I'd forgotten...

...about this place. Well I guess I can use it again. So I worked for 2 years as a bike courier, now I'm back at the hospital working as a wardsman again. Time to get back into racing pushbikes, and possibly putting a few photos up from playing wicked tunes with some great musicians, and a little bit of motorbike riding to spice things up. Hmmm, sounds interesting. It'll probably be boring as bat shit though. Sigh

And I'm back

Wow, that was quite an absence. And so much has happened in the interim. I'll not go into too much depth, except to say that I'm now working as a courier for Power Couriers, which is an amazingly fun company to work for. I'm down under 90 kilo's now, and feeling rather fit. Next challenge, State Track Championships in December at Chandler. This will be fun, and I'll have a new track bike by then.

It's good to be back online, I think I will start updating this more regularly again. Keep riding everyone!

Highs and lows

The highs, club track championships last weekend. Flying lap (333.33 metres) on a quite windy day, 21.93 seconds. by far the fastest i have gone at chandler, averaging almost 55km/hr. winner!

Kilo, my favourite track event. 1000 metres, standing start. 1minute 23.4 seconds. winner!

There were 5 events contested on the day, a scratch race (i didn't place) a points race (second by a point i think), an elimination (miss and out) race, 4th due to a mix up ( i thought the rider behind us was still in, he wasn't, oh well, must take more notice next time), flying lap (winner) and the kilo. i'm not sure if the kilo was counted in the overall results, but i'm looking forward to finding out how we all finished up this saturday night at the club presentation night.

The lows. Was changing up my training and doing something different on tuesday night, doing a spot of skipping, and lo and behold, torn muscle in my neck/shoulder. no riding for at least a week. oh well.

Keep training hard everyone, and check out what russ is planning for his next adventure!!

It's been a while...

...but i'm back. Lean (ish), mean (ish) and having a great time.

It's been a long time since i have posted anything, and plenty of things have been happening in that time. Christmas hurt, ate and drank way too much, get well out of shape. Was 103.5kg on january 7. started hard training then, lots of kilometres, watching the diet, and am now about 96 kilos, and feeling much better than i did a couple of months ago.

Got a new job, i'm now a bike messenger 5 days a fortnight. Great fun, a really enjoyable job. really helping to get some hard training miles in.

next big event for me is the NRG club track championships on sunday. i have my eyes set on the kilo, i want to win it. if i can't win it, i want to win the flying lap.

Keep riding folks!!

Night rides on the road bike...

...are awesome. Managed to fix the road bike yesterday, so i decided to meet up with Hubcap for a shakedown ride yesterday evening to make sure it was all working properly. Met at his place at new farm at half five after he finished work and proceeded to head north. The aim was to head out to boondall and back via the wetlands bike path (an really fun ride, even more so at night!!), although that plan very soon became ride out to redcliffe and back.
Ultimate strong riding fuel. Fire socks are awesome too. The end result was a 100k round trip, very pleasant weather for this time of year. nice cool breeze, clear skies, good times.

It wasn't my first ride for the day either. i'd met up with grant this morning at the circuit at nundah after dropping my sweetheart off to the airport for a fixie ride. hour and a half of flat land riding on the big track gear fixie, followed by coffee. good stuff. so about 130ish for the day, training coming good lately, especially after track racing tuesday night. Next port of call is the HPRW crit at nundah on saturday morning.

If i ever end up really rich, i'm buying one of these. the 911 turbo. Oh Yeah!!

A Win!

Another wicked fun night at chandler tonight. Good to see young Stumeister out having his first crack at the track, he seemed to have heaps of fun. 3 races, a scratch race, a points race and a 3 man one lap sprint. scratch race was fun, finished 7th i think. points was tough, scored two points in the first sprint but got dropped just before the second one. spent the next half dozen laps riding all out to catch back up, and caught the bunch with 3 laps to go, just in time to get dropped again for the final sprint. Sprinting, however, was a different story. 3 riders, staggered standing start, one lap, must stay in your lane (the rider that starts high and in front can't come down to the bottom of the track). And i had a win! Thats two races i've won now at the track!

Getting up bright and early tomorrow to take my lovely better half out to the airport, so i've arranged to meet up with a mate at nundah and roll out throught the wetlands for a nice gentle training ride. When i say nice and gentle, i mean i will be riding the big gear fixie again, as i still havn't got a new derailleur. Fun fun.

I'm also really loving my new car, and its ability to do this:

Bike transport Win!

Keep having fun everyone!

Fixomatosis...

...I've got it. With the road bike out of action for a short while the single speed is the only skinny tyred option at the moment. And with the 14 tooth cog on the back for track racing, i headed over to murrarie this morning for an hour of fixie training around the circuit. I like training at the muzz, mostly because i get to watch the airlines launching out of Brisbane (or arriving when the wind is blowing the other way). I find it very motivating watching Boeing 777s thundering into the sky. Let me tell you a little about the 777.

73 metres long, 65 metres across, 19 metres tall, the 777 is equipped with the most powerful production jet engines in the world, the general electric GE90-115B. During its testing, the GE90-115B set numerous aviation records, including reaching a sustained record 127,900 lbs. of thrust. A glorious sight and sound to behold as they push 350000+kg of aircraft up to over 43000 feet (that's over 13 kilometres up!). Fantastic motivation to kick those pedals and keep working towards your dreams. I want to fly those things one day. Please observe the fasten seat belt and no smoking signs.

In cycling related news, track racing again tomorrow (tuesday) night, and hopefully i can source a new front derailleur for the road bike so i can have a crack at my first crit on saturday morning. Then sunday morning out to chandler again for some more velo action. Stay safe everyone, and live your dreams!!

We're back!!

Well after a long time off, i'm back. Uni has been dealt with (hooray) so no more of that. Unfortunately i ate and drank way too much over christmas, so i'm way out of shape. Guess i need more training.

Raced track last night, great fun. Didn't do any good, but had a great time. Attacking solo on lap one of the 24 lap points race to try and steal a lap, awesome. getting half a lap up on the field, epic. running out of steam and getting spat out the back at half distance, worth it for the solo breakaway glory!

I've also decided to hit up the crit circuits, so once i get my roadie sorted out i'm going to give that a whirl. sounds like fun. plus i'm sure i can find some mountain bike races to hit up well.

In other hectic fun wicked news, i'll be getting back into flying this week. That i am very much looking forward to, although i'm a little nervous about it, having not flown in 18 months. i guess its like riding a bike though (a big 1000kilo complicated bike that flies!!)

Hope everyone had a great christmas and new year!!

Late spring evenings...

...are a fantastic time to be outside enjoying our fine city.

Keep having fun everyone!

Noodles for beginners

OK, there seems to be some interest in team Mi Goreng (not to be confused with Chinese emperor Nasi Goreng), so here is a beginners guide to enjoying Mi Goreng noodles.

Step 1.
Add water to a saucepan, bring to boil

Step 2
Open a packet of Mi Goreng noodles, and take out the sauce and flavouring pouches.

Step 3


If you are really hungry you can have more than one serving of delicious Mi Goreng noodles at a time.



Place the noodles into the water, and discard the packaging responsibly.

Step 4

Pour the dry flavourings into a bowl

Step 6

Add the liquid oils and flavours to the bowl with the dry flavours. Beginners beware, Mi Goreng chilli sauce is quite hot.

Step 7

Mix the flavourings together.

Step 8
Once the noodles have been boiling for a minute or so, give them a stir to make sure they are soft and ready to eat. Then carefully drain the excess water from the noodles and add the noodles to the bowl with the sauces.

Step 9

Stir the sauce through the noodles

Step 10

Best enjoyed with chopsticks. Hooray!!!

Feeling fitter

A spectacular sunset seen from the bridge at UQ. Thank god we finally have the bike side to ourselves again.

Hey! All this high threshold track riding i have been doing lately seems to be making me fitter. Went for a quick hour on the roadie this evening with Rishy, needed to get away from study for a bit, and felt really good. Legs had plenty of snap crackle and pop, and i felt like attacking every little hill i came to. Might have to find a quick hour on the weekend to go and attack mt gravatt a few times. Uni has been chewing up all the enthusiasm lately, but not long to go now.

Speaking of uni, Mi Goreng noodles are the ultimate student food, 50cents a packet, taste good, and with two slices of bread make for a great snack. All you kids out there finishing school and moving out to share accomodation with your uni mates, remember, a loaf of bread on special for a dollar, and five pack of noodles for two fifty, and a box of goon will see you through till payday, most of the time. And goon sacks can be inflated and used as pillows when you forget where you live, hooray!! Good luck to all of you finishing school and heading out into the big wide world, be responsible (or at least have one sober person in the group to talk you out of the stuff that will get you killed), don't take drugs, and above all have fun!! (and you won't be able to outdrink your old uncle hillbilly so don't even try declan)

Happy Birthday to me!!

With birthdays come thoughtful presents. One ear in makes for a very pleasant ride, lots of training to be done with music to keep me company. Hooray!!

Also, growing a movember mo to go with the chops. This one will go to 11!

That winning feeling!

I actually won a race today! A 15 lap points race at chandler. I like this track game, great pain but good fun. Logan cycling club had a track racing this morning, a great way to spend ten bucks and hurt your legs. Surprisingly not a massive crowd, considering it was a cheap and high quality event. If you like track, definitely get out to one of these sunday morning events (not on next week due to the strongman champs, but back on the week after that, check logan cycling website). Because i have not really done a lot of this i didn't know where i should be graded, since there was only a small field they threw me in with a grade for the first race, a 20 lap scratch race. i was blown out the back by about half distance, gearing too light, couldn't spin fast enough to keep up with the fast experienced guys. The organisers dropped me back into b grade for the next couple of races, probably a good call.

Next up was something i had not done before, Keiran racing. paced behind a motorbike for 4.5 laps, then the bike pulls off and its a one and a half lap sprint to the line. messed up, was sitting in fourth wheel for most of it but let third open too much of a gap to second before i moved up to close it. ended up 3rd, not bad for a first attempt. good fun.

Last up, a 15 lap points race. Went hard early, jagged the win in the first sprint, let the others have the fun for the second one and then worked hard to finish second in the final sprint. 9 points, winner!

Hopefully some bigger gears arrive at the bike shop for me this week, looking to rip it up again on tuesday night. see you all soon!!

PS, hell pizza is awesome!

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.

17 hours...

I am a wardsman in a hospital, and saturday i was booked in to do an early shift in intensive care, from 0500 to 1330. no big deal, early start but plenty of afternoon time to recover prior to the the race on sunday morning. HOWEVER, the bloke who was down to replace me for the afternoon called in sick, and with no one else available, i was asked to do a double shift and stay till 2200. 17 hours straight was a really, really long day. as a result i made the decision to not go on sunday morning, wouldn't have been safe to drive out there, i desperately needed sleep. I know, i'm soft.

After a quite a sleep in and a relax and recover morning, it was time to go hit the dirt for the first time in a month. since i am now a little lighter, a lot fitter and heaps stronger from a month of solid training and lots of miles, i felt fantastic. the bike was working well, i was working well, and had a ball with Rishy, hubcap and two of rishy's friends. It was great fun, felt awesome getting back out on the dirt again.

Trying to be artistic with the camera. need a better camera.


Hubcap and Rishy both with the race faces on smashing up hills. After this ride i am feeling really excited for the race next weekend. 8 hours, should be fun!!
This bloke showed up just as we were packing up, I love his nutrition and hydration plan. Note to self, 750ml dare iced coffee fits nicely into a bidon cage.

See you all soon!!!

Changes

What a difference two years can make. And i was already 15 kilo's lighter in the top photo.

Speed Chops!!!

They make you ride faster!! We shall put this theory to the test on sunday morning, club racing at Mt Crosby. Hope to see plenty of mates out there!! Ride hard now, and gentlemen, halving the amount of your face requiring shaving halves your shaving costs, freeing up more money for cycling. Over the course of a year, your speed chops will have paid for your race licence, a whole bunch of races and (in the case of extreme shaving costs) could lead to a new bike. So what are you waiting for, free you inner 70's fashion icon now!!

The joy of commuting!

I have been having an absolute blast since i got my new bike. Simple, nothing to think about, just check the tyre pressures, keep the chain lightly oiled, and ride. Such simple freedom. Plus certainly racking up a few more kilometres than i had been previously. Trip to uni, 21km. Trip to work, 10km. Trip to the shops, 5km. Trip to visit the relatives and friends in ipswich, 40km (plus a little train ride). Not having to drive the car everywhere, priceless.

I hate going to the bike shop though, they keep having nice things for me to buy, much cheaper than they are worth. Grrr