Is the training right? Is that all you need?.... Preface 2

As I had started my last blog.. this was a perfectly unplanned-planned trip/tour/training and whatever that was needed for this dream tour....
Mid June, I hire a rented road bike for a day and realise my training needs to shift to a bike of this kind!! Its just 4 weeks to go for my Pyrenees Ride...
An unplanned spend for the new scott addict carbon bike extended the already stretched budget of this once in a lifetime trip... 'Passions don't come cheap' is what a friend told... which made perfect sense...
My training took a huge 4 minute jump in my first attempt with this new road bike.... and boosted the confidence many fold...
The roller coaster rides take huge ups and downs towards the very end.... So it was with me....
Had a super fall off my hybrid bike and got a Hanuman face :) for a couple of days...
A tooth extract leading to viral fever to a fall in bathroom (unconscious) getting hurt just above the right eye.... all these just 2 weeks before the journey... Which meant my training got hit....!!
I could manage just two NandiBetta rides with my new road bike and just one 100+ towards Magadi, which I did to seek blessings from Sri Nirmalji whom I admire since childhood... He was all admiration for me to be doing it at an age, where most prefer to look up to Vaanaprastha and stop self from venturing into such activities which are physically demanding...

While training to be physically ready for the tour, THE reason for the tour, to raise money for the charity of our choice was on. Our CSR team did help immensely to zero in on the charity, Cochlea-Pune. Cochlea identifies children needing support with hearing and speaking at an early age. Plan for a permanent cochlear implant while helping them to be ready for normal school curriculum by providing education. The target was to raise £750. Since it was the very first time for me to be raising funds, I was almost clueless on how to plan the communication. However, did manage to raise close to double the target amount with again no planned approach!. In this exercise found some super donors. All those messages along with those donations and the amount acted as the fuel for my tour.

Travel was another topic, that was happening in parallel. My plan to sandwich tour between two short trips across Europe with family. While seeing to it that they could get a glimpse of my tour was rightly shot down by a good friend. Sandhya did even send out a separate thank you note to him :). New plan was to start our trip of Europe after my tour. We needed two separate VISAs for the places we had planned to visit. Paris to visit DisneyLand and Eiffel and to show my girls beautiful (in every aspect) Norway needed Schengen VISA. To spend some time with a very good friend and his family in London needed UK VISA. Sounds simple right?, hell broke lose just two weeks before the travel... :) How could this go wrong is what you may think....
Preface 2 flowing in to Preface 3 (hopefully the last Preface) would have an answer....
Ciao!!