Physical and Mental Preparations for Biking across Canada

Physical Preparation:  My physical preparation includes anything related to either getting my body or my bike into shape to make my Ride a Success. For example, an increase in both the amount and the length of daily Road rides has yielded impressive results in terms of both aerobic and anaerobic capabilities. 

Other training methods I have implemented include:

-    Bicycle hill sprints
-    Running hill sprits
-    High intensity weight lifting
-    Increased Caloric intake, which is spread more throughout the day rather than in three
-    set meals  
-    -As the snow melts I am trying to get more hiking in
-    This upcoming Monday (5) I will be getting up at 7:00 and riding all day to Pentiction.
-    I chose Monday in particular because that night I work graveyard here at the hotel starting at 11:00 PM, and ending the next day at 7:00 AM. This will have me up for a total of about 24 hours by the time I make it to bed. The purpose of this is to help prepare me for my upcoming 24 Hour bike ride I have planned for earth day. 
-    -Long distance Rides. In addition to preparing me for hours in the saddle, it gives me a chance to meet lots of people and talk a lot about my trip, in the smaller cities near Vernon 

Mental Preparation:  Since this trip has become more of a journey to promote awareness since I talked to John (Sierra Club Canada's Executive Director), I have been voraciously reading up on a whole range of issues, trying to better educate myself. I do this with the belief that as people hear about my journey and the things I have to say, that they will have questions about a whole range of issues, and I plan to be able to answer those questions.

To that end, the subjects I am currently researching (with a whole lot more to come!) are:

-    Industrial and personal use pesticides and herbicides (a big issue in the Okanagan right now is the debate about banning cosmetic herbicides)
-    Renewable energy, especially solar
-    The Alberta Tar sands
-    I copied down notes on the Sierra Club, including history, mission, your four areas and several of the campaigns. I also check SCC news feed daily, and I have been most impressed by the serious stance John takes in his opinion of our politicians and big business. It is columns like his that make me certain I picked the right organization to back.