Todays rides

[Ross]

I was thinking of doing that ride but I've had a pretty hard week on the bike this week plus I thought it probably wasn't a good thing to do with a crit race in the afternoon. I did a reverse CU loop with PP today with brunch at Scope, 113km all up by the time I got home.

[bpmhigh]

Saturday - 31km run (full lap of the lake) in 3 hours to fatigue the legs for Sunday.

Sunday - 140km TT up the Federal highway - 32kmh average. Got a very severe case of "aero neck" after 40k's so it was a painful slog. On the upside however, I did manage to solve my numb feet issue after googling it.

"Loosen your shoes - that's most likely the problem" it said - so I did and it was!

[bpmhigh]

.....probably the longest ride until Parus Brest Parus in August.

Russell

A thread in the retro section on some aussies doing the PBP.

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=40848

[yyeric]

bit windy this morning isn't it????????
I tagged along with bilby's fast bunch, staying at the back just to hang on.
Unfortunately, had to be comprehensively dropped about half way on kingsford smith.
TT the whole way along Owen Dixon and Baldwin Dr. Legs still felt OK at this point.
Then it all gone downhill. Only average 28km/h on Ginninderra Dr and jumped on to AIS bike path for a shortcut back home.
Great ride though. 40km for me.

[rockviewau]

i have walked / run the past 2 nites

3.2 km on tues
3.9 km last nite with robdog

have decided to enter a triathlon later in the year so want to start training for it. Figure I can ride 20kms easy, but running 10kms is impossible at the moment!!

[bpmhigh]

i have walked / run the past 2 nites

3.2 km on tues
3.9 km last nite with robdog

have decided to enter a triathlon later in the year so want to start training for it. Figure I can ride 20kms easy, but running 10kms is impossible at the moment!!

Well done Lucas - keep at it. Not sure you'll need to run 10k's in your first race - there will be plenty of shorter options come spring. There are also some excellent novice programs (Vikings Tri, Bilbys) if you want ready yourself with like minded people.

Just beware however - next to divorce, and having children, triathlon is the next most efficient way of emptying your wallet. You will also find yourself dribbling to strangers about recovery heart rates, deep dish wheels, and the possible time savings from aero drink bottles!

[mrgolf]

bit windy this morning isn't it????????
I tagged along with bilby's fast bunch, staying at the back just to hang on.
Unfortunately, had to be comprehensively dropped about half way on kingsford smith.
TT the whole way along Owen Dixon and Baldwin Dr. Legs still felt OK at this point.
Then it all gone downhill. Only average 28km/h on Ginninderra Dr and jumped on to AIS bike path for a shortcut back home.
Great ride though. 40km for me.

If you are who I think you are, you did a bit more than hang on at the back up til golf course. The push up Kingsford Smith was tough with Gormley on the front. Managed to catch him at the top (he wasnt giving 100% for sure) and he left me on the front for the next 2kms leading up to the turn before comprehensively hammering me on the final rise. I was in pain. It was good to see you there, though. Its ridiculous we havent been introduced (by ourselves) yet...

Did just shy of 90kms with some boys from 3fidi out around Wamboin. Started at 6 with temps throughout the ride at about 0.5 to -1.7 deg. At one point in the fog, I had the condensation on the outside of the glasses freezing so I had to rub off the ice so I could see anything. A bit chilly.

[yyeric]

I am always in the red vest. so i am easy to spot. You are smashing on kingsford smith from what I could see. you made it look easy.

Did the Shingle Hill - Sutton triangle with bilby for an 80km easy pace this morning. I guess it was the wind then.

[mrgolf]

Ah, will look for you this week.

I was waiting for someone to make a move up Kingsford. I dont know how, but I always seem to lead out on the first half of the climb in spite of my best intentions. Someone always has a go, though. You should have seen Gormleys acceleration. Ridiculous. I hope he slowed down cos he couldnt sustain it. That is a deceptively tough climb. Especially with the mainly uphill undulations immediately afterwards...

[Ross]

I'll probably come along to Bilbys ride on Wednesday - it's Mugga loop this week I hear. I'll do the medium group though, you guys can have Ryan Gormley and Glenn English to yourselves!

Thank you to Twizzle who tried to help me out in yesterday's Vet's race at Honeysuckle. I'll go you halves in a towrope for next race, I'll use it on the flat sections to hook onto the back of you and then swap and I'll try and tow you up the hill next time!

[twizzle]

S'okay Ross, that was a very impressive climb, I'll make sure to drop you early in the races from now on! (Only kidding).

Were you with the bunch at the start of the climb, or did you catch us on the hill? If it was the latter, then you are an AWESOME climber.... and I'll smack you over the head if I see you doing turns on the front again. Did you notice I never did a turn?

[bpmhigh]

Saturday morning ride to lake G and back with a small bunch - yes, bloody chilly after a 5:30am start from home. Cycling with a friendly (fast) bunch for 2 and bit hours made a nice change from mind-numbingly boring 6 hour solo TT efforts out to Goulburn and back.

[Ross]

S'okay Ross, that was a very impressive climb, I'll make sure to drop you early in the races from now on! (Only kidding).

Were you with the bunch at the start of the climb, or did you catch us on the hill? If it was the latter, then you are an AWESOME climber.... and I'll smack you over the head if I see you doing turns on the front again. Did you notice I never did a turn?

I was still about 500m off the bunch at the turn back into Apollo Rd. I was behind the 8 ball from the get go. As you might of seen I arrived late and the bunch had just started and I had to chase them down. Managed to catch them and only then I found out we were doing the full 38km not the advertised 17km which was the reason I came along in the first place because I wanted to keep some legs for the Nocturne Crit. At the back of the bunch it was very surgy so I went up to second wheel and then after a while the lead guy pulled off and I was on the front. Then when we got to the first decent hill everyone attacked and I was dropped. Nearly caught on again on the hill coming out of Tharwa (toward Lookout Hill) but not quite. I think it was around then some time that you rolled back to help me out, but to no avail because the bunch was getiing further away. Eventually I managed to persuade you to forget about me and to continue with your race. I continued along in my own ITT and caught a couple of others that had popped off the back but was still about 500m off the main bunch. Then it was hill time and I just set a tempo rythm and managed to pick a few riders off and ended up with 4th. If only I had managed to stay/start with the bunch at the bottom of Honeysuckle I *may* of given Mr Black Jersey a run for his money. Luckily Mr Golf wasn't there, he IS an awesome climber.

Drove straight from Honeysuckle to Crace for the Nocturnal crit in which I got 9th. if only it had ended a lap earlier, I had just gone from still feeling fresh to having nothing. that's bike racing for you.

On Sunday I then decided to ride with a friend out to Condor Creek via Uriarra Crossing/3 Sisters. pace was pretty cruisey E1-E2 most of the way as we'd both raced on Saturday. We were rolling along just having a chat a couple of kms or so from the end of the bitumen when a guy on a MTB passed us! We couldn't let a dirty MTBer beat us so we dropped the hammer and made sure we got to the end of the tar first! (it was all in fun, not serious before all you MTBers have a go at us snooty roadies!) So 110km all up for me yesterday.

[twizzle]

Better you than me.

That was my first race since the Gunning two-day, so roughly two months since I'd raced. HR was pretty close to pegged on the hill, but power wasn't impressive... partly because my cadence was too low. And now I'm sick, caught a head cold from the kids.

[mrgolf]

First ride with Vikings in months. Sprinters loop. Damn it was foggy. Everyone well behaved, but most of the quicker boys werent there. A nice 50km hitout.

[yyeric]

120km out to Collector via OFH with Pedal Power.
Most of them gone out to Gunning for a 160km loop, but i guess the thought of returning home at 4PM isn't an option to me.
Need more easy K like this to lose more weight.

[HAKS]

52km this arvo/evening in the cold westerly

[bpmhigh]

I'm back from Challenge Cairns. I'll spare you the superlatives and hyperbole and just say that it was the most picturesque and well run event I've competed in hands down.

Got home in 12:09 so at the low end of my "12 something" target.

In summary...

The 3.8k swim was chaos – 2 lap, M-shaped course (including 7 turning buoys and a run up a boat ramp and across the beach again to enter for lap 2). It was an aquatic version of WWF smackdown. I was very happy to be out in 1:18 – 2 minutes quicker than planned but 483rd out of 618!



The 180k ride was sublime – 70 per cent of it was billiard table smooth so it was easy to hold a higher speed while soft pedalling. I had done all of my training on non-aero wheels and tyres with double tubes - weighing 3200 grams so with the Zipps, the disc covers, and the light tubular tyres it was happy days. The contrast between the slog of the Federal highway to Goulburn in the fog and the postcard surrounds of Ellis Beach, Palm Cove, Rex’s lookout etc couldn’t be more stark. My plan was to ride a 6:00 hour, 30kmh average but riding to heart rate put me at 32kmh average – 15 minutes ahead of schedule and in 229th place.



The marathon can be split into two parts – the first 16kms of hell, and the remaining 26 kms of “I can do this”. After setting off with really good legs and guts, after about 4k’s my heart rate hit 190 (my previously recorded max was 191!!). The heat off the road and lack of breeze through the cane fields was brutal so I made the deal with myself to run to the aid stations, and walk through – the mental battle was of course to start running again each time. By the 19k mark I was back in 392nd place but as soon as the temperature dropped, the breeze picked up, and the course looped around the Cairns Esplanade I needed less time at each aid station. It was nice to still be running for the last 10k’s and I picked up another 90 or so spots – home in 4:56. They revised my final placing to 303rd so within the top half and a faster time than the age group average.

While ironman triathlon is hardly “finding a cure for cancer” or “solving world hunger”, it is a unique experience that provides you with an immense sense of achievement. I fear that I’m hooked!



**ignore the overhead clock at the finish - it was calibrated to the pros who went off 10 minutes before us age groupers.

[nescius]

Congratulations! I heard it was a good event, my gf was up there spectating and said it was great. She is doing her first half ironman at Shepparton later this year, and it looks like she wants to do the full distance some time in the next 18 months. She also wants me do one as well I was spectating at IMNZ in Taupo this year and it was a great atmosphere and looked like fun (despite the weather), so maybe I'll incorporate some swimming and running into my training and see how I like it (I doubt I'll ever be a triathlete though, just a cyclist who can swim and run )

[yyeric]

oh my. thats brilliant effort. congrats Simon!

Short-sleeve jersey and bibshorts... how nice is that!

so, what's double tubes for training???

[rockviewau]

congrats Simon, thats bloody impressive!! I am very jealous of your effort!!

[bpmhigh]

Thanks Guys

@nescius - good luck to your gf for Shep - I hear that the bike course is nice and flat but watch out for the heat. No shame in being a cyclist who can swim and run - the bike leg is the longest part of the race! I say GO FOR IT!

@yyeric - yes, the short sleeves were great but wearing bike kit in a tri loses you plenty of "street cred points"! I put the jersey and nicks on because I needed extra padding below, and bigger pockets up top. (6 gels, 6 muesli bars, nurofen, tyre foam all neatly tucked away out of the wind). It doesn't make sense to me to have a nice sleek aero frame, and then cover it with the contents of a supermarket!

The double tubes is just a poor mans version of tyre liners (or mr tuffy). Cut the valve off an old tube, cut it lengthways down the middle on the inside (still keeping it as a continuous loop). Fit the new tube inside this and stuff it all into the rim. Adds about 100 grams per wheel but will reduce the number of punctures and increase the size of your quads!

I'm off to Maccas for lunch!

Oh, for those interested there are some great video highlights of each of the three legs here:

Swim highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYqUx11p33M

Ride highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBSBbSf_otM

Run highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6gVPZDj_3s

[HAKS]

Congrats Simon on what sounds like a mammoth effort. Considering I'm struggling to get any time on the bike at the moment def makes me jealous

[HAKS]

57km for me this morning. Flat (AT) about 35km was the only downer which forced me to take the shortest route home. The southerly was a wee bit nippy on the old face but otherwise beautiful conditions

[mrgolf]

Simon: wish I had the capacity to do that. Swimming will always be the thing that stops me doing an iron man. That, and the fact I have never run a marathon.

59kms this morning down to the ar$e end of the world to Chisolm and back through to Roasters in Braddon.