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Interesting. I get anxiety about where I'm going to sleep if I don't have a plan. Having made some shit choices about bivvy sites in the past makes it worse.
From last year's tcr there was the park in the village in Czech Republic next to house with barking dog and where I got a tick in my neck, and the bench in Romania where I got woken up by the police.
frank9755-
I've fled some places pretty quick for "reasons" but often it's just because I'm freezing. Packing light has a price!
I've had some pretty luxurious bivvy spots too. But often the problem has been because I've booked a hotel at 5pm and I way underestimated ETA so I'm forced to push on way later and arrive at 7am or some dumb shit. That's the advantage of a good bivvy setup - you should be able to sleep about anywhere. I just never took one.
hippy
Yeah, agree the first few days are where the biggest stoppers are likely to crop up.
I think when you're moving you're probably golden. Your head wants to get this thing done and so you will chug along until you finish. But the recovery needed once you stop is pretty huge. Mentally and physically if you're pushing hard due to time limits or whatever.
I started doing these events with a lot of experience so probably had less impact on my body and probably explains why I could do so many. But I'm beginning to think that mentally I might've introduced some kind of PTSD from pushing through all those nights and basically treating myself like shit for weeks at a time. There's definitely an anxiety these days when the prospect of a failed hotel booking is on the cards and a forced overnighter might be required. Maybe it's because I ride a lot with my missus now and I'm concerned for her as well as me. Not sure but I definitely go into events with a better plan than winging it like I used to. So yeah, I wonder if I've caused some issues or if it's just a case of getting older, wiser and not really feeling the need to push so hard? Hard to say.