A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

[ldrcycles]

I'm back again! (I mean i'm starting this only a few minutes after the last post for Part 2 so I haven't really been gone..)

2014 is going to be a big year, I've made some solid improvements over the last 2 years but now things are going to get REALLY serious, and it's starting from the very first day!

The goals this year-

15,000kms
Win at least one race
Ride O'Reilly's, Springbrook and that other climb down there I can't remember the name of.
Do 500km in one ride
Do at least 400kms over 2 days
Do 100 miles 3 days in a row
Do some more steam train racing

And break the world 1,000 mile record (although between you, me and the wall I think there's a good chance it will have to be postponed, as a newlywed finances are strained and will be for some time).

Off to bed now to get some rest for a big day tomorrow. Tally ho!

[Nikolai]

Good plan

The climb you're looking for is Binna Burra I think.

Good luck with your racing.

[singlespeedscott]

15000km Good stuff.

[fil_farina]

Subscribed!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Wakatuki]

Their must be a TV show looking for a reality star on some network somewhere Lachlan..
It could result in sponsorship
I have sent an email to The Democratic Republic of the Congo, but as the native language is French and French is not my native language I am not holding out much hope. I do have a gift of $803 cdf-congolese-franc from them waiting at my house for you.
I can also continue my current sponsorship with the continued loan of cone spanners if that helps!
Good luck, I will be watching and waiting.

[Cul]

*Subscribed*

[ldrcycles]

Only a matter of hours into the new year and the first runs are on the board .

After a bit of a sleep in, it was off to Buderim for a 2:15am start, and while the clouds still hanging about from yesterday's rain were a good thing for keeping the temperature down, there were a few damp patches, particularly one on the very steep descent of Jones Rd that had the bike squirming about at 45kmh.

Other than said trouser browning moment, and passing a bloke asleep on a footpath, the ride was uneventful until on the 6th climb the bike started to protest. Since I swapped the group from the Oppy onto the new Apollo frame the drivetrain has been a bit noisy, which I was "going to get around to" but this morning it was clear I had to stop riding and do something about it before either the drivetrain detonated in a fiery Hollywood explosion, or the local Buderimites started chasing me down the street brandishing their zimmer frames, woken from their slumber by a bike that sounds like a blender full of golf balls.

Still 50kms and 1100m climbing, a very nice way to kick off the new year .


And this wouldn't be a wannabe racer thread without some goat-related amusements, so turn up your speakers and enjoy .

[ldrcycles]

A long time between posts as the week just gone was a recovery week, that's right this year I am actually scheduling time for rest, rather than just going flat knacker until my mind and body self destructs! Unlike last year where I only made a token attempt at training in a structured way, this year I am putting it on paper and training for specific events.

So only one ride to report, an easy 70kms on the 1965 Local Cycle Co. 3 speed. Away at 4 to meet one of the managers from work at the top of Nicklin Way, and then rode back up to Coolum with him. We joined up with a bunch along the way which made things even easier, but it wasn't all smooth sailing as in spite of my careful preparation, the chain came off the Local AGAIN!! It came off 3 times before I admitted there was a problem and got the spanners out, and that meant a good few kms chasing into the headwind to rejoin my colleague. Not long after that we had a moron car passenger yell "get off the effing road!", nothing too unusual there, except that he was supervising a learner . Absolutely appalling. I'm just glad I didn't think to lob my water bottle at him, as the bottle on the Local is steel .

Other than that, not too much going on, one sick goat to report but fingers crossed the appropriate medicinal concoction has been administered.

A "designated rest day" today, and tomorrow morning i'm up early to head down to Palmwoods for some Monty repeats. I was reminded just this evening that the local club is doing Friday night crits for the next 3 weeks, so the calendar will need a bit of looking at.

[ldrcycles]

Oh and pictures!








In a very hurty place for that second photo .

[duds2u]

Can't be that hurty, your teeth are nowhere near the the bar tape!!!!!

[ldrcycles]

Can't be that hurty, your teeth are nowhere near the the bar tape!!!!!

What teeth?

[duds2u]

Your false ones!!

[ldrcycles]

(no that wasn't the auto-censoring, I actually wrote flying bicycles ).

This evening was supposed to involve a ride with the Mooloolaba fixie crew, but after knocking off work late I arrived home to find my fixie a little way short of road worthy, just missing minor things like a chain, cranks, tyres . Oh well at least it's inspired me to finally replace the baby-bottom smooth tyres on the Apollo .

So no riding today, but yesterday went very well, even though I woke up 4hrs late after having to pick up SWMBO from work the night before. I modified the schedule slightly by driving down to Palmwoods instead of riding, and then set off for some repeats. While I was a fair way off my best (not helped by the maddening squeak of the knackered BB which will need to be replaced ASAP before it asplodes) I still managed 2 sub 20 minute runs. After that I had a crack at Kirby Rd for the first time on Wakatuki's suggestion, and I was very surprised to get a 2nd place and a KOM . I wasn't even giving it that much heat, so there should be better things to come .

Unfortunately I had another surprise as I was heading back to the main road, when Special Cecil went flying past in his ute, about 2 feet away from me at ~60kmh in a 30 zone . Of course there's a reason he's called Special Cecil, and in this case it was passing like that at the top of a downhill with a set of traffic lights at the bottom . So naturally I caught up to him and asked what the hell he was playing at, and after he claimed I "swerved out in front of him" (duly refuted) he started ranting about there being "400 of you so-and-so's and you're all on the wrong side of the road and you should be on a such-and-such velodrome". Where my 399 friends where I have no idea, but hopefully I will find out after the police have had a chat to Cecil .

That encounter put something of a dampener on things and I decided against a 3rd run up the mountain.

After getting back home for a shower and some food, it was off to Noosa to pick up some stuff work, to Pomona to pick up more stuff from a mate, and then out to the farm to continue work on the shed. Part of me wants to be retired already so I have time to do things but I swear I have more work on my days off!

With a good bit of progress made, it was back to Coolum again, and on the way I noticed the southerly wind had got rather frisky, nay cyclonic. This of course means only one thing, Strava time!

Down went the stem, on went the aerobars, and in a sudden flash of intelligence I realised there was nothing stopping me swapping the 12t on the cassette for an 11. Months and months I've been cursing that 12t and wishing I could get an 11-28 cassette and the whole time I had an 11-25 sitting on the shelf . Blame it on all the old bikes, i'm too used to screw on freewheels.

Anyway off I went into the screaming wind, sitting on about 22kmh on the aerobars, and wondering exactly how dangerous things were going to be on the way back...

So at Marcoola I turned around, and once the road was clear I set off. I started off at a moderate pace, only up to about 36, changed up and pushed a little harder-44, another gear change-50, into top gear and with the "start line" approaching put the hammer down and within a hundred metres I was sitting on 61kmh. Then it was just a matter of holding that pace for 3kms, simple!

The wind direction wasn't quite ideal and it made things a bit tricky, but I tried to strike a balance between pushing hard and keeping enough back not to blow up, and the speed graph on Strava indicates I did that fairly well. In the end I clocked a 52.8kmh average speed, only 1 second off the KOM! I think the main thing holding me back was my aerobic fitness rather than outright strength, as most of the pain was coming from my lungs, and by comparison my legs felt pretty good. As always, more work to be done!

More Montville repeats tomorrow morning (hopefully without any more close encounters of the stupid kind) before heading out to the farm for some more constructioning.

[ldrcycles]

So as always, the good news first.

After another horrifically late start (I must knuckle down on getting to bed earlier) it was off to Palmwoods again for Monty repeats. After a gentle first run to warm up I had another crack at Kirby Rd, and this time managed to carry both KOMs . After another run up the main road at full effort I had to head off, as time was rapidly disappearing (and besides which my legs felt quite poorly and there is a crit on tomorrow night).

The plan had been to head straight for the farm but as I was getting ready her wifeliness started watching a movie, and I decided to stay and watch it with her. The improvements I am chasing this year are not only on the bike, and being a good (or at least acceptable) husband means spending at least some time together. The movie wasn't too bad either.

But no one ever changed the world by spending all their time relaxing, so once the movie was finished off I went, and had a very productive few hours working away on the farm.

Now onto the bad news, firstly I have discovered that Cycling Australia membership runs on the calendar year, so my membership is "unfinancial". With renewal being $315, that ain't going to happen, and that means no crit series for moi . (there is a temporary licence option thing but even that is $44 which is also unlikely to pass the finance department).

And putting that into context, this morning I found out my old boss (who could be tough to work for but was a good man) succumbed to cancer last night .
Very sad to hear.

[ldrcycles]

And/or an angry, i'm not entirely sure which. But i'll get to the start.

I finally faced the fact that the BB on the Apollo is kaput, FUBAR, toast etc. Without another hollowtech BB to replace it I was in a quandary, until it occurred to me that DERR there's nothing to stop me just ripping out all that modern claptrap and popping in a good old square taper BB and crankset, of which I have many millions.

So this morning that's what I did, or at least that's what I attempted to do, until it became apparent there was an issue with the BB threads. I'm assuming it was my ham fisted mechanicing but regardless of the cause, the solution was to get Apo to the bike shop to chase the BB.

So after work over I went to Hooked On Angling and Outdoors (free plug for them given, as on so many other occasions, they let me use their workshop for nix ) sorted the BB, then got some cash after miraculous clearance from the Minister for War and Finance and got over to the crit track with 10 minutes left to sign on.

And then things hit a bit of a snag. It turns out that if you have ever been a member of Cycling Australia, you CANNOT purchase a day licence. As the club official said when explaining it to me, this means that if someone has left the sport, say as a result of an injury, and wants to do a race or two just to see if they want to get back into it, NOPE $315 for a full year's membership or go away. Or as in my case, I can't afford to renew my membership at the moment so in the meantime go to buggery?

I know why CA want it that way, it's simple greed but it's an absolute joke. I tell you sports would be a lot better off without governing bodies, from the experiences I've had they are only ever interested in lining their own pockets .


While discussing the above with my dad, he raised an interesting point, that as i'm no longer a CA member, I no longer have the insurance that goes with it, and in the not-particularly-unlikely event of me crashing my brains out, I would be right up a sticky wicket without any sand to bury my head in. So in the meantime, under pain of whatever my ex-policeman dad can think of doing to me, the only riding I can do is either deep undercover or on the stationary trainer. Hmm, not quite the start to the year I was hoping for.

[singlespeedscott]

Thought about joining audax Australia. It doesn't give you a race license bit there is insurance.

[foo on patrol]

A long time since I've raced Idry but can you just join a local club and race with them?

Foo

[ldrcycles]

A long time since I've raced Idry but can you just join a local club and race with them?

Foo

As far as i'm aware, no. Joining the sunshine coast club goes hand in hand with joining CA, I don't know if there are clubs that hold racing without being affiliated with CA but there aren't any locally.

Thought about joining audax Australia. It doesn't give you a race license bit there is insurance.

Thanks for that Scott, I hadn't thought of that but they do have a good insurance setup and membership is only $70/yr or $65/yr for 3 years. The only problem is as you say, no racing. You can add a CA race licence to Audax membership though. For $200! So all up it's $45 cheaper than going straight to CA but damn it's still a lot of money.

I'll get in touch with AA and see if I can join them now and get the CA licence down the track a bit, at least that gets me back on the bike .

[singlespeedscott]

You'll have to change the thread to "A year in the life of a wannabe randonneur"

It's more like the type of riding you do anyway.

[jlh]

LDR I reckon if you setup a donation system on here you would get enough people chip in - its the least we could do for reading the entertainment you provide here and you taking the time with the stories, photos, etc.

[find_bruce]

LDR I reckon if you setup a donation system on here you would get enough people chip in - its the least we could do for reading the entertainment you provide here and you taking the time with the stories, photos, etc.

This - we can't have a wannabe racer without a race licence. Go Lachy !

[Wakatuki]

I'm in...
http://www.gofundme.com/online-fundraising/
There might be better ones, that was my first google pop up.

Perhaps sumgy (Lapin) could get you a jersey, jacks1071 (pro-lite) some wheels....

Anyone on here do cloning, so we can make ldr2 to sit with his wife?

[ldrcycles]

(Randonneur, randonniste, randtastic etc etc)

Yep it's official, it's time for me to grow a beard and start comparing dyno lights, i'm officially an Audax rider . Sadly I wasn't able to get onto the bike today, but you can bet your sweet 5th water bottle cage i'll be doing some riding tomorrow. I did at least get some exercise in by removing the starter motor from the old stationary diesel at the farm, a 3 phase monstrosity that would have to weigh the better part of 100kgs! Now I just need to save up for some of those SPD sandals...


Thanks very much for the kind words (especially the bit about the cloning, get onto that people, there's a serious market out there!) but i'll be saving the fundraising for the record attempt, when it will really matter. Have to earn my dues first . The local race scene is totally beneath me anyway .

But seriously, my training for the next month is tailored towards a challenge that doesn't require a race licence....and no i'm not telling what it is yet, it wouldn't be a surprise if I did .

And now, just because you were all so nice, some pictures!! (just more Buderim 9 pics )





Showing off my, ahem, climbing "style"...




And an indicator of just how steep some of those hills are!

[singlespeedscott]

Looks to be a few over geared cyclists in those piccies

[Wakatuki]

ldr of the future without a racing licence...