I’ve done a little running and swimming this first week, not too much, just to get into the rythm and of course I took my now beauty out for a ride. She was really nice to me and averaging 36,5 km/h on Ironman Kalmar shouldn’t be impossible. Look at her!

In a few weeks, when I’ve gotten a little rest and I’ve gotter used to the agressive position on the Cervelo P3 Ultegra 2012 I think that those 250 hour on the bike across USA will prove to be well spent time. If not….what a fail!

On Saturday at 10:00 I have a short duathlon race, 5 km run, 20 km ride, 2,5 km run…and my expectations are low. Since I’m attending swim training at 7:15 that very morning I’m guessing the duathlon will be suffering. What the hell, it doesn’t matter, it’s great practice.

”Fun facts” from my ride across America are coming up any day now…I just have to the math first.

PS. Most people (me included) though I would come home skinnier than Christian Bale in  The Machinist, but obviously I didn’t and I’m pretty sure that I’ve seem a hint of a oh-my-god-he-is-actually-fat-look on some of my ”friends’” faces when they first saw me.

Checking in at the airport will be a smooth procedure. Right? Right!

The movie from Florida and a ”final report” is coming up within a week or so.

And yeah, my next cycle tour will be from northern Scotland to southern england. When? Maybe soon, maybe not. No one know.

Time: 3:56

Terrain: Flat

Roads: Great first half, ok the rest

Scenery: The Everglades weren’t as spectacular as I was expecting.

All I could think about was that it was almost over. Almost over. Almost over. Almost over.

What next?

……

After a while I decided not to worry too much about ”next” and to just enjoy the last day of riding across a huge continent without ANY accidents of any kind.

Most people I met along my ride in Florida told me the Everglades would be crawling with alligators…but no, I saw only a few and they were chilling out in the water, not lying next to the road waiting for a cyclist to fall into their gap.

What a disappointment that was.

The last 40 km was the typical city scenario – ride, stop for red light, ride, stop, ride, stop etc – and it would’ve been seriously devastating for my mood if it wasn’t for the fact that I saw downtown Miami from afar. Running out of water didn’t bother me the least, even if I had over an hour to ride in 30°C. I couldn’t care less about being hungry. All I had in my mind was SOUTH BEACH.

It’s funny how well things work out sometimes without planning and how at other times they turn to shit no matter the level of preparation.

I made it to Miami and I did it without a scratch on my body (the achilles tendon and knee are good now) when crossing the finish line. Amazing. That wasn’t something I was counting on when I started in San Diego on the 3rd of February. 

5000+ km and voila, I’m in Miami!

Only one more bridge to cross…

Time: 5:29

Terrain: Flat

Scenery: Highway 41 through the Everglades is nice, but I didn’t see one single gator on the side of the road like everybody told me I would.

Waking up by a friend that’s saying he’s on Phi Phi Island, Thailand, and that everybody’s been evacuated to a mountain because of a tsunami warning sucks. Since I was in that same situation a little over seven years ago (we never got a warning then) it wasn’t too hard to put myself in his position.

After some research online most experts agreed that the earthquake hadn’t had the ”right” movement to cause a tsunami it felt a lot better.

The ride went ridiculously smooth today and – this is not a joke – my ass didn’t even hurt! Have I finally reached the point where I can ride without constantly thinking of a future ass transplant? I wish this is the case.

For the third time on my trip across the North American continent I decided to set up camp at an official campground. Even though I could have kept riding for another 20 km it seemed smarter to camp where there are other people and not just alligators and panthers.

This is the last night in my tent in a while, may it be a memorable one. That means I would like to sleep for more than 9 hours, that would be memorable enough.

Tomorrow….MIAMI!!!