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

HOT!!!

A glorious day today. Rishy had work from 7-12.30, so after we rode down there, i kept riding. After riding around for a while i bumped into half a dozen roadies wearing NRG cycles club gear, so seeing as i was dressed for the occasion, i joined in. This led me all the way out to NRG at jindalee, and by that stage it was starting to get hot. Very thankful i put sunscreen on this morning.

Headed back toward the city and promplty ran into a stack of people, the city romp today had heaps of people out and about. Ran into my pal Oxford who was out bike couriering for the photo people for the event. He seemed to be having heaps of fun!

All told, by the time i got home i had this many k's on the clock!

I think preparation for the 8 hour is coming along well. I am staying well below the 97 kilo mark, and i was actually 95.3 when i got back from this ride today (although i think that was more due to a bit of dehydration than anything else). Took a while to get going today but once i did, I felt good. Plenty of training to be had yet, a week of trucking around on the single speed (which is so much fun!!!!!!) and club cross country racing next sunday!! Will be good to catch up with plenty of mates out there, and remember to warm up this time.

And remember, just because i don't care doesn't mean i don't understand!

Problems and solutions

As many of you will know, the uni student (and the cyclist) generally operate only when containing caffeine. This afternoon a problem occured in my humble abode, we ran out of pepsi (i like coke better, but pepsi is cheaper, refer to above uni student comment). The solution to the problem, get more pepsi.

To the rescue, my new Crumpler bag!!



Having seen the insane amounts of crap that can be hauled around by city bike messengers, and seeing the quality of my mates crumpler bag, i decided that it would be the ideal way for me to be able to carry my stuff around on the bike to work, uni, etc. They are really comfy, and almost indestructable, having developed initially from the melbourne bike messenger scene.

The payload in question:
24 cans of black fizzy caffeinated goodness!!
OH YEAH!!

DEATH MAGNETIC...

...Is fantastic! As a huge metallica fan, i am very impressed. This sounds like a real metallica album, sort of like those ones from the eighties. Keep Riding the Lightning everyone!!!

Rollin to Redcliffe

A favourite ride of mine is from my place out to Redcliffe to a smashing little cafe for breakfast and back. Makes for a nice 120 k flat ride, great scenery tapping out through the boondall wetlands, then along the beach and over the bridge to the Redcliffe peninsula, then out to Scarborough. I always get scared going across the bridge that some keen angler is going to throw a rod over his shoulder at the wrong moment, and catch me. But i degress...

Sunday morning was great, my lovely girlfriend and I took my mate spence on his first 100k ride, on his new Avanti Giro. Stunning bike, and he lapped it up, coped with the hundred easily. Big future for that bloke, probably see him tearing the local crits up sometime soon. Had quite a strong headwind most of the way out, which meant a nice tailwind most of the way back.

That ride coupled with plenty of single speeding around this week mean i'm now comfortable into the 96 kilo bracket of a morning. Gotta keep that coming down. Mt Gravatt calls on saturday!!

I'm liking this photo business!

Goal setting revisited...

Well my last set of goals fell in an enormous steaming heap, so time for some new ones. The next race on the horizon is the Geocentric 8 hour mountain bike race in North Brisbane. I shall be racing in a two person mixed team with my girlfriend as i see no sense in breaking up a winning team. The goal for this race is to be able to go hard all day, turn solid one on-one off laps and see how we end up on the leader board. i would like to be in the top third of the table, but you just never know with big events like this.

With that in mind, a new training plan emerges. the plan, ride heaps. yep, thats pretty much it. I have been riding everywhere lately, and really enjoying it. riding with my mate to work most weekdays, and he's getting a new road bike tomorrow so its going to be on for young and old. (he already destroys me on his crappy old mtb, so he's going to be scary fast on a good roadie. I'm starting to rack up a few k's on the single speed, pushing 70 gear inches to work and uni, plus other assorted rides. It is a really fun machine to ride on, and there is no substitute for time on the bike.

Racing on October 5, so must ride hard until then. NO DRIVING

Keep happy all!!

new toys

Well that worked!

back in the saddle!!

back in the mountain bike saddle for the first time since early july. club racing at Mt Crosby, great fun. taking so long off the bike my mountain skills were rubbish, and stupidly not doing a warm up meant that lap one was absolute pain. after a little throw up early on lap two, and getting lapped by a very fast bloke on a shiny yeti (who had a huge smile on his face) the race got a bit better. i started to be able to ride over things, not fall off, and breathe a little bit. Great fun, finished 7th of 8 in b grade, in a time that would have won c grade. i guess i belong in b grade then, woohoo!

not looking forward to tomorrow, got to get up at 4am to get to work for a 5am start. at least my bike will keep me company on the way to work. plus my cat died, so not a fun day :(

I'm also thinking about a new toy. i think i need a single speed commuting bike to get to work on. something like a schwinn madison, that could maybe be turned into a track bike if i ever felt that way inclined. See you all later folks!!