Trickle training

For Jaman

2012-01-19T22:16:00.000+10:00

I stopped in to the NUNDAHdome on my way home from work on Wednesday night and caught the finish of a B grade points race and A grade "normal" crit run by HPRW.

Saw some familiar faces ( all a lot fitter and FASTER than the last time I saw them)

A thought occurred to me, none of these pricks are smiling!

So after signing up for another year of racing in EliteB, I remembered "This shit fuckin HURTS... a LOT"

This is the sort of shit to expect from me this year, way the fuck off the front in an impossible solo breakaway

Then this lot chase me.

Then I am this

Not long now till the silly show starts.

I have weird memories of you in long red socks and red shoes

2012-01-15T18:32:00.001+10:00

Buggered if I know why, it was a song by "The National" and it was playing when I yet again visited "the hurting fields"

That's how I have come to know my local pitch, Clear Mt is quaint but I like the hurting fields

Heres the view I saw after knocking another 7 seconds off my PB up this old hill.

There I was, choking back chunks when I again became aware of my surroundings and swung around to see a group of visiting tourists who had made the drive up to check the view and got to see me dry heaving for free!

It's a great view out towards Brisbane city, mine was obscured by the fog of hurt, I put myself in that hurt now so I don't hurt so much later.

Shud up ya fuggin sook!

Making ground.

2012-01-07T16:13:00.001+10:00

After a chilled out 2011 with nothing serious in the way of training or even racing I'm looking forward to a solid year in 2012.Now according to the Chinese zodiac 2012 is the year of the dragon however after a review of the celestial calendar established that 2012 will now be known as "year of the pointless attack".

I'll attack just about any thing with these little skinny legs, quite often it will be some poor unsuspecting mate along for a training ride with me, case in point below. Skinny legs, top of a mountain and training buddy dropped well into a 17 and 22% climb

I've done this ride before, rarely with anyone joining me. Their loss.

Taking chunks of time out of PB's is great, 40 seconds or so out of my previous ascent of Clear Mt
Happy dwarf

So 96km out of the way it was home for a real quick wash up and into some of this action, I attacked BOTH tiers!

Yeah, my wife just knocked me up a quick high tea for a recovery meal...so not really it was to celebrate our awesome kids turning a year older.

I'm really seeing some improvement in my fitness and for once have been able to say I stuck to the plan I'd set, periodization plans really do work! The hilly climbs have become enjoyable again but will will soon have to end for a spell, not to many crits on our calendar with big lumpy profiles.

Sorry we are closed…

2012-01-03T21:26:00.000+10:00

Legs feeling good after yesterdays ride, with Monday usually strength/build day for me I had to change out my days. I flew out of the office at 1700 raced over to the gym across from work to beat the rush to the incline leg press and squat rack only to be met with a sign that read:

SORRY WE ARE CLOSED

No apologies or reason why. Just closed.

I could have left it at that and just head home and chilled. Instead, I hit the shed for what I call a junk yard strength session.

Improvised weighted lunges, step ups on the DB bench ( chocked up higher with timber off cuts), kettle bell core work, complex plyometric box jumps over milk crates, tried some "Turkish get ups" for some more KB core/upper body strength and finally skipping.

It was messy, sweaty and kinda dirty out there.

But.

I got it DONE.

Turkish get up for you to try:

The kids thought it was hilarious!
Edit: Ok the GIF file I linked to was hacked. Pricks!

Chasing 60's

2012-01-02T15:38:00.000+10:00

Back into it.

New year, New team, New Club.

New goals?

Opened the 2012 account with an “easy ride from Albany Creekto Mt Mee and return”. There was aTruck, a car, a pirate, intestine/bowel spillage, some dirty Canadian downhiller, a racer an odd shaped head and me.

So with 113km, 407 pointless attacks, 9000 laughs, a coke(with Stephanie!), some food and lots of shit talking. I found my place again,among like minded nutters climbing hills and chasing breaks down.

No pics today, I was flat out holding onto the bars let aloneuse a camera/phone.

Heres a gps plot instead.

Alone with my thoughts

2011-12-28T15:11:00.001+10:00

Lots of time to think, to plan and prepare for what is coming.

If you find out before me be sure to let me know here.

Until then, heres a monkey on a bike:

What I do.

2011-05-08T13:05:00.000+10:00

Some times I just ride.

Often pointless junk kilometers are what I like, I just do 'em!

Riding my rigid single speed about has been both tough and fun. I rediscovered my fire roadie days and have been tackling Mount Nebo on the SS quite regularly now. Some would say 33/20 is an easy gear but I am still finding the climbs I do a challenge in that gearing.

My RDO on Friday and I woke to an amazing morning, got the kids off to school threw a (geared) bike in the car and headed off for another Mt Nebo ascent.

Sign tells me it is this way to go up.

But wait, look closer:

The South Boundary trail has someones tick of approval!

No plan to set any PB's or push myself, too nice a day for that, so I took my time and absorbed what I usually see flash past me a 50 k/ph.
Trees! I live them ,breathe them and work with them. At times I have created life from them and at other times I have killed them. Many of them.

I see a heap of familiar Genus, mainly dominant Euc's (Corymbia.citriodora, E. microcorys, a smattering of E. grandis and E. pillularis etc) but also the lower understory stuff like Alphitonia, excelsa, the odd Lophostemon suaveolens then also the low forest floor plants like my favourite bush tucker Alpinia caerulea the "Native ginger" When in fruit I usually stop and grab a couple to suck on while riding, the slightly acidic citrus like taste of the pithy seeds almost cleanse the palate and also induce salivation, important if you are low on water!


Looking back at one of my fav spots on the trail, almost the exact point where the canopy goes double overhead and the temp drops about 5 degrees. To the right you can see the glossy green leaves of the Alpinia caerulea.

Not far up the trail towards the top of South Boundary Rd stands a couple of veteran E. microcorys (could be a stringy). These trees stand guard over the walking trail heads and have somehow escaped felling, fire (to an extent) and remain more or less untouched. Though the big bloke on the left has seen a lot of foot traffic around his flaring buttress, hopefully from getting lots of hugs.


The veterans of the forest. One day they'll succumb to gravity's pull and will start life over again as habitat for the forest floor.

Then a quick stop at the brilliant Boombana cafe for a coffee and family sized ANZAC biscuit...turn around and head back to "the world"

I wish every RDO was that good.

Keeping the momentum.

2011-04-14T22:11:00.000+10:00

4 days in a row back on the bike in "proper" training mode. Forgot how much fun putting yourself through hurt can be.

Immense satisfaction!

Wednesday nights I have been known to hit Mt Gravatt after work for some mid week stress cleansing.
5 repeats of Mont Gravatt checked off and I rested at the lookout for a moment which gave me time to ponder, is it really a Mountain? How does one qualify to be referred to as a mountain as opposed to a hill?

A short one hour recovery ride this evening saw the following transpire,

On the way home a commodore wagon pulls up beside me (i'm traveling about 38-40kph). Bogan passenger leans out and says "nice arse mate"!

I say "thanks sweet heart" and blew him a kiss...commodore roars off... guess who is front of the line at the next light just gone red? Yep, my new admirer.

Passenger leans out and says, "what did you fuckin say smart arse?" I told him that I was glad that he was in touch with his homosexuality but cautioned him about commenting on other blokes arses while his significant other/life partner is sitting right next to him in the driver seat.

Bang! A reaction!

Both boof heads out of the car,right on time the light goes green and I am away... while the now angry mob of cagers behind the commodore wait for them to move.

The other run in I had this evening was a hell of a lot cooler, a little green tree frog almost became chopped frog after he dove through my front wheel. I still don't know how he landed on my shin unscathed. I stopped and sent him on his way across the road and into the wetlands he was heading for.

Fingers crossed for a dry weekend an next 2 weeks ( I'm on holidays)!

Ooops. Quick edit.

2011-04-12T22:25:00.001+10:00

Real quick bit I wanted to add from my new NEW post.

A strange coincidence occurred leading up to kicking this thing off again.

I kicked this blog off on 11^th of April 2008 and finished building my Olmo up around a year later on 30 March 2009. I knew I’d done a heap of kilometres on the Olmo over the 2 years but I was quite surprised to see the odometer on the bike close to 36,000km.

So, come Monday 11^th of April 2011 I set off on a quickish flat loop of the Redcliffe peninsula knowing this ride I would crack the 36k on the odometer.

Belting along with COG playing in my ear I feel the sudden loss of rear wheel rigidity that can mean only one thing…. A big ass puncture. I stop to assess the damage, yep it’s a good one.

Flip the bike over, wheel off new tube in pump her up, wheel back on then flip the bike over ready to go. Blown tube, canister and tyre levers into the jersey pocket. Throw a leg over and a quick check of the computer to check the time…click mode to get to the clock, wait… WTF is that right?

Its a bit blurry but yes that reads 36001

YEP.

I punctured on the day I decided to start posting again, the very anniversary of starting this blog, the ride I knew I would crack a milestone at 36,000km and I puncture exactly ONE kilometre into it.

That can’t be a good sign?

Time out.

2011-04-12T21:54:00.001+10:00

Well, it’s been a long time between drinks. I very nearly canned this thing, no point having the blog up and not posting.

I’m kind of glad I didn’t though, looking back over my ramblings gave me a chance to see how I have changed as a cyclist and a Dad. From the outset this blog was to act as sort of a ride log and to show how tough it can be juggling being a parent and a tryhard Elite cyclist.

For bang on 3 years I have blogged occasionally and belted out as many hard kilometres as I can to do that little bit better at the sport I love so much. But sometimes, an event in your life makes you step back and look at the bigger picture.

For me it was the day my Dad told me he has Cancer.

It sill floors me and I remember vividly the night he come over and told me, I don’t remember what he said or how it was diagnosed. It was all white noise really. I just remember KNOWING.

At first, I used the anger and disbelief to fuel some seriously angry riding. I was riding quite well and looking good for the summer crit and road calendar and a bunch of open events. Then one day, I just stopped.

Stopped being obsessive about getting to bed before my kids so I could get 3 hrs on the bike each morning. I stopped eating like an anorexic jockey and I started spending evenings with the kids, I started enjoying a beer or two or six without feeling guilty.

Most importantly I started to feel normal. I know cycling will always be there and will always be a huge part of me and it is reassuring to know I can use time on the bike to sort shit out.

So that was my time out.

Dad is doing well and we are quietly confident that we are beating “IT”. So I’m back on the bike though I’ve nothing really to train for , the urge to train and race hard is resurfacing and I am laying down some serious groundwork to step back up when I’m ready.

Here we go again.

Living in the red zone

2010-11-08T20:08:00.000+10:00

I've been spending a fair bit of time near or on my rev limiter. On Saturday the needle hovered a little too long in the red.

I raced a combined Open Elite B/ Masters A event, the Fusion crit. Always a very well run and hotly contested event. With no team mates showing up, a sadly repetitive and frustrating occurrence. I had no one to work with or for, except JAMAN !!! Even with an awesome wheel to follow I still ended up popping with 5 minutes to go. With a 3 man break up the road comprised of some strong guys and my HRM screaming 195bpm the little engine said enough.

Following the wheel of attackatron, pic shamelessly stolen from the masters blog and taken by bottle biatch extraordinaire MIFF

Much love guys.

See you at Nerang for the 2010 Darren Smith Classic

Riding angry again.

2010-10-28T09:07:00.000+10:00

Probably why I keep breaking stuff.

Lots of ups and downs of late and life has been testing

Testing? How so you may ask?

Well in the form of physiological testing for starters. I have recently spent some time belting my self senseless on a stationary bike finding V02 Max, Lactate threshold and peak power. More tests to come.

Coolest little gadget I got to play with was care of my cardiologist, a 24 hour ECG device to watch my ticker and see how it is working under load. I gave it a solid work out doing a session of 2 x 1 hour @ 90% intervals. HURT.

This little sucker is worth close to 4 grand and the public health system trusted ME to wear one for 24 hours!?!? SUCKERS, thankfully I didn't break it...

Weekend just gone was the first in many that remained dry and allowed me to put some good kilometers down, it felt good to race again especially with mates who are always keen to push the bunch to it's limits...cough cough DOG! snicker snicker.

Leg speed and fast crits are the next couple of months catchwords.

Time for me to say.

2010-10-21T16:40:00.000+10:00

That is all.

Under the radar.

2010-08-22T21:20:00.002+10:00

Thats right folks.

Missed it by thaaaat much.

I'd kept my 1/2 epic a secret, sort of. I race a 50km event better then I ride 100km so I stuck with what I am (reasonably) good at.

No real specific training this time and no pressure to do well.

Ready to go. Gay how I never realized my roadie club kit matches my bike...

Positioned myself well an truly up the front. I knew I needed a good start to stay out of traffic. Allan Grant rider #1119 was the eventual winner.

I think my start was ...good

Gooing...

Going...

GONE

And thats how I stayed until a mechanical gremlin got to me, that cost me time and I watched my lead slip away. I finished 4th, yet again a podium slipped away. The upside is I felt great the whole race, was on top of nutrition etc and finished feeling tired but not shattered.

WIN!

Do your turn.

2010-08-16T15:02:00.000+10:00

Angry, frustrated, and confused.
All pretty sums up how I left the crit at Murarrie on Saturday morning.

B grade men ,40 minutes plus 3 laps.

Like most races at the 'Muzz, the stronger guys will try to go up the road at various stages in an attempt to break away. The sprinters hide in the bunch and hope that someone is willing to drag the break away back then wait for the 3 to go board to come out then start making their way to the front.

About 30 minutes in and a 2 man break is away and look to be pulling away from the sluggish chase group. The pace was almost pedestrian, 2 or 3 guys on the front and a slug from the Uni cycling club who was refusing to even do a soft turn on the front. Out of frustration I pull through and berate the soft prick for not doing his share, he thought he was blocking for his mate in the break.

With that I dig deep and drag the whole bunch after the break, retrieving them well before the "3 to go" board is grabbed out of the commisieres folder.

And.

I'm spent.

Of course I'm off the back trying to recover. That aint happening real quick but I feel good knowing that I made some one else's job that much harder and brought some hurt with me.

I hate it when guys don't do their share on the front, stinkin roadie scum! Why pay to enter a race and just sit in?

I need DIRT.

Not just me.

2010-08-08T19:42:00.000+10:00

It’s not just me kicking personal goals of late.

A chilly morning awaited me and good mate Paul (aka fly guy) when we met at gap creek for some climbing, Mt Nebo via South Boundary rd.

This kind of ride is tailor made for my Niner. Long ascents followed by wide open descents on loose gravel of hard pack. FAST and the big wheels were humming. Sadly, zero single track on our route and even some blacktop needs to be ridden to get us to coffee.

Good with the bad right?

With the ascent to Mt Nebo village out of the way and a hot coffee on the way, fly guy tells me this was his first time ascending all the way in middle ring. Solid work! I dared him to ride the return route in the middle ring also, he agreed ONLY if I did it in the DOG. Jobs on!

Climbing bitumen back towards the dirt I notice something on the road side chevrons Fly guys pedals on but I stop for a closer look.

Someone has been up to no good!

So with the ride out of the way, fly guy smacked out the return in the middle ring, another PB smashed and some ride stats we are both stoked with it was time for home but my legs wanted more! Not today though, tomorrow is always another day to train.

Broken.

2010-08-06T14:32:00.000+10:00

Big week.
Km's are relatively low though, say 350 for the 6 day week. Bullk climbing.

I have broken a few things this week,

a couple of PB's,
a riding buddy,
a rear wheel (again)

Trying some different on bike nutrition and have been seeing minutes fall from my training loop times, finding extra time for more then usual repeats and not paying for it the next day. Pity the bike isn't coping as well.

Cant complain though, broken bikes are easier fixed then broken bodies.

Rain rain go away

2010-07-28T20:56:00.000+10:00

First up congrats to all the nutters who competed at last weekends Merida 24 Hour, it was a qualifying event for the Worlds to be held later this year. lots of goals were reached, boxes ticked and lessons learnt ie Solo 24's are tough!

Now.

Why is it that when I start a new block of training it rains?
This is how today looked for me, hopefully tomorow is better. I'm running out of cycling related DVD's to watch whil on the mag trainer.

I'm avoiding to rainy rides while the mornings still have a bit of chill in them.

Solid weekend again by the looks, ITT (may be HPRW only?) Unleash attackatron at a Murrarie crit and maybe get a mountain bike dirty at some stage also.

Chasing Pies

2010-07-15T09:39:00.000+10:00

Thursday morning and a dirt night ride planned for this evening so pointed the roadie out towards the Redcliffe Peninsula.I have done this ride a million times, I know the roads pretty well to the point where I know where lumps, bumps, changes in road surface etc will occur using landmarks like advertising signs, trees and buildings.

The ride is almost monotonous.

One thing I did realise in the freezing cold darkness that is 4am and that's the sensory shift that occurs when vision is reduced, like when you hear a car long before you see it's headlights dancing on the roadside vegetation.

What hit me this morning were the smells… bakeries! I never noticed how many of them I pass on the 70 odd km's of this route. I counted 9, makes the ride tough. Fresh bread smells amazing!!

Hungry, tired. Need coffee and some of that fresh bread with banana and honey!!!

Sadly, the memory of the ride caught up with me on the way to work and I stopped at a bakery and bought…

A pie. Big fat, steaky messy tradies breakfast pie.

Meh, I'll burn those calories off this arvo.

The ride that almost wasn't

2010-07-01T12:49:00.000+10:00

I'll admit it, I was starting to get worried. It was looking like a solo hit out on the slopes of Camp Mt for me.

The ride was arranged to start at 1900, I got there early and went off for a warm up lap of the creek track…in reverse…did a couple of last minute checks of the car park and still no takers.

Thankfully two other big wheeled riding freaks turned up in the form of Deefa and the Tallboy riding prick with ears we affectionately refer to as Tr.

Bit of rain through the day and the trails were covered in "hero dirt", ya know when the trail surface is sticky and fast? My smurfette was hooking up on the big wheels and sticking to the corners like shit on a blanket!

The only situation where I came unstuck was chasing Tr on his SC tallboy, I'm a firm believer that it’s the rider getting faster not the bike making them faster… that has changed! After riding on and off with the big headed fool for 6 or so years and seeing him crash bash and gouge his way through trails, seeing how Tr rides on the Tallboy was an eye opener.

Either the mong has got some skills uploaded matrix style or the Tallboy is THAT good. Well except for when he lost the front wheel….

Oh wait… there it is… And so starts the changing of the worlds TIGHTEST bead EVER! the wheel nearly went into the bush on a couple of occasions but thanks to Deefa's common sense we were rolling again.

Good times once again, pitty the smurfette had to sleep in the garage all cold muddy and alone.

Life as a media tart.

2010-06-30T13:30:00.020+10:00

Yep, I have made the papers again. Deputy mayor Rusty Lutton and me... posing for the press.

It’s that time of the year when the mass participation events start kicking off, this year my employer is the major sponsor for the 60km option of the Wilson HTM Brisbane to Gold Coast ride. Fundraising is again for Diabetes Australia, Queensland and the Heart Foundation.
So to kick off the launch, Tuesday was a ride to work day hosted by Logan City Council and Bicycling Queensland

Seeing as the Deputy Mayor had asked me to attend and Tuesdays I usually do hill work, I threw the roadie in the back of the ute and rode Logan road towards Mt Gravatt, I was joined by the Deputy Mayor and another local Councillor who braved the very chilly conditions. We knocked over 5 repeats of Mt Gravatt, before rolling into work for a free breakfast and the official launch of the charity ride.
Logan City Council Mayor Pam Parker and Andrew from Bicycling Queensland kick off the chilly festivities

Disappointingly only a handful of super commuters and local cyclist braved the single digit temps to ride down for the launch, I think considering the temperature we were lucky to get anyone out for a ride!!

So make sure you get behind the ride, entries are open and seeing I have benefited from the work of the Heart Foundation you guys all have to enter and support the event!!

Block end. End block

2010-06-24T11:11:00.000+10:00

Sunday was my last training day that finished off my 3 weeks on 1 off training blocks.

Racing over the weekend was a points race organized by the good folk at Hamilton Pine Rivers Wheelers. A tough race where team tactics really come into play, tougher still when you have no team mates show up.

So ,what would Jaman do?

ATTACK!!!

I tried to sacrifice myself on every lap possible and helped lead out anyone willing to put the work in and take the race too the sprinters and well before they normally like it. Some close dives for the line but very safe racing had by all.

Here traveling student/Euro CXer/roadie and mtb all round nice kid Stu Bell attempts to shove his stealth carbon in front of eventual winner Reece Kirwan.

Once again I finished Saturday off with by getting some dirt under the tyres, kind of balancing out the good V’s evil and with around 130km or so in the legs I was happy for Sunday to be a nice easy day followed by the rest week I’m now on.

Easy week indeed, just a couple of one hours spins here and there. But after 3 weeks of the entire family, couple of training partners and the entire office being sick... I have finally succumbed to the lurgy, nothing much but enough to make a relaxing easy week turn miserable.

But I have read some place an award is to be given for "Attack of the week" this weekend, might drag my ass off the lounge and have a crack!?

Hmmmm, strange.

2010-06-18T10:24:00.000+10:00

Parking at the Bunya sports fields last night I noticed a distinct lack of cars and therefore riders to join me on a climby fire road ride, yeah that sort of ride can be boring and they don’t really test the skills but the beauty of riding hills at night is that you can’t see what’s up ahead!

Thankfully Deefa turned up while I was taking a call from a non attendee, voice on the phone sounded like Tr but less manly and a whole lot whiney as the excuses rolled on :-P

Deef and I head over to Ironbark ad met up with the crazy Dutchman and set off towards Bellbird grove and a little climb or two.

On route we discussed the weird shit that has been seen on night rides in the bush, I’ve witnessed everything from a bloke jogging at daisy hill in a g-string (Bubble on a trail run?) to a young couple performing the beast with 2 backs in bunya just off to the side of a trail(they were most displeased when I stopped to say g’day)

There was evidence of fornication in the bush last night, from the amorous car bonking couple who chose to leave their medical waste behind at the Bellbird grove step through to the odd mothlike critters I spied in my ayup beams goin’ for it on a shrub!

Sorry (rather thankfully) no pics, left the camera in my ute. But I can say that it was a beaut night for a ride!

Where were you?

Black is the morning

2010-06-15T21:34:00.000+10:00

The showers that threatened to make my ascents of Clear Mountain difficult this morning never eventuated, the winds that pushed the rain clouds away persisted in making the job a tad harder though.

This morning’s ride was more or less uneventful; oddly warm on the mountain, stranger still was the lack of cars travelling along Winn road. With the mornings so dark now and I find it a relief to see the cars coming before they me. Thanks to this little guy, the cagers see me and the road in front of me is paved with brilliant LED light.

So with my final ascent out of the way I stopped for a quick pic of the view from the summit

Yep, she's pretty dark still!

Bolt down the Eastern side of the Mountain and home via Aspley, grab a quick breaky and dress for work.

I have started wearing compression garments after training and have found that I feel I am recovering better with reduced DOMS the following day. I never really believed the hype that companies such as Skins saturated the market with, but after a couple weeks use I’m still not convinced the science is quite there and feel there is still a placebo effect to some degree.

Questions I have for today:

Who's up for some dirt Thursday night?
Will Jaman come out and launch pointless attacks this weekend?
Will the Commissieres outlaw the dogs unorthodox CX style attacks at crits?
Will my FSA bottom bracket ever shut the fuck up!?!?!

'till next time

TT out.

The new normal.

2010-06-14T16:05:00.001+10:00

Back on dirt.

New ride, big hoops this time. Loving the 29er but the Scandium frame is taking some getting used to. Still, I’m happy with my decision and pretty much have the new bike (dubbed smurfette) dialed.

Good time this long weekend, Saturday I raced a crit then got some dirt on the tyres in the arvo. Spent quality time with my kids and finished the HM’s birthday off with some more single track this morning.

Right on!

Sposed to be some wet weather about this week, might need to get inventive with my hill repeats location.

We'll see.

Autopilot and the slinking black dog.

2010-06-13T15:19:00.002+10:00

Wow, over three months since an update, post or sitrep. I haven’t stopped, I’ve just been off someplace else.

Every day is an autopilot day, my body tells me its time to get up before the alarm clock. I have that down to an art.

The colder weather is here, sure that makes it tough to get on a bike knowing it will be pitch black still when you get home. You just get it done.

Every morning. Zero dark thirty I’m up, softly padding out of our room and ninja my way out to kit up. I make a rule of stopping for a quick kiss on the forehead of all my little family member’s before heading to the garage, riding on the road dodging the tin tops you never know if that morning will be the last.

With nothing major event wise on the radar the training has remained constant and I feel good, hitting the hills more and welcome the burn; satisfied I have pushed myself HARD and lived to do it again tomorrow. I’ve stopped riding with HRM’s and computers of any type and just let my body tell me what I have done, might not be overly scientific but it suits me just fine.

I’m riding strong, I’m fit and healthy and loving everything there is about being on a bike.

But.

That fucking black dog is back.

That slinking mother fucker that haunts me, and around 20% of the Australian population. It’s always there and common in cyclists, some well known chaps such as the great Marco Pantani, it is still thought his death was by his own hand. The strain of setbacks and failure was too much for 'Il Pirata'. Or Graeme Obree, the famous “flying Scotsman” who has tried 3 times to take his life caused by cycling related set backs.

Ironic isn’t it? That doing something that make us feel so good can be the catalyst of feeling down!

Thankfully, cycling gets me through the down times. Even if the training plan says I have to do “X” sometimes ignoring training plans is required and I know that just by riding my bike I am on the way to happier times. I don’t need drugs.

Laying kit out, lubing the chain and putting pressure in the tyres the night before and having the autopilot switched on makes it that much easier to get it done.

I'm always chasing somethin'

climbing with company

2010-02-23T16:46:00.000+10:00

Headed back up to my local climb this morning with wheel to follow for a change. Young Brad joined me for the Clear Mt loop, it was good to have someone along to chat with for a change.

For someone who has been off the bike due to various reasons, brad bitched and moaned about not being able to ride strong on the ride...sigh... it never feels good being dropped on YOUR climb by a 17 year old whippet! bloody youngin!

Solid ride with some good climbing and at pretty decent clip and the views… ah the serenity!

I challenge you to find a better way to start the day.

TT OUT.

And back into it.

2010-02-16T22:15:00.000+10:00

Koach Karter's plan said I needed to find a 6% to 8% hill for 90 second effort repeats. I'm not good with maths so I chose to hit my friend Clear Mountain for some elevation, sure the ascents are slightly higher then the 6-8% I needed (the main faces of Clear Mt are 17%, 16%, 20%, 16% 20%... in that order from memory) but the lump of rock served its purpose.

I ascended through some misty foggy cloud and had to dodge a Tawny frog mouth and a red belly black snake who was soaking up the remnants of the heat in the road.

I found the climb easier but struggled somewhat with the constant wheel slip when accelerating out of the saddle, almost putting the t-bag onto the top bar a couple times...Knobby tyres next time and make time to head into the bush for reasons other then nature stops!

Ride while you can kids, this rain aint going nowhere!

Oakey 2 Day- Done

2010-02-16T21:54:00.001+10:00

I "raced" the Oakey 2 day over the weekend and got schooled.

Saturday was a criterium around the center of town with lots of tight corners, solid fields, fast racing and HEAT.
Man it was HOT. I suffered terribly in the heat and pulled the pin around 25 minutes into the 45 minute crit.

Great set up with some hilarious commentary and with speakers set up all the way around the crit circuit made the event fun, in a hurty fun kind of slant.

Watchin mates race, Aaron with a well deserved 6th (?) Eite C.

Sittin pretty before the hurties

And spent.

In the spirit of JAMAN's bike of the week, this was SEX on wheels. That is if sex had wheels.

DeRosa King from the FLy V Australia camp.

I finished the afternoon off with Corona's , steaks and THE most awesome carrot salad ever at Hotel De Munno, thanks again for putting up with a picky, shower hogging roadie mate. Tucker was awesome!

Sundays festivities included a 10 laps of a 6.7 road circuit or a Kermesse, while not a true kermesse in that the circuit was not completely closed to traffic, we more or less had the road to ourselves, with the exception of one of the lower graded riders who wore a trucks rear view mirror to the back of the head. QPS were on the scene and the driver charged, SCORE!

I took one big lesson away from the kermesse, hold the wheel in front and dont fuck around at the back of a bunch.

All it took was one fumble while dicking about with my sunglasses just before the climb we faced each lap for me to be dropped. I chased and chased but its lonely in the wind all alone and the body gave up while the mind wanted more. To much energy wasted prior to this bringing attacks back in the headwind. I just cant say no.

Also, it was weird racing circuit that actually had corners! Mega changes in speed on entry and exit of the sharp corners. Mental notes taken.

This was probably one of my fav corners but dicey with a bunch rolling through 3 and 5 abreast.

uuurghh

2010-02-09T22:10:00.000+10:00

I braved the predicted rains this morning as my plan only called for an easy hour spin in the little ring, bone dry when I left and by the time I rolled back in the garage I was soaked and hurt. If the rain keeps up I'm buying this:

With four days to roll over until the Oakey 2 day I have finally decided to get a niggling hip pain looked at. The pain has been on and off since my crash but seeing as it is on the opposite side of my injury I didn't think it was related...

After riding hard to try to beat the rain home I pushed a bigger gear then I should have on relatively cold legs, the left hip has been a bitch all day. I secure a spot with my sports physio who diagnosed that my hips and pelvis have been whacked out of alignment, yep probably caused by the crash.

Post crash matt_dog recommended I have my frame checked to ensure it was still square, all was well. But I would never had considered having me check!

Sigh, from a little thing a big thing has grown. Hope it settles some what before saturday, question is do I race Saturdays club crit before I head up the range for Saturday arvos race?

OK...GO

2010-02-07T21:25:00.000+10:00

January has been checked and flew by with little fuss.

My confidence back in the bunch has returned and I’m happy rubbing bar tape and banging elbows in the fast tight B grade peleton. My first handful of races were good and I’m happy to have been able to finish an Elite B race still feeling strong.

I have even managed to ride dirt… twice!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee( yes I "B" lined the log)

January finished with round one of the Sizzling Summer Series, now known as the Submerged Summer Series on account of the first 2 rounds being held under WET conditions.

February kicked off with HPRW’s final round of their Twilight series, next up is the Oakey 2 day on Feb 13 and 14. Saturday starts off with a 45 minute criterium followed by Sundays 53km road race. Weather permitting it is going to be a great weekend of racing.

Now if the rain will let up some I can get some proper riding in.

TT out.

Ready to go.

2010-01-14T22:08:00.000+10:00

The past 2 weeks of training have been ticked off freshening up the base I had prior to crashing.

All the road rash is healed and I can grab the handle bars with no problems.

My first race for the season is this weekend at the LunarC 8 hour, starts midnight Friday.
I wont be grabbing a number for the one however, instead I'm out to work as pit bitch for hard man matt_dog. This guy is pretty low maintenance so I should have a cruisy night ahead of me leaving plenty of time to heckle and maybe test ride an unattended bike or two.

First chance in earnest to pin a number in an test the nerve of riding fast in a bunch will be Wednesday 20/1/2010 at the 3rd of the Twilight Series, looking forward to it but not sure how I'll go rubbing elbows in a fast moving bunch again.

Body wise, good, no actually great! Ya know when you have had some solid kilometres in the legs and given your limit a slight nudge and they feel fresh but have that bit of lactic zing left in them a day or two after?

Sums up how I feel.
Koach tells me the plan is going to get tougher as of next week. Bring it.

TwentyTen.

2010-01-01T14:21:00.000+10:00

It starts here. .
I dont usually get to involved with New Year resolutions but since I pay more attention to plans, the diary, callendar and dates etc I figured I'd actuually put some goals in concrete. This year I aim to be fitter, faster, stronger and remain illness and injury free.

I have an intense race calendar in mind with a training plan to match, the monster in the belly is ready to get stuck in and i'm fired up. Only thing left to do is get it done.

Watch this space

A return …again.

2009-12-24T14:13:00.000+10:00

It has been a long time between posts, July 19 2009 was the last time I updated this place. Partly out of being time poor, but mostly for not really having much to share. So, 5 months is a fairly long time. Lots has happened, many kilometres have been pedalled, my bikes have seen a few upgrades and priorities have changed.A crash at a recent crit resulted in a hand injury and a bit of bark off the body, not really enough to keep me off a bike for to long but long enough to give me time to think, plan and update. The dog requested an update and he is too nice a guy to ignore, so here goes:

The upgraded 85mm carbon race wheels, they make cool noises.

Being a stinkin roadie:

Road or rather crit racing has been the backbone of my year, a goal I had set from the start and I have accomplished most of the goals I had set for the skinny wheels. With the help of good mate and koach Steve at Uturn and support from my club and team mates at Dutton Cycles has seen me rise up from a struggling C grader to a consistent (consistently popping and falling off the back) B and Elite B racer. I rode my very first ever team time trial at the State TTT's. Our team finished 10th from a field of 13 so not dead last in some pretty tough conditions. That race taught me a bit about working in small groups and rolling quick turns or echelons. My first Elite B race was an eye opener and left my floundering thinking WTF had just happened and why my lungs had tried to escape through my throat!

While racing at local and state levels I have picked up few "skills" riding with the club and have learnt a great deal of race craft from Mr awesome and my race idol JAMAN and on his recommendation 's I have made numerous pointless and unnecessary attack while racing, thanks mate! So I am now happy with finishing the races well and having the horsepower to keep up with the fast guys, just need to work on some more strength and power.

Racing, it hurts alot but is sooooo worth it.

2010 will see me continue with crit and kermesse style racing with a hope to branch out to some proper open road events and will be following yet another Uturn fitness plan but need to go firm on some race goals for next year and get them to Steve.

When you are good mates with the guy that trains you it's not always hard work.

Sundays are for dirt:

Generally this has been the case, where time or road racing calendars allow it. I haven’t really done anywhere near as much dirt riding as I had planned, frankly I don’t see that changing next year. Enduro's, marathons and solo 24's are great fun and a real test but I just don't have the time to prep and then spend the day to 2 days away from family and or work to commit to them. Girly excuses aside I did cross off one long term goal, I lined up for the half epic once again with a goal of a top 10 finish which I achieved in very hot and extremely dry conditions. So with the road bike getting all of the racing duties the dirty old MTB's have been set aside to remind me how riding is fun and not JUST a training thing. I'll hit the dirt plenty next year but haven’t really set any race goals, this obviously can be changed and I'm open to suggestions.

And finally, me.

This is possibly where the best news is.

An appointment with my cardiologist was set after a plethora of tests including MRI's, a stupid amount of X-rays and numerous echocardiograms. I'm something like 3 or 4 years overdue for my valve replacement and I figured this was the appointment when he tells me it's time for anothery. To my surprise it was completely the opposite, I was advised that I wont need another op for at least another 5-7 years and when I do have it the op will NOT be open heart but could be done via a catheter. STOKED, having your sternum cracked is not fun and if it can be avoided then I'm all for it! The Doc's only real concern was that my resting heart rate of 40 BPM was "a bit low"… I explained where I am at with training etc and he was happy enough with that.

The crash I mentioned earlier occurred on the last corner of the last race of the season, I clipped a pedal on a fast corner on at the end of the bell lap at close to 60k/ph on hotmix asphalt resulting in minor damage to me and the bike but nothing to serious. The skin is growing back and the bike should be easily repaired.

Going, going, going... and gone

And the aftermath

Apologies for the lack of updating and I promise that the updates will me more regular in 2010, I'm sure I'll have something to talk about… I always do!

A strange new place.

2009-07-19T09:36:00.001+10:00

This is a first for me, actually having a structured training plan AND sticking to it. Super coach Steve Tapper from U-Turn Fitness has been awesome, although my work/training/family commitments do not allow time for one on one training sessions. The plan Steve has me on is working a treat and ties in perfectly with the time I have to train, quality over quantity and I am already feeling the improvements.

So to finish the training week off the plan tells me to race a crit or hard dirt ride, I’m enjoying riding and racing on the road with my club so I ticked the box marked CRIT. HPRW were hosting their Club Criterium championships at the Nundah course meaning HPRW members only, so I made the trek over to Murrarie to ride with the Balmoral Cycling Club at their home circuit. Having never race here I went to my go to guy for all things tactics JAMAN, and as I expected he said to ATTACK. I did… lots. Saved some in the tank for the last lap snuck my way into about 5th wheel behind a group of four Data 3 team riders who had control of the bunch, with half a lap to go I jumped them on the inside and put 100m on the group only to be caught with around 50 meters to go. I didn’t have anything left so no point contesting the sprint.

Sure I ran out of puff but I attacked hard and recovered well. Placing and grabbing some cash is great but busting the bunch up and making the winners earn their spots is pretty rewarding also.

Ghetto.

2009-07-13T17:38:00.002+10:00

Riding dirt again was weird, but heaps fun.
Following good mate nikko around Daisy with a newbie in tow was great. The skills are still there where I left em, right next the camelbak and knobby tyres on my prophet. Hopefully we can keep these dirt rides a little more regular.

First road ride back after a week off, rudely interrupted by a tiny little head cold. Decided that after a hard couple of weeks a week more or less off the bike isn't going to hurt to much. Rolled down the driveway at 0415 with no real direction in mind just 2 and a bit hours of testing the legs out. Man it was cold this morning, not sure if it was abnormally cold or if I had just gotten used to sleep ins with the heater going. I had donned all of my usual cold weather riding kit but by the time I had got through the low flats area of Bald hills I was chilled and I could feel it in my chest, stopped at the next mailbox I came across and nicked the occupiers Aldi catalogues, folded once and slipped them down the front of my jersey. Ghetto winter warming idea No.1 !!! It worked and the ride was that much "warmer" from there on in.

Aldi, they sell all sorts of useless crap who'd of thunk the Catalogue itself would actually serve a purpose???

A new training plan has kicked off and this time it has been structured properly by a PRO so I know I will soon be seeing some fitness gains maybe in time for n upcoming event or two...

Returning

2009-07-10T09:35:00.001+10:00

Its been a while, a long while I guess and a few friends have reminded me that people read the nonsense I carry on within this blog so I'll relight the fire under this thing again.

First up, the Dench family Malaysian holiday and what an experience that was. A fortnight or so on the island of Penang followed by a week on the island of Langkawi and our little family were starting to turn native. Upon our return to "sunny" Brisbane we discovered we had missed all sorts of fun and some of the heaviest rain the region has experienced for years!

So with over a month off the bike and our holidays end had us returning to a cooold Brisbane winter. When it came time to throw a leg over a bike again it was immediately obvious that a diet of noodles, rice, sensuously fragrant coconut based curries and copious amounts of Malaysian, Dutch and Japanese beers had resulted in a very carbo loaded body. Only one thing to do really, ride hard and ride lots.

Every morning starts at 0400 and single digit temperatures and consists of 2.5 hours of bike time alternating between flat out efforts around the Redcliffe peninsula and hill repeats up and over my "local" at Clear Mountain. Yeah the mornings are cold and it hurts doing 14 hour days after training and then work and home for family time but everything seems to have gelled and it is working.

Last weekend I decided to jump back into the road racing and planned to step up to B grade again, woke up feeling like absolute shit and decided to ride C grade not sick just my ever present friend the booger (sinusitis). I got to the track in time to see the likes of Jaman, and super coach Steve "exkarter" from U-turn fitness finish their B grade race. My race went well and I was able to test the legs a little with a few kicks and attacks into the headwind along Nundah's finishing straight taking the Prime for the day and busting the pack up a little. After watching a few club races and listening to the advice of Jaman I got to put some racing tactics to use and felt more confident in positioning myself in the pack and riding at speed in a bunch again.

This weekend is a return to fun times on the dirt, Daisy Hill for a play on the funomatic flowing trails then time permitting a handicap open road race at Elimbah.
Side note, I know blog entries without pictures suck but I couldn’t be bothered messing with this stupid laptop.

Spotted

2009-04-30T16:45:00.005+10:00

I was parked in my work car, tapping away on my lap top when a cyclist whizzed past. As usual I looked up to check out the bike and then I realised I knew the rider... none other then the attack-o-matic JAMAN!!

Mad bastard had been out on some very early roady kays, on the bike at 0300. Not for me, I'll wake up to go riding then but DAMN he is committed to be on the bike allready!

Yeah he looks like he asleep in the saddle but he was just shocked to see me.

ATTACK!!!

GAR 6 Hour Enduro

2009-04-09T13:00:00.008+10:00

Otherwise known as Slopalalooza.

Hard race, lots of sticky sticky mud and good times were had. The bike may think otherwise...

Once again the Cannondale Prophet was faultless and sailed through the pools of crap I asked it to endure. It even got a fresh set of boots pre race. Maxis Medusa mud tyres were to be used but I use mine so rarely they had perishing cracks in the sidewalls, Maxi highroller Type R on the back and Maxis Advantage up front proved a great combo for the conditions.

BEFORE.

I had a goal of 12 to 15 laps for this event and to stay on the bike prety much all day. I wanted to road test my nutrition plan and keep the stops to a minimum. Now, due to such sucky conditions and a crash where I have damaged a nerve in my right hand I was limited to 10 laps. I know I had atleast 12 in me but the more frequent then usual drivetrain clean outs ate into my time so I had to be happy with just 10. The imprtant thing is I am happy with the way the bike went and I rode cramp free. All in all a pretty good day in the saddle.

And AFTER

Didn't need suncream last Sunday!

A thank you and congrtulations go to good mate and hardman Matt Powell. Matt rode strong all day as usual to cap of the weekend with a well deserved 3rd place and only minutes from 2nd place. Matt and is a wealth of knowledge and advice, I have gained alot from riding and racing with the Dog!

Winners are grinners, though I'd say the bottle of plonk Matt got for 3rd place would have been used for cooking only.

Groundwork

2009-03-30T20:17:00.003+10:00

So the consecutive days riding was a bad idea, I didn’t aggravate any injuries or anything like that, it was just really hard to do. Logistically it SUCKED, having a bike in the car every single day became a pain in the arse. Recycling knicks is WRONG and saddle sores are assured (dumb idea). But I got what I wanted done and I can tick that one off, oh and for the record. Mag trainers and spin bikes should all be piled up and burnt. I hate you stationary trainer things!!!

Training, its working. Road racing license, CHECK. New road bike, finished and I'm looking froward to racing more with a new club The guys at Dutton Cycles have been great and have really helped me along with the road training and racing.

Finsihed, at last. 7800 Dura Ace is as good as it is made out to be.

So far the year's goals are more or less coming together reinforcing my belief that riding bikes is food for the soul… if I feel good on the bike then everything else progresses nicely off the bike. Sooo whats next?, this weekend is the GAR 6 hour dirt race then some time off from work to catch up on assignments. I’ll still be getting into plenty of riding, I really want to ride dirt more, silly roadies tend to make you loose skills FAST.

After receiving about 2 meter's of rain over the past 3 days (ok, not really that much rain) the event is sure to be a mudfest…JOY. I am finding it real hard to motivate myself for this one, its hard to be stoked about riding in SLOP. Meh, just get it done.

Ride more?

2009-02-27T12:33:00.000+10:00

So just for giggles I am setting myself a goal of riding X amount of days consecutively, My first goal is a conservative 14 days in a row but I need assistance, some constructive input for rules.

Such as...
What is a ride? How long is the minimum time to be considered a ride? (1 hour?)
Is a spin bike at the gym really a bike?
Do mag trainers count?
Etc etc etc.

I plan on fitting more rides in and possibly some commutes to work (62km each way) hence this silly idea. So your thoughts please.!!!

Fire roadie.

2009-02-08T07:43:00.005+10:00

It's been a while since I’d lined up for a day on the fire roads, mainly because I find this sort of ride incredibly boring. However I know they can be beneficial training wise often due to the sustained climbing involved. Mates Paul, Dan and Ray assured the ride was going to be fun regardless.

Starting from the bottom of the infamous goat track for the first climb of the morning, I’d decided that my goal for the ride was to not leave the middle ring all day which I achieved even up Lightline the longest climb of the day.

The results of a very low speed lie down on the goat track... I still dont know why.

The route was primarily fire road with some sneaky “single trail” thrown in on top of Mt Nebo. So yes boring but the scenery and piss funny company more then made up for the lack of technical aspects of the route. Having said that we encountered some baby head sized rocks strewn on the trail which later caused Ray some grief with the first mechanical of the day… followed about 50 meters later by a random pinch flat. Ray was not impressed.

Fixing the chainsuck from hell... and 3 minutes later a puncture.

Onward we climbed… descended… and climbed some more then descended into the first real flat section of the ride, unfortunately this signaled the start of our creek crossings… I think we rode or walked around 7 knee deep crossings, the water looked good enough for a swim as by now everyone was feeling the humidity.

Paul discovering wet feet were unavoidable

The famous Lightline didn’t claim any victims today, i.e. no one walked the thing and it was my first ascent in just the middle ring which I was pretty stoked about. A quick handful of dried fruit and a drink then we were off to chase the remaining kilometers along the bitumen to take us back to the goat track and back to the cars for breakfast.

Ray summed this ride up by saying “ If you have to do a boring fire road ride, make it that one” couldn’t agree more. That was fun!

Mountain to Mangroves…

2009-01-18T09:07:00.002+10:00

I’d planned on meeting with some mates for a ride from Brisbane to the Gold Coast and return but due to meeting times conflicting with the kiddies daycare arrangements I had to skip that ride and opted for a solo ride.

Why I rolled out the driveway at something like 1030 I will never know as the temp was already getting HOT. I pointed the bike towards Strathpine to grab a spare tube and then proceeded on towards the backside of Clear Mountain, surprisingly very little traffic on the road which made things less hectic due to limited road shoulder on Samsonvale Rd.

It had been a little while since I have ascended Clear Mt on the bitumen and it didn’t take long for me to start wondering where my climbing have gone!? I was having a real hard time of keeping a solid grip on my freshly wrapped bars, the amount of sweat running down my arms had soaked my riding gloves to the point where it was safer to ride gloves off, a bit disconcerting on the descent afterwards though!

Carried on towards Redcliffe via a brief stop at mate matt_dog’s new workplace at AYUP to say gday and get out of the heat for just a little while. Short respite over and some plans for some early training rides to help Paul with his BMC100 prep were laid…

The headwind on the ride over the Hornibrook bridge and back along the peninsula towards home were brutal! Thankfully at some stage headwinds turn into tailwinds and the final 15km home were easy, ONLY 75kms in the legs. Actually thought the loop would be longer but still happy with the ride and plan on making it a regular loop.

Oh and a parting note, check the expiration dates on suncream…toasted.

Amazing.

2009-01-14T09:59:00.000+10:00

It never ceases to amaze me how distracting and revitalizing cycling is. Any negativity, personal problems, work stress or what ever is bothering me is quickly forgotten and thrown swiftly out the window as soon as I throw a leg over the top tube of a bike and clip a pedal in. It's like nothing else matters… well except the self preservation bit of dodging tin tops and the smashed glass that seems to be EVERYWHERE lately!

You can be in the absolute pits and an hour or so of flat out intervals spent tasting bile at the back of your throat soon has you retuning your mood and taking a look at things in a whole different way.

This riding thing really is shit hot

Rolling over.

2009-01-11T12:14:00.004+10:00

Rolled over checked the time 0345, great I beat my alarm clock (probably the only victory for me this year hahaha) Bounce out of bed and into a set of knicks, shovel a banana down and start pedaling.

I hate riding my mountain bike on bitumen but the ride to a ride thing helps get kilometers in the legs and I always throw a few intervals in and bunny hop over/off everything possible on the way. I am back in a pattern of early starts and have grown to enjoy being just about the only soul out on the roads but this morning… well I have never seen so many drunk dudes in the middle of nowhere eating meat pies… lots of heckling for wearing lycra and for being a poof hahaha.

Planned to meet up with good mates Paul and Peter (up for a visit from Melbourne) at Ironbark for some climbing before venturing back over to Bunya way to pickup my Bro Scotty for his belated birthday ride. Got to the car park with lots of time to spare and got a second breaky of honey sanga’s and a gel down my gullet. Yummo!!

Waiting...

Good mate and long time heckler Pete made the trip up from Melbourne just to ride my Norco!

Long standing tradition of making riding buddies wear ridiculous hats on helmets on birthday rides… sucka

Easing into it

2009-01-08T10:25:00.003+10:00

The training plan said a Wetlands ride was on the cards, 70kms and at a cruisy pace to keep within the base training guidelines…except neither me or Nikko felt like riding to Redcliffe. So a route change was agreed upon and we set off toward the city. Fun uneventful trip out, got to Southbank and the botanical gardens in time to see/hear the band Faker crank out "this heart attack". Live music on a training ride, AWESOME!

Nikko kept complaining about "not having anything in the legs" but I found myself having to punch it up a notch to stay with him… except for on the climbs. Most random abuse hurled by a fellow cyclist at night on a bike path? "Turn your lights down!" from an older gent riding with next to no lighting… WTF!?

Saw a young fit lassie wearing this:

Made me giggle seeing as my iPod is now caput hehehe

Legs still feeling great so I ventured out this morning with some colleagues in training for some longish chharity rides, nothing to fast but another 50 odd kilometers into the "base bank". The crew have already undertaken a Brisbane-Canberra ride and have more planned for this year, check them out here

Too Zero Zero Niner

2009-01-07T09:39:00.004+10:00

So, the celebrations are all over. Diet and training back to normal… plus some! The trails seem to be slowly getting back to normal aswell.
Weight has blown out from my happy to be at 68kgs to a heavy 72kgs, poor diet? Lifting heavier then I need to at the gym? Either way 4 kilos will be lost in no time.

I gave my brother Scott a copy of Solo24, this has inspired both of us to really knuckle down and get some personal results firing especially on the dirt, bring on the hurt! Possibly not quite as much as what Gordo put himself through though…nutbag.

Training is well and truly underway but for what? I still want to race as much road as I can this year and my Olmo beasty is nearing completion. I decided to stick with a groupset manufacturer I know and have riden for some time and sourced a Dura ace drivetrain from a mate just need a good set of light race wheels to top it off. Goals for road riding is to step up from C grade and start finishing well in B and depending on how training rolls out try some bigger races maybe even an Audax??

Biciclissime Olmo awaits a build up…it hurts seeing this frame hanging from my wall and not being able to ride it… SOON!

Dirtwise, enter every possible endurance event on dirt. First up are a couple of 6 hour events to build up to a solid 24 hour effort. An 8 week plan is in effect with a very solid base period underway and a promise to my family and my body to train better this year (heard that before havent you?) I'm really looking forward to what the year brings on two wheels and see where my riding will take me.

Pickles.

2008-12-14T20:33:00.004+10:00

Like just about everyone I suffer from celebrating the festive season. Work Christmas parties and drinks with friends always result in the consumption of way to much booze and the wrong foods. I am coming off 4 days of straight boozeathons and I honestly can feel my body begging for mercy after being poisoned for the past 4 days.

So, the New Years resolutions are starting early.

First one on the list, spend more time with my monkeys. Check.
Grabbed the girls and good mate Paul to attend a gathering of the retro grouches, techno weenies, trainers and racers I spend most of my year riding with.

Good times, lots of laughs and most importantly time with the kids.

Breathe

2008-12-07T15:34:00.001+10:00

I did some pointless rubbish kilometers today, no aims or goals just wanting to ride a bike after zero riding due to crumby weather and bad ass storms through the week. I don’t know how far I rode, how long it took or what speed I did it in. Stats don’t matter today. What I do know was how awesome it is on a bike and how lucky I am to even be able to ride one. To keep my mind wondering and to stop mulling over bad news I plugged in my iPod and listened to tunes for distraction.

Getting close to a visit from the fat man in the red suit. Mega busy and not getting a great deal of riding done, I HATE this time of year.

I think my bikes hate me.

SSS

2008-12-01T12:05:00.006+10:00

Sunday Sanity Session.

Lots of stuff happening around me lately not all good.
Needed to get my head around things so I jumped on a bike with a plan to ride until whenever. Left home a little after lunch with an aim to ride myself ugly.

Rode to Bunya and hit most of the singles there before meeting with fly to retrace my steps in the singles again, dropped fly off at his car and picked up on the back of the Bunya Sunday Cruise. Did a couple of trails with them by which time the singles were getting boring except when we come across this sitting in the forest...1600 and time to head home...via clear mountain…Ouch.

Stopped near home for a quick refuel and home just on dark, only needed the Ayups ever so briefly.

Mmmmm Black death

95km, 2 liters of water, 1 goo, 2 magnesium tabs, 1 bottle of coke and a neenish tart... great way to work on the Oreo tan lines... might do that again next weekend but with more dirt.

Without friends.

2008-11-25T14:52:00.000+10:00

I'd be lost.

When you are down the only place to go is up

Stormin...

2008-11-23T06:52:00.010+10:00

The past 7 days has seen Brisbane get repeatedly hammered by major storm cells and when it wasn’t raining it was humid…damn hot! Which usually resulted in an afternoon thunderstorm. Last Monday’s storm was reported to be the worst seen in over 20 years, it was huge. While our area received bucket loads of rain we escaped any real damage however areas around Mt Neebo, the Gap, Samford and Bunya (yes all the areas we mainly ride) were decimated. Entire forests defoliate, entire streets of homes damage or destroyed and major damage to infrastructure etc etc. Scary stuff.

So with a solid week of zero riding because of the weather, fly and I head out for a road ride after I finished work. It was a late start by our standards and we didn’t hit the road until 1400, meaning it was HOT… and the wind gusts felt like around 70kph. Tough going. Our plan was to head towards our usual stomping ground at Bunya to see for ourselves the damage caused. The ride out was uneventful, other then being buffeted by hot headwinds. I didn’t really feel the heat until we had to stop for traffic, it was then that you realized how freakin hot it was! A one bidon ride was very quickly looking like we should have attached a second or third to the bikes! Poor fly was really feeling the heat so it was a case of attacking everything then rolling along until he’d recovered and caught up… then repeat.

Busted little buddy, damn hot conditions though!

Once on the Jinker track we realized the extent of damage caused to the forest! Massive trees down everywhere and the entire area looked like there was about 20% tree canopy remaining. We decided to check out one or two of the easily accessible trail heads of Jurassic and Log track, wearing road shoes while walking on loose dirt aint fun. Some big trees down and a heap of water damage to the trail surface, the trail fairies had already been out and some clearing started but it is going to be a looong time before we see the trails the way they were.

Start of the Linker track, its like the trees have all been hedged down!

Paul at the base of a massive tree completely uprooted on Jurassic

Big water wash out... this sort of stuff is going to take some filling in!

So taking a leaf out of the book of Jaman, I attacked the single track on a road bike..110Psi felt like a hell of a lot more on the dirt!!! You can take the boy out of the dirt etc etc... Probably the funnest part of the ride seeing as we struggled in the hight temps!

Fresh blood…

2008-11-16T19:49:00.012+10:00

A plan was hatched to roll around Daisy Hill for a couple hours to show my brother Scotty what’s on offer on that side of the river… Met at nice guy fly’s place who was voted as carpool king, awesome ! We loaded up and headed south, fly and I recalled the now infamous St Albans trip earlier this year. The trip we now think is the reason our buddy Pete moved to Melbourne, lots of laughs had on the way south. Didn’t even get stopped at the tolls to have our green cards scrutinized.

Parked and kitted up we run into trainer extraordinaire Simon “freddo” Frederikson who was dressed resplendent in his now famous knee high stripy rainbow socks. Freddo was pretty muddy, I wasn’t inspired to continue on, I hate muddying bikes up.

Not to muddy but juuust right.

The trails were in pretty good shape with just a few puddles holding water, wes topped at the little rock garden at the start of Tunnel of Love for Scotty to session and get his confidence up. He was doing ok but got a little embarrassed when a bunch of escaped circus staff rolled through on unicycles making him look ordinary. I’ll never get why people ride those things in the bush.

Cleaned it second go...

Escaped circus freaks

We were looking at a blood free newbie intro ride until half way down Ripleys, We ride this trail like a giant pump track gathering speed out of every corner and staying well off the brakes… probably should have slowed down and given Scotty the inside gossip on front wheel traction while cornering. I had stopped once I caught fly and it had been a while since I’d heard Scotty when I heard a faint hhhheeeelllppp, back tracked up to find a busted but not broken Scotty with some nice bruises and grazes from a FAST front wheel wash out.

The damage caused (stopping eating sausage rolls you slug!!)

Good times, Highlight was the Choc doughnut at McDeath on the way home… lowlight being 3 grown men not being able to scrounge $3 for toll. Global economic crisis has bitten hard!

Hard base kilometer week starts Monday, bring the burn. I also see my Cardiologist tomorrow to collect my glowing report to give to the Doc’s at ADF recruiting.

Lazy Bones

2008-11-14T20:56:00.009+10:00

With lack of focus comes a distinct lack of enthusiasm. With nothing really left to train for race wise this year I lost the urge to push myself on my bike(s). Instead I’ve been back in the gym, lifting heavy again which means I ‘m heavier again. 68kg not to many months ago and now back out to 74kg, wont be hard to loose again but may come in handy for a new “project” I have on the boil, more on that later.

So what’s happened?

I celebrated my dear old Dads 70th Birthday by sending him up into the sky in a P51-Mustang, an aircraft almost as old as him! According to Dad, you have not lived until you have traveled at 400mph in a V12 supercharged World War Two aircraft. That’s going onto my list. Oh and we snuck my younger brother Peter back home from Afghanistan as part of Dads Birthday suprise too!!

A new focus towards road racing is proposed along with this has come a new beast in my stable in the form of an Olmo Dynamic. Handmade Italian carbon(and alloy) goodness with thanks to the Manager of my department at work. Now I need to decide 1. will I ever afford to build Olmo with a Campagnolo groupset or defile it with Shimano Ultegra (which I prefer)???

I lost my best mate, Ella our female Golden retriever, she died from complications of a paralysis tic at 2130hrs 4Nov2008. I cried for loosing her as mush as when we lost a child, I still miss her terribly and have constantly seen her in the backs of peoples utes and random front yards I just keep seeing her…

Miss you Elly Belly...

Right, new project. Heading back to the gym and gaining weight is for a reason, a new career path. My application to join the Australian Defense Force is currently under review as the ADF want to be sure I am physically fit to serve my country. This is something I have wanted to do my entire life and I am focused and committed, I want this BAD. So my training focus shifted to all over strength that I will hopefully need early next year.

Saturdays are back to being fun dirt days, tomorrow I show my bro Scotty around Daisy Hill. His first time out there, its going to be hot, humid and probably a little muddy.

Hang on kids we are riding again.!!!

I fell off.

2008-10-21T20:23:00.007+10:00

Baaaaaack!!

After falling ill just prior to the recent 8 hour enduro (chest infection) I decided that I was
In dire need of a holiday I decided dropping off the radar for a couple weeks or so would be a good idea. I had promised my wife Tamara a while back that the family would get a break and so a week away was locked in.

Bored... sick... driving the bus.

We decided to take the kids north to Coolum; a TOTAL bike ban was in place… I made the most of this time away from bikes by running every other morning ( a new adventure I have planned requires me to get some running legs again) and doing my favorite push up routine ( Google Pavel Tsatsouline, Hit the deck program) resulting in around 1800 push ups a week.

After a short paddle and around 5 seconds inside the green room of my favourite beach break I rediscovered why I was addicted to surfing and body boarding for an 8 year chunk of my life. I spent ages down at the beach with my kids, they loved it and so did I !!! Sandcastles ROCK!

Damn waves killed our sand castle!

I made time to read, I picked up some books from a local library. Of the 3 books I selected, one I read 3 times in the space of the week.. The book titled “The complete book of long distance cycling” the first 18 pages completely summarized me and where I have been going wrong in my training over the past 2-3 years… then set out how to do it right. I also read a lot about nutrition and how to steer clear of the lurgie! Fuel my body pre and post training etc. Some new methods to trial and some very exciting goals ahead!

It pays to listen sometimes.

2008-09-24T07:17:00.000+10:00

The people I ride with often inspire me to push harder, train longer or simply ride faster. I often hearing from my training partners, non cycling friends and family that they are concerned I am training to hard, inefficiently or to often. At time they have been right though I haven't listened and I have soon trained myself sick or into an injury. I've learnt to listen to the people close to me and take most of their advice, sometimes I am a little to pigheaded and simply stick to doing it "my way" often with dodgy results.

Now a couple of weeks ago on our regular Monday night road ride we were stopped by a guy we labelled " the random triathelete guy" who wanted to know how often we ride the circuit, we told him he was welcome to join us when we are out, more the merrier. As it turns out the random tri guy has a name, Stuart. Stuart was waiting for us last night to take part in the efforts… wearing Australian Triathlon squad kit… crap, we are in for some hurt! Thankfully Stu had already put some solid kays in the day before so the pace was fast but easy. So during the course of the night and in between the usual riding chit chat we spoke about training, injuries and training with medical conditions. Its about then when Stu stopped us in our tracks and absolutely floored us with the story of what he has endured over the past couple years. Never before have I met an athlete who has come so close to loosing more or less EVERYTHING they have strived so hard for. Stu's story is truly inspirational and a real wakeup call, I urge anyone serious about training to visit Stu's website and get smarter.

Can you Dig it?

2008-09-16T14:55:00.016+10:00

Over the weekend a bunch of MTB Endurance racing fans got together at the site of the Insomnia 24 hour at Kurwongbah on Brisbane's North side to cut some new single trail for the upcoming 8 Hour enduro event. As the property is heavily used for horse riding there is a fairly well established trail network however Mountain bikers being Mountain bikers we wanted more fast twisty but flowing sections with some technical aspects thrown in for measure.

So with shovels and mattocks in hand we set about turning sloping off camber banks into benched twisting single trail, the newer trail sections cross some little gullies and also required some berm work in spots where a change of direction was necessary. All in all the work completed isn't to technical but will still be a heap of fun to fang around for 8 hours or so…

Highlights of the build day were finding a mother load of Scorpions under a log we moved to make way for a bridge we made to cross "Scorpion Gully" and hand forming some really fun berms that will be a blast to rail!

Benching work coming up out of "scorpion gully"

Begining of bottom berm, this one finished real nice.

This is going to be a fun event, I just need to keep the long solid kilometres ticking away now!

The regulars.

2008-09-10T20:40:00.004+10:00

With some more acceptable early morning temps clocking on it’s a hell of a lot easier to get motivated and out into the bush again. Even through the coldest mornings through winter there is a bunch of nutters that meet up to ride the brilliant trails at Daisy Hill. Every Wednesday with the exception of the wet ones, outdoor Gaz and crew are turning pedals and having a blast. I join these guys every now and then and always come away grinning big time.

I had the dawn patrol shift to myself and I don’t think there was another soul in the forest at 0430 when I clipped in and hit the dirt for an hour or so before returning to the car to meet the bunch.

This morning was reported to be the biggest turn out yet ( word was Out I was coming.. ok I made that up) close to 27 guys made it out and sampled some super tacky and mega fun trails. To spice things up we rode the usual trails in reverse… wow, the trails you know like the back of your hands are soon totally different! I had so much fun I lost track of time and was “late” for work… ooops.

So, early morning Mt Cootha repeats with the DOG tomorrow… need to get stronger and riding with this guy is going to help.

Headwind hurt.

2008-09-06T17:08:00.007+10:00

Woke up this morning on a promise. I promised training partner and good mate Paul (fly) to ride with him for his first shot at crit racing. My head is still full of mucus from the sinusitis I haven’t been able to fully shake, I wasn’t sure if I’d pin a number on or not… I figured as I was racing with fly I would be putting any big efforts in I’d be fine.

Paul and I rolled from my home to Lakeside raceway for possibly the last race there before the historic track is torn up… and hopefully replaced quickly! Todays race was a reverse direction with a hilltop sprint finish. Other then a stonking headwind the conditions today were magic! We paid our money grabbed a number and warmed up, fly was a little nervy so I wanted to keep him moving…less time to sit still and think.

Me and fly... are we having fun yet!??!

I assured fly that this race would be at a moderate to hard pace but that he would be fine sitting in the bunch. WRONG. From the start the pace was hot across all categories, the guys off the front went out real hard and didn’t let up. I lost track of fly and it wasn’t until the second or third lap that I realized he was sitting on the Armco at the side of the track. So, race plan out the window I attacked hard and pulled in the lead guys to hang off the back and recover some. With the hilltop finish there was a points King Of the Mountain (KOM) prize, one bloke in particular seemed comfortable he would take each and every point… I figured I would change that and attacked him and any other sucker on the front at the base of the climb… of the 6 I contested I only missed out on 2 .

Chasing down another KOM point and on my way to popping...

The headwind we faced at the back of each lap was devastating forcing everyone to dig way deeper then usual, I was really finding it hard to recover here and it with 3 laps to go I was caught by the pack and spat off the back. Once again I went out to hard to soon, but at least I put a heap of guys into the hurt locker in the process.

Jaman, looking lean and fast as usuall... AWESOME

Props to fly for giving it a go, I hope he comes back for another go. And well done to mate Jaman for a hard fought 3rd in A grade, looking strong mate! This little crit lifted my spirits and even though I felt crumby I raced hard and had a blast, after a week lacking motivation I am looking forward to hurting my legs next week!

Off target

2008-09-01T12:52:00.001+10:00

So with the half Epic out of my system I need a new goal event to train for. I'm not saying that generally staying fit isn’t reason enough to hammer out the kilometres, I find I train best and get the most results from my training when I have a solid goal to aim for.

So I need to decide on an event, one that I do have in mind is the GAR 8 hour enduro race held on the same trails as that of the Insomnia 24 hour… and very close to home! So riding for 8 hours, I can do that. Riding fast for 8 hours, not so sure! I plan on setting a kilometre goal for the event, ideally I would like to trundle out a 100 miler or around 160km. Time to start going long again.

One area I discovered I was lacking in after the Epic was climbing, I simply have avoided doing to much mainly out of injury fear. Recently I hooked up with endurance racing hard man Matt Powell for some dawn patrol repeats of Mt Cootha, I learnt a couple of things that morning but what has stuck most is that gym legs are not bike legs so more repeat mornings are on the agenda.

First day of spring has hit and it is getting warmer and the sun is rising earlier… going to be awesome!

Epic 2008...next time maybe?

2008-08-25T14:40:00.007+10:00

Heres my report from the weekends effort, its long and drawn out but its how I like it:-)

I Drove out Sunday morning with my wife Tamara and daughter Lilly as support crew, I was watching the outside temp on my cars dash all the way… it was hovering around the 4.5 degrees the whole way out, I really didn’t feel like racing in those temps again!

Thankfully by the time we stopped at the 50km start the temperature was closer to 10 degrees and I was happier. I unpacked the bike and got some riding gear on to start spinning the legs and warming up well before the start, waiting for my riding buddies Nick and Deefa to arrive when up comes Rach who somehow found her way to our start point after missing busses and hitching a ride with some good Samaritans. I was getting jittery and wanted to get going, Rach was in for her first go at this one and I think I was stressing more then her!!??

By now Deefa And Nick have arrived and we have warmed up and ready to race! Our cat start gets called out and we head over to get a position at the front near the Elite men starters… but we waited to long and were met by a wall of riders. So the gun goes off and we are away with a huge bunch of slower riders, I could see the front of our Cat and the Elite men slipping away…not happy. All good, I roll along with Deefa and Nick close by in a hope we can get through the new first 8kms of rough fire road and make some time then try to catch the front on the bitumen and dirt section Before the first major climb up Laidley Gap. This is where I shot my race plan to pieces and let my hot head get the better of me.

There were a lot of riders in my Cat that had sub par skills and it really showed in the first 8kms, they would bolt on the down hills all locked up and skidding out of control then hit the bottom dismount and the push their bikes all the way up every single hill. The problem being is that they blocked the entire track, I started out politely by calling track or on your right etc but in the end I lost it and simply screamed "if you don’t plan on riding your bike get of the fecking track". By the top of the last hill I had made up a heap of places and punched it into the dog for a fast descent to the bitumen. Railing and dodging lots of baby head sized rocks but totally in control. Legs feeling good and wound up the tempo to start picking off numbers until the base of the Laidley Gap climb. I passed Rach (started 10 minutes before us) and yelled at her to get on my wheel for a tow, she hung in for as long as she could and I spat her off the back. I left her hoping my lead out at least benefited her some, at this stage my race plan was coming back together but because I had lost sight of the leaders I didn’t know how hard to crank so I was on the rivet until CP3, tapping out a solid 36-40kp/h.

I blew straight through CP3 and by the time we turned upwards again I felt I had made a chunk of ground on the front guys as I was constantly passing guys but never being passed since leaving the start. I am feeling great at this stage, legs have heaps left and I still have a heap in the tank. Climb up Gorman's gap and come across a guy in agony with cramps so bad his knees wont bend, I stop and throw my last magnesium tabs to him and sprint off to catch the bunch of 3 I have had in my sights. The next down hill section was dispensed without incident and we hit the bitumen before the single track of Hiddenvale… when suddenly I POP, seriously I think there are still pieces of me out on the dirt. Out of nowhere Rach busts by and makes me look like I am standing still... but the upside is I was only passed by her and 2 other guys. By now I am in the hurt locker and looking for the key to get out but I knew we had a little over 11kms to go and it was all sweet sweet single track!

I catch the wheel of a fast looking lady (Sharon Heap) who turns out to be the winner of the Elite womens event, we team up and swap turns through the singles passing a handful of people until we hit an unmarked trailhead. We quickly consult a marshal who assures us we need to go right…but the trail to the left looks more used!!?? So off we go through some very difficult rock gardens and tense single trail, about 15 minutes later ( or close to 5km) we emerge onto a fire trail and pass a bunch of people… we had passed some 20 minutes earlier…WTF!!??

So pissed off we bite the bullet and bang on, now things are looking familiar and we can hear the crowds at the finish shoot. Sharon takes off and I let her go, I roll through the shoot where Tamara and Lilly are cheering out at me… those few seconds made the last 30 minutes of mistakes worth it! So with a ride time of around 3 hours (almost 30 minutes longer then I planned) I sat down for some lunch and a big hug from my family, to my surprise my training partner fly had made the long trip out to watch us all come in and handed me a crisp cold beer…just what the Doctor ordered, thanks again mate! So while not totally happy with my time but through no real fault of my own I finished in 17th place, my self corrected time places me in around 5th place.

I met none of my goals set for this event but can not be happier with the way I rode, nutrition was spot on, my bike was ballistic and didn’t fault once. In the end it was MY race and I am stoked with how it went.

Finished and happy...

So congrats to Rach for WINNING her first marathon event also a shout out to Naomi, Matt_dog and Pete (winner) for category placing's in the mega Epic (@218kms!!)

Rach: to the winner goes the spoils...

Commiseration to Nick who lost his bet with wife Miriam, Nick will now be washing the dishes for a fortnight…
Domn't look to happy Nick, you have a date with some suds!

Nut bag award goes to Deefa (Derek) for riding the 50 on a fully rigid bike… crazy kid.

I'm worried.

2008-08-19T12:48:00.002+10:00

So 5 days until I can hopefully spank the half Epic monkey off my back.

Poor nutrition and a crash last year knocked me from 4th place with 12kms to go and saw me finish somewhere around 20th. This year my goal is to better that. Ideally top 10 would be nice in a time under 2hours 20minutes.

I think I have trained enough to achieve this but I'm having my doubts… have I trained enough? Has the training I have done been specific enough for this event? Have I tapered enough? Etc etc etc blah blah blah.

I plan to stay on top of my race nutrition this time, what I thought was sufficient last year resulted in me winding up in a puddle of cramped muscle spasm mess. It wont happen again.

Very little happening this year in the way of riding. A little roll around our newly extended road loop at Northlake's, newly laid hot mix roads with varying inclines, Ace! Fly and I welcomed a new comer this week, Ron has been on and off a bike for the past year or so and wanted to join in on the Monday night shenanigans, hopefully he will become a regular cos I am sick of dragging Paul's sorry ass around by myself! kidding mate, I owe this guy a thank you for keeping my attitude in check and for reminding me to chill out when I have trained to much. Thanks champ.

I plan on doing another moderate road ride or two this week to keep the legs rolling over and continue with the massage etc Good chance to catch up on some time with the family!

Brain buckets are a must!

2008-08-12T16:43:00.007+10:00

I decided to ride Clear Mountain via dirt with a bunch of guys from a local web forum, After riding from home to the starting point for a short ride to the trail head. The ride from home was um a little brisk, I figured I'd be warmed up enough by the time we hit the shaly single track of Clear Mountain…wrong. I still had arm, leg warmers and a Gillett on until around the half way mark. So other then being cold and the legs felling a little tired all was good, lots of climbing on really loose rather steep inclines mixed with some Mega single track. FUN!

The bunch regrouped before pointing the bikes downhill, very downhill. Nick "Justcruzin" rocketed off on his clown bike 29er, after the second big water bar he looked sketchy... bikes don’t steer all that well in the air.

The descent...it was fast even when on the brakes!!

The crash that ensued probably rates as one of the fastest and sickening I have witnessed, when we got to him Nick had sat himself up and it was evident how hard he had hit when I picked his helmet up and it was in 3 pieces only held together by the internal webbing and its shell. Thanks to some well applied first aid and a couple of GPS units we evac'd the very sore patient to a road for collection, had we not had the GPS units we would have been faced with either a very long walk/carry out the way we came. I think I know what I want for Christmas!

The damage?

1.Broken and dislocated clavicle

2. 4 Fractured Ribs

3. Partially collapsed Lung

4. Brain - Ok, helmet did it's job for sure!

Get well soon Nick!!

Saturday Singles.

2008-08-12T16:32:00.010+10:00

Saturday morning was set aside for dirt, single trails and laughs.
Fly and I planned to meet at 0800 to escape some of the winter chill, I set out earlier for an hour or so before meeting up with him and it was cooold. It was good to hit some familiar trails after doing so much time on the road bike, trails were a little loose and dusty but still great fun to hit on the old Norco.

Favourite ride at the moment, Circa 1996 Norco Team Issue... Steel is real

While out we stumbled on some "North Shore" stunts…ghetto style, really badly constructed but well ridden. Not a chance in hell either of us would ride that sort of sillyness.

Now, dirt on Sunday or more bitumen?

Keeping it fun!

2008-08-08T16:40:00.008+10:00

Training a lot lately and have started to forget that riding bikes isn't just about smashing yourself silly every ride!

Wednesday's "social" ride with work colleagues was fun and very interesting. The group was a very eclectic bunch on some weird and wonderful machines. There were old commuter bikes, folding bikes, road bikes, some very OLD Mountain bikes and some bikes held together by pure chance… I think some of the bikes ridden have been stashed away for a looong while and haven’t seen a great deal of maintenance.

Our destination was the Berrinba Wetlands for a tour of My employers new Environmental centre. While the ride wasn't exactly the normal sort of ride I would do it sure was interesting, the environmental centre is the new jewel in Council's crown. Lots of good old fashioned revegetation has been conducted to reclaim an old Sand mining site with a few "tech" additions. Looks like a great place to take my little family for a BBQ!

High tech environmental Educational centre...and bikes!

The touch screens above linked back to the intragoogle and is capable of streaming live images/footage. Cool!

Lots of riding this weekend, A heap of dirt on Saturday and finally some Northside single track followed by chasing white lines all day Sunday.

All going well at some stage the rebirth of my Prophet will conclude just in time for the Flight Centre Epic just 2 weeks away.

I think its working

2008-08-05T20:02:00.001+10:00

Riding hard, riding often, and pushing new boundaries. A new Personal best set and a reminder of how awesome it is to push yourself so hard on a bike you feel like puking…but don’t.

Mixed week so far but still on track training wise. Finally getting some dirt under my tyres tomorrow. I’m also heading out with a heap of office folk from work for a little social ride that should be fun.

A little over 2 weeks until I get to see if this hard work has paid off.

EDIT for Paul:

We stumbled across this GMC Delorean...No sign of Doc "Emmett Brown though but we are pretty sure it was running a 1.21 gigawatt flux capacitor...

Be here now.

2008-07-30T21:42:00.002+10:00

As some of you may know I was born with a heart condition. It’s an issue I have been dealing with for well… my whole life! The condition is called Tetralogy of Fallot and I have undergone a couple of open heart ops to treat/repair it, they were easily the most traumatic periods of my life.

Why have I mentioned this now? Well there’s a couple of reasons, I was flipping through an old photo album and found a picture I asked my Dad to take of me around 3 hours after the operation(I decided against posting the pic here, that would be a tad weird). I’m hooked up to life support and in Intensive care. I seriously get a tear in my eye and choke up a little when I look at the picture because it reminds me of the pain and trauma I went through, but in reflection without that surgery statistically I wouldn’t be alive… and I scored a sweet ass scar on my chest too!

That last open heart surgery was late November 1996 at just 19 years old. It was about here where my life kind of started again, one reason being sort of a new heart that didn’t hold me back and the second reason being my fitness preparation for the operation included a heap of cycling… and that’s more or less how and why I am here today riding bikes!

And the second reason? Well those that visit here and read my ramblings you may have noticed a newish link over to the right. I stumbled onto the Cardiac Athletes website while researching my condition, I wanted to fully understand the hows and why’s I could be facing if/when I face more surgery. The website has some very inspirational members with a lot of info to share and some very humbling stories from all walks of life. You don't necessarily have to be effected by a cardiac disease to benefit from what these guys have to say, well worth checking out.

Catching up.

2008-07-29T07:41:00.003+10:00

My apologies for my lack of posts over the past week or so, lots of assignments due and a minor case of Sinusitis slowed things down. Last week was an easy week training wise so it didn’t worry me to much about not riding the km's I'd planned. Still a handful of kilometres were ridden and my legs are feeling pretty well ready for a big week this week. What riding that was achieved was in some great weather conditions, warm crisp and clear, speaking of this shot was taken at close to the top of Clear Mountain during my new favourite back roads loop:

A cold snap has hit the usual sunny Brisvegas this week with single digit temps already this week and a bleak outlook for the remainder of this week will need some serious motivation to ride out the front door. Unfortunately I didn’t have that motivation last night, a combination of bitter cold and no training partner meant that I wasn't on a promise to meet with anyone… So took the soft(er) option and punched out a leg strength session at the gym instead. My leg strength is good at the moment I feel and I'm starting to enjoy lifting some heavy weights again… well as heavy as my little frame will take.

So all going well this week will see my kilometres tally reach an all time high…if I can just bring myself to face the cold dry winds outside

What can I say, it’s addictive!

2008-07-20T09:32:00.000+10:00

It’s a well known fact that roadies and Mountain Bikers are always arguing which discipline is better… Most guys who ride dirt shudder at the thought of riding around in lycra with shaved legs and skinny little wheels, I don’t really know why roadies have an issue with Mountain Bikers? From the first time I rode and raced a road bike I have been addicted to the speed you can gather on the road, the rush of riding fast in a tight bunch and the rapid increase in fitness gained.

Of late the bulk of my training/riding has been on the skinny tyres, so come Saturday I pinned on a number and rolled out with an eager C- grade bunch around Lakeside International Raceway for 40 minutes plus one lap. I was really keen to do well here to prove to myself I am capable of stepping up to B-Grade.

On rolling past the start finish line for our second lap I noticed my Wife and kids had go up early and faced the winter chill to cheer me on, so after all of the tactical pointers given to me by good friend Jaman during warm up I attacked at my favourite point of the circuit where I know the roadies are always napping. Out of the saddle and around the bunch up and over the only real climb and descent to the straight away… driving out the front alone sucks but I figure I looked pretty good for my family…such a poser. I looked around at the end of the straight to see the bunch just cresting the hill and settled into a cruisy pace until they picked me back up ¾ of a lap later.

So with that silliness out of my system I went back to the plan of positioning myself for a strong finish, I ignored the prime and just concentrated on my spot in the bunch. With 2 laps to go I was sitting happily in around 7th wheel and planning on holding this spot until I spotted a point to attack, the bunch was organized into two files when we reached the end of the straight and I figured Jaman’s tactics where going to pay of until BANG. I’m on the ground, some guy come chopping in from my left out of nowhere and took me out. So pissed off I gathered myself up and did a quick systems check of body and bike and sprinted after the bunch, sadly I got within 100 meters of catching them on the bell lap and just couldn’t get them back.
Sooner or later something has got to go right for me…right??

My Bad.

2008-07-20T09:11:00.000+10:00

Every third Thursday of the month we skip our flat out wetlands road ride in favor of a Mountain bike ride into West End for noodles and maybe a beer or two. Sadly I opted to put training in front of fun with mates. Sorry guys. While it may seem I have my priorities all wrong, I’m sure you know I have my reasons.

So while my mates were off terrorizing the streets of Brisbane, I kitted up and punched out an ITT from home to the Redcliffe Peninsula. I made pretty good time with my iPod distracting me from the rubbish headwind I was pedaling into. I was feeling good when I reached the Hornibrook bridge and made the descision to ride on over what has to be the worst length of bitumen in Brisbane, with tyres at around 110psi this thing will shake your fillings loose. So in a couple of minutes under 2 hours I rolled into a nice warm garage with 60km on the clock. Friday is a rest day and time with the kids! For my first big km week ( well big for me) I don’t feel bad at all, think I will give Saturdays Crit race a crack.

Can't sleep clowns will eat me.

2008-07-16T14:56:00.003+10:00

For various reasons (that I won't go into) I was tossing and turning all night last night. Then at 0230 this morning I got kicked out of bed by a 2 year old.

So seeing as I was up I figured I would do something productive. So with my legs still aching from a hellish leg strength session at the gym on Tuesday I threw some knicks on and ventured out. The weather looked cloudyibut rain didn’t look immanent. I head out towards Albany creek and some hills, by the time I had reached the "I've gone to far and it's to late to turn around" point I was saturated… wet pink argyle kit mixed with road grime looks shite. So with tired legs and body I had quickly lost interest in this ride but seeing as I need the training I continued on.
Pulled back into my driveway about 2 and a half hours later wet, mildly cold and covered in all manner of crud. It's kind of ironic really, I had planned to do this ride Tuesday night but backed out because it looked like rain. I did take pics of how much water had been dumped but my camera phone is now drowned…

The hard road starts.

2008-07-15T10:35:00.002+10:00

So with the training starting in earnest this week I have kicked off a Six week training plan I have strung together from previous plans written by the guys at Race Elements and from guys like Matt Powell and Rhino. A combination of long kilometre weeks, extra leg strength sessions and working on leg speed and increasing my lactic threshold.

My good mate and training partner Paul met me for some loops of our usual Monday night road ride with the emphasis on intervals and keeping the average speed up. The weather was weird last night, almost as warm and humid as a late summer night but still with a little chill in the air. The ride over to meet up was eventful, trucks swerving at me and an inconsiderate Jeep driver who cut me off so he could get into a service station 3 seconds quicker… stupid tintops.
So after 2 hours in the saddle, a hard hit out and a few new personal bests set I rolled back home with around 60km's on the computer. Very happy with how I am feeling with my legs and body feeling fit, strong and fresh. With a big week planned I am sure my opinion will change some time shortly.

Aagghh What Next!?

2008-07-15T09:52:00.000+10:00

The morning started out well, met up with some mates for a trundle up to Mt Nebo Via South Boundary road and the climbs up Creek and Augies. Legs feeling good for the long hard climbs ahead with the plan to ride at a higher tempo rather then push the usual mid to bigger gears. I made it as far as Creek Rd… everything felt fine and I thought I was sweet to finish the ride with gas to spare. The body didn’t let me down, this time it was the bike. A poor tradesman blames his tools blah blah blah I know but when I started descending Creek Rd nudging 59kph and go to grab some front brake to wash off speed only to find the pads are just spinning over the disc… I think I puckered my saddle. I quickly looked for a flattish spot to lay the bike down if need be with only a back brake to slow me. Somehow I pulled the bike up and assessed the problem, I found that my recently rebuilt lefty had spewed oil all over the rotor hence zippo on the front braking front.

By now fly guy had caught up to me in time to see me throw my Cannondale into the shrubbery. Told him I was out and that I was heading back to the cars, fly continued on and finished the ride quite strongly. Always the quite achiever and has a sneaky little reserve tank that he fires up just before the end of a ride/race… watch this little guy carefully.

I walk/pushed/rode my bike back the way we came only riding the wide-open descents and walking the really fast sections for fear of catapulting myself off the Mountain at speed. Seeing as this was what I called the last of my "base kilometres" rides before training hard again I figured I could hammer up the climbs and take the descents with care, so pushing big gears and attacking all the climbs home was what I did… until my BB started creaking and started to partially seize…by now I was basically out for a hike with my useless hunk of bike… the bike isn't all to blame, it is well due for some serious TLC after 5 years of racing and riding in often very ordinary conditions.

So while the ride ended early and with a looong walk I'm happy with how I felt and ready to start some real training.
The next Six weeks are going to be hard.

No more mud thanks.

2008-07-11T09:24:00.000+10:00

Free to a good home, one entry for this weekends USM Noosa Enduro... ah No Thanks!
An entry was on offer and I have quickly declined, I have had my share of mud this year.
The Noosa Enduro takes in some really quite scenic bushland around the small townships of Cooran, Pomona and Kin Kin. In a previous job doing Power line vegetation surveys I drove, rode and hiked a lot of this area in particular the Noosa bike/walking trails and the old forestry and unsealed dirt roads. This area really is worth visiting and offers some awesome views ( not to mention some huge trees that escaped the loggers axe).

The area has received a fair bit of rain of late and lots of mud is predicted, so much so the course has been altered to avoid some of the worst affected areas… I can hear drive trains shrieking in muddy torment already!

Rhino is back from his foray in Italy and is locked and loaded for another shot at the Noosa Enduro. Good luck mate, hope the drive train doesn't fail you this year.

To anyone else riding up there this weekend, mud tyres are a must. The one time it’s ok to run skinny tyres on an MTB… oh and what ever lube you currently running, consider replacing it with a good quality wet lube.
Stay dry and keep it upright folks!

Extra.

2008-07-06T14:08:00.000+10:00

For Thursday night I decided I would start getting a few extra kilometers into the legs before joining up with Nikko and crew for the usual ride. I set of home and headed towards Sandgate via Strathpine and Bracken Ridge then onwards to Boondal wetlands to get me to Nikko’s pad. The ride out was into a moderate headwind with heaps of peak hour traffic to play traffic light drag racing with.

I had forgot to charge my ipod so I was without tunes for this ride which ment I was going to be doing a lot of random singing… those who have ridden with me know how bad I am.
So riding at a solid clip into the headwind I made Toombul in just under an hour, happy with that but had to keep reminding myself to leave something in the tank to keep up with the lads and to get myself home. Once I picked up the crew I quickly realized the pace back out to Redcliffe way was going to be high thanks to Tom… and 5 minutes later Tom had lit the wick and was away, I responded and hung onto his back wheel for as long as I could. With the average speed now nudging 40kph I wouldn’t stay there long.

Once the bunch regrouped at the turn around I was really struggling. Cramping tired and felt empty, a decision was made to ride back to Nikko’s and catch the sag wagon home. Thanks again for the ride fly. To much to soon after the gastro thing me thinks, all going well I can start training properly again soon.

Weight loss 101.

2008-06-30T16:52:00.002+10:00

So after a week off training, riding and away from work… numerous blood and "other" samples have discovered what caused my incident at the insomnia.

Dirty bidon bottle or Camelbak bladder… it seems I got myself a visit from a little parasite called Giardia duodenalis. Hence the major gastro, nausea loss of appetite and major weight loss. Even though I clean my camelbak bladder thoroughly and refrigerate after each ride it appears that I have neglected my bidons, simply a quick rinse out isn't enough for them! Pay heed all, Doc says to wash out well with warm soapy water and follow up with an antibacterial solution such as Milton formula to really knock the bad bugs on the head.

My bacterial friends...

So after those fun and games I am now around 4kg lighter for my efforts and feel weak and feeble, I think I lost about 6 months worth of muscle mass and endurance in that one short week!

Back onto some skinny tyres tonight, planning on benchmarking myself to see just what I have to work with an formulate a plan from there

Insomnia...or not

2008-06-24T15:48:00.001+10:00

I had an absolute shocker over the weekend. I was all set to pedal out a planned 10 laps or 175kms, my Cannondale Prophet was prepped and up to the task and even without to much training ( ok just about none) I was ready to go also.
I met up with WRBers Deefa, Rach and Bubble. Deefa riding solo men’s and Rach defending her women’s solo win from the inaugural 2007 Insomnia. Set up camp and quickly registered, started to see some riders coming in from practice laps with a lot of mud on their bikes.

With the rain that fell on Friday afternoon I knew there would be mud but there was no way I was expecting what we rode through… more on that later.

Mud anyone?

So I lined up with Deefa and ran into a heap of familiar faces, lots of hellos and giggles shared. Hooter goes off and we walk, run, jog, laugh, hop, skip etc our way down to the bikes Le Mans start again this year). First lap out is lots of fun, chatting with other riders and not really setting a fast pace but staying consistent. Within the first 6kms we hit the really deep mud pits, lots of slow sideways zero grip single file sections and slippery climbs. Deefa is already having dramas with his front mech that just don’t want to shift into the granny ring… could be a problem later. Highlights for the lap are being passed by a lady on an old rigid “thing” then overtaking her midair over a jump…landing in a front wheel wash out at 40+ kph and sticking it, Flying towards the five ways and scaring the crap out of the marshals hitting 49kph with them screaming turn turn turn!!!! Braking late and turning… always in control. On the homeward leg only to be caught by Dogtank who started a full 10-15 minutes after us, it would seem he got a traffic free run and was able to hold a slightly quicker pace, something to bare in mind perhaps.

End of lap1, feelin good.

Quick stop for eats and a drivetrain clean by the Sock Puppet Racing team… get kicked out of transition for taking to long then on for a second lap still going well, Bike still sounds ok with no real drive train issues still shifting sweetly. Fairly uneventful lap really, still lots of mud and no real line that makes things any easier. Starting see more familiar faces about on the track with lots of hello’s from folk I haven’t seen in a while, a lot riding solo for the first time and looking strong! Unable to beat my marshal scaring top speed this lap, but plan on bettering it next time. Funny moment for this lap was stopping for a pee and hearing Deef exclaim “ I Pissed on my leg while overlooking the dam. Spose its hard to hide with the dry mud on my leg. Not to worry” ha ha ha the guy made lapping in shitty mud fun. Quick transition for a clean and some bike eats and we are off for lap 3, still feeling really good.

Lap 3 and we know what to expect now, starting to dread the mud pits of death but have accepted that they are part of the loop and we cant avoid them. Decide to walk around the pits this lap to avoid muck in the drive trains, feet are muddy and wet by now anyway. Tactics are starting to come into play, we are calculating whether we will make our 4th lap a double in time before we have to put lights on, shortly after Deefs is having mechanical issues and we decide we just wont have time so opt to ride a single. I get to max out my marshal scaring descent speed this lap… up by just 1kph to 50kph, Deef is telling me it still looks scary fast… check in with Deef to see how he is holding up, says he feels ok but the gooch could do with a rest. I’m still feeling ACE and ready to punch out lots more laps! We roll past the main stage head up the climb towards the dam wall descent when it happened. I told Deef I needed to slow up for a bit… didn’t feel right in the tummy… started cramping…better finish this lap QUICKLY. Once we pulled into transition I figured some solid food might settle things down in the stomach department, how wrong I was. A torrent of diarrhoea ensued, I quickly realized that riding on would be a very bad idea and decided to pull out of the race. Pity because other then the silly gut I was primed. I guess next year I will have to try again...

Heading into transition for the last time...

Thanks for the laps Deef and well done for almost rounding out the 10 laps we planned!

Thanks also to the dawg for encouragment and advice offered over the past few months, it is working I just havent had a proper chance to apply it.

Ready... I think

2008-06-20T15:12:00.002+10:00

Gear is packed, bikes serviced and ready. Body hydrated and stretched.
Now all that leaves is to get a good nights sleep and head out to Kurwongbah way some time tomorrow morning.

I am expecting mud again this year as we just recieved around 25 milimeters of rain in the space of less then 15 minutes... yay.

Still, looking forward to what is going to be a ball tearer of 24 hours playing on bikes! This time tomorrow I shoud be on my third lap and riding a little bike... stay tuned for pics!

Trippin.

2008-06-18T08:51:00.000+10:00

Before I forget, a quick congrats and good luck to Ryan Rhino Hawson who has been selected for the Australian marathon team heading off to Italy in just a handful of days time. Rhino has been putting the hard kilometres down and I am sure will do the flag proud.

Good luck champ and thanks for all your input thus far.

Excuses?

2008-06-18T08:38:00.002+10:00

I haven't any really.

I have been riding my bike as often as time ( and the weather conditions) have allowed me to. I will admit the fire was dwindling, its been hard to motivate myself to get out on the bike lately, I have concentrated on some leg strength sessions at the gym to compensate but there is just nothing like time in the saddle…

So training/riding started again properly this week, back on the road bike with fly guy on Monday night where my younger brother Scott made a guest appearance on my old rebuilt Mongoose hard tail ( in dirt trim, knobbies and all). I convinced Scotty to come out for just one lap of the circuit with us and promised we would ride at his speed… which we did…which was quick! Scotto rolled out of his driveway and hammered in the dog the whole way round until the "points" climb where fly and I dropped in behind him and sent him off the front, we sat behind Scotty in a rolling road block to stop him slowing on the hill. Result: detonation! Poor kid was fighting back the bile of a lactic acid explosion. Props mate, you rode well considering your lack of fitness but I'm pretty sure we will see you back on a bike regularly real soon.

The GAR Insomnia MTB festival is this weekend and while I haven't really trained for this I am heading out for some laps with mates including dares, lots of piss taking and plenty of laughs guaranteed! The plan is to lap around with WRBer nutbag munno on a handful of laps on my prophet and then pit in and start my Rum lap, yes a rum lap. Munno has some cans of rum chilled for me, to earn the cans of black gold I have to complete a lap on a BMX. Yep a 20 inch wheeled single speed back brake only BMX…I seriously think that lap will take a while to complete. Will it hurt? Probably, will it be fun? You bet!

Finally some thank you's.
I 'd like to thank the folks prompting me to update this blog, I am honoured that others read it and it genuinely came as a surprise when people started asking for updates. Thanks for re lighting the fire kids. You know who you are.

Running out of time.

2008-06-03T10:07:00.003+10:00

With the Insomnia 24 hour looming quickly (21-22 June) on the horizon and the heavy rain the region has been receiving I am running out of dry weeks to train! So back onto the mag trainer for an hour or so every chance I get. Boring?, yes. Beneficial? I don’t really know but at least I am moving my legs around… all money in the bank right? To make matters worse my next few weekends are taken up by overtime with work… maybe racing the insomnia on very little training is a bad idea?
Pffft, when do I ever use common sense? I am going to ride as hard as I can providing the race stays dry.

Mag trainer, raining outside... Home and Away on the TV what more can a guy want... my face tells all.

Inactive

2008-05-28T12:26:00.002+10:00

Wow. A solid week of next to no riding, either from lack of time to zero motivation.

Lots of assignments due and new ones recieved along with some chilly weather have made it difficult to get out, the cold weather has made it hard to get motivated to head out by myself... cough cough FLY cough cough.

Plans are in place for a structured training schedule that wont result in me exploding about every couple of months...

Evil mucus.

2008-05-21T10:03:00.001+10:00

Hay fever is nasty, with the recent high winds we have experienced a lot of dust and junk has been whipped up. The hay fever symptoms I can deal with but the medication I take really knocks me on my arse. Not a great deal of riding this week I think.

Lacking structure

2008-05-21T10:02:00.000+10:00

Last week was a hard one for me, I kind of lost direction and was riding randomly. No real aim just turning pedals.
After a mega leg session at the Gym Wednesday morning I should have been resting up that evening, a longer then usual commute to home found me getting in late with both of my girls already tucked in an Tamara trotting off to bed more or less as I walked in the door. I usually like to see the kids go to bed before I ride at night. So with no one else to talk to I headed out to Clear Mountain and put in a handful of repeats on the bitumen, while my legs did hurt some I knew I was going to be a tad sore come morning but I wasn’t prepared for how I woke on Thursday. Put it this way, walking wasn't an issue but stairs were. My building at work is only 5 floors high and I make a point of never using the elevators but I simply could not walk stairs! Maybe I over did it?

I was considering not riding with Niko and crew until I got word that Tom was joining us along with Daz who I knew hadn't been on a bike for a bit, I figured Tom could attack off the front and take fly And Nikko off with him and I could hang at the back with Daz. Too easy! The journey towards Boondall was un eventful with Tom off the front doing his thing. As soon as we hit he wetlands Tom opened up the throttle and I had to respond. Attacks all the way out to Sandgate, I was hurting. Once we reached the turn around point we lapped the round about twice and the chasers were still nowhere to be seen so headed back towards home, on the climb up Eagle Terrace a very large semi trailer pulled out in front of us, Tom and I tucked in behind him and caught a 40+kph ride until we reached the turn off to head into the wetlands. From there on in it was Tom on the rivet, I hung on for dear life and got towed most of the way home.
That hurt… a lot. Tom suggested I find some structure and purpose to my training so as to peak at the right time for the Half Epic, I think I will look into this and perhaps seek advice from the guys at Race Elements perhaps.

Chasing white lines.

2008-05-13T12:47:00.004+10:00

Monday night meant sprint intervals around North Lakes, no takers to join me. My training partner is in a "resting phase" ( booze hound) at the moment so declined to join me. Boring boring boring. Just chased cars from round about to round about, plugged my ipod in and rocked out to Metallica, Tool and System of a Down. Heavy music helps me keep the tempo high and breaks up the boredom of chasing a white line along the roads edge.

Ayups and white line fever...

69.4

2008-05-13T12:24:00.001+10:00

After 5 weeks away from the gym I started back yesterday morning. With the lead up to the recent events requiring more and more saddle time I gave up on using the gym across from work, I really enjoy my morning workouts over the road and was happy with the results I was achieving. Lifting heavier then I have previously and the extra upper body strength was paying dividends when fatigue set in on longer rides plus seeing as I lack finesse on the bike the extra strength meant that I could throw my bike around more and not suffer so much. Really should learn to ride smoother.

So I kicked off a new training phase this week and started back on the iron, prior to taking up more rides mid week I weighed in at around 74-76kg. First thing before I entered the gym I weighed myself on the scales in the consult room and got a big shock. 69.4 Kilograms was the reading! I haven't been sub 70kg since I was about 21 ( yes that’s 10 years). I decided that perhaps Rhino was right, loosing a lot of my upper body bulk was a good idea and has really helped with climbing etc, I now plan to keep the bulk off and stick to 2 days a week at the gym opposed to the 5 days I was doing. Mid to high repetitions with medium weights, I'll try it for a couple months and see how things go.

Stay tuned for the Trickle 2 month challenge ha ha ha

Scoring points.

2008-05-12T09:50:00.003+10:00

With the months prior to my Dirt works trip spent pretty much solely focused on riding and training I spent a lot more time away from my family then normal. I promised the girls that I would catch up on a heap of house chores I had been putting off and to spend some time with them over the next couple of weeks. Brownie points are always good to have though I am a looooong way off being in credit, have to put the hard yards in seeing I want a new bike this year he he he.

Tamara's major goal she wanted me to accomplish over the weekend was to get my bikes out from under her feet, they all (bar one) currently live in the laundry area either leaning on walls or on stands. Either way she was sick of kicking toes and dodging bikes to get to the tubs.

Saturday morning a quick visit to bunnings (yeah right) and I came away with a new fangled bike hanging system. About an hour or so of mucking around and I have half the fleet up off the ground and more or less out of the way. Great success! Note how the road bike is at the front for ease of sneaking off in the wee hours. That leaves the Prophet to hang up, I ran out of time for the other rail and still haven’t cleaned and rebuilt it from the Dirt works.

2 up one to go, i deserve any comments on Lilly's pink helmet hung on the Norco's bars...

Trades assistant and tool thief extraordinaire baby Poppi, if there is a mechanical job on this little monkey is amongst it!

The mean streets.

2008-05-11T20:48:00.002+10:00

Me, Nikko and fly spoke about changing our usual Thursday night Boondal /Redcliffe roadie to a Mountain bike ride into the mean streets of Brisvegas after the dirtworks . We met up at Niko’s crib (I’m so gangsta) at the usual time, felt weird to be wearing shy shorts and a loose fitting jersey instead of roadie lycra!

I fired up my Ayups and we head off towards the city via Lutwyche Road, The Valley and over the story bridge bombing along footpaths dodging pedestrians and cars bolting out of driveways, it has been a long time since I have ridden a bike through the city at night and forgot how pretty the place is at night.

Seeing as this ride was all about fun with mates we organized to hook up with young Tommy Bentley who was out doing some rive loops wearing inappropriate white Lycra. Stopped for some warm noodles, chatted (ok hung shit off Tommy) and decided what was next for the evening. Nikko suggested Beers, I didn’t need to much convincing. We found a cool club around West end, grabbed some overpriced beers and chilled to some reggae beats and spoke about bikes. These rides could become a nice distraction to the hard training weeks coming up I think.

Beers, bikes and tunes.

Sadly my old Nokia camera phone is failing so pics are of poor quality, time to hit work up for a new phone?

Mudworks 2008

2008-05-07T16:13:00.003+10:00

Sunday Morning was an early start, 0500 to be exact. Didn’t worry me to much as I am used to the early starts but there were a few angry faces around as the Down Hillers had a band going until very late then some one started playing doof music until the wee hours. The start was very cold and foggy, we milled around for a while trying to stay warm and watched the elites roll out and saw a couple of familiar faces attacking from the get go.

Megs and Winner ready to go!

Cold as it looks.

My plan was to ride off with group 2 to avoid the bottleneck that can occur when newer slower riders hit the trail and to get away a bit quicker, fly guy was content to just hang on to the back of group 3. We lined up with what we thought was group 3… only to watch that group ride off with out us, bit of head scratching later and we realised that we had joined the end of group 4, the super slow new to long distance just giving the ride a go group. Not to worry, we were there to ride the trail and enjoy the experience.

The first 10 or so kilometres was fast bitumen and very smooth dirt roads, for newbie slower types the pace was up there all the way to the first real climb. 250 odd meters of climbing over around 3 kilometres was to much for most and the trail resembled the kokoda trail, lots of troopers slogging up a muddy and rutted climb. My goal was to ride the entire climb however the line choices where getting slim and I had to bail my first attempt, walked the next 150 meters or so then remounted and continued to the top. Waited for Paul there and ran into Shannon who was riding the race on a Single Speed with his brother. The stripping of layers began here but we chose to ride on while the bunch stripped off

Keep on pushin, almost there

The first 28k's to Checkpoint 1 went by pretty easily with just the first major climb as an obstacle. We decided to stop at CP1 for a quick bite to eat, I grabbed a banana and took off my vest and stashed it in my camelbak. Off again towards CP2 with lots of loose sand, big muddy puddles and mega fun descents boosting off jumps and drops where ever possible. By now our bikes had started to sound pretty bad, the fine sand mixed with water and mud had eaten away all the lubricating properties on our drivetrains and the disc brakes didn’t sound much better!

We pulled into CP2 after crossing a really cool old slab bridge next to the remnants of the piers of the original bridge, fly guy was a little ways behind me and told me a guy in front of him had a mega off coming down the shoot past the old bridge, that guy later hobbled into CP2 holding his previously cracked ribs pushing his fully rigid SS kona Unit… Hard man! By now the chilli air temps and copious water I had taken on was having an effect on me resulting in my bladder resembling that of a pregnant woman… fly reckons he counted 15 pee stops, I reckon more like10.

Once I caught back up with fly on the climb out of CP2 my right ITB had tighten up and was really giving me grief but I really wanted to finish so decided to push on. Besides, Jaman had said that the old North road section is where this race cmes alive and I didn’t want to miss that! He wasn’t wrong either with lots of fast rocky descents with drifting sandy corners and uber technical rock gardens to climb up.

Climb little fella climb!!!

This is where I had mega fun and Paul really surprised me, while the little fella has come a long way with his riding he will be the first to admit his technical skills were lacking. Not today, fly really shone through throwing him (more on that later) and his bike around like a pro jumping up things and descending right on my tail… it was decided that the kid has mad skillz. Just as his confidence was soaring fly was watching the line I was taking and not watching where his front wheel was going, I turned around to find him wedged in a fetal position still clipped in AND hanging onto his handle bars with the bike on top of him!!?? I ran up to assist him but failed to contain myself and was screaming with laughter as I righted him with the help of some passers by… sadly no pics

The final descent down towards the MacDonald river was a blast, lots of arm pump and fatigue was starting to set in. The landscape started to change really quickly here as well, from the rocky sandstone sections with massive Eucalyptus trees around we had ridden for almost 60kms was changing to double canopy thick almost rainforest like terrain.

Fly, ducking under a BIG tree. cool

Rolling towards the river crossing I was determined to ride the pontoon bridge but after watching a guy fall in (twice) I decided my warmth and comfort took paramount over kudos from onlookers and walked across the bridge. Stopped and watched a few guys ride across then rode onto CP3 along the bitumen greeted with freaking headwinds!

A friendly rural fire service volunteer marshalled us up the dirt climb towards CP3, this climb was around 250+ meters of elevation gained over something like 4kms. Just about everyone was walking this except for us, I wish I could say me monstered up it but we were both happy to ride in the granny! Another quick stop with some banana's, lollies off stranger and a quick stretch. Onwards and upwards (again) through rolling hills with short descent between, just enough to give you a quick rest. At about 85kms Paul looked like he was struggling and my knees where killing me and I couldn’t climb seated for much longer so jumped into the middle ring and occasionally the dog and stood up and went. I still feel bad for dropping my mate but by then it was more or less unspoken that we were riding our own race…

Then things went dooown, lots of super fast descending with huge water bar woops, I hammered down here and scared the crap out of a photog jumping past him while he wasn’t ready. Without looking at my computer I figured I was close to home so still in the Dog I hammered until I came across arrows pointing towards the river… upon reaching the MacDonald again I remembered we had to walk through the river this time. With a little encouragement and a zero percent care factor I chose ride through the river, hopefully the photog got some shots of that!

From there on it was dirt and gravel roads punching along in the dog towards the finish, I hammered as best I could and picked up a heap of riders rounded the corner and over the finish shoot to swap my timing band for a semi cold beer!

Stoked to finish! Sorry I didnt hang around and finish with you mate.

Exploring

2008-05-07T12:43:00.005+10:00

Saturday morning we kicked around and cooked some brekkie, while doing the dishes we noticed a sign that said 'Downhill parking" and saw a heap of cats riding around on long travel DH rigs a bit of investigating and we found that the NSW Mountain bike club was running round 2 of their series less then 800 meters away from our accommodation.

mmmmm, canadian breakfast:

Down Hill practice:

This feature claimed a heap of scalps... rider down!

We jumped on the bikes and went out for a look around. Watched some practice runs and lots of stacks! Later that arvo we went into St Albans for registration where Frosty realised this year is his last year racing as a veteran… getting old champ, masters here you come!

Rolling.

2008-05-07T12:26:00.004+10:00

That was a fantastic weekend, I had a blast!

The road trip driving down Friday was 10 plus hours of shenanigans, swapping turns with fly on driving duties. When we weren't driving we were chopping into poor old frosty, that guy was a champ the whole way down and back and put up with a lot of piss taking. Thanks for being such a good sport frosty though I am pretty sure you had an idea what being stuck in a car with fly and I for basically half a day.

The bitumen driving was uneventful (except for the odd train race) until just outside of Singleton heading towards my new favourite town called Bucketty, we had stopped for a driver change and I was at the wheel when we hit the dirt and had travelled around 100 meters when we come across a sign that said the road ahead had been "FLOOD DAMAGED" resulting in the night time offroad death drive from hell… a highlight though was being passed on the dirt by Falcon sedan???

Fly giggled at this photo, I have no idea why?

We eventually made it into St Albans safely and on to our accomodation for a feed, some red wine and a beer or two which would later come back to haunt us...worst hangover ever!

Road Trip!!!

2008-05-06T08:51:00.003+10:00

Wow!
What an event! What a road trip! We arrived home safely at around 2130 last night, It was very hard to get up for work this morning and I almost called it a sick day.
After over 2000km driven in 24 hours, 4 days away from the family, 100 odd kms on a bike and so many laughs had it's going to take a looong time to forget that race. I plan on putting a post or two up about the weekend as soon as I have caught up on work emails etc. Stay tuned!

Group self portrait at 110km/h:

Health food is rubbish

2008-05-01T09:52:00.005+10:00

Carbo loading has started in earnest for the dirtworks, this event I will be powered by:

No real point to this post this morning, I am loaded up on sugar and just want to go. one more sleep and we are on our way to St Albans, all reports say we are in for a cold one! cant hurt to put on some extra fat layers then?

Chillin.

2008-04-29T16:20:00.007+10:00

The cold weather hit Brisbane like being slapped by a large frozen fish. It was sooooo cold this morning! I ventured out with two other nutters; Wezzy and Jaman for the regular like a serving of fibre "Karawatha Cruise". To be on time for the ride start I need to leave home early, you know you are committed to riding bikes with good mates when the clock in your car looks like this:

The cold weather gear is definitely needed on the rides now, being a low lying area Karawatha will always be colder then other areas but such a nice place to pedal around early in the morning with a couple of mates.

It was a crisp morning thats for sure , a chilli Kara vista:

The three amigos (thanks for the pic wezzy!)

And thats about it for riding for me this week, perhaps a spin on a mag trainer for an hour or so tomorrow, booked in for a massage on Thursday night with lots of stretching between now and friday.

Something in the air?

2008-04-29T16:18:00.000+10:00

The usual Monday night North Lakes ride was on with the plan for a quick gentle spin around 50 odd kilometres of active recovery. For some strange reason we stuck to that plan, no attacks or silly sprints just an easy roll. A couple of issues raised their ugly heads that complicated things, firstly mega headwinds and I mean MEGA headwinds made gentle spinning difficult it was more like out of the saddle easy geared climbing on the flat??. The second issue was stink, at first I figured my jersey was about due for a wash. Paul then reminded me that a tannery at nearby Narangba had been on fire earlier that day… mmmmm smouldering dead animal skins.

An early start tomorrow, hopefully the winds have dropped

Single again.

2008-04-28T13:39:00.000+10:00

No Tamara hasn’t wised up and kicked me out.Saturday was the diggler's last real training before we pack into fly's Hilux and crank down to St Albans for the Dirt Works Classic. It was also pretty much my last weekend ride with Pete "frosty " Green, frosty is moving to Melbourne (of all places!!??) for work. Sad day indeed because frosty has been a big part of my re entry into MTB riding.

The day was spent riding the singles of Bunya with the main aim of getting frosty to POP, after an extended brake from my Cannondale Prophet this ride was my first on it in Bunya for a couple of months, I remembered again why I bought this bike and how much fun I have had on it riding this area. Hi lights for me were railing through the Creek track ( still my favourite) bunny hopping everything in sight, big dog attacks up loose climbs and water bar jumps almost landing in fly's camelbak…

I can tell frosty will miss riding with us, he spent a lot of time off the back during the ride remembering all the good times we have shared out on the dirt. Like the time he and fly had me carried out by ambulance or even his recent crash where his testicles tried to escape from his body ( long story). Stay safe Pete, keep turning pedals and remember you will always be faster then Fly.

Fly, looking fast

Remembered.

2008-04-28T13:20:00.000+10:00

Friday was ANZAC day. Due to Mara having to work early I wasn’t able to attend a dawn service, first one I have missed in a long time. Me and the girls hung out at home in the morning and made a cubby house out of furniture kids have awesome imaginations! Later that day we met up with fly, Tom and Jaman at Lakeside International raceway where the Hamilton Pine Rivers Wheelers were holding their ANZAC 25 Open. It was good to see a couple of mates on the podium in trying conditions with a massive headwind down the front straight making for tough racing. Lilly and Poppi even made it to the podium, my little champs!

But thoughts of bikes came second for me on Friday, Dad was away meeting old mates for a reunion, my oldest brother in Timor Leste and younger brother Peter flying back to "the sandpit" somewhere in Afghanistan on ANZAC day. Felt weird not seeing or hearing from them on ANZAC day, my thoughts were with those serving and those who have served.

Stay safe guys.

NSSH.

2008-04-28T10:01:00.000+10:00

Thursday nights sees me hooking up with my usual training buddy Fly for Nikko's Wetland Warriors ride, Gordon Park out to Shorncliffe and return. Intervals of silly turns on the front to see how pops first interspersed with lots of piss taking and chatting, not really what you would call a training ride but a good solid hit out with mates.

This ride has it all, rubbish sections of concrete paths (Paris-Roubaix?) ,smooth fast concrete and hotmix asphalt finished with single track… well sort of. Super fast section of bike path with a "race" line worn through all of the fallen tree debris hit at 30+kph just like riding on dirt.

Thursdays are also a time to try new nutritional ideas to aid recovery. Tonight I have tried quantity over quality:

0400

2008-04-23T11:58:00.001+10:00

Kids, especially very young ones can wake you at some really odd hours. This morning was no exception. Our baby pet monkey Poppi was shouting out for her dad for a nappy change, no matter how many times she has been shown Poppi still won't change her own nappy. I've been doing my own for years now. Chuckle chuckle.

Seeing as I was up and hadn't committed to the regular Wednesday Daisy dirt ride I kitted the roadie up with some Ayups and rode a Redcliffe loop solo style. Man, I think the entire tradesmen population is out and about at that time of the morning. Every single vehicle I came across was a commercial vehicle of some sort. The ride out to the peninsula was fast by my usual standards and the average speed higher then normal. The ride out was uneventful with just one tool shouting out at me from his busted up old ute and a bus racing to beat me through the Round about at the end of Anzac Ave. I think I scared the bejebus out of the driver when I accelerated around her and shone my Ayups into her cabin.

I came across countless "tradie" commuters on dodgy looking Kmart commuters with no lighting at all not even reflectors etc they preferred to simply rely on their worksite hardhats and hi-vis vests to be seen! Madness. From leaving home at 0430 to arriving back at 0615 it was still dark enough to have the Ayups burning.

With young Poppi's help, I think a predawn Clear Mountain loop next Wednesday morning is on the cards. Kids, they're life's alarm clock

I like Mondays

2008-04-23T09:44:00.000+10:00

Come Monday I was still eating myself up about the 24 hour effort and wasn't sure if fly and I would be doing our sprint efforts around North lakes that night or not. My legs were still a little tight but after an email or two from fly we decided to hit the super smooth hot mix around North Lakes and try for some intervals. As usual I was a late to arrive at the meeting point but fly was rolling around and warming up some when I did get there.

Fly being middle management and usually having his shit together quickly pointed out that he had failed to both charge his lights (not the first time) and secondly did not bring a bidon bottle…So a recovery ride it was to be. Good thing because I really just wanted to roll out 40 or so gentle kilometres. So after a handful of laps into some awesome headwinds we rolled back to the car park. I still felt like riding some more and decided to ride back home via Strathpine… but got bored, cold and lonely by the time I hit Lawnton so turned for home.

Headwinds are mega awesome.