I didn't.

         With the scant exception of purchasing an airline ticket from Hanoi to Guangzhou to Haikou and making sure my holiday in Vietnam ended before the start of the bike trip I did nothing.

         Absolutely nothing.

         Even the eight months of riding done since I originally heard about the trip don't really count as training since I'd've done them anyway whether or not I knew about this trip. And, since I had no idea what the route was (other than a loop of Hainan Island), how many days we'd be going, or that this year they were specifically doing mountains until after the trip was well underway, I couldn't exactly put any extra effort into learning how to climb.