Getting schooled

First time at the track for real on tuesday night. To put it bluntly, got schooled. In a good way though. Learnt heaps (mostly about how good i am at not winning), but had a great time. Its amazing, tapping out 100k on the road or smashing an 8 hour on the mountain bike, not an issue. 12 laps of chandler (thats a pissy little 4k race) and holy crap, THE PAIN. Gearing was a little short, but that will be fixed by the next time i go racing (hopefully sunday morning). I'm really liking this track game, good fun.

With track racing fresh in the legs, it was off to uni on wednesday night, for my last uni lecture ever!!!! (hopefully). Took the roadie, since the track bike was still set up as a track bike, felt good to get out on it again. Was getting ready to head home when Rishy rang and said that we had to go and play on mt gravatt. Met up at uni, and headed for the hills. Twice up was enough for both of us, and home to some badly needed food and 40odd k in the legs. a pleasant evening.

Took Rishy over to Toowong this morning to go to a pilates session. Got over there early and headed for the coffee club for a quick cuppa before Rishy went to the gym, and who should we bump into but the flash green kit of PRO roadie Rhino, getting the caffeine levels back up after Cootha repeats. New kit looks flash mate! I felt guilty for the rest of the day not having turned pedals, so we went for a very enjoyable 30k ride round the city. Beautiful evening for it.

I may not look like it, but i am having fun here!

Ay-ups are cool!

Logan cycling club runs track racing on sunday mornings, 0830 warm up racing at 9, so i'm going to head out and see how it goes. A good high threshold session a couple of times a week can do me no harm, and after all, WHAT WOULD JENS DO!!??!!

Slack

I have been very slack with my updates here lately, so time for a bit of an update.

Firstly, i got a new car! A nissan Xtrail, beautiful machine, heaps of space to throw the bike in the back. The old million kilometre falcon has been retired, may it have a pleasant time at mum and dads place in hervey bay enjoying the sea air!

I have also discovered a new form of cycling, the TRACK!! Been out to chandler twice now with the NRG crew, and i absolutely love it. gearing up to head out tonight for a crack at the tuesday night sessions held by wynnum redlands cycling club. hopefully i will have some pictures too!

Last weekend was also the NRG club cross country championships, and i raced in b grade. unfortunately due to dehydration from the start, i could only manage 9th in class, but i was about a kilometre further when i got lapped by Rhino this time, who was styling it up in a wicked yeti race jersey. Still, that put me 3rd for the NRG riders. certainly wore me out for the track in the afternoon though. Speaking of track, i am going to take it pretty seriously over the coming months. I want to get my standing kilo under 1.12 and my flying 200 under 12flat. at the moment my records are flying 200 13.98 (extrapolated from a 23.31 full flying lap at chandler) and a standing kilo of 1.26.91 (slow, but it was at the end of the day after mtb and track, and i was well tired, and i have never done one before). Lets see how these times can come down over the next few weeks of trying!!

The next big mtb event for me is the 4hour being held late november, i cant race the 6hour due to exams unfortunately. Keep peddling everyone!

8 Hours...

SPEED CHOPS!!

The eight hour mountain bike enduro was held on 5oct recently, and Rishy and I competed as a two person mixed team. The day was hot and dusty, but the setting and racetrack was fantastic. It was a lot of fun, i felt much stronger on the bike for a lot longer into the race than i ever have before in an event like this. didn't need the granny ring at all, felt strong all day. was able to comfortably turn out 11k laps in the low30 minute range, ending up with 6 laps, which put our team total at 12. Some mechanicals held us up a little, rishy got stuck in her granny ring for almost an entire lap due to a stone getting jammed in her FD which cost her a lot of time, while i suffered rear hub issues culminating in a broken freewheel. still, we finished 7th from 10 in our class, on the same number of laps as 4th. next year we will be aiming for at least 14 laps of that course, i think that had we had a trouble free run that would have been achievable.

Rishy tearin it up!

To make the event even more special, my mum and my great aunt came over to watch for a while, it was great to be able to put on a good showing for them. Big thanks to them for making the trip out!

It was great to see so many familiar faces out there, including (but not limited to) (in no particular order) stumeister, greg (tempest), Adventuruss, Zenman, Gav, Matt dog (who tore it up in solo, well done mate), craig storey (who i am sure is jumping around his living room right now looking at a new bike, hope you have that new beast by now mate), mad aussie, winner, and plenty of others. thanks to everyone who said G'day up there (sorry to whoever i havn't mentioned).

My mate hubcap was racing solo, and unfortunately didn't have a very good day. about 6 hours in the heat really got to him, forcing him to pull out early. he still finished about 15th in solo, so a good result from a bad race for him. His mate TK (mechanic from Bike and Cycle obsession in the city) was up supporting us all for the race, and his mechanical brilliance was very much appreciated in keeping us going on a day of unprecedented mechanical misfortune.

A good race, probably one of my better ones. that is pretty much it for the mtb racing season for this year for me, except for some club racing. plenty of weight loss and training time to be had now.