IOM Parish Walk

Today is our last of 28 days here in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  The timing has been good, and we have completed the walk training that we hoped, giving us the confidence we need for the continental centurion in three weeks. This last week we completed another 30km walk at Ibirapuera Park.  Our pace was essentially the same as our previous walk there (7:38 per km), but it felt a little easier.  Our bodies are quickly becoming familiar with the faster walking technique.  Good thing! We had a good hill walk as well, and have continued to work on our core strength too.  Minds are somewhat refreshed, and we now move back into cycling mode for the next 5 days as we make our way to Rio de Janiero. Shoes and socks that we have selected for the continental centurion are seeming to suit our feet.  It's a challenge to get that right, as we don't have a wardrobe like most people, with many pairs of shoes from which we can select and get ready for a race.  Our wardrobe is a pannier on the side of

We've had some good solid walks this week.  Now 2.5 weeks into our four week stop at Sao Paulo, Brazil, our bodies are feeling quite good thanks to reduced heavy days of cycling.  Perfect for allowing us to take on some tougher walks. First, we walked 50km last Sunday at Park Ibirapuera.  This urban park has a walking and cycling track around it in immaculate condition.  The whole road width for these activities is about 10 metres, and divided about half each for cycling and foot bases activities. There must have literally been 10,000 people in the park when we were there on Sunday.  Volumes fluctuated a bit, but at its height there must have been 10 people in every 2 metres of track.  With the entry and exit parts of the path and other central activities like football and basketball, the maths starts to quickly add to that tally. We held a strong and consistent pace for the 50km.  Our GPS watches suggested 7:40 per kilometer, but it's always hard to be sure that's correct

We've been in Sao Paulo, a metropolitan jungle of nearly 20 million people, for almost two weeks. It took us a while, but we've found some good parks for long walks, with water and toilet facilities.  Smooth underfoot, and mostly plenty of shade, which helps when days here have usually been 30 degrees celsius or slightly more, and never under 22 degrees overnight. Cycling isn't good for core strength, and after three weeks cycling 1600km from Asuncion in Paraguay to Sao Paulo here in Brazil, we did little other than cycle.  We had lots of hills, and thus getting out for a hard walk, or doing other strength works was generally not appealing each day as we were tired from the hours on the very heavy tandem bike. But now settled, we managed a streak of 10 days with 2 x 20 minutes intense strength sessions each of those days.  Plus, we've walked a lot more, and thanks to the good park loops we found, we have been able to concentrate a little on speed and form. We've wal

Oooh, it's been a while!  But, Shaz and I have had other business to attend to, which has ultimately gotten in the way of our walk training, and writing this blog. Right now, we are in a small town called Juquitiba.  That's in Brazil, and about 60km from the 22 million people, thriving metropolis of Sao Paulo. Since I last blogged here, we have travelled by tandem bicycle from Buenos Aires in Argentina, to Asuncion in Paraguay, and now, almost to the largest city in Brazil, and indeed the largest city in South America. The journey from Buenos Aires to Asuncion was almost right on 1500km (yes yes, for you IOM people, that's around 932 miles).  Though the roads were flat and straight (just 3323m of aggregate climb and decent), they were also devoid of significant foliage and we faced many days where the "feels like" temperature was 45 degrees celcius and more (and why does the IOM use celcius rather than fareinheit, but miles instead of kilometers?). Anyway, it was