Touring - Mental Preparation

How do you mentally prepare for a tour? I'm planning a tour for Spring Break 2005. A tour from my apartment to a Monestary in Cullman, Alabama about 100 miles away. Hill and curvy roads. If I could turn out 25 miles a day it eould take four day there and back. Hopefully my Greenspeed GTR trike would be ready by then but I still have my Trek 800 MTB that I use for commuting if that doesn't come through.

I mentally prepare for a tour by de-escalating my social life and spending a lot of time alone. I love working slowly and carefully on my bike before a tour, because I always feel like that starts out my relationship with my bike on the right foot . I find that if I go from a really busy social life to a tour it takes my brain a lot longer on the tour to hit that zen-like state of "it's all good"-ness. Also, I try to keep away from drugs and alcohol for a while before the tour.

Good luck on your ride. 100 miles in four days should be a nice relaxed enjoyable tour.

I don't really have a social life, so it isn't really an issue for me. However, I'd be just taking a shorter trip, maybe an overnighter to prepare yourself mentally and ensure that it's what you really want to be doing.

Mentally prepare... I'd like to prepare by mentally going through my head the entire journey, as much as possible. Visualize camping out or so and get an idea of the route, the places where navigation might be bad and plan accordingly. Basically try to envision the route and daily activities to avoid any surprises. Try to get things ready long before the departure date, make sure the bike is in working condition about a week before your departure so you're not running around like mad trying to get a missing part 2 days before you leave!

After that, try to pack a couple days in advance and only leave the necessities to the end so the night before you can spent relaxing or just getting ready, rather than like a mad packer. Mentally go through your checklist to see if you have everything you need... check the weather, check your reservations if any.

Basically, I would just try to relax the night before with as clear a picture as I can get of the next day's journey. Avoid last minute surprises.

Jay

That sounds like a "shakedown" tour, the kind of thing you do to prepare and check all your equipment before a big tour.
50mph is quite reasonable for a beginner tourist who commutes.
On a tour I sometimes need to get some confidence riding big montains, but you just have to go out and do it.
You need some confidence in your ability to keep the bike going. If you can mend a puncture and change a cable, that should be enough.

I prepare for a tour by daydreaming all day about it! It wouldn't be the first time my co-workers asked "are you going to do anything today, or is this your day off?" :D Sometimes I just can't help it!
One quick note: after almost catching my tent on fire by lighting my MSR stove too close, I ALWAYS play with new equipment before I take it into the field! "Never take an unproven wepon into battle!"

I've done two tours: 2-day 150 miles and 7-day 548 miles.

Each time I just let my normal neuroses run into overdrive. It's almost impossible for me to relax before any major change in circumstances, so I use that excess energy to motivate me.

In fact, on the 7-day tour I got too relaxed and felt unmotivated on the last day. I had to drag myself home.

Also I just make sure I've done my research and have options in case something doesn't work out. If a camping option falls through, can I get to a motel? If a slash a tire, do I have a backup?

I mentally prepare for a tour of more than 200+ miles, and in the thousands, by panic attacking on the fact I am leaving, last minute gear aquisitions, and drinking myself to death with friends. Works every time...

I haven't done much touring alone, other than to complete an 8 day trip around Lake Ontario in September. Traveling alone is mentally demanding, especially if you are unsure of the route, road conditions, weather, accomodations, etc. You need to be comfortable with your bike...yes...almost have a relationship with it. An understanding. An appreciation. It helped me to try to "visualize" the trip ahead of time, and thoroughly prepare myself for each upcoming day. Hope this helps a little.