For me, Body Logistics is more important than Bike Statistics. The latter one follows the first one. The body will take you forward, the bike is just the toy & tool to get there, finally.
Already during the adventure planning stage I tried to estimate, what my body will accept ensuring, that I do not overstretch myself. This would result in non-enjoyable rides, whatever the scenery offers.
Strain, Tolerance, Cardio Load come as a daily tripple and result in one of the four Fitness Levels under the Polar terminology. I had to ensure, that I will stay within Productive and Maintaining, not getting into Detraining and Overreaching levels, which are both counterproductive on the longer run.
The Nightly Recharge, a combination out of Sleep Score and ANS Charge, have a huge impact on the Body Recovery, which then impacts again the Fitness Level provided on daily basis. Although resting in many different places under very different condition, my sleep recovery was extraordinary high during this trip.
Another important contributing factor is the Heartbeat Zone while biking. I managed mostly to stay in Zone 2 and slowed down as and when needed. Obviously some Zone 3 and 4 have to be accepted but the duration shall be limited in order not to drain on the long term. The bloody dogs took me to Zone 5 and beyond, no doubt! Glad it did not become an interval training and remained a one-off.
The last decisive factor to me is the nutrition intake. Besides plenty of water with some mineral tablets, I tried to eat as healthy as possible. Omelettes became my standard breakfast. The Moroccan food is very healthy in the first place but unfortunately more and more fast food is taking over, much worse within the bigger cities. To the contrary, in terms of plastic rubbish flying around, the cities are much cleaner than some parts of the country side roads. Different topic.
All in all, I would conclude: I sailed along the edge between physical demand and scenic bike riding, staying towards the side of enjoyment rather than fighting for strenght – the sweet spot of my motivation and satisfaction for this kind of adventure.
It is over…until the next one will come.
Fair winds…Morocco!
