News Shorts

No, not NEW SHORTS.... NEWS SHORTS! Although I did get some new shorts for the epic ;)

I've been on holidays the past 2 weeks so plenty of time for riding and looking at blogs. Thought it best I update my own with a bunch of short and sweet bits and pieces from the last month or so.

Flight Centre Epic

Race crept up very quickly, and since Lauren and I were staying at the resort the night before we were both pretty excited and I almost forgot it was a bike race. With a terrible lead up to the event health wise I was almost considering pulling out only days before. After some 'encouragement' from some of the Wednesday morning boys I thought best I should start the race with the idea of pulling out at the 50km mark if things went sour.

I didn't hammer the first 50 but instead just rolled at a basic pace. I let people go past and I trundled up hills in granny gear knowing what the last 37km would involve. Got to the 50km checkpoint and actually felt really good, I had probably been conserving too much energy at this point. I heard Neil was only 4mins in front and my other mate woody only 15mins..... I had also seen Dr Geoff go past at on one of the hills so I sped myself up a little.

When I got to about the 65km mark I had overtaken a TON of people on the single track climbs. I then copped massive upper leg cramps in all the usual spots. This was pretty much the rest of the race, nursing myself around the hills and rolling down the other side. Finished race in 6h20m which was ok all things considered.

After looking at the 50km times, my 50 time was only 10 mins off a place in my age group if I had entered the half epic. I think next year I will sign up for the 50 and try and smash it big time!!

Speaking of smashing the 50... Riding buddy and friend Trickle was planning to place quite high in the half epic. At around the 30km mark he was eaten up and spat out by one of the knarly decents quite literally knocking himself out cold. He awoke to a cracked helmet and lots of grazes but continued on to finish 5th overall even stopping for around 10 mins concussed after the crash. Well done to him!!!! My other mate John also came 6th position overall. I ended up around 20th in my age group.

Holidays!

Lauren and I have started booking places for our holiday next year. I have taken almost 6 months off work and plan to travel to Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Greece, Switzerland, Denmark, Austria and fly back via thailand or somewhere similar.

So far I have about 2-3weeks to ride my bike in Canada, I have about a week set aside to ride France, and about 3 days or so in Italy. My plans for Canada will be to hook up with a mate over there living in Vancouver and ride most of the coast up to Whistler, in France I will base myself out of our campervan so anything is possible, and I have gotten myself 3 days in the Dolomites in Italy just before the shuttles etc close for the winter.... woohoo!!!!!!



Dolomites in Italy

 Racing and Training

I've almost 'stopped' riding quick at the moment and am literally plodding along whenever I ride. The second 6hr was cancelled (pathetic!) so I have lost all momentum. I am realistically planning to enter some races in early 2013 which should mean a big of a break before I start up some base training miles again.

Earlier this year I got some coaching advice re: Arobic endurance riding and had the best start to a year EVER. Next year I need to repeat this process but STICK TO A PLAN AFTERWOODS. My problem this year was doing some excellent endurance riding but then losing all that work by taking huge chunks of time off from riding. I will hopefully have a much easier study load next semester so fingers crossed!

I have been following Jason English on Strava lately and MAN that dude pumps out some k's!!!! So anyone wondering how many hours you should be riding per week win 24hr races..... around 29h a week with an average of 150km per ride!!!!!

Jason is on school holidays at the moment by the look of things, and has been attacking a random 25km hill out the back of his house each day, then tacking on an extra 180km afterwoods. Respect!

Lastly

Woolworths stock Banana, Banana and walnut, and fruit bread in PRE PACKAGED little baggies!!! They are so awesome. I have been living on these the last few weeks! Enjoy!

No news is..... not so good news...

Long time between posts - 3 things in bike world happend since the last entry.

1) The 6 hour back2back race 1 was craaaappppppppppppppp.

Lets set the scene... 6 hours in the race with each lap being around 6.7km long with a ton of climbing. For me, a 'fast' lap is is about 23-25 mins, a 'steady' lap is spot on 30mins, and a 'all day dean' lap is about 32-35mins. That meant to do the 13 laps I wanted, I need a couple of fast laps and the rest fairly steady.

The first 3 laps were great! I felt awesome and was somewhere up the front end of the field in the solo catagory. I was spinning around with Owen from the rats club and we were moving pretty solid. Got to the pits and had given myself about a 15min window of 'free time'. I slowed things down on lap 4 and tried to get down to 'all day Dean' pace. By the end of the lap however, I was dizzy and legs felt heavy. Unsure what was wrong I came through the pits and felt like quitting. What a crap feeling! Dave and his son Willy rocked up for motivation both verbally and through a sausage on bread... Nice!

Felt good afterwoods but after 2x laps of 45mins each, I was out of the running for my top 10 finish. I ended up with 10 laps altogether with finishing position of 26th.

Dave took some great photo's which I have stolen :)

2) Now... number 2 thing that happend in cycling world actually stems from #1. On the last or second last I had a really big over the bars. I thought nothing of this and continued on during the race. I noticed some pretty big bruising all over a couple of days later. The weekend after the race, I had a big fall in Cornubia and hit alot of the same parts I smashed in the first crash.

Next couple of days I had some chest pain and couldn't sleep at all. Turns out cracked rib!!!!!!!!!!! Greaaaat!!! Not to worry though, a week off the bike and I feel ok now. In fact, I managed 11 laps of Mt Gravatt this week too and no pain. It seems to be at it's worst when i'm lying down (sleeping) or in the car. On the bike, it feels ok. Gah!

3) My relevate designs gear rocked up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No photo's of the actual stuff, but I got:

Seatbag glory!

The front thingo for holding sleeping gear

REALLY looking forward to trying it out. I have almost all the gear sorted now so will make a post explaining all of it soon.

Epic soon! - That's the next race. Enjoy!

Anna

Watching Sunrise this morning I got to see the new Australian Mining "this is our story" advertisement focused on Anna Meares and her family.

Australian Mining spent a fortune on a new marketing campaign after many criticisms early last year, I quite enjoy the stories but I still feel the 'mining game' is quite a non-caring, money driven organisation despite what the ads try to make you believe (durr).

The story on Anna is really nice and has some great cycling shots and interviews about her 600km round trip journey to the nearest cycling track that her parents had to make when she was younger.

The link is http://thisisourstory.com.au/our-stories_anna-meares.aspx


 

Road Riding is now cool if you wear SPY glasses

Wow - an awesome advert which describes perfectly what I think about when I'm on the road bike. Really well captured I think.

Also provided the behind the scenes vid which is great too!

The commercial

Behind the scenes

Quiet Times

I decided to take a couple of weeks off the bike to finalise some work stuff and just generally give the legs a good break. I finally got back into it today and felt really good.

My plan is to compete in the Back2Back 6hr Canungra series in July, one race at the beginning the other at the end of the month. I'm also signing up for the Epic and another bikepacking journey sometime later in the year.

My training plan for the next couple of weeks will go something like this:

Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: Cootha repeats x5 + river loop short(2hr)
Wednesday: Short Z2 interval Road Ride (1hr)
Thursday: Mtb ride mostly AE pace (2hr by myself 2hr night ride with pete = 4hr)
Friday: Mtb ride mostly AE pace (2.5hr)
Saturday: Road ride with some Z3 intervals (2.5hr)
Sunday: Long Road ride or Long Mtb ride at AE pace, some hills (4hr)

If I have to skip a ride this still gives me a decent 12-13 hour week, Sundays and Thursday are always locked in and these are good AE sessions.

I am a complete 'convert' of the whole AE/Base training debate. I have noticed such big gains in my riding and have so much confidence in going the distance now. It's all about hours in the saddle... but making those hours count!

Can't wait for some racing this year :) My goal is to be competitive in B grade and/or top 10 in age group.

Diving in...

At school lately the kids have been practicing High Jump. Some kids, who have never tried any form of athletics, follow the instructions and nail the technique straight away. Others, look as if they're diving into a pool.

Last weekend I felt like I was about to dive in the pool. Dave and I planned an overnight ride (never done before), on a route to Toogoolawah (never done before), for 100km plus (never done before) each day (never done before).

In the end it was one of my best experiences on a bike. I am now thinking bigtime into the future as I am LOVING IT.

West End-Cootha-Nebo-Fernvale-Lowood-Coominya-Esk

Next in the pipeline...

6hr Canungra solo June
6hr Canungra solo July
Rocky Mountain 24hr Solo
Epic
The HuRT 2012 ?

It's not all BIKE bro!

It's looking more and more likely that next year I will be visiting a mate of mine in Vancouver. After discussing with Lauren it appears instead of visiting Mark for 1 week, it looks like I will spend a month there riding my way around the countryside in August.

The debate on bikes etc is always discussed on my local trails. I have always been of the opinion that it "isn't about the bike, it's the rider!". I am now eating my own words as I spend the next few months searching for the perfect All Mountain frame for my impending trip next year.

I have always owned 'average' bikes... in fact none of my bikes have ever cost more than $1500 new. My favourite riding was on my -1k SS RIGID STEEL HARDTAIL. I think it's great bike to ride with others.... if you rip their legs off you can't stop smiling.... if they rip yours off.... you have a great excuse!

Check it:
Thomas Vanderham and Wade Simmons Shredding Cross-Country | Vital MTB

People that ride faster than me..

Sending my well wishes to Matt Dodd from here in Brisbane. He is heading over to the US to compete in some of their national DH events.

Matt has had some bad luck in the QLD events, but I know that no matter what he is placing the experience will be all worth it.

Kudos to the film maker.

Click HERE - I can't link to VIMEO

All types of tread

After a 2 week break due to moving house I got back into some serious riding over my holidays. The last 2 weeks have seen a number of trails ridden, some with friends and some without. The without rides are still good for clearing the head!

Here's 2 weeks of riding in pictures...




Mt Nebo to clear the head



<>

Climb Climb Climb Mt Nebo




Eastern Escarpment with Pete, Woody and Mitch



Foggy Mt Joyce




Mt Joyce (Thanks Dave)




More Mt Joyce (thanks Dave)



Haven't done this in a while!

  Yesterday also allowed me to finally catch up with Dave and the trail care crew. I finally got to play on Wallum Frogglet which I'm very excited to ride. This week looks like rain rain rain so might have to pull out the roadie :)

Communting

Decided to ride to work on Friday after a week of on/off riding due to weather/mechanicals/laziness. My commute is from West End to Logan Central and is around 28-32km depending on route. Last week I commuted and suffered a major headwind in both directions causing me to take about 1 hour 20 on the way to work and about an hour 40 on the way home. Work out the averages and you'll see I was suffering!!!

On Friday however I copped an orgasmic tailwind both outbound and inbound and was LOVING IT. Took Logan Rd in the morning and got all the green lights and limited traffic, on the way home I took a nearly empty bikeway with everyone seeming to have the day off ??... It was fantastic!!!!!

If I could control the weather, traffic, lights, wind and workload I'd commute everyday! I found this great cyclocross video that reflects the feeling of leaving work and hopping on the bike

 

I move house this weekend to Parkinson. I will be commuting through Karawatha Forest to get to/from work. So I will probably imagine myself on a Ti PlanetX cyclocross bike and rip it up :)

Enjoy

Sun goes up, Sun goes down, Sun goes up, Sun goes down...

I've been riding - yep, riding when the sun comes up and riding when the sun goes down. Here's proof.

Sunset over Daisy Hill

Love night riding. This weather is perfect for early or late... but not inbetween :)

It's inevitable

SICKNESS!

Yep, that's what struck me last week and knocked me for 6 (actually about 10...days!). I knew it would come, I always get sick a few times a year and it usually links up to just coming back from holidays and dealing with snotty kids all day. I was riding well up to this time, I had a busy week just prior to my man cold week but still managed to ride almost every day even if it wasn't for the planned 2.5 hours. I feel better now and I rode a couple of 1 hour rides to ease back in, then did a great 110km road ride to the bay and back on Sunday morning. My stupid Garmin only recorded 14km of the ride though!!!!!! GRRR I really hate my garmin but can't afford a new one..

Making it to the bay

Dave showed me this ride months ago, I loved this day. He broke his bike somehow and I laughed all the way back to springwood. Thanks Dave! I basically followed the same route but this time from South Bank.  When I went past the spot on my garmin where I last stopped for 30 mins waiting for the Sag Wagon with Dave, I laughed again all the way home. Lol.

In other news I also got to spectate the Summer Cup Race 1 held by the Brisbane South Mountain Bike Club. I love these races and last year had a ball racing all my mates. I even made some new friends from last year whom I now ride with all the time. I was a bit dissapointed by the new timing format, and quite frankly a little burmused on why it has to be so difficult... But neverless it's fun racing! I will be entering B grade this weekend.

I also want to get more involved with the club and have been asked to host a weekly social ride on Sundays as a representative of the club. I havn't agreed just yet but I will wait till the summer cup is over and will consider this. I like riding with others and enjoy the social aspects of the club. Keep you posted!

On the training front. I am going to continue riding at AE pace for another couple of weeks due to knocking out that couple of weeks due to sickness. I have also started running a couple of times a week and doing a group fitness class once and a while with a mate of mine who kills me each session. I absolutely suck at running and have started very slow...

I also need to make special mention to a post about asshats that my good friend Jeff made on mtbdirt. You can read this here. I ran into Jeff walking his bike along underwood rd on Sunday after he had snapped a hanger off in Daisy. He discusses the lack of assistance he was offered while passed by about 40 riders on his walk back to the car. I don't care what your view on this is, but I also ask people if they need assistance. Whether you think you can or can't help someone, they may only need to make a call home and you might be the one person who asked them if they were ok.

After a year riding my road bike I can confidently say that I have been stuck on the side of the road before and had plenty of roadies ask me if I was ok. I've even borrowed pumps etc off other too. So the stereotypical view of 'roadie assholes' is absolute crap. I have been on my mountain bike before and seen more 'weekend wankers' then ever. Refer back to my post about my weekend a few months back and you will see.

Sad that the bush is now full of these tools. I try and stay away from the forest on weekends as it just upsets me to see bogans everywhere.

Speaking of bogans - See you next time

Yes, I took this driving. Yes, we were doing 10km/h as he was hitting power lines....

My bike is made from Sugar

Every man and his umbrella are taking to myface/twitbook with complaints of rain in Brisbane of late (reminds me of this time last year perhaps?). I personally dislike rain due to the church of single track riding BUT... I don't despise rain like most. I find waking up to a rainy morning very pleasant. I even enjoy driving in the rain with the window slightly down so that I can feel the temperature outside. With more recent (well, more recent then mountain bikes) purchase of a road bike it has allowed me to venture out in the rain on two wheels. 

(I could say without the guilt of riding single track in the wet, but I despise the hoards of uneducated wankers who feel that riding single track in the wet makes them so freakin awesome that they just can't possibly imagine the damage they are infact causing to the hundreds of riders whom actually appreciate the hard work that goes into managing a forest, without even mentioning the way they screw up riding for the next 2 weeks by causing massive drainage issues for all involved meaning even more time off the mountain bike for myself)

So when I chose not to ride for 3 days earlier in the week, none of my LORE's (Lack of Riding Excuses) were to do with the weather... unlike most!

Did you know in Amsterdam, around 63% of the popular ride their bikes more than 3 times a week. Out of those people, only 18% choose NOT to ride on wet days.

By Helen Olney - AmsterDame Blog

Lack of Riding Excuse 1: This week was a big one for me. I have only 1 year of study left and I will then, most probably, never study again. This meant the assignment due Thursday was one of importance and needed to be attended to most nights this week. 

Lack of Riding Excuse 2: Also this week, I started a new role at work. I am now a full-time Health and Physical Education Teacher. While for some this sounds easy, I have taken on a number of other responsibilities at work to co-inside with my masters degree mentioned earlier. I have also never taught PE so although there is basic planning, it's all brand new for me and very time consuming. 

Lack of Riding Excuse 3: Last weekend I hurt my thumb somehow and I was not able to put pressure on it until midweek.

So, Australia Day I was able to sneak out for about an hour and a half  and I was able to miss any real rain. Friday I was also lucky with the weather.

On Saturday however, I found out that I am harder than my bike. I took off on the roadie in pretty good conditions which soon turned to poor conditions as a mountain of water fell from the sky. Sticks and other road grime littered all the roads and the bike paths were covered in slime. I road out to Jindalee and on one of the bike paths I hit a stick with soared into my bike's downtube. One of those sticks you hit and you are watching in the exact moment so it appears you are watching it in slow motion...

I think nothing and continue to ride. Few moments later I notice my bike isn't shifting properly. I excuse this as gunk in the trunk (i.e. shit in the derailer). Turns out the stick that hit the frame damaged both gear cables that are routed underneath the downtube. 

The cables are beginning to unravel and are therefore slowly letting out cable, so in theory, are changing gears further down the cassette. I continue to ride with my bike in 'automatic', by Dutton Park I am in the 39 ring up front and the hardest gear at the back, with a crossed up chain that is rubbing the front derailer so loud it sounds like my bike is eating the road rather than rolling over it.

I made it up Dutton Park and back home to South Bank..... Talk about resistance baby!!!!

The Friday F-WIT

Pronounced 'eff-wit'.

On Triple J's afternoon drive show 'The Doctor' often entertains me as I drive home from work. He does some great segments during the week, but on Friday afternoon anyone is a contender for "The Friday F-Wit!". This can be anyone or anything that people can call/tweet/text in with a 'winner' annouced at the end of the show. This weekend contained many 'nominations' from myself (not for myself). Let me give a warning first, this is a massive rant. Ok, warning over.

I consider myself a pretty 'nice' cyclist. I am a supportive person and I think of others when I ride. I give tubes to people with flats, I escort new mtbers around tracks, I'm the first person to turn around and hunt someone down who's lost, I give way to everyone on the trails no matter how much of a pain that is, I follow the road rules no matter who is watching, I go out of my way to make riding enjoyable for everyone.

So, here's my weekend. FULL of Friday F-Wits! Beware, a number of case studies ahead.

1) Friday Morning. River loop. Must have been the day every man, woman and f-wit decide to don the $20 Cellbikes jersey and ride the river loop from 6am. As I approach the hill leading up to doorknock tce I notice a huge bunch of cyclist heading up the hill at snails pace. Strange? Some gumby 'team' of f-wits are riding FIVE ABREAST (yes I meant to say BREAST) along the busy main road forcing all cars into the right lane and around 40+ cyclist to follow at snails pace up the hill. Some other f-wits try and overtake on the right lane stopping ALL cars from passing.

F-Wit alert...

NO WONDER CYCLISTS HAVE SUCH A BAD REPUTATION. I'm sorry, you deserve to be hit by a car. Quite frankly, If I were in my own car... nevermind.

2) Saturday Morning. Mtb fix at Gap Creek. I rode from home over Cootha and down Dingo. Carpark packed with weekend wankers warriors. Funny thing about weekends, less people say hello and more people who think they are Sam Hill. Anyway, lots of rude people about, whatever, 20km of sweet single track finished. I decide to head out of the carpark, over dingo and down cootha home. On my way out of the carpark a Lance Armstrong wannabe takes off in front of me and I just follow on my merry way away from the carpark. A few hundred meters in I come across a kid (10yo maybe) and dad. Dad warns me about some bloke (the guy who took off in front of me) who just came past and abused his kid for not moving... wtf?! I have a laugh with the kid and take off up dingo.

OK, disclaimer. I often ride up Dingo... but i remain in granny gear and ALWAYS hop right off the track if I see other riders. I have NEVER had a problem with this.

I hear a rider coming. I pull over and walk slightly up the hill (really steep bit). Guess who it is, the lycra clad rider who abused the kid. I don't say anything. He approaches, slams on the brakes and starts having a go at me for going the "wrong way" up Dingo. Now I'm a skinny white boy, and I would never usually approach anybody, but this bloke was REAL tiny (i.e. small man sindrome) so I think, fuck it, I'll bite. The next 5 minutes spent abusing the hell out of this guy for everything from trail management, respecting others, kids in sport, being a fuckwit in general, you name it. He suprisingly (and thankfully) backed off and kept riding. I decided to follow his wheel all the way back to the carpark just to piss him off. I then took off via Beilby road amazed at this guys actions.

I took some pointers off the spin king

I often wish this would happen to some cyclists. 

Enjoy.

Something cool for the technoligically advantageous ...

I sussed out a very cool cycling app for android phones called STRAVA the other day. This app is very cool to play with!!!

The run down:
Very similar to how Garmin Connect works with your GPS cycle computer. You use your phone or your garmin to record your ride, and at the end you press stop and upload.

Sounds basic right?

This is when the cool bit starts... since so many people have been using the App around Brisbane, most popular road cycling routes, and almost all popular mountain bike rides have been added into the STRAVA system with waypoints made for trails (mtb) or road sections and hills (roadie).

Here's the Wednesday Morning Crew Ride from last week:

Yep, ok, the usual stats and map. Here's where it begins to be "cool". Scroll down on the phone and press the Segments button.

Here we have  the ride split into timed segments. The main tracks I did that morning with their length and my avg speed and time. When I click one of the segments...

It gives me a map of the trail - for this case I used Possum Box, and some stats. Every person running Strava who has ridden on Possum Box is recorded and ranked on a leaderboard... If i scroll down you can see my time of 3:09 has ranked me #12.

As you can see, I was a bit off the pace. I was actually riding with Tony (#3) and he was flying!! Shane (Brisbane South Club) is currently the fastest.

So now every ride I complete you upload to Strava and it ranks you according to you times. Mt Cootha is very popular course with over 3000 rides at the moment (I am in the 300's with my shit time of 13 minutes on my mountain bike earlier in the week).

The cons: Every ride becomes a race against the clock. I need to do some higher intensity stuff later in the week, so I might try and kill myself on some single track and see how I go!



Edited: Also, I've found out you can "follow" other uses and see all their ride data etc. This will be lots of fun!

If you scream like a big girl in the forest and nobody hears you, does it really happen?

Yes.

I screamed like a big girl many times in the forest yesterday. Seemed like every spider was hanging around just to land on me, give me the fright of my life, then just jump off and watch me search my helmet/face/shirt/knicks/socks/arms/bike/water bottle. Remind me of this ad on TV...

On a serious note - Yesterday I rode possibly my favourite do-it-all mountain bike loop to try and clock up about 4 hours of riding. The EE loop has been a personal favourite since I was first shown it on a Wednesday Morning Ride nearly 7 years ago. The loop has been perfected over the years and due to the VERY hot weather yesterday I set off at 6am from Underwood to try and get the hot bits out of the way at the beginning.

Soon as I entered the trails I ran in Mark and his mate, and his son. My plan (as always lately) was to take it nice and slow for the entire ride - distance was my goal not speed. Mark invites me to join him on the choc budda loop on my way out of the forest... all of a sudden my HR is up at 165bpm and i'm sweating like a pig. Desipte feeling great I bailed on Mark and went my own way.

Nothing like riding in the forest - on your favourite loop - early in the morning - on a Monday - nothing but you and your bike. I use this ride when I need to get away from everything. Here's the loop in pictures.

Beautiful morning, ditched Mark and the boys and back to me, myself and I

Straight out and through Cornubia Forest

The climbing begins - some quiet back roads up to a farm

The entry to the Eastern Escarpement - After this gate, it really IS all up.



You can't actually see the top from here. The EE is very ridable at the moment, I suprisingly made it up this section. I didn't make the whole way though. I have only seen a handful of people complete this climb.



Wonderful old shed half way up the climb

Almost a 360 degree view to the bay, the city and the Gold Coast

From this part of the ride it's 7-8km of awesome single track through the Karingal Scout Camp, then back home through the pony trails. LOTS of snake tracks around today, very scary following them for hundreds of metres... it makes you look twice at the next 500 sticks on the ground to check and make sure they arn't moving!

I've had 3 encournters with snakes on the mountain bike

1) Riding with Pete when a tree snake fell infront of us both.

2) Riding down grasstrees FAST, came round a corner and saw the tail of a carpet snake on the track... I bailed, fell into the grass next to the snake. This thing was almost 3 meters long!

3) Riding down a firetrail at Daisy Hill and just catching a glimpse of a brown snake as I ran over its body. I looked back and saw it fly into the air then scurry off quickly.

I'm glad number 4 didn't come yesterday.

A date with my Garmin..

Ahh Friday!

Usually I would be eagerly planning out my weekend as I count down the hours till 2:30pm - BUT, because I'm still on holidays I actually forget what day it is as the weekdays moulds into one. This week marks the first "real" week of training (week1 infact!), and also the first week of the 2012. Let us rejoice in writing the wrong date for the next couple of months... plenty of 10/03/11 12 lol.

My week started on New Years Day, whereby Lauren and I hopped onto the road bikes to ride back into the Valley to pick up my car (yes, I left it there after wayyyyyy too many drinks). New Years Day was a beautiful looking day, not too many runners or cyclists on the bikeways either.

This week also meant catching up with some friends I had not seen in months. Pete and I had been regulary riding on Wednesday Nights but had both slacked off lately. We invited Marnie along from the coast since she was on holidays. She rocked up with a brand new Mongoose duel suspension with heaps of carbon goodies!! Not a 29er but the next best thing ;)

Pete and I often comment about the serenity of riding at night. The nights are almost cold in some parts of the forest, even though the days can be up to 35 degrees. I love stopping and turning off all the lights and just listening to the silence of the forest... not for riding alone though! I don't have big enough goolies for that.

After riding 27km before meeting Pete and Marnie, then riding another 20km with them, I was stuffed! My bike unfortunately, was stuffed also. I seem to have warped the brake rotors somehow and the bike is almost unridable. I set myself 2 road rides for the remainder of the week... on the Thursday however, I copped a double flat near UQ and had to call Lauren for a ride home. Lucky I have a HARD girlfriend, who instead of driving to get me, hopped on HER bike and delivered a spare tube and pump! Woohoo, nothing worse then getting picked up in the sag wagon!

So for the training nerds - This has been the official week 1 of "base" training. Keeping pretty much all my rides in the Aerobic Endurance zone. Details thus far:

Time: 16 hours 20 minutes (excluding warm up/downs)
Distance: 281km (both road and mountain bike, excludes wind trainer)
Calories burnt: 14500 ish
Avg. HR: 139bpm

I have to say, even riding at AE zone is really difficult. I spend 90% of the ride looking or listening to my garmin. It is really difficult to keep in the zone unless im riding on the trainer or on a very consistant hill/flat section. On the mountain bike, it's a matter of keeping it BELOW the max level.

When I look at my zones data, on a 2hr mountain bike ride I stay in the zone for only 45mins... on a road ride I can maintain it for about 1hr-1.5hrs. On the trainer it's almost the entire ride. Unfortunately that's why most of the elite riders do most of their training on the roadie or the trainer. I am deliberately riding all these to keep the training interesting!

Enjoy :)

SO much adventure - Part 2

Another adventure arrived at the doorstep the next day, with a bunch of mtbdirters tackling Derek's Southside Epic Ride.

No photo's from my end, but Neil has an excellent blog you should look at - http://blog.neilennis.com/

I rode from Daisy Hill and met the boys at the top carpark, we then went onto Cornubia, Bayview, and the valley way shops. From here, Neil, myself and Andrew headed back via Karingal and the pony trails, then onto Avalon Ford Rd home.

For me it was about 55km, the rest of the group clocked somewhere near 85+km. An excellent ride with great organisation from Derek!

Thanks Neil for the photo - See more at his blog!

On the training front, I finished my first 2 weeks of high cadence riding (thank god). I don't know whether it will change my pedalling technique but I am definately 'aware' of it now when I ride.

I have started the first few days of Aerobic Endurance riding (or Base training as some call it). I used to think this would be an easy task but it is extremely difficult to keep your heart rate between certain numbers. Riders apparently get used to what gear to be in when etc, for now though I am experimenting both on the road bike and on the mtbike as to what works best for me.

The rides are meant to be easy, but they all consist of 2:30 (hour:min) rides, and when you are used to only riding a couple of hours here and there it's a big change riding 16+ hours a week over 5/6 days. I am committing myself to these hours now though, as when I go back to work I will need more free time for other things.

Hard weeks ahead mentally I think... when grandma's are passing me on the river loop and Dave is passing me on the mtbike I have to remember to keep my heart rate in the zone (which = stay in granny ring!)

Kidding Dave - Enjoy :)

SO much adventure...

Happy New Year!

Alot of small things have happend since the last blog entry, not to mention the fact that it is the NEW YEAR!

I love riding new places! I acctually get nervous when I ride somewhere new on the mountain bike... no escape, relying on others to guide, always carry an extra tube, always carry that little bit more water, some of us even carry a first aid kit on their back?????????

Some also need to pee alot... sorry Jody needed a pic of that first aid kit ;)

After a shout-out on Mtbdirt Jody and I were off to Spring Mountain/White Rock on the mountain bikes. Jody riding his carbon, all mountain, On-One hardtail and me on my XC racer big wheeled 100mm travel clown bike. Jody had warned me about the gnarly-ness of the tracks out here. Luckily, although I ride the bike paths of Daisy and Gap Creek often, I really enjoy the untouched trails too!

White Rock from one end... you can see the single track leading up in front of me

The ride was very HOT but very enjoyable, with Jody and I giggling away at all the near offs whilst riding through angle deep sand. As mentioned, the weather was very steamy due to a big thunderstorm rolling in over the Gold Coast - or so we thought!

As we reached one of the peaks we noticed the wind picking up, the sky getting darker, and that thunderstorm over the "Gold Coast" was more over Springfield Lakes now... The wind up the top was absolutely crazy.

We started back to the cars via some AWESOME single track. Big drops, jumps and massive washed out corners were in front of us, but a big storm was hightailing it behind us. As we got around half way back to the car it started raining

We pushed on with weatherman Jody predicting "this should pass soon". We passed the last of any shelter and took off on the last 7-10km of the journey. Next thing..... in the space of 5 minutes we copped hailstones, heavy rainfall and thunder. We quickly realised this was going to end in a wet and muddy ride and headed for the cars as directly as we could. The end of the ride was battling through the rain all the way back to the shopping centre.

Once back we laughed ourselves silly at the fact we were both covered in spring mountain mud... but were releaved we didn't need to use the first aid kit.

Thanks for the ride Jody!