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!

There's no money in movie making...

When I first started riding I loved watching riding DVDs like the collective, Roam, Seasons etc. These movies are all classic mountain bike movies that make you want to drop what you're doing and hop on your bike. Recently, I havn't realllllly seen any movies that come close to these films...

About a year ago I stumbled accross The Coastal Crew, this is a must view blog of movies!!! These guys started out as a group of mates filming their riding throughout BC when Red Bull approached them and asked them to help film the Red Bull Rampage. The guys have now produced their first film titled 'InsideOut' which I'm itching to see.

Anyway, support these guys! Here are some movies to get you going!

The video that made these guys famous

My personal favourite

InsideOut Trailer

Heads Down Thumbs Up

Ho Ho Ho..

Wow everyone seems to mention how fast this year has gone. This year for me has included moving into the city, doing the least amount of riding for the past 7 or so years, starting some more uni study (idiot), and enjoying time spent with my wonderful girlfriend Lauren (who reads this blog..) and some great friends.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I had some goals to set in the past week or so, and one of them is to get myself onto a structured training plan for next year. After jumping from coach to coach for the past couple of weeks I have found one I am happy with and am willing to give him a shot.... meaning, just do everything he says and hope for the best!!

So what does the plan look like? Secret!.... no not really, just detailed. The focus for last week and this week coming is basically to get some fitness back before a long slog of base training over Jan and Feb. I have also put on about 6-8kg so this 2 week interum was also used to kick start some weight loss.

In short, 2 weeks of riding with a high cadence and distances of around 2.5-3.5 hours on the bike. For me, high cadence means high heart rate... so trying to keep a balance of watching my Cadence at 90-120 and my heart rate sit at about 150-160, but trying to ride non stop for 3 hours.

 The road bike is the easiest tool for this job. This is where the saying Heads Down Thumbs Up comes from. The cool little game that kids love to play when their stressed teacher needs 5 minutes to organise the next literacy or numeracy activity. I'd throw in a picture of my 27 year 2's playing away but it's not appropriate.

Whilst riding on the road bike and keeping cadence/HR set, I seem to change gears alllllllllllllllllllllllll the time. Hence using my thumbs constantly!!!! I did 3 river loops this week, one of them extending out to 65km and sent me riding from my unit at South Bank out to Jindalee and back. That's alot of Heads Down and Thumbs Up.

I woke up to a beautiful morning earlier in the week and set off for a long slog, but this time on the mountain bike. Keeping a high cadence the mountain bike is all about fire road... and usually ones that head Up, Up, Up... Head for the hills...

River loop from home, over Cootha via channel 9 trail, up Mt Cootha Road, down Highwood Road, 30km of Gap Creek fire road (with a few sneaky single tracks to break it up), back up highwood road, down Mt Cootha on the road, round the rest of the river loop, cafe stop, home)

I get xmas and boxing day off, then back on the road bike again for a couple of days. I am doing a big Southside Epic with Derek on Wednesday and will probably shove my rest day in on Thursday. More high Cadence riding this week then I start my Base training. How exciting!

Merry Christmas!

A slow week for the blogger...

With a big uni assignment due on Friday it meant no riding and plenty of sitting in front of the computer (and a pile of books which i've put to good use........more on this later). I did however squeeze out for a quick ride with the Wednesday Morning Crew and a big xmas catch up thanks to Max.

I arrived late Wednesday, and thanks to OutdoorGaz leaving his mobile phone on the InsideGaz of his toy truck I couldn't find the group. No matter though, Jaman was turning up to work so I snuck it a quick coffee and a catch up while we waited for the group.

In other news I bought myself a wind trainer. Cool little toy that will help me in times where I lack time. Also, the good use for those textbooks? Excellent height for keeping the front wheel level on the wind trainer! Although I think they are due back on the 6th of Jan to the Griffith library ;)

Bob Irwin with Terri Irwin



My wheel isn't true but it's not shaped like an egg in person



Reading up on how to make conversation with OutdoorGaz on the Wednesday morning ride.

Pictures from the Past...





Friday morning... 5:30am... Sun Shining... A group of blokes I know are riding up the Eastern Escarpment as we speak... yes I was invited... yes I have uni work to do instead... yes, i WILL procrastinate!

What's a blog without photos?!

In true 'outdoorgaz' style... Here are a bunch of pictures showing me "outdoors".

Let's start in New Zealand:



Day trip hiking out to a glazier to do some ice climbing



  

Lauren joined in with a broken arm from 2 days earlier. Only person they've had with a broken arm climb the ice. It was a hard day for her as any small jolt would hurt like hell. And only 1 hand to hold her axe in.

 

Woooo

Queenstown



I took this photo with my crappy point and shoot, I think NZ is one of those places where you can take photos like this and it has nothing to do with the camera. It's just beautiful each direction you look.



Next lets look at some climbing in SEQ...

Toowoomba Ranges

Toowoomba down the bottom...

Ngungun... This place is magic. This was my first REAL outdoor climbing experience. The abseil/climb itself is very easy, but it's 60m + to the bottom. Imagine Kangaroo point x3. I never forget throwing the 70m rope off from the top and watching it just scrape the ground.

By this stage, I had abseiled all the way to the bottom, hooked up the climbing gear, and starting heading UP UP UP. Surreal views.

One of my favourite photo's from the day.

 Bushwalking in SEQ and Northern NSW. Not my most favourite activity, but with good mates it's always a great day.

On the way up to Lizard Point. An all day, off track, uphill walk using a dodgy map and compass. I loved this day!

I won't add many riding pictures, but Canberra has to get a mention for awesome spots I have taken the bike...

Top of Mt Stromlo after being schooled by Dave on climbing a mountain.

 Lastly, no matter where you take yourself there's nothing like the feeling of heading into your own backyard. Daisy Hill has been my backyard for a while now, as is the Brisbane river. Here's 2 parting shots just for you Pete.

Daisy Hill at night

Taking the yaks down the "backyard" and out to the Brisbane river

 Hope you enjoy.



It's all in a name...

Nobody likes a blog without blog posts... so hear's my attempt at making a couple of starting posts.

Firstly, welcome. If you are reading this chances are you know who I am so no use introducing myself. I made this blog to keep myself motivated throughout next year. For around 7 years now I have been mountain biking with friends and strangers and I have loved every minute of it. It has gotten me through some tough times and I have made some truly lasting memeries. It's also kept me from becoming a fat slob who does nothing ;)

Next year is looking like an exciting year for cycling. For once I have gotten myself into a mindset where I want to see some serious results and have set myself some very short, short, mid and long term goals which are all attainable. I will reveal these later, for now it's time to get some pics and stories on the blog to acctually make it look good.

Thanks for visiting :)