Nearly the end of Jan....Already

Since the Rocky Trail 8 hour allot has happened. I did a ride to the coast and back (well not quite back the rain was getting too heavy so we piked at Captains Flat). Kendra and I did the Urban Polaris which was great fun as usual and finished up with a good 7 hours of riding. Plus allot of unstructured training to really wind out the feeling of training, training, training that I had leading into October.

This year has so far been all about short efforts really. I have finally been able to join the ACT Vets cycling Club as I turn 35 this year and have been getting into the different type of road riding. I have been wanting to join for a while now as I was keen to try crits and road racing at a more relaxed and less emphasis on racing than the other clubs in Canberra. It is really good to have a change and I think it can only improve my riding, as it really works on all my weakness's.

So far I don't know how this will translate to the mountain bike, but it is great to get loads of club racing in so far with 5 races I may just build a good tally throughout the year. But with a few 24 solo's to be planned for the year, and a different structure in training it is going to be interesting to see how it all pans out and I'm really looking forward to it. I love the fact that cycling offers so much variation that there is always something that will grab my interest to keep the passion going. I also have some sights in the future at looknig at adding some extra different types of efforts that may include something like this:

But more on that another day :).

So what is happening for the first half of the year, well at the moment renovations and as I type this our new kitchen is going in, and I can't wait to have all the work done. I have had a load of work to do and getting allot done after delaying the work for the World solo efforts. I'm back at work on the 22nd of Feb so no doubt the place will look great by then. I also have a fun social weekend at Nowra, C2C 200 the return of the wandera, Wagga 6 hour, Rocky trail MTB cruise, Escape Cobra mountain 100mile, Mont, Easter 24, and OHV 24. So a fair bit of fun right there. Hopefully these races will give me a good natural build, and with the Vets road racing going to late march no doubt there will be loads of fun and games.

The roller coaster

Lately my riding has been a little like this. Last week feeling good after a good couple of sessions I headed to the crits. I opened up my matchbox and they were all burnt. I had nothing someone put the rev limier on and I was not riding like I should have, I completed B grade and I was like a diesel truck....fully loaded. I also did a few extra laps with the other grades but I could tell it was not right so pulled the pin on them. I have no idea why but everyone has bad days. Saturday I went for a little ride just a little tester to see what I would have for the Fitz’s.......I rolled the dice and got a 1, legs were not responding.


Sunday the Fitz’s 165k challenge, I woke up with raining weather, checked BOM, and although there was a heavy band I knew it would not last and thought I should roll the dice again and see what my legs can do. Well I got to Stromlo and watched a Commodore nearly get bogged, I did the rego, got ready and waited. The weather felt like it just turned itself off, and we were on the start line, with a quick brief and go.

I jumped to the front of the pack to hopefully avoid the wheel spray and roll down to the cotter. On the other side was the first challenge, to stay with the group up the first climb, wahoo my legs responded, and the group dropped to about 10. Each climb was a test each one getting harder but surviving....till got close to my work, and simple little climb and I was dropped legs were feeling limited but I could maintain a solid pace which held. I kept plugging away mot losing any ground I got to the short Birragi climb. I was close and felt like I could jump on the train, and just as I got close they stopped....rain jackets were coming off. Yay, I was back this time cruising behind the front 2 riders. I knew all I had to do was 1 more effort to stay with them till Fitz’s, and that was just out of Tharwa. This train was not stopping at the Tharwa check point straight through and onto the climb. I held my top end pace which was slowly dropping, I was dropping back through the group about ¾ of the way up the last rider went past but I held his wheel to the top...just. I was happy, it does not seem like much of an accomplishment to most but I was happy a little goal in my head was achieved.

We got to Fitz’s hill and I was off the back doing my own ride. It seems my diesel was now plugging away up at a similar pace as a few of the others that had blew off there steam. At the top some riders go for a little recovery but I’m happy to carry through and take the advantage. This was pretty much how it went for the rest of the ride, I plugged away overtaking riders at checkpoints and sometime's being overtaken on the roads etween. I was starting to enjoy it, things were looking good. The head wind was strong and nobody seemed to be working in groups. Plugging away now 30k’s to go I started to come alive again the end is near, so I slowly ramped it up. The pushing up Mt McDonald seemed really good still a little headwind but really hoping it would soon turn to a tail when I hit the sister’s. I throw the dice and hit the sisters as hard as I could, the tail wind was there, and it felt great to come home strong, the sisters had never felt so easy. So back to Stromlo feeling a little smashed like I had finished a short XC race with the tired leg feeling of a solo 24 hour, I was done and I left it all out on the road.

So after this effort I took it easy, I knew it would have taken its toll. Also with some bad planning on my part it seemed difficult to get the rides into work or home like I wanted. But Wednesday I got the ride home and it was great I had some fire in the legs, and rode home with some workmates, with Clayton pushing and testing my limits, and Tim keeping us very honest making it hard to get the recovery in. So all was good.

Thursday crit day, well this one was going to be different, I headed home from work due to a support later that night. The weather was miserable, my plan was to get some sleep wake up at 4:30 and get ready and go. I woke up with about 1.5 hours sleep and felt like a zombie, motivation was low to get organised and drive. So the easy option it is I did not want to roll that dice, plus the thought of muddy conditions again was a real turn off.

So the past week I feel like I have been on the coaster with some great up’s and some down’s not knowing what is coming. Don’t really know why but hopefully this afternoon after a little nap those matches will be restored to the full packet to light it up. Sometime's really we feel like this for a reason, just half the time we don't know that reason.

A little trivia for you

What mountain am I standing on?

Click on it pic to make it larger

Put your answer in the comments :)

I headed out for my ride today, and the plan was to take it easy on a nice flat ride. I did that yesterday on my first ride back after 2 weeks off. But I left home and decided that I needed some mental satisfaction and thought I would give this climb a go, and that I'd limit my HR and power. I had done it once before and loved it, so it was about time I had another crack at it. I only just kept my HR below threshold but power went over a little in places (even in the granny) but it was all good. A nice solid hour or so climbing and I was at the top for the weather to change. The wind picked up the temperature dropped 10 degrees (well so it seemed) and I was on my way back down.

It was good to be back this weekend,  I tried a new Spesh phenom saddle and it seemed really good, hopefully after a little settle in a long ride will make my decision on if it is a go'er.

Now bring on the nice riding weather!

What a weekend, with a ride to Wee Jasper

The first challenge of the weekend was mine. Friday night I had some sets of VO2 max, and I hit them hard hitting all targets on all reps plus 1 rep extra just for good luck ;).

Saturday while I was riding Honeysuckle, Kendra's target was 2 RPM sessions with Andy at Club Lime. Andy's class's are great, he makes you work for it, and always adds extra tracks to the sessions. So Kendra made the 2 hours of pain, pushing herself with an average of 150+ HR. Nice work.

Sunday was a ride to Wee Jasper, we were meeting up at 8:45am at Uriarra Xing, so I added in a ride there. Here I meet up with Ed, Jase, Joel, and Phil and set off. We were to meet up with Claire and Erik for lunch, they were taking the road option.

This ride takes you over the edge of the Brindies and had 5 big climbs, some river crossings, and fantastic views. I was pretty hard work, as Jase was really setting a high pace, while I sat back in tempo. With the fire road climbs comes the downs and these were pretty quick. The last road section into WJ was awesome. It was hard, as all I wanted to do was look at the greenery.

Lunch was at a nice little country pub, and 5 min after we pulled in came Claire and Erik, perfect timing. Here we had wedges, soup, it was all good stuff. I think we stayed here a little too long as we were not really keen on climbing the hills back out.

But we headed off, and really did not seem as bad as we expected. Hitting the fire roads back there was alot more climbing and getting back took only a couple of minutes longer than getting there. By this time it was 5pm and about 5 hours of riding for 100k's, or total for me 6.5 for 135. My plan was to ride back home to get 170k's up but decided as it was getting dark and cold that the temptation to jump into Jase's nice warm car was too great. So thanks for the ride guys, I had alot of fun.

Brindies run, Warks road, Mt Corree, and Two sticks.

Saturday, Jase and I had a ride in the Brindies; it was a perfect day for it. We parked the car near Uriarra homestead and headed up Warks road this was a nice steady climb that just kept going, and going, it was perfect to keep warm in the chilly temp. I have to say it was really nice scenery, there is nothing like getting out a doing a bike ride like this.

We got up and crossed Brindabella road and rode on to Corree. I must admit it is pretty intimidating riding up to Corree looking at the steep sides. But we were having a ball on the undulating hills leading up to it and I was glad for the distraction. We got to the turn off for the climb, Jase had told me it was tough, and I did think I yeah I have done some good climbs this won’t be so bad. I was wrong it took us just under 30min from the turn off on a really rocky, steep, relentless trail. I kept thinking on the way up it has to end soon, it has to end soon; I was hurting trying to ride over rocks, and picking good lines. Jase was behind me I was hoping I was not going to put a foot down. I noticed Jase fall back a bit, I did think, man I hope he put a foot down, yeah good mate I am aren’t I ;). I kept going ½ thinking yeah I hope I’m 1 up on him, but the climb just kept coming. Near the top, I could see the end I stepped up onto a rough concrete section, I got over that. Then the last little bit covered in rocks, I was tired, lost focus, picked the wrong line, and the front wheel turned too far and that was it, foot down. I rode the rest but as Jase confirmed at the top it was 1 down each. Next time I will master it for sure ;).

At this stage of the ride I was really enjoying it, I felt like I was a million miles away from work, my mind was just about the ride it was great. Then I looked at the view, it was huge you could see…. my work. We were along way away, and with the nice clear day we had the best view it was amazing. With a quick bite to eat we were heading for the run down.

The run down from Corree was arm pumping rough, it was great. Picking good lines, keeping the speed up, bouncing here and there it was lots of fun. Then we were back onto two sticks heading back down to the car. Still 25 odd k’s to go and mostly down hill we were having fun. We even overtook a 4bee it was all good.

I got to say after the previous weekend with riding in the cold, windy, rain on Saturday and the trainer on Sunday, I needing this ride to get some motivation back into my riding. This ride was perfect. It really lifted me up and put me back to where I should be at with my riding. So thanks Jase it was awesome. Next time we will keep our feet on the pedals the whole way ;).

Blue Mountains

With a 10 year wedding Anniversary we decided a nice little get away the the Blue mountains was a great way to celebrate. But with both of us with events coming up quickly we took the bikes for some riding over our 4 day break, but more about the rides later. It was a really nice weekend, we left on the Friday for the journey up and had accommodation booked at possums hideaway. This place was great wood fire, in an nice little tree house set a great mood. There were some nice little possums that came around to steal our banana's.
On Friday night we celebrated by going out for dinner at this nice Italian restaurant. It was great but I had a feeling someone was trying to tell us something with lots of concrete trucks going past. It was kind of funny by the end.
Saturday we went out with the tourists into Katoomba,had a little look around and found a great chocolate shop, very evil. They had great hot chocolate's. We felt we had to go bushwalking after that morning tea.
We did our best to try and relax, but with lots of riding and some little bush walks we found we did not really do enough. But we had a couple of rides in mind and wanted have a good go at them. We ended up doing the ridge road ride a few times, once during the day and once at night, we also did narrow neck, both great fun.



Ridgewell road to Baltzer lookout
This is a ride in Blackheath, all fire road but lots of fun. We parked just off the highway to make the most of the14k ride. This went down a nice smooth fire trail where we got lots of speed up, and it did not really take too long to end up at the car park for the walkers. From here after climbing over the fence we rode along the ridge over a fairly rough fire road it was great fun. There was plenty of short up hills with some nice little downs. We had a bit of rain but we did not care we were having lots of fun on this trail.
Before we knew it we were there at the lookout, The view was great, even better with the rain clouds.
On the way back I decided I would put in some good solid efforts so I left Kendra behind and headed to the car as hard as I could, so I could turn around and ride back to her hard. The hills were great and I loved fast pace on the smooth fire road back up to the car. Lots of fun, and then to come back and do it again with Kendra was twice as good.

Narrowneck
This ride is in Katoomba and about 20k's. But Kendra and I decided to make it a little longer by parking on a part of the fire trail and then ride up to the car park. Little did we know about the climb we had to get up there it was pretty steep but great fun on the way back. We were expecting a fairly flat ride.
The flat ride never really happened but we were faced with some good hills along the way. These hills really gave Kendra allot of confidence by the end, for both ascending and descending. There were some really great views and always something to look at along the way. This was a popular track with lots of riders, walkers and runners.
We were rewarded at the end of the track with another great view only to turn around and head back the way we came. We really did not expect it to take us as long as what to did and we were starting to get hungry towards the end. But it was a pretty quick trip back.
We were hoping to get back for a good lunch but did not really plan it too well as by the time we got back had a shower etc it was 3pm. That is the way it goes.

Really seeing the blue mountains is not just about the three sisters and all the touristy stuff we found the best bits are away from all that. Even better on the bikes as you can see so much in a short space of time and get to some really nice place's.
So a great anniversary with some really nice time together. One to remember.
Now I have to think back to the concrete trucks (bloody Adam and his jokes) and put in a good solid effort for my last 3 weeks of training before Easter. Yep, I had to pull a recovery week forward after I got a little bug at the beginning of last week. But good again and keen for some solid intervals.

Hanging Mountain

From Tuross Heads to Hanging Mountain and back is one ride that will test your hill climbing endurance. When I first did this ride back about 12 years ago, I can remember looking down at my Speedo thinking if only I could get my speed up above 8km/h it would be so much better, the climb seemed to last forever.
This time I was heading up there for my 3rd time, and I was really looking forward to it. I left my parents house at 5:20am, it was a perfect morning, with little traffic on the road. I pushed up the Princess highway and turned towards the fire trail onto Western Boundary road. The whole ride is on fire trail and is a pretty smooth run all the way. This trail to Little sugarloaf road was uphill and very undulating., and heads straight for Deua National Park and I was very surprised to get there on an hour of riding. Along little sugarloaf is where most of the climbing begins, this is where it just seems to never end. Being stronger this time it did seem to be easier from what I remembered and looking towards my destination during my climb encouraged a good pace.
Before I knew it I was there well under the 3 hour mark I was hoping for. Looking at the view of where I had just come from is always rewarding on this ride. As you can see (by the bottom picture) there is a clear view to Mt Dromedary. Heading back was very quick, putting some power down and keeping my speed up made the up hill sections very easy work. I completed the 75k’s in 4.5 hours which was about 1 hour quicker than any other time I have ridden it. I did feel pretty tired though and I knew I had pushed it pretty hard. A great ride and a lot of fun. Next time I am down there I will have to try Mt Dromedary.

The bakers bunch (on the dark side)

After some great riding during the week, trying to work to my program, Jase asked me to join him on a roadie bunch ride. This was no ordinary bunch ride, even though it is a pretty flat ride, it was a bunch ride that did scare me a little. It was known to be a very fast lap around Canberra, and to make it the whole way you have to be a really, really good rider.
We left Lanyon early to get into Phillip at 6:30am to set off with the big boys. The group set off at a cracking pace, heading up Adelaide Ave at 55kph was great fun. Once we hit Northbourne we ran into a little trouble with the red lights and Jase's chain coming off we were well off the back with no chance of getting back on. So we kept at it, and tacked onto a few other riders that had been dropped to make a nice little group of 4-5.
We continued out through Dunlop, Ngunnawal, Gungahlin, all these places I had never ridden before. With this in mind I could not be dropped or I'd be lost. I kept at it to Watson, when Jase and I decided to head back onto Northbourne. We tryed our best not to let the pace drop, on our way back down Northbourne, Adelaide Ave, through Phillip, Tugg lake and back home.
I was really working at my limits, my legs were hurting all the way, but there was no way I was going to give in. I had to sit at the back of the pack and try to hang on and I only just managed to do that.
I had a great time, and can honestly say I have never worked so hard on a bike. I averaged 77% of max H/R for 3.5 hours it is no wonder my legs were lactic. Thanks Jase for the ride, I really was in a world of hurt, and it was one of the best training sessions I have done.
This will be 1 session that I might have to try to fit into my program.

Bullen Range

What a ride, on the way to work this morning my legs were totally wasted from this ride, so a real good training workout. We set out at 7am meeting Jase and Adam at point hut. Heading off we knew we were in for some climbing setting a good pace up to the fire road which winds its way up onto the range. These were great new fire roads with plenty of traction for the steep climbs.
Along the top of the range we had some great views east to Canberra and west to the Brindies, Tidbinbilla and my work the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex.
I had travelled along this route before to and from work but the turn off towards the Cottor was venturing into unknown territory.
We turned to head off my known track into a massive uphill grind. We started Jase leading the way, it was relentless usually I can just keep my slow pace going but this time my H./R was up legs were getting heavy and had to give in half way up. Jase absolutely smashed it up there and kept going while Adam and I pushed.
Back along the ridge we were doing the rollercoaster thing again up and down with some very nasty downs if you were not ready for them. This section was great fun lots of little jumps to get some air, then winding all the way down to the Cottor caves. I had completely forgot about this place till I saw it, I had not been there since I was very young.
From here we headed back onto the road to the Cottor, and then the Climb out up to civilisation. Adam was putting in some big ones up this long climb, Jase was up for it but I was slowly dropping back. Adam was giving me some hurt but managed to keep within a few hundred meters.
We had managed to get to Stromlo, now the pass over Cooleman ridge with a good solid pace; I was hanging off the back keeping up. Then came to footpath bash to say goodbye to Adam at Lake Tuggeranong and then back home via the Pine Island to Point hut single track.
A great morning out that pushed me through the limits. I really needed that usually I go out for a ride set an easy pace. So thanks for the hurt guys.

Here is Jase’s version: http://www.wickedrides.com.au/bullen/?screenWidth=1024
Thanks Jase for the picture’s, looks like I will have to buy a new Camera.