The first official week of Cape Epic training was uneventful. None of the four days was particularly taxing; whether it’s because that was Lezandré’s plan, or whether I’m a little fitter than she expected, I don’t know. However, this could well turn out to be a similar experience to first year Maths at UCT. I started all cock-a-hoop, having nailed Calculus in my Matric exams. I treated the lectures as optional, but within weeks it all got serious, and I never managed to catch up.

Whatever Lezandré has allocated for the day, I do. The one element I struggle with, though, is when I have to keep my heart rate below an indicated level. Anything below zone 4 feels as if I’m not doing anything.

In other news, The Partner outed himself on Twitter, so I can henceforth refer to him as Piet (Viljoen). When we had our first meeting over coffee in February, he told me that he likes to do one thing a year that scares him. You may think that he meant something along the lines of ‘challenge’, but you’d be wrong. Piet is on another level when it comes to what he takes on. This man is a machine.

Allow me to illustrate. For any person who is into endurance sports, Cape Epic and Comrades Marathon are bucket list events. Doing just one of them, once in a lifetime, will satisfy most people. In 2017, Piet is doing both Cape Epic and Comrades Marathon. We’re talking about a gap of two months between the two events, a big chunk of which will be taken up by recovery from Epic.

But wait, there’s more, Piet is doing Comrades as part of Unogwaja, which means that he is cycling from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg (1660km), and then running a very tough 89km. A runner may get some benefit from cycling (and vice versa), but Piet will need to be training for Comrades while simultaneously training for Epic.

I’m in awe of what he’s taken on, and also thankful. You see, by setting a peak even higher than Cape Epic, he’s foreshortened the perspective. In an odd way, he’s made Epic seem less of a stretch.

There will be many hours of pain along the way – and Piet is the one undertaking the main challenge – but I feel fortunate to be sharing part of the 2017 journey with him.

Until then, I have six more months of following instructions from Lezandré.