THERESA: Just got back from an early morning run today with our excellent girlfriend YVONNE DENNIS, who is back from Africa and, after cycling some 2600 miles from Nairobi to Capetown, isn't even taking a week off from exercising! She is so inspirational! It was great to read about her adventures on her weblog (if you haven't taken a look yet, check it out!)

Yvonne didn't even own a bicycle a year ago (she was busy then training to run her first marathon, which she completed last October). Is this girl amazing or what? She has totally turned her life around through exercise. When I met her just five years ago, she told me she couldn't run a mile on the treadmill, and that under no circumstances would she run outside. But she got into a running routine, joined a gym, enlisted a trainer, became diligent about lifting weights and eating right, and now she's always up for a new challenge. And she exudes happiness and self-confidence. We are really proud of her!

JENICE: Yvonne, welcome back! I can't wait to hear all about your experiences. What was it like bicycling 100 miles a day, everyday? Your muscles must have been screaming. How'd you cope? What tricks did you learn about pushing yourself when you probably wanted to curl up beside a dirt road? You've gotta share, girflriend!

YVONNE: Thank you all for the warm welcomes home. It's nice to be among familiar routines and faces again. It might sound obsessive, but the reason I am back to exercising again so soon is for that sense of familiarity. Cycling did not provide the consistent high for me that running and lifting do. I would have some really super days of cycling but I would say at least half the time I looked at it as my job - assignment being get to point B from point A before dark.

The way I got through those work days is the same way I do here - put my head down and just do it. Take breaks when I need to for physical or mental reasons and then get going again. I am pretty easily distracted so the more I took my focus off the goal the harder it was to get finished. Plus, getting back on the bike was really tough on the knees.

Also, the most important thing every rider learned quickly was to go at your own pace. Rarely do two people ride the same pace on the same day. Some people attack hills with everything they have and love the feeling at the top. Plus there's ususally a descent on the other side of the crest. I, on the other hand, hate climbing. The only hills I like are the short ones.

In the very beginning of my tenure with the tour I would rarely get off the bike and rest along the way even though I was beat because I was worried about all the wrong things - not being too far behind the group, not being dead last, what people would think about my time.

That attitude got old fast. I just accepted the fact that I was not as skilled as most of the others at cycling and it would take time to get better. And, frankly, I wanted to stop sailing through Africa and actually see Africa; talk to Africans. I started stopping at roadside stores for sodas, even if I wasn't with another cyclist. I started to pull over if I saw something cool alongside the road. One late afternoon in Malawi, for example, I saw a bunch of women in beautiful dresses and headwraps spilling onto the street from some building. So I stopped, said hello and asked them where were they going. They were students and a few teachers at a girls boarding school and they were a delight to talk to. I took the name and of address one of the teachers and promised to send her a copy of the picture I took with them.

As for the distances I covered every day, most days were around 120k (about 74 miles). Lunch was always at the halfway mark so most days lunch was between 60k and 75k. In the beginning 20k an hour was about the fastest I could go. So 3-4 hours to lunch wasn't bad, building in snack and potty breaks.

If ever we had a day longer than about 150k there would be adjustments with the nourishment. Such as on the 193k day in Malawi - lunch was at 80, then there was another roadside set up at 140k. (I didn't ride that day, having gone my longest to that point of 150k the previous day).

My longest day, as I wrote in the blog, was 211k. That came 5 countries into my tenure on flat road with tailwind most of the day. In the beginning when Henry would tell us we were doing 140k or 155k, "but you should have a great tailwind" I would always think, how the hell does he know that; and so what, It's still 140k. But I can remember the first time I rode much faster than I thought I was going and realized the wind really was helping me along. Days with any combination of flat or slightly sloping roads, small rolling hills, winding curves and tailwind were the days I felt great and rode great. Distance stopped being the deciding factor to whether I was going to have a tough day. On the 211k day I was out from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m but not one minute of it sucked. Converesely, I can remember 80k days in Tanzania through the rocky, sandy, washboard off-road where I would gladly have ridden my bike into oncoming traffic, if any cars actually came down those god-forsaken stretches.

One of my favorite memories and proudest accomplishments was of the day I rode 140k to Ghanzi and finished at 1:06 p.m., which was my absolute best. Only one person who started after me that day passed me, and I smoked one rider who would previously always beat me.

As for how my body feels now and felt then as I went along. Quads would be sore of course as the day went along but stretching is ingrained in my head as a runner. And sore muscles I think most of us find strangely comforting - we know we worked hard when the muscles are screaming.

It was when my knees were screaming that I was miserable. Climbing was enormously hard on my knees. Sometimes I would take Ibuprofen. I would also ice them with cold cans of Coke when I got into camp and that would help temporarily. Drinking the Cokes also helped.

I hope this answers some questions but I would love to answer more. Many people have asked me in what way this experience has changed me. That's hard to say at this point. I might be able to answer that question if broken down into more specific categories. So ask me some questions, people :)