Wheels on fire

I intend to travel for a couple of months after I've (hopefully sucessfully) handed in my PhD in January. Yes, yes, it's so fashionable to travel these days it's become unfashionable, but who gives a toss anyway? I want to go :-) If you happen to be unfortunate enough to bump into me in person on occasion, you will no doubt have established that I
(a) am an obsessive bookhoarder
(b) churn out bright sparkly ideas worthy of an unrealistic 5year old
(c) am an incorrigable planner


So despite my promise not to plan ahead too much, I've started to build a library of books on the regions I want to go to, bought myself a huge kick-ass pinboard with maps of those regions as well as a box of 200 very colourful pins :-) I am gradually adding "bright ideas" to the pinboard, and the latest addition says: "CYCLE THROUGH LAOS & VIETNAM". You should probably also know I am

(d) a lazy git

So in an attempt to estimate the achievability of my lastest "bright idea", I decided to start by cycling 25kms yesterday to see how that would go. Unfortunately this is Belgium, where in all honesty, a moleheap is considered a massive achievement. So I ended up at the gym. Cranked up the level of the bike to about midway and put the training on "surprise" mode (can you believe it's ACTUALLY called that???). Surprise it was indeed as it seemed to go straight into "hill" mode. It took me an hour to cycle 25kms, which I've been told is not a bad start.

I am trying to establish how I feel today... Although I seem unable to actually SIT DOWN anywhere, I noticed I WASN'T acutely walking John Wayne-style when I went to pick up the paper this morning, which generally tends to happen after one of my runs or hikes. So, seeing as the hour of cycling also gave me quite a buzz, I reckon I will start training for it. You never know, this might actually turn out to be the first achievable bright-Sarah-idea! *excited* ... I shall keep you posted ;-)