the humidity is over the top I will consume sports drinks on rides 40 minutes or greater due to potential electrolyte loss. I will only eat protein bars after a long race or ride when it is not easy to consume a recovery shake of my own design.

That’s it?

I hate to say it but I like to keep it simple when it comes to my nutrition concerns and rarely change my diet. I have found that the longer I train and race the less time I want to spend over analyzing what I am eating.

What if I don’t have access to my favorite nutrition?

I recently received a comment from a reader of the Silk Route Blog that liked my sports drink formula in the hydration article but when they calculated how much they were going to need they calculated about 100lbs of Sports Drink Mix in an effort to meet my requirements for hydration. To answer I have a simple response to all concerned. “Do the best you can with what you have.” This is actually some of the best advice I was ever given as a child from my Grandfather and it has helped me through many a tough decision.

It may be impossible to get your favorite nutrition on a cycling expedition but there are few rules that you can follow on an expedition that will help you stay healthy.

•    Eat cleaned whole foods (Fruits, Vegetables, Roots, Nuts, Berries, Lean Meats/Protein)
•    Stay away from packaged foods that have ingredients you do not recognize
•    Stay away from packaged foods that do not have ingredients listed
•    Drink only water that has been purified or bottled
•    Stay away from packaged foods that contain sugar alcohols, as they can be tough on digestion especially in hot climates
•    Stay away from High Fructose Corn Syrup as a sweetener used in many packaged sports drinks and supplements

As I said before do the best you can. You may be in the middle of nowhere and only have a handful of power bars and can of coke to fuel with. Its not the end of the world its just not the best fuel for the long haul.

As I wrote at the beginning of this article this was going to be very basic and non technical and I will give you one more piece of advice that has served me well on long rides. “Eat before you are hungry and drink before you are thirsty.”

I hope you found this article on nutrition strategies helpful and if you have questions related to this or other articles please feel free to contact  me.

Have a great ride,

Coach Rob

Coach Rob Grissom is a competitive cyclist, runner and duathlete who coaches both competitive and recreational cyclists. Rob is also the owner of Positive Performance Coaching and the co-host of the popular Cycling360 podcast. When Rob isn’t racing, training or coaching he can be found spending time with his wife and two children at their home in Central Kentucky. 

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The decision to change the route of the Silk Route Tour to include the Pamir Highway was made a couple of years ago, and we can tell that a lot of people are very happy that the decision was made.  The section is nearing capacity and at this time we have room for only 3 more participants. 



If you’re on the fence now is the time to sign up!  When the section does fill up completely, we’ll make a waiting list, and if we get enough people on the waiting list to make it worthwhile adding more vehicles and support on the ground then we’d be able to let more people come.  



Hurry up and join our merry group of adventurists this summer!  It’s going to be an unforgettable ride in some of the most stunning mountain scenery on earth.

Having completed two of our tours Ross is a veteran TdAer. The Silk Route will be his longest tour with us and most likely one of the most challenging.  I caught up with  Ross recently to get his thoughts on the tour.


Hey Ross, just to be thorough, tell us your full name, age, occupation and anything you'd like to tell us about yourself:

Ross Thomson, 61, retired forester, currently employed as a cyclist in training for a cross Asian bike tour. 

I bet there are quite of few people who are envious of your current ‘job’, why did you choose the Silk Route bike tour for your next adventure?

I've biked across Canada and Europe, this will complete the round the world journey.

Nice. We’ve got a round the world adventure in the works coming soon, its still a bit of a secret so I’ll tell you more about it when we’re on tour. 

What makes you a little nervous about this trip?

Cycling at high elevations, cycling up long steep hills, cycling through burning hot deserts, eating different/strange foods for 4 months.

What do you look forward to the most?

"Cycling at high elevations, cycling up long steep hills, cycling through burning hot deserts, eating different/strange foods for 4 months.

Also, seeing different people and cultures. "

I hear you, the Silk Route certainly has its share of extreme condition, I have a love hate relationship with them myself.  This tour has set the bar for what the term “hot” means for me.  I imagine the Pamir Highway will set a few benchmarks.

What kind of bike are you bringing?

Aren't they supplied???  Okay, a titanium cyclo-cross, disc brakes, Shimano mountain bike drive train, no campy gear (that's for you Paul!) - note: Ross historically rides a bike with a Campy drivetrain, something that has caused him, and our tour mechanics more that a few headaches....

How have you been training? Do you feel prepared?

Training has been going slowly as the weather has been cold, damp, and windy. I hate cycling in adverse conditions. I'm not as well prepared as I would like but I'm confident that I will quickly get in "tour shape".

If you could give one piece of advice to someone going on their first tour with us what would it be?

Embrace Everything. The different people, cultures, foods, language, the uniqueness of all that you see, the scenery.  Embrace and enjoy any "bonus tours" (we don't get lost).

That is very good advice.  As I recall you have done quite a few “bonus miles” over the years with us.  Attitude is everything when things go a little astray. 

Any final thoughts?

Don't forget to enjoy the diversity of the group.  There is a wide range of personalities and yet there is the common bond of tackling an incredible journey together.  You just might find a new friend for life.

Thanks for your time Ross, I guess I’ll be seeing you in about two weeks in Shanghai!

I learned a lot of things on my scouting trip to China.  Here is a random assortment you may find helpful if you are joining us on our Silk Route Bike Tour.  These tips obviously apply to China. I'll share some tips for the other 6 countries we'll be riding through later on.

-Shanghai has two airports.  One is largely domestic, the other largely international (but not exclusively).  Be sure you know which one you fly into because they are 30 km apart.
 
-Most of our hotels in China do not have laundry service.  Local laundries require 24 hours to wash your clothes. 

-Don’t ever stop in middle of a road/bike path, unless you are fond of being run over by an electric scooter.

-Bring a bell or horn.  A really loud one. Also bring mirror and handlebar bag that has a map case.

-Wean yourself off of coffee before coming.  Get used to drinking tea. 



-Carry the name of each hotel we stay in written in Mandarin with you each day. Believe me, at some point this will save your ass.  Especially if you follow the advice at the end of this list.

-Internet in most of the hotels we stay in is cable only, no wifi, so iPad and Mac Air users are out of luck

-If you enter your hotel and the lights don’t work it is because you didn’t insert your key card into the automatic cut off switch at the door.
 
-Hotels charge for dirty towels and sheets.  A lot.  They will check your room thoroughly before you check out. So don't clean your bike with a towel and don't steal anything.



-SIM cards and phones are cheap in Shanghai, you should plan on getting one.

-Every time you take a cab take a picture of the cab’s ID and phone number, just in case you forget something.

-You will have to carry your bags upstairs at most hotels in China so pack accordingly.

-Always carry toilet paper. (this is a good rule for all our tours actually).

-If you don’t like noodles, I hope you like rice.



-Drink bottled water or boiled water.  A lot of the water is not safe to drink.

-Learn to use chopsticks. Long chopsticks were easier for me to use than short ones. Wooden ones were easier to use than plastic or metal. I've heard the reusable plastic chopsticks restaurants use are rarely cleaned well so its best to use the disposable ones or bring your own.

-Buy a filter mask for dust and smog (if you have allergies or asthma take extra precautions)

-No skinny tires.  All tires should be 28mm or wider.  You've been warned.

And Finally: Get lost! It’s fun and China is very safe and fun to explore.  Just get found again before I have to come looking for you!

Well there you go.  I told you they were assorted!  More coherent info about preparing for the Silk Route Bike Tour coming soon, including a food decoder and some awesome language tips. 

Been to China?  Have some tips of your own?  Love to hear them in the comments.

Paul


Images via Wikipedia


 

Silk Route Tour Leader Paul McManus took some nice photos while scouting the new route from Shanghai to Xi'an. Check them out here, here and here.

                           Silk worm cocoons

There are lots of things to get excited about on our Silk Route tour.  Obviously the cycling is a big reason for joining a 4 and a half month bike tour (I hope!), but there are a lot of reasons people choose to travel by bike.  

Reason like experiencing new cultures and learning new languages,  the local people you’ll meet, your fellow riders, the scenic beauty, the exotic foods and of course since this is a Tour d’Afrique Ltd adventure tour you can expect a few challenging surprises along the way. 

Bike tours are always better when you know a bit about the history, culture and language of the places they travel through.  So when I came across this blog post by science fiction writer Gene Lemmp I thought I’d share it with you.  What does a science fiction writer have to say about the history of the Silk Route?  Well a lot actually.  Gene uses history to inspire the plots and characters of his own stories.  And the silk route is rich with stories of human drama and exploit. 

It’s a worthwhile read and should spark your imagination as to what lies ahead for us as we start our own journey on the Silk Route Bicycle Tour starting in May 2012. 

I’ve included a abbreviated version of the full post below, please click though to read it in its entirety.  When I contacted Gene about using his story, he mentioned he will be working on similar stories about the silk route in the future.  I hope that’s true and I hope he shares them with us!  Thanks to Gene for the great words. 

--- Paul McManus, Silk Route 2012 Tour Leader


Designing from Bones – Ancient Silk RouteThe Silk Road consists of many land and sea routes



Trade grew from the need of civilizations to acquire goods and resources not available in their home regions. This trade was often driven by empires, conquerors and religious establishments.

The Chinese held one vital resource, silk, and readily traded it for a wide variety of required goods and treasure over the following 500 years. However, the Chinese silk monopoly ended in the 3rd century when two Christian monks discovered the secret of making silk and spies were sent to steal precious silk worm eggs. Not long after silk began to be produced in the Byzantine Empire and the Silk Route drifted out of use, giving way to Islamic-controlled routes.

Conquerors, Adventurers and Death

A new conqueror, this time Genghis Khan and his Mongol hoard, re-established the Silk Route from the early 1200′s until the mid to late 1300′s. During the interim the Islamic trade routes had held a stranglehold between Europe and Asia but they could not resist the power of the Mongols. Genghis breathed life back into the Silk Road and it thrived.

Two famous travelers moved along the Silk Route during this era. One a much lauded noble traveler and the other a far more insidious and ignoble traveler.

The first was Marco Polo, a Venetian explorer, although he was only 17 when he and his father and uncle, a successful merchant team and headed along the route for China. Marco would end up traveling both the land and sea segments of the Silk Route through China to modern day Burma and back. For 24 years, Marco and his companions adventured through foreign lands before returning loaded with a wealth of treasure and knowledge.

The second famous traveler of the Silk Route during this era was the Black Death (commonly known as the Bubonic plague although this connection is in dispute). Many studies feel that the Black Death moved along this famous trade route from China to Europe most likely carried by merchants or the rats that hitchhiked with every caravan of the era. The Black Death led to the deaths of approximately half of the European population and changed the course of Western history forever.

Cultural Exchanges

While the need for goods spawned the Silk Route it was humans that transported those goods. As such the route served as a primary exchange of culture between the West and the East with Central Asia acting as a centralized stew pot of ideas, art, technology and religion.

The route allowed Christianity to advance as far as China while Buddhism missionaries traveled from India with caravans reaching into China and Central Asia. Caliphates of Arabia introduced Islam along the Silk Route in the 7th century and at one time the three great religions brewed together in the melting pot of Central Asia.

Alongside of religion moved art, paper, architecture, music, sculpting, dance and theater. It is easy to see in some areas of what we now call the Middle East the wide variety of cultural influences that at one time blossomed here.

You can read the Gene’s post in it’s entirely on his blog.
 
Gene Lempp is a science fantasy and science fiction writer with interests in archaeology, history and astronomy.  In his spare moments of lucidity, Gene blogs about the uses of history and archeology in discovering story through his Designing from Bones series, reads every craft book he can find and roams worlds where science becomes magic and power evolves from the human spirit.

I’ve been fortunate enough to complete both full editions of the Silk Route that we have run, in 2007 and 2008.  There are some amazing stories from both of those trips and lots of adventure to say the least.  What most stands out is the respect for the people who cycled the whole Asian continent, and even more respect for the Silk Road traders of old who would have spent so many years of their lives on this geographically and culturally daunting route.

Of course during any Tour that TDA runs we ponder how we could improve the Tour, whether by finding different campsites in some spots, or using a side road we discover that has less traffic and is more scenic.  For the Silk Route, we wanted to do something bigger than this, and now we have…



First off we’ve changed the timing of the Tour.  Both full editions of the SR (2010 had us running a shortened edition from Istanbul to Samarqand) were run from late-July until mid-November.  This gave us hot weather at the start of the Tour but by the time we got into the last month we had many days of cold and even some snowy days.  There was certainly beauty in this as many participants’ photos from those years would show, but having freezing hands and wearing multiple layers of bike clothes adds to the fatigue.  By switching the Tour to run late-May till late-September we’ve pretty much eliminated any serious cold weather.  Now not to say there still won’t be some challenges in store climate wise, temperatures in parts of western China and then in Turkmenistan and Iran will be toasty!



Second we’ve changed the direction of the Tour from heading west to heading east.  I’d like to say that we discovered the wind always blows westwards so the Tour will only have tailwinds, however…  China is a very large country and we spend about 8 weeks of the Tour cycling across it.  By doing so at the beginning of the Tour we leave the quick cultural and geographical changes of Central Asia, Iran and Turkey for the latter half of the Tour.  Cycling China is fruitful; with historical, gastronomical, and scenic highlights on most days, but we’ve learned that towards the end of a 4 month cycling expedition it is important to have something new always around the bend to keep the mind focused.  Not to mention that Turkey is the most “western” country on the route and has more amenities to soothe our tired legs.



Thirdly, or I could say lastly.  We have changed the route.  We’re starting in Shanghai, not Beijing.  We want this to be a true trans-continental Tour and there is no better way to do this than by dipping your toes in the East China Sea and 4 months later in the fast moving water of the Bosphorus.  We have then altered our section through Central Asia to include the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan.  This is one of the most mountainous roads in the world and truly a hidden gem.  It adds a big physical challenge to the tour but the reward is the beauty of cycling by 7000-meter peaks and the chance to experience the distinct culture of this region.  The final route change is the decision to head through Iran instead of the Caucasus.  There is nothing wrong with cycling in Georgia or Azerbaijan but the chance to cycle through Iran as a group is too great to pass up.  I’ve been lucky enough to visit Iran a couple of times while scouting our route through the country and the people, despite the problematic leadership of the country, are the most hospitable I have ever come across.  This will be one of the most memorable experiences of the new Silk Route.  Not to mention on entering Turkey we ride by Mt. Ararat; which is startlingly beautiful.



So, after all that, my feeling is that this newly designed Silk Route Tour is going to be an experience not to miss out on.  Join the pioneers and ride this new tour the first year it heads out!

It’s important to also comment that the price of the tour is higher than both Tour d’Afrique and Vuelta Sudamericana.  Part of this is obviously that the new Silk Route is our longest tour. Also a good percentage of the accommodation on the Silk Route is in hotels. However the main reason is that the Silk Route is an extremely complex tour to organize and takes a large amount of time to do so.  There is no other commercial cycling tour company offering a tour in Asia such as ours and this is because it’s not an easy thing to pull off.  We have been able to succeed in this because of our hard earned expertise and knack for adversity.  Take notice though that we are offering a 1000€ early payment discount. This is to encourage participants to commit early so we can better gauge the group size we’ll have and plan for the tour accordingly.

Congratulations Silk Route 2010 Riders!

There's nothing quite like being sprayed with champagne to celebrate a grand finale. Okay, maybe this wasn't real champagne, but it was bubbly, cold, and came in a green bottle with that fun gold foil sleeve over the cork. Besides, after cycling and camping for nearly 4000 kilometres, a shower is always welcome.

Twelve riders made it to Samarkand this afternoon, crossing the finish line as a group one last time after nearly seven weeks together. Elation was in the air as the happy bunch clustered together for photos in champagne soaked jerseys thanks to Eric and Rustam, who have really good aim. With a temperature hovering around the mid 30s, it was practically jacket weather for this crew on their final 129km ride; they've cycled through punishing +50 degree heat in recent days!

Five riders succeeded in maintaining the illusive EFI status, making their way across every inch of the route. But make no mistake, this was a tough group of determined people who rode as much as their bodies and bikes would allow under what were often intense conditions.

Now in country five of five, we've all got our favourites. Memories from Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will stay locked in our hearts, beckoning us to return. As the chef, I was fortunate to visit thriving markets with a local interpreter at my side, catching all too brief glimpses of extraordinary cultures unlike anything I've ever known compared to my life back in Canada. I will remember the fast friendships in Turkey and raw beauty of the Georgian countryside, the refreshing fizzy camel milk under the face-melting sun of Turkmentistan, and the puppets! Oh the wonderful puppets of Uzbekistan! But most of all, I will remember, without exception, the kindness and hospitality of the people I've met. I have been humbled and touched by them all.

Congratulations 2010 Silk Route riders, you made it!