A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 2!

[ldrcycles]

After the success of last year's thread it's time for wannabe racing 2013 style!

For those just tuning in, i am 25 years old, MAD keen on old bikes (emphasis on mad) and a VERY keen, although so far wholly unsuccessful, racer.
Over the course of last year's thread i-
Got engaged (in 50s costume at a vintage bike show, now that was an experience!)
Rode 200kms for the first time
Rode 250kms for the first time
Lost 7kgs
Rode my first crit
Rode Bald Knob, Razorback, Kiel Mountain and Obi Obi in one ride
Rode from Canungra to O'Reilly's (the biggest climb in Queensland)
Reached my goal of 4,000 miles (6437k) and eventually reached 7,727kms
And started to develop muscly legs .

This year the goals are

20,000kms riding
150,000m of climbing
500km in one ride
Win at least one race
Get top 10 or better at the Noosa Century (yea yea i know "it's not a race" )
Do the Rainbow Ride down in northern NSW (events have conspired against it for the last 3 years)
Get under the 6 minute mark for Gyndier Drive at Tinbeerwah (current pb- 6:07)
Do the Tour de Tamborine climb in under 20 minutes (this year 21:35)
Do O'Reilly's again and do it in under an hour (current best 1:16)
Race the Grafton to Inverell
Finish ALL my restorations (wishful thinking but it's got to happen eventually!)

And get married!

The first 2 days of the year have just been rest, tomorrow morning i will be heading out with the Noosa bunch for the 75ish km Black Mountain-Boreen Point loop. And so it begins!

[foo on patrol]

Mate, I admire you for your goals but 500 in a day, is a super human effort. Personally , I don't think it will help you on your quest for the racing side of things.

But set yourself goals by all means but to an achievable level, that will benefit you.

Sorry if I sound a bit negative but I just read some sad news, on another forum I'm on.

Foo

[zakka101]

look forward to following your progress mate, strava is our friend!
will keep reading ya posts, they are a hoot hehe..

[ldrcycles]

Thursday morning, and the now familiar routine of the accursed alarm going off at 3:45, made all the more unpleasant by the sound of rain and a strong easterly.
While i did consider going back to bed, the thought of wasting that painfully early start was worse than the prospect of riding into a headwind in the rain so off i went.

The bunch set off from Tewantin at the usual time and after a very sedate roll up Gyndier there was a fairly quick spin along the road to Cooroy. As we neared the bottom of Black Mountain it was my turn on the front and after only a short while of riding what i thought was an average pace i realised they had all dropped back.
In a bit of a huff i decided to just ride my own pace up the climb, and at the top they were still well back. I followed the cue of the one bloke who had passed me and dawdled til they caught up, but a few hills saw the start of a segment that i wanted to have a bit of a crack at, so away i went.

While the segment went according to plan (21 seconds better than my pb and 4th place), it meant i reached the outskirts of Pomona on my own again. I thought for a moment about doing some more dawdling and then thought "hang on, this is a training ride. So train!" and off i went.

After turning on to Exhibition St i didn't see the bunch again for another 20odd km. They must have been really nancying about because i wasn't going that fast, a decent pace out on my own but nothing for a bunch.
A km or 2 out of Boreen Point i turned around to try and catch the early bunch, rather than go into the village and wait for the later bunch to arrive (and in all likelihood drop me into the headwind on McKinnon Drive).
While i worked very hard (and well, working hard and working well are 2 different things!) the headwind was just too strong and i had left a bit too much of a gap to bridge.

The upshot though, was that the later bunch didn't catch me for another 10km, i hopped on and for the first time EVER was able to witness the sprint on the outskirts of Tewantin. Unfortunately the headwind meant that it was a very subdued sprint but it was still quite enjoyable.

To this point the morning had been most enjoyable, and then as i was turning right at a roundabout a South Australian attempted to clean me up with his Falcon. Being South Australian, he did a pitiful job of it (and even if it had been a person of average intelligence i am always on high alert at roundabouts) but all the same his boot lid doesn't look quite the same anymore. Threaten me with serious injuries or worse and there are going to be consequences.

On a different and much more pleasant note however, the absolute highlight of my day was seeing a bunny on the side of the road in Cooroibah which didn't run away but instead crouched down as low as it could and stared at me with it's enormous brown eyes. Utterly adorable (although i did think a .22 would have been handy).

Tomorrow will be some single speeding in the morning, and then some geared pain in the evening while stef is at work, repeats at either Gyndier or the crit track depending purely on my whim.

[ldrcycles]

Oh and foo, no negativity there at all, i really appreciate your advice. I don't reckon 500 should be too tricky, even if i only average 28kmh that's less than 18 hours, I've been awake that long today . There will be plenty of building up and recovery too. On that note, depending on the weather and what efforts are required to maintain domestic peace, i'm intending on doing a 200+k ride this sunday, the goal being to complete the distance without any stopping. Tricky, but should be possible with proper preparation.

[elantra]

After the success of last year's thread it's time for wannabe racing 2013 style!

For those just tuning in, i am 25 years old, MAD keen on old bikes (emphasis on mad) and a VERY keen, although so far wholly unsuccessful, racer.
Over the course of last year's thread i-
..................
..................
...................
.........................................
Rode from Canungra to O'Reilly's (the biggest climb in Queensland)
..........................................

This year the goals are

20,000kms riding
150,000m of climbing
500km in one ride
Win at least one race
Get top 10 or better at the Noosa Century (yea yea i know "it's not a race" )
Do the Rainbow Ride down in northern NSW (events have conspired against it for the last 3 years)
Get under the 6 minute mark for Gyndier Drive at Tinbeerwah (current pb- 6:07)
Do the Tour de Tamborine climb in under 20 minutes (this year 21:35)
Do O'Reilly's again and do it in under an hour (current best 1:16)
Race the Grafton to Inverell
Finish ALL my restorations (wishful thinking but it's got to happen eventually!)

And get married!

The first 2 days of the year have just been rest, tomorrow morning i will be heading out with the Noosa bunch for the 75ish km Black Mountain-Boreen Point loop. And so it begins!

You forgot to mention attend a Retro riverloop in Brisbane !

Also as a small point of correction, i think you will find that the Grafton to Inverell climb has a bigger vertical gain, and then therefore it is probably not correct to believe that Canungra to O'Reilly's is the biggest climb in Qld.

[jasonc]

Rode from Canungra to O'Reilly's (the biggest climb in Queensland)

You forgot to mention attend a Retro riverloop in Brisbane !

Also as a small point of correction, i think you will find that the Grafton to Inverell climb has a bigger vertical gain, and then therefore it is probably not correct to believe that Canungra to O'Reilly's is the biggest climb in Qld.

grafton to inverell is in NSW

[ldrcycles]

A big gap between posts (and strava updates) as my modem/router/whatever the heck that thing with the blinking lights is has stopped working so i have no interwebz.

In short, i had a reasonable ride on the Dawes on Friday morning, not great but ok.

Then Sunday i was heading out for a big ride and it was not a good morning.
From Coolum to Caloundra i was riding into a vicious headwind (though still ticking along ok), then near Caboolture i was run clean off the road by an elderly man in a 4wd (got the rego and have reported him to the police, for all the good it will do) and then north of Woodford it started raining.
I had planned to loop through peachester up to maleny, through conondale and kenilworth then back to the coast but by this stage i was starting to fade a bit mentally. When i tried to ring stef to pick me up at caloundra, first my touchscreen phone wouldn't respond because my fingers were wet (i'm replacing it ASAP for a phone with buttons, what if it was an emergency? Completely unacceptable) and then when i did get it to work, she didn't get any of my messages or texts for over 2 hours.

That was the final straw, and i completely cracked, and rode very slowly to the northern end of the steve irwin way in tears where i managed to call my dad and he picked me up.

Physically i was going ok, i had REALLY enjoyed the climb between Woodford and Peachester (which i've wanted to do for years) but the morning's events unexpectedly piled up and just broke me. After a hot shower and a nice lunch i was feeling alright again though, i can now just look at it as experience under the belt.

On the plus side, that climb was great and i can't wait to do it again, and i trialled a few bars on the ride and found one that i can eat while riding (Special K crunchy bars for those watching at home, most others make me feel like i'm choking).
I also managed 92kms without stopping, until i had to refill my water bottles (which is odd, normally i don't drink that much) and 150kms in total is still quite reasonable.

Tomorrow morning i will be heading out with the Noosa bunch for the Sunrise Loop, or if i sleep in, doing intervals somewhere (probably Gyndier).

[ldrcycles]

What a difference a day can make! After resting and licking my wounds yesterday (metaphorically speaking, i had no wounds and even if did i'm not that flexible) i was up early this morning to do the Sunrise Loop with the Noosa bunch.

Except they never turned up . I'm pretty sure they leave at 5:30 but i was there from 5 til quarter to 6 and didn't see another soul. Well i didn't get up that early to stand in a car park all morning so off i went, and had an absolute ripper of a ride.
I rolled through Tewantin at a relaxed pace (especially for the kilometre or so it took me to loosen the stem with my minitool and adjust my bars ), then put in a pretty solid effort up Gyndier, not that great i thought but enough for my 2nd best time so far, and PB for a segment that starts before the bottom and continues past the top (so naturally i have never really DONE that whole thing).

I ticked along to Cooroy pretty well, mostly about 34kmh but up to 41 at times, then covered the Eumundi Range and Sunrise Road quite nicely too. On getting back to Gyndier i decided to give it a bit of welly for the descent and matched my pb, could have taken a bit off if it wasn't for the chain skipping in top (need to sort that out).

Exactly the sort of ride i needed after Sunday, the kind of ride that reminds you why this is worth doing, because it's just so much fun .

Having had a rest to write this and upload my GPS files, i'm back out to continue clearing lantana and scrap metal, gotta get this place spick and span for the wedding!

[ldrcycles]

This morning i decided to forgo the Noosa bunch and instead have a crack at bettering my PB from Kin Kin to Noosa. As part of this i bolted on some Profile aerobars i've had lying around for ages, just to see what they were like, having never ridden aerobars before.

Within just a few kms i had got used to the new position, and found it remarkably comfortable. And even more remarkably, AMAZINGLY fast. I mean ridiculously fast, i would never have thought it would make such a huge difference.

I pushed as hard as i could without blowing up all the way and when i got to work found i had taken nearly 6 MINUTES off my pb, down to just 1:04:45 for an average (repeat, AVERAGE) speed of 38.2kmh! One 6km segment between Cooroy and Tinbeerwah had me at an average of 39.2!

Absolutely over the moon with that effort, now that's getting towards the sort of speed a REAL cyclist would be doing, only a matter of time and i'll be able to take the 'wannabe' out of the thread . The next goal is to get the Kin Kin to Noosa run under an hour, but an average speed of over 42kmh is VERY serious, that's going to take some very solid training.

Going home was, unsurprisingly, just a smidgen slower than the morning but still happy with an average of 32kmh.

So 3 KOMs, 5 PRs and a 3rd place. Most satisfactory.

[foo on patrol]

You'll get there Idry, just don't try and do it to soon.

Foo

[ldrcycles]

An interesting few days since my last post.

The weekend was a bit tough for me as the stress of juggling work, cycling and wedding preparations got to me, now that i've recognised that and made a conscious effort to rest it has helped a lot. The best thing i did was go to Gyndier with the Dawes on sunday night, nothing feels as good as that bike on that road .

Did one run at moderate pace to warm up, then smashed out a fast one (pb for both of the Gyndier segments, down to 6:03 for the main one) and followed that with 2 runs out of the saddle almost all the way. Felt fantastic.

This morning i decided to have a crack at the Sunrise Loop bunch with the Dawes (i knew she would at least handle Gyndier alright ).
As i was putting the wheels on in the car park i had a bad twinge in my back and struggled to even stand for a short while but it settled down. It's still a little bit tight now but as luck would have it i have an appointment with the chiro this arvo.

The ride went very well, i felt great on Gyndier (and took the mountain points ), kept up with them ok to cooroy, though i would have been in trouble had they wound it up much past the 40-42 they were sitting on, and then applied myself well along Eumundi Range Rd.
Some of the climbs along there were a bit challenging but hitting them hard to keep the cadence up and stay on top of, or at least level with, the gear took care of them alright.

I lost the bunch at Tinbeerwah, with a wet road, short stem and wheels that feel like parachutes for cross winds, i wasn't setting any records down the main hill, and then on the flat with a 77" gear i couldn't be bothered spinning up to hold them at 50ish.

While rolling back through town to the car i was coming through a roundabout at what i thought was a very slow speed, evidently not slow enough as before i knew anything was happening the bike had shot out from underneath me and i was on the deck. A bit of bark off my leg but no real harm done, and most importantly no damage to my precious!

So a bit of rest for the remainder of the day, then another bunch ride thursday (or the Noosa Century course if i want a proper workout).

[fionahills]

glad you are ok and the bike most importantly - look after your back......

love reading about your adventures - vicarious bike riding - i am getting really pathetic..

heal quickly fiona

[ldrcycles]

My back decided not to play the game so i had to have Wednesday off work. Plenty of rest and ice had it sorted pretty quickly though, and i was able to get a bit of riding in this morning before work, 5 repeats of Gyndier on the Dawes, each run slower than the last .

No chance of getting a ride in tomorrow thanks to wedding preparations but then i should be back to my training plan for the week.

[ldrcycles]

Big gaps between updates thanks to unreliable interwebses at the moment, but you're not missing much.

Tuesday morning i did the bunch ride on the Dawes again, felt pretty good until coming back through Tinbeerwah, the road was wet again, and again the bike was VERY unhappy, almost lost it on the same roundabout i crashed on last week. So that has my bike handling confidence feeling very poor indeed.
I'm pointing the finger at the tyres, big fat Michelin city tyres with around 4,000kms on them and barely a mark, so i'm guessing perhaps a very hard rubber compound that doesn't agree with wet roads.

Wednesday was a rest day, and then this morning i was intending to hit up the bunch ride but the weather has turned decidedly dreadful so no luck. All the more disappointing as i had just finished getting a bike ready for it's first outing (an early 90s Tarini Prima with Shimano 600 Tricolour and Mavic Aksiums). On the other hand i managed to finish building a single speed and that looks great.

I'm not feeling too good at the moment about the way the year has started but i just have to keep telling myself that once the wedding is done and dusted the miles and speeds will come up. Tomorrow morning will be either repeats at Gyndier or some 'quality' time on the stationary trainer, and the same for the afternoon.

[ldrcycles]

As you can see, the conditions in my general vicinity are not ideal for cycling. So since Tuesday i've had a grand total of 15 minutes of sprint efforts on the trainer on Friday morning, and then a solid hour on Saturday night while Stef was at work.
With the weather the way it was there was no way i was going to let her drive her little Daihatsu, so i popped the trainer in the boot and then set myself up in a park rotunda in Tewantin. Yes i got some very odd looks from the total of 3 people who walked past in the howling wind and horizontal rain.

Fingers crossed for calmer weather soon.

[ldrcycles]

Blue skies again, so back out on the bike. 50kms before work this morning, from Coolum to Mt Ninderry and back. Even early in the morning the heat/humidity really knocked me about but i still managed to tick along pretty well. Coming through the centre of Coolum i passed a bloke doing about 30kmh while i was north of 50, that was fun .

Spun out to Ninderry at quite a respectable pace and then turned on to Ninderry Rd to be confronted with a WALL, i don't remember it being that steep when i drove out there a year or so ago. A maximum of about 25% and VERY hard work. I was heading for a Strava segment but went up the wrong street, so will have to head back again. Very enjoyable up there in thick fog with lots of roos on the side of the road staring at me puffing and sweating my way up the hill .

Thursday bunch tomorrow morning on my Tarini Prima (first ride since building it) IF it's dry. If there's rain about i'll stick to Gyndier or the crit track, not yet ready to ride fast on wet downhills.

[ldrcycles]

A Very Good Day today.

In spite of my hand wringing last night about the spectre of wet roads, i decided to not be such a spineless nancy and join the bunch anyway.
The Tarini didn't take long to get used to (though unfortunately the seat was set a bit too low and i forgot my allen key ) and we moseyed over to Cooroy at a moderate pace.

I dropped the chain at the bottom of Black Mountain (my fault for not adjusting the derailleur limit screws properly) but to my surprise, was able to get back up to the group. This bike is particularly heavy and not much keen on climbing, especially when it gets steep. Somehow though i managed to get 10th for a climb segment further on, while hanging on to a couple of attacks, one of which was Andy Fellows the pro MTB racer (though 'attack' should be kept in context, i'm sure he could go a lot harder).

Instead of going in to Boreen Point, the majority of the bunch decided to head straight back to Noosa as it was raining and not particularly pleasant. They kept the usual sort of pace and though i struggled i managed to keep with them until we reached town (averaging 40kmh for a rolling segment along the way).

The bike performed beautifully, and the ride really helped to build up my shaky confidence.

And better yet, i got my hands on a pic from the Buderim 9 .

[foo on patrol]

You have the focus eyes Idry.

Foo

[ldrcycles]

Hahaha foo, or as my brother opined, "the eyes of a desperate man" .

An interesting week so far, the other day i rode from Coolum to Mt Ninderry to do the full climb (missed the turn last time i went up) and took the KOM . Felt very strong on the way out there, but the climb was absolutely brutal and knocked me for 6.
I had a crack at another very steep climb on the other side of the mountain on the way back to Coolum but only got 200 metres before my legs mutinied and simply refused to carry me any further up.

This morning i popped in to Noosa for the Sunrise bunch, and had a so-so ride. I sat on the front pushing a pretty healthy pace up Gyndier Drive and felt fine, then they turned the pace right up along Cooroy Tewantin Rd and i got dropped a few k before Cooroy. I could whinge that the pace of the bunch was horrendously inconsistent, it was like being in a crit with a bunch of kids on red cordial but i'm mature enough to know that chances are it was at least in some part my own fault (maybe i wasn't looking far enough ahead and predicting their movements, or perhaps i was just reacting too late, either way more practice is the answer).

Perfectly feasible too that i just wasn't strong enough to keep up with a 50+kmh pace.

In any case i kept pushing as hard as i was able to and managed a pretty reasonable time for the loop in spite of quite a bit of wind (which was of course never a tailwind regardless of my direction) and then moved up to 9th for the Gyndier descent which was nice.

Riding time is still limited at the moment by the amount of work that needs to be done before the wedding but so long as i can still get on the bike fairly regularly i will be all set to go once i get back from the honeymoon. Which, by the by, is now looking like being 6 days in Launceston and Hobart, and if so i'm hoping to get up early one morning and sneak in a ride up Mt Wellington somehow .

[sb944]

I really enjoyed Tassie over a few trips in the last couple of years, lots of little towns and places to visit, so don't plan a rushed trip driving all over the island. We drove up Mt Wellington on a day where the wind was getting the best of Hobart, and it was incredible by the top. You had to turn your head to breathe it was that strong. Hopefully it's a little nicer when you ride up, then it's only 20km of 7% grade left to negotiate

[ldrcycles]

Quite a while between posts, as Telstra have STILL not got round to replacing my fiancee's faulty modem thing, so i only have net access every few days.

The preparations for the wedding are causing a rapidly increasing amount of stress, and rapidly decreasing amount of time for cycling. So after the Tuesday bunch i didn't ride again until Saturday.
On Friday night i was pulled up for an RBT, and i was my usual happy, polite self with the officer as i never drink and drive and am a very safe driver. So i went into shock when he asked me to confirm the expiry date on my licence. That's right, Thursday. IDIOT.
$170 fine, but i was able to continue driving to stef's and replace my licence today. But it meant transport for the weekend would need to be either a lift with stef, or riding.

Stef dropped me at work on saturday morning and i rode back to Coolum afterwards, putting in PB after PB on almost every segment along the way, and even averaging just short of 50kmh for one mostly flat stretch, thanks to drafting a pantec .

Then on Sunday i rode from Coolum to Noosa to join the Sunday bunch, rode with them to Pomona via Cootharaba and then parted ways to go to Kin Kin for more wedding prep. Again the Tarini performed exceptionally well, and an average of 31kmh for the total of 75k was very satisfactory. In the afternoon, having got back to Coolum wth stef, i rode to Maroochy and back on a single speed to get some paint from bunnings.

This morning i rode to work, in spite of my legs being quite sore from all that hard work over the weekend, and put in an absolute corker of a time, sitting on 47-48 on the flat for one section (this time without the help of any heavy vehicles). I won't know til that file gets uploaded but i think my average was getting towards 37kmh .

The more i ride the Tarini the happier i am with it, my initial impression of it being a bit harsh and a poor climber was some way off, the 'harsh' is actually just an unusually stiff frame for a steel bike, which helps it to really honk along. The climbing, well it's steel, they are never that great, and it does alright. I'm not 100% on the handling yet but overall i'm very happy with it, and it will be staying in the fleet.

[ldrcycles]

No riding from Feb 11 to Feb 23 .

God i am going to be happy when the wedding is done and dusted and i have time to get back on the bike.

Got in a little spin on Saturday morning, lungs felt like i was a pack a day smoker but still managed to nab a KOM. As the big day gets ever closer i doubt i'll get much more riding under my belt til after the honeymoon, but well, she's worth it. Just! .

[ldrcycles]

So another stretch with very little riding .

The local club was going to have a crit at Landsborough on sunday the 3rd but only 2 other people turned up due to the grey skies, and as the drizzle continued and 7:30 came and went, they left. Not one to waste an early start or long-ish drive, i had my own race, and finished 8th! (on Strava ).

The next opportunity to ride was commuting to work on Monday, and while the legs were just passable, there was a very nasty head/cross wind in the morning and afternoon, so i didn't break any records.

With the wedding now only 10 days away the stress levels are going through the roof, despite the fact that due to the abominable weather, the farm that i have spent so many months clearing up is now just mud in every direction, so the ceremony will now be at the same indoors venue as the reception, meaning there is no work at all left until the day. So in theory i can just sit back and take it easy, but my guts have other ideas .

On the plus side though, i have FINALLY managed to tick over my first 1,000k for the year.

[ldrcycles]

Only one ride to report, the day after my bucks night .

Yes it was a little bit painful . Had planned to do mt coot-tha but realised within a block there was no way i was going to be able to haul my sorry backside up there! Just did 25k at 'grandma-on-dutch-step-through' pace.

I've had my last day of work until the 28th, so priority now is not to crash before the wedding (or if i do, NOT THE FACE!!)