Enduro practice

Enduro is nearing and we have started our practice sessions.

Couple of weeks back we had cycled around 40 Kms to the Sinhagad fort, trekked up 2600 foot, came back down then cycled back home. We started around 5:00 AM in the morning and returned home around 1:00 PM i.e around 8 hours of rigorous physical activity.

This was good for a start considering Enduro spans a continuos 24 hours of cycling, walking, rope river crossing, rowing and rifle shooting. According to a friend of mine, there used to be rappelling but because of some accidents was scrapped.

We have a team of three and are participating in the corporate category. Our team leader has done this twice before and his experience has kept us motivated and prepared.

Last weekend we had been to Neelkantheshwar temple located on a hill. This was more rigorous compared to the Sinhagad trip. We cycled 50 Kms which included many uphill climbs. The last leg of cycling involved dragging our cycles up a steep climb till we reached the base village that was located half way up the hill. We parked our cycles and started a very steep climb to reach the steps of the temple. We took darshan at the Shiv temple, had some Kanda Poha after which we started back down. From the base village, we cycled with a lot of braking down the steep path filled with stones and sharp turns along the corners of the hill till we reached the bottom. our cycles took a lot of beating in the process and I lost one of the bolts attached to my pedal. It was peak noon by the time we started cycling back home. This was a big effort for all of us and spanned 12 hours of activity from 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM. We have achieved the Enduro cycling limits with this practice.

Next week we plan to scale 2300 feet to reach the Purandar fort after 40 Kms of cycling to reach it. The fort area is very broad and it includes a 1 hour walk along a ridge to reach a temple located at the summit. This should test our walking skills as it involves around 4 hours of up and downhill trekking.

More on it next week.