There's a lot to be said for research, of the reclining-on-the-couch-with-the-internet ilk. I decided recently to devote a day to this onerous task. (Well, (a) it was a miserable winter's day and (b) it was my birthday - so not hard to justify at all.)

And thanks to the good folk of CycleBlaze, whose journals I've been devouring, I learned two extremely useful lessons.

First up: Touring cyclists come in a staggering range of different packages. Who knew, for instance, about Bike Friday and Brompton foldable bikes, or that people choose to ride around the globe on these tiny wheels? Or about those intrepid tourers who explore the world from a different angle, on recumbents? 

Bruce ("Tour Leader") and I are relative novices at this cycle touring lark. Unlike the many fully-laden and super-fit  touring cyclists we see on our roads in the picturesque South Island of New Zealand, we travel only with rear panniers, trunk bag and handlebar bag. We don't camp out or feed ourselves. Who knew, dear reader, that we have our very own category?

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Yes, we are credit-card  tourers. We have found our flock. As the fount of all knowledge so succinctly puts it, this category of rider "carries a minimum of equipment and a lot of money."  Point taken, Wikipedia.

The second great learning from my day on the couch was discovering Ride With GPS. I'd already noted those neat journal entries with interactive maps that plotted routes across the landscape. And now, we can do this ourselves! Tour Leader has taken on the task of plotting our first two days on the bikes. These two days are crucial because . . .

Do you know about parkrun? Not many people do, outside of the UK, where it all began. parkrun (with a lowercase p - click on the link to find out more) is a worldwide phenomenon that, every Saturday morning, sees hundreds of thousands of folk of all shapes, ages and sizes complete a 5km run/walk event.

Anyway, I'm just a little obsessed and have become an international parkrun tourist. With only a handful of Saturdays needed to reach my 100-run goal, it became clear that we had to detour to a parkrun event two days after flying into Zurich. Full disclosure: There will be a train ride too. Quite a long one. But look at what dear Tour Leader has put together to ensure I make it to my first French parkrun. Bless him.