Ribs - runs - riding

Well it has been a few days since I have posted. Not a hell of a lot has happened. The ribs still hurt though I am 90% sure there is no crack, fracture or whatever, just bruising. I have consumed a reasonable amount of wine a large amount of really bad food and am hammering away at a bottle of Laphroaig I was given yesterday.

I ended up going to the doc’s on Saturday as my daughter got an eye infection so as I was there... I had an x-ray but it turned out to be inconclusive as to whether the damage to the rib was old or new. The pain has really started to subside in the last couple of days so I am happy it was just bruising on the rib. The real pisser with rib injuries is there is no overt sign of damage, you just cannot show anyone why you are in pain ! It still hurts lying down though which is really mucking up my sleep.

I have pulled out of the Tauranga Half Ironman team, someone else from work was quite keen to get in the team so I have given up my spot as a week of training now with 3 weeks to go is not good. I have been hammering the weight on now that I am not doing any exercise, and I have been drinking a bit too which does not help, not excessively, but more than I should and enough to effect my diet.

I will also can the plan to run the Kaweka this year, though I have bought the gear and was starting to enjoy the off road running I cannot get the miles in over the next few weeks to do it justice.

I will possibly get back onto the bike and try and do the single speed team in the N-duro 24 hour race. I aim to get a ride in over Christmas if the pain keeps subsiding like it is. I have had one lousy 5 minute ride in 5 weeks and it is just sux big time to not be riding cos of a stupid crash. My mates rode on Sunday and took a new guy out who was apparently cursing the dirty F%^ker who built an all uphill track. They told him that I would normally be riding with them as well….

Crash - bang - wallop

Listening to The Arcade Fire - No cars go as I start this post.

Went out for a Woodhill ride last night. Number 1 son and his friend who had just bought himself a new 2005 Kona Stinky Dee-lux. Woodhill had their Christmas party last night so the bike park carpark was packed, fortunately by the time we got there they had started to allow people to park on the road. Good to see so many people out riding. Though I think I liked it how it was a few years ago when you could be the only people there...

Anyways...

Ride started Ok for the first 500 metres when I went to pop off a raised tree root that I have popped off about 100 times before, I have no idea what went wrong, maybe I pulled up too hard on one side, maybe the front wheel kinked on the root as the weight was removed, but the wheel shot out sideways and I was heading down. I managed to push the bike away from me but did not have time to put my hands down and landed heavily on my chest on the ground. I was quite badly winded and in a it of pain, I tried to ride on but it wasn’t going to work. The boys carried on and did a quick circuit while I did the slow ride of shame back to the carpark.

When I had a look at the bike later to see if there was any damage, and thank God there wasn't, there was pine needles jammed between the tire and rim, the front tire must rolled a huge amount for the needles to be stuck so far in. Tube still has air though.

I have not been to the doc's not sure if I will yet, I have either cracked or bruised at least one rib. It hurt like hell driving home, especially when I had to change gear and I had a very bad nights sleep...

Damnit - I hope it is nothing major as I have so many things I want to do in the next few weeks, 21km run in the half ironman, Rotorua single speed mobbing, Kaweka mountain run... Last time I cracked a rib I was out for 6 weeks and this is not a good time to not be running or riding.

Bike servicing

Blogging while listening to Broken Social Scene - Almost Crimes.

I am not a great one for biking servicing, I am not great at it myself, though more than capable of the basics. Now that my bikes are getting a bit older I find it quite hard even getting around to cleaning them. Though they do not get overly dirty riding in a sand based forest.

I use a mix of 2-3 bike shops for bits of servicing, depending on need, cost and time. Primarily my friend Darin does the maintenance on all my bikes, he is very good and it is cool just to hang out and talk bikes and crap. I do not like to abuse his hospitality however so I have not been visting for ages.

Number 1 son and I went for a quick visit last night, Darin replaced the rear sprocke on my SS with a nice new 16 tooth BMX sprocket which I will test ride tonight. He also had a look at the rear shock on number 1 son's AC. Looks like we may have to take the shock in for a service which will be a pain. He will ride it tonight and see how it goes as I think the Rock Shock people here may close down for Christmas, so we do not want him to be bike less for 3 weeks.

Looking forward to a ride tonight, hopefully the threatened rain will stay off, number 1 son will not cause any grief at home and the day passes quickly. it will be good to get out with a few of the boys for a quick spin.

Had a quick run yesterday afternoon, only mnaged 20 minutes due to some time constraints, had another go at some reps up the path at Crum Park.

Training

This mornings post comes courtesy of Children’s Hour "Carolinas Dream". Maybe I should listen to more uplifting music in the morning, it may make the day pass quicker.

Had a quick training run yesterday afternoon. My intention was to get out of bad at 6.00 and be running by 6.30 and get 2 hours of road in. With Deana working Sundays and neither of the older kids home I needed to be home before 9.00 to be with the youngest. I did wake at 6.00 but promptly went back to sleep again and did not wake till after 7.00 and woke up feeling flat and drained.

I did sneak out around 1.00 for a quick run down to Wood Bay and up through the Zig Zag track and back home, a 44 minute run that was hard work. It was quiet warm and very very humid I was completely soaked by the time I get home and it took a good hour to cool down.

I did run with the new back pack. If felt good, easy to run in and it did not move around too much, with the fancy webbing straps and liner between the bag and my back I did not notice any excessive sweating or discomfort on my back either.

I have had an awful diet over the last few days, I had 3 days of fried foods, and combined with the massive amount of alcohol consumed on Wed night I feel quite flat. I will aim for a bit of a cleanse this week in the lead up to Christmas, though I do have a work lunch on Friday that promises to be rather long and liquid.

Woodhill ride

Listening to Minor Threat - In My Eyes.


I must remember to take the camera riding, not that anything particularily exciting happened, but I should capture these moments.

I took Aiden and his friend Jaden riding yesterday. It was only a short ride, a little over an hour. The boys had a big night at the pools on Friday and were a little tired.

I took the single speed up and had my first ride with the new glasses on, no real issues very little fogging, I do need to buy a new sweat liner for my helmet though.

We did Cookie, Spag and SPCA, I am still loving the SPCA trail. I did a couple more of the small-medium drops and jumps and am feeling quite good getting the bike off the ground with the seat right up.

It was my first ride in weeks and it was good to get out, I would really have liked to have had a good hard ride. It was also very very humid, quite overcast but it did not really rain.

I did buy a new bladder today for the Hydrapak.

Work functions

I went to a supplier Christmas function on Wednesday afternoon. 4.30 ferry to Waiheke Island, bus to the Mudbrick Vineyard, 9.00 PM ferry back to Auckland and then drinks at O'Hagans bar. It was not a bad event, the beer was cold, the champagne before the meal was beautiful, the wine was very nice, the scotch at the bar afterwoods flowed.

Yes there was an unfortunate pattern there, I was toasted by the time I got home. I had planned on taking Thursday off which was a good idea as I could not move. I had the worst hanger I have had in years, I was dying I swore of alcohol for life on Thursday morning.

Well had a couple of beers tonight, does that count ?

This is not doing my training any good at all, hopefully I will get out for a good long run at the weekend, I would like to do a slow 20k if I could. I would like to squeeze a mountian bike ride in as well, I have not been on the bike for 4 weeks now and that is just damn sad...

2nd Anniversary of non-smoking

Yay - today is my second anniversary of giving up smoking.

In that time I have had half a cigar at a friends wedding and that was way back in January 2004.

I must have given up 100's of times in the 24 years I was a smoker, and never lasted more than a few days without having a sneaky puff, then a sneaky half ciggie on a friday, then a whole ciggie with a drink, then 20 a day.

This time I used no nicotine replacements just pure cold turkey - and lots of running, riding and determination.

I am better for it.

Kona Stab Supreme

My son works part time in our local bike shop, which primarily sell Kona and Marin bikes.

One of the young guys there has just bought himself one of these bad boys.




A 2006 stab supreme. He is going to take 2 months off of work after Christmas and race the 2006 NZ national series.

I took the bike for a spin this afternoon, I have never ridden a 'proper' DH bike before. Man - that thing is awesome, I jumped the front steps of the shop and the bike just leaves the ground so easily, seeing as I was riding flats, this was a minor miracle. This is a seriously cool bike, it accelerates very nicely and did not seem to have much bob at all.

me likey - lots.

New running bag

I bought myself item number 2 from my list of things I need for the Kaweka run.

After a bit of looking around I purchased a Deuter Race Air pack. It fits very nicely and has all the bits I was looking for and more. It was also very cheaply priced at $100 compared to the other bags (Kathmandu, Macpac etc). I hope to test run it one night during the week.

The cool thing about this bag, is it is also designed for biking and has a little flap that comes out the bottom that clips up and becomes a helmet carrier.


The bag...

Aunt Betty's Tri Series race 2

My work had 2 teams in race 2 of the Aunt Betty's Tri series. This race started and finished at Mission Bay. I did the 10k run leg.

The weather was not too bad, dry, quite warm and a nice little breeze that was either head or tail depending where you were on the 2.5k circuit.

I did the run in 49:30 which I was more than pleased with, I did not expect to go under 50 mins for the 10km. I have never competed in a 10k before so had no real idea of pace and there was a real mix of Triathalon pros to team competitors like us, but I paces myself Ok, my 4 laps were reasonably consistant.

And the main thing was we kicked the other teams arse..

Test running the new sunnies

On my run last night I tested out the new sun glasses to see if they would fog up when I sweated.

well the good news is no, I need to test under a helmet though...

The new glasses - my first pair of glasses worth more than $20...Smith Slider mainlines.

Reps training

After about 2 years of training for various events both on the mountain bike and on foot, and probably more than 2 years of reading books, magazines and internet articles I finally did some 'interval' type training.

I got home from work early and the weather was just awesome, so I nipped over to Crum Park for a quick run

10 minute warm up
10 soccer kids soccer field length sprints and jog back
3 sessions up the steep hill to Titirangi Rd.

I would like to have done by of the hill climb but just couldnt.

I am doing the 10k run leg in a team tri at the weekend so will get some street running in this week.

You know you are getting old when....

One of your children leaves school...

On Friday my daughter finished school, probably for ever. She has just about landed herself a hair dressing apprenticeship, well she has been verbally offered it and should have confirmation today. The salon owners want to meet her parents which I think is a good touch and gives me some confidence.

EDIT [She did get the apprenticeship, starts on Jan 10 with a 3 month trial]

Today is also my 19th wedding anniversary, so yep - age is creeping in.

New Sunglasses

Went shopping today for a couple of new business shirts for work, and got those OK, but I also ended up with some new sunglasses.

I had sunnies down on my Christmas list and after canvassing expert opinion on glasses with interchangeable lenses suitable for mountain biking I ended up with a choice between Adidas Evil Eyes Pro or Smiths Sliders. I had a look at the Adidas and really liked them but at $270 a pair they were really at the extreme end of what I wanted to pay, well miles past the extreme end...

I had a look in Sydney last week when I was there for work and they were even more expense at 330 AUD.

Today I ended up paying $150 for (admittadly) an older model pair Smiths Mainlines, 3 pairs of lenses and I was dead happy.

Some days I love shopping...

Mud glorious mud

Bruce and I went for a second training run yesterday. The weather had been pretty good for a while, but Friday night it rained and rained. Saturday morning dawned cloudy, windy and threatening to rain some more. We decided to run anyway and the weather held for us well.

To keep it interesting an avoid a real mud bath we decided to run up the unsealed road from the Huia dam for about 5.5 km then run the Nuggets track , 1.8km and return the the same way.

The run was good, pretty much up one way and down the other. The track was pretty sloppy, very greasy, very rooty and a good test for the new shoes, which passed well.

Wicked bush in that section of the Waitakeres as well. I will take the camera next time I run.

I caught my ankle on some bush lawyer so when I got back to the car my shoes and legs were nice and muddy and I had a trickle of blood to show I had really been on a track run.

Broken in shoes.

Well this week I had a semi-surprise trip to Sydney, semi in that it was only organised last Friday and a surprise as I really did not expect to travel with this job. sadly it was only for 1 night and the night was wasted.

I went over on Tuesday with the MD and sales manager. They went business and I went cattle, which I actually prefered as I am not a great flyer and I really did not relish the though of 3 hours on a plane with 2 people from work who I did not really know or feel particularily comfortable with. So I ended up down back with a new book (Carl Hiassen - Double Whammy - Ok it is hardly new, but I have not read it yet and I love his books), the latest MBA mag and 256mb of punk rock on the old MP3 player.

We had a project meeting with the Aussies that ran till 4.00 and then I went shopping in Sydney. I was looking for some Adidas Evil Eye cycling sunnies but they are way more expensive in Syndey than in NZ. Things have really turned around on the shopping front Sydney is now more expensive than NZ, I used to like to shop Sydney, but now the things are normally buy there, like T-shirts, work shirts etc are cheaper here.

Dinner with the bosses was loosely planned but never happene, I was a bit pissed about it, not that I wanted to eat with the bosses, I wanted to hook up with mates for a beer. I ended up in the hotel room by my self, watching hlaf of Sin City on DVD.

Wednesday morning I went for a 6.00 Am run around past the Opera House and through the domain which was just awesome, it is a nice place to run. In fact I do love Sydney, it is a cool city.

Had breakfast with Pete from Hudson which was great, caught up on the goss.

Wed was full of meetings with various people from the Aussie business, it was a good day really.

Of course I would have liked to stay longer and catch up with some old buddies...

First run in the new shoes

We had the work Christmas dinner on Friday night. My intentions were to get up early on Saturday and get an hour or so running in early in the day, but that was unlikely given the amount of red wine consumed. The work dinner was Ok. I have never been a big fan of work functions, though the Hudson ones were Ok in the end as I had some quite good drinking buddies there.

Saturday was a slooooooooooooooow day.

On Sunday I took my 12 year old and his cousin out to Piha for the first sea swim of the summer. The conditions were perfect - clear skys and an even break. As it was high tide body surfing sucked, but the water was cold so I was happy just to get in there for 20 minutes.

When I got home Aiden went out to a mates place leaving me home alone and ready to go out for a run to test the new shoes before this weekends long(ish) run. I ran down through Wood Bay, French Bay to Titirangi Beach and hen up the zig zag track to Park Rd and home. I didn't make it all the way up the Zig Zag this time, so there is a good training incentive for me. The shoes were OK, felt alright on the road, the Zig Zag has been covered in stones so it was not the good old rooty/rutty clay trail it used to be.

Still it wasn't a bad run.

New trail shoes

I bought my first pair of trail running shoes.

After a bit of a hunt around I ended up buying a pair of Vasque Velocity from Shoe Science. I had tried on a couple of different shoes and brands but in the end I guess it came down to price. I also trust Shoe Science, I think !

I will give them a test run at the weekend if I do not get too hammered at the work Christmas function tonight.

Running home from work

I have been thinking about running the 16 or so km home from work for a couple of years now, generally as part of some training plan for 1 event or another but I have not quite got around to it. This week I was planning on doing at least 1 swim and no running to give my legs a chane to recover after the weekend, as usual my plans did not work out. Work was busier than anticipated and meetings ran longer than scheduled.

So Wednesday, as I had all my gear in the office, including an empty hydrapak and the weather was perfect, I decided to run home. Including walking the first 1km as a warm up it took me 1 hour 45 which was longer than I expected for the distance but there are a few small climbs and running in the traffic is not easy. I was pretty stuffed when I got home though I was feeling Ok the next day.

Champs race results

Well I did as well as expected but not as well as I wanted.

I came 14th out of 27 in my grade - Sport vets, and 38 out of 77 who rode the same number of laps as I did, including some of the expert riders. Though not the expert masters as they kicked my ass.

I will not complain - last year I would have come last and 2 years ago I could not have even started...

It is now time to focus fully on running.

Tomorrow I swim though

First go at a 'champs' race

After yesterday's 2 hour run/walk up the Waitakere's I was not sure how I would feel or go today. I had a lousy sleep as well, but the weather was fine, warm and sunny when I got up so off to Woodhill I went. I entered the sport vets class of round 3 of the Auckland MTB champs, which was a 2 lap race - each lap turned out to be about 13km.

Main tracks were Tree Huggers, Upland, Lightening, Enchanted Forest, Northern Exposure, No Brakes (my track - yay !), 1st half of Ironhorse, Anaconda, end of Haggis. Good tracks with plenty of climbing (by Woodhill standards anyway).

The race went well I finished in just under 1:40 I am not sure were I came as it started to rain at the end so I went home as I did not know any of the other competitors and it would have been an hour wait till prize giving. I hope to be on the positive side of mid-pack at the end, will have to wait a day or 2 for the results I guess.

I started slow, let the groms and other dead keen people fly off and cruised the first 5 or so KM, then started to pick them off as the burnt out from the quick start. I passed a lot of people and was only passed once myself. I was fine until the last 500 metres when my legs really started to hurt, I think they knew the end was coming and just said sod it.

Considering the run yesterday I was pretty happy with my ride, I am not sure if I will race the 4th round yet, it is getting too expensive to ride and run.

First off road run !

Well today I completed my first off-road run !

It didn't go too badly, it went pretty OK actually, I ran with Bruce who has convinced me to do this damn race. Bruce is less of a runner than me but is a tramper, and knows the bush and how to move in it well. He is also built like a whippet and isn't carrying the extra 5kgs like me, plus he had proper shoes !

We ran/walked up the Karamatura Valley Track, round Bob Gordon loop and up to the top of Mt Donald Maclean (358m) we then ran/walked back down the Fletcher track back to the car, around 10kms in distance and probably 500 vertical metres. We walked the steep bits and pretty much ran the rest - it was hard going at times. I have never been good at hills, either running or riding so I am really going to have to focus on climbing for the next few months.

I had an old pair of road running shoes on and can definately say that off-road running is a hell of a lot harder than road running. There is a lot more leg work - lifting over logs, moving from side to side on the trails to miss roots, rocks and bogs. I really had to concentrate on where my feet were going to land.

Much the same as mountain biking is way tougher than road riding.

It took us just under 2 hours which sounds slow and probably was !!! but it was within our expectations.

It was tough and I am still feeling it 6 hours later.

Before the next run in 2 weeks I aim to buy some decent shoes.

Kaweka Challenge - the costs

I was meeting a friend for coffee yesterday afternoon and as he was running late and I was standing outside Katmandhu on Queen St I decided to nip in and grab their latest product catalogue to get some indicative pricing of the things I need to buy for the mountian run. This will also be the basis of my 'Christmas list'..

Even though the race is in February it still hits sub-alpine heights so there is quite a list of safety equipment that you have to carry to compete...

Thermal Gloves ??
Jacket have one
First aid kit have one
Thermal top have one
Thermal leggings have those
Whistle 10
Compass 25
Blanket 10
Bag to carry 170 light weight - good for running
Bladder 50
Shoes 250

Over $500 and I haven't even paid the entry fee and this is a running event - isn't running supposed to be cheap ?

I am going for a light run in the Waitakere ranges tomorrow morning with Bruce so I am really looking forward to my first off road running experience. I am hoping the knee will cope and my crappy old running shoes do not cause me any grief.

Then Sunday I am 'racing' in the XC Sport class. I have the Dawg in the shop getting the middle chain ring replaced today, so hopefully it will be all good for Sunday morning.

Wednesday night ride.

By lunch time yesterday I had had enough of work so decided to sneak off at 3.00, head home, grab my bike and get around for a ride before a pre-arranged 7.30 night ride. For a change the plan actually worked - I was out by 3.15 and in the forest by 5.30.

I had a nice ride, with the race on Sunday I wanted to ride at a slightly faster pace than normal and get the body working, which I acheived by tacking on to the backs of other riders going the same way I was.
I had heard that the trail I had built was going to be used in the race as well (that is so cool) so I wanted to hit that trail a couple of times as climbing is not a strength and the trail is all up hill. The second time I rode the trail I followed a couple of guys up and at the top I asked them what they thought of the track, they liked it - nice climb - flowed well. Nice feedback.

I now realise I do need to buy another middle chain ring for the Dawg as it was slipping a bit and I took a small chunk out of the skin on ankle on one slip. I also need a new Hydrapak bladder as mine was leaking really badly, it has been leaking on and off for a while but last night it was hosing out, in end I had to dump all the water as I was getting too wet. I had a spare shirt but not a spae pair of shorts and I am now suffering the consequences of riding in wet shorts...

GP arrived at 7.30 and we had a quick run through up to the Big Mama trail, it was a nice ride, lights for the 45 minutes. I hit the smallest of the top 3 jumps on the Travis trail in the dark which I was really pleased with. I have always avoided jumps in the dark, this jump is not big, but it is not small either. It is high enough that you cannot see the ground (unless you point the light down !) so you really do not know when you are going to land. It was good to finally do one in the dark...

Night riding is a hell of a lot of fun I must try and get out more than the once or twice a year I do go.

Sore foot

For some strange reason I work up on Monday with a pain in the soul of my foot. It feels like a bad bruise, but there is no obvious sign. By the end of the day I was limping. It is still tender today.

Tonight I am planning on a night ride, quick spin on the Kona, make sure everything is working OK on the bike and then I will race on Sunday.

Today the weather is stunning, why am I at work ?

I might leave at 3.00 and get to the forest a bit earlier and get a quick spin in before the lads arrive and night sets in.

My Local Bike Shop

My definition of a good Local Bike Shop (LBS), apart from being local, is a nice small shop, filled with passionate people, somewhat like a small bar where you can go hang out. It should also have a damn good mechanic, and maybe good coffee.

Bike Barn is my LBS, it is part of a small local chain so in that regard is possibly not a real LBS. Also the mechanic there is a bit inconsistant, some times thing work perfectly after a service and some times they don't, and it doesn't have good coffee - or any coffee for that matter. It is the closest shop to my house though so it does fulfill the local requirement.

What I do like about the shop and what keeps me going back is the staff, they are nice bunch of kids, they are all young, the manager is only 21 and he is the oldest guy there. They are always happy to have a chat about bikes and biking, 1 of the guys is an up and coming downhiller and he is always keen to share exploits, photos and race results. I find this quite cool as I am more than twice their age, and, well no matter how much I try to deny it, this is a serious age gap and most teenagers avoid old farts like me as if we were deseased.
While I do make most of my purchases in the shop, I do believe their friendliness and enthusiasm is not about keeping the customer happy so he spends more.

The thing I like most about the shop now is my 15 year old son started working there at the weekends. About 8 months ago we put his name down on the list for part time work and he got the call last week. He had his first day on Saturday really enjoyed the work. This will be good for him, to learn about customer service and working with customers, to get to really understand the bikes and components and some work ethic. Hopefully he will get to learn a bit of wrenching as well, then he can help work on the family bikes.

Kaweka Challenge - training begins

I had an invite from a fellow Vorber from Palmerston North, who I have met a couple of times at 12 hour events, to join a single speed team for the 24 hous of N-Duro in Feb. This was pretty cool as he is way way way fitter and fast than me so it was neat to be invited.

Sadly I am going to say no as I have now committed to Bruce to train and run the Kaweka Challenge which is also in Feb. I am really going to have to use my limited activity time to get some running and tramping in else I am really going to bonk badly on the event.

I did a reasonable run today, up through Titirangi to Shaw Rd, nice easy hour run with some climbing in it.

This coming Sunday I am going to have a go at my first MTB champs race in the sport class. If that goes OK I will do another round of the series in December and then put the bike in the shed for a few weeks while I run. If it is a dry summer then the biking at Woodhill will be bollocks anyway.

I went for a spin up there yesterday and must say my trail is riding sweetly. I still have not made it up the first section on the SS yet, but am getting very close, if I can just keep the front wheel on the ground.

Enger-land

I guess as my flight was delayed by 3 hours officially it was 20 years ago tomorrow that I went to England on my big OE, but the ticket was booked for the 2 November 1985.

I went to England, land of my birth, as a single young man and returned 2 and a bit years later as an expectant father and husband. In that time I had gotten married, travelled a small part of Europe, had 2 jobs, met some great new people, and turned into an adult. It was a good experience.

I went to England to get myself out of the hole I was digging for myself in New Zealand, getting drunk all the time, occasional drug use, 1 drug related arrest - this was not what I wanted out of life, not that I had any idea of what I did want. While I did not kick any of those habits for a long time, and still do get drunk on the odd occasion, I did reduce them to a rare occurance. I

am not sure if I ever found what I was looking for, but I came back to NZ a contented man.

Kaweka training to start this week

Right.

It is time, procrastination is over, training will start this week, definately, surely, maybe, as long as the weather is nice.

I had another good slow ride yesterday, bit longer than last week which was good, but still no-where near a vaguely hard ride. The main thing was I managed to do a couple of small jumps and my knee did not feel like collapsing, though it hurt a bit on the landings, but general riding it was OK. This is good news.

I finished the gin last night so we are back to an alcohol free house this week, this is good news to.

The weather is also looking good.

Deana has finished this round of working from 4.00 - 7.00 PM so I do not need to rush home from work to get the kids into their homework and get dinner organised.

This week I will start training - definately, surely, maybe.

Training run

I had a very sifty ride yesterday with the Dom, Darin and Wayne. Very gentle pace, which was good news for my knee. I rode the single speed which was probably not so good for my knee.

The 'injury' itself is more with the tendons at the lower end of my hamstring at the back of the knee, rather than the knee itself. Which is pretty good news I think as it shouldn't be a long term injury. Though I should give it time to recover...

I did my first timed run down SPCA yesterday as well 3 minutes which is damn slow. I heard young michael can do it in 2:20 so I have a long way to go, though he is 17 and rides a downhill bike and I am 43 and ride a hardtail SS. (he also a damn fine rider). SPCA is a really neat track, about 70% of it points downhill and the rest is flat, I ran out of pedal on a lot of it but at least I didnt need to use the brakes much or have to change gears to pedal out of ther corners. The track is not steep at all either which suits my chickenness.

Today was labour day and a public holiday so I went for an hour long run at Mission Bay. The weather was superb and I was running by 8.20. I ran up the hill at St Heliers for a bit of variety as well, and then back past the car and on to Hammerheads. Just over an hour all up and felt pretty good.

The heart rate monitor is really whack now so I turned it off after a few minutes. I will get a new battery soon and see if that fixes it.

head cold is gone

My head cold has pretty much gone now.

2 days of feeling lousy wasn't too bad I guess. This the first cold I have had since I gave up cigaretters almost 2 years ago. I am wondering if I was still smoking if it would have been over so quickly. I always used to get a really bad cough for a week after a head cold, I wouldnt feel ill just cough all the time, one other reason to celebrate not being a smoker anymore.

My left knee is still tender so I don't think I will do much riding this coming long weekend. I really really want to get out and have a good fun ride with the lads, get some jumps in, sit around chatting but I really want my knee to recover so I can start to train for this monster run I have planned in February. I will see how it goes...

Kaweka challenge

Forgot to mention in my last post...

A friend of mine has started talking me into doing the Kaweka Challenge (I think that is what it is called.) It is in February and is a 28km mountian run/walk with 2015m of vertical gain. The winner last year took just under 4 hours. It is obviously not an easy event !!!

This is about 4 months away and will require some serious hill training. I am actuall quite excited about the prospect...I think it will be more fun than training for a road marathon. Hopefully I will be well enough at the weekend to go for a test run up some local hills.

At least this is a good reason to get back into walking/running some of the bush walks in the Waitakeres- no bikes allowed - so I haven't been there for many years even though they start less than 30 minutes from home.

"race results" - single speed tweak - sick !

The results for the Woodhill festival are up today. Official time was 1:58 which is pleasing. I came 21st out of 62 which is even more pleasing, but I was still 30 minutes behind the winner. Given that winner was probably half my age I am not too fussed...

On Sunday I was quite keen to go for a sifty ride up at Woodhill with some Vorbers from Auckland, Hamilton and Whangarei. I couldn't motivate the kids to move so ended up staying at home. I have been coming down with a head cold for a few days so I wasn't too bothered.
I ended up mucking around on the single speed and finally fixed a small problem that was bugging the hell out of me. I noticed that when I stood up and moved my weight back my left leg used to touch the rear brake cable and cause the brake to rub on the rim. I removed an inch or so from the outer cable and boom-shanker the problem has gone. I wish I had done that before. I took the SS for a quick spin up to the local park and it was all good.

I am now sick with a head cold, I made it to work yesterday as I wasn't feeling too bad when I work up, but finally left about 10.30 and came home. The cold has got progressively worse since then and I have spend the last 24 hours sleeping, reading a really bad novel and a bit of net surfing. This afternoon I will do some more project documentation and try and get it finished today. Hopefully I will be well enough tomorrow to go to work.

Woodhill festival 30k race

Well I completed the Woodhill Festival 30km mountain bike race yesterday.

I am not actually sure how many riders there were as they 15 and 30 started off together and the 30 did 2 laps of the 15km course. There was not a lot of riders anyway, and I have no idea where I came in the field. This was not a serious race by the way.

In regard to time I did better than I expected, my target was between 2 and 2 half hours and I came in around 1:58 which I was very happy with. I felt good through most of the race so possibly could have pushed myself a bit harder.

I rode the Dawg, it went Ok, though I did occasionally get a bit of chain slippage, it was not too bad though. I will get a new middle chain ring before the next event.

I may do the 3 rd race in the Auckland MTB champs - sport class next month, though there is also a 70km ride in the Pureroa (sp) forest the same weekend which I might do as you cannot normally ride there.

Quick knee test

I had to take my car in to the shop today.

Ever since it was rear ended a couple of years back, when under load (say bikes on the back) it has made a banging sound when going over small bumps or through pot holes. Now you might think that it is very irresponsible to be driving a car with banging sound for the past 2 years and you would be sort of right. However I had the car looked at by my mechanic, I have the rear shocks replaced and investigation by a shock guy and no-one has ever found anything mechanically wrong the car.

After I had the towbar fitted the noise has been worse under general driving so I took the car in again today to another place and they finally found the problem was the floor pan at the rear of the car was 'popping' when the car flexed going over bumps.... So I will take it in to the panel beaters that my son has a part time job at and hopefully they can sort it.

Anyways....

I decided to work from home today to catch up on my project documentation as I am way way way behind, and I get interupted every 5 minutes in the office with dumb questions.

So I took the SS with me to the car place and road the 5 km home. It was a good test for my knee and while there was a small amount of pain from the back of the knee it was not too bad, and it certainly did not continue to hurt after I stopped riding.

The SS wasnt the best bike to ride on the road as I am running 32-16 and the road is kinda flatish so I was spinning out on the slight downs and having to stand on the rises. Probaly a good test for the knee though.

The weather is fine for the race on Saturday so at this stage I am racing.

Broke another damn spoke

I finally got around to a post 12 hour ride bike review last night.

Looks like I have broken another spoke on my rear wheel. This is 2 spokes in the last 3 or 4 rides which I am guessing is not a good sign about the state of my rear wheel. I have it in the shop today and will collect it on Thursday.

Everything else looks pretty good on the bike, I had no shifting or other drive chain issues after I bought the new cluster which is good news.

Hopefully this means I will not have to spend anymore money on the bike before the 30km race on Saturday.

Tragic news on the bike trainer

I haven't ridden the trainer bike for the last couple of weeks.

I had a few days off prior to my last 12 hour race to taper down before the big day.

Last week I was just relaxing to let my left knee recover properly. This week I was going to start spinning again. Until...

My brother-in-law rang to claim his trainer back, he has finished his MBA and now wants to get fit...

damn, damn, damn...

Next race.

My riding buddy Miles has convinced me to do the 30k race at the Woodhill Festival this coming Saturday. I wasn't planning on racing so soon, but 30k shouldn't be too bad and it is my home track so I should be able to time things OK.

My aim for this race will be too beat my friends (he he he he) and to come in the top half. I have no idea of the number or type of competitors.

I am just hoping my knee will fully recover in time.

Its good to be back on the fitness trail again though.

Lucero and alcohol

I like booze – I like what it does to me, I like the way I feel when I have had a few drinks. I am not a bad drunk, I do not get violent, I do not get angry, I do not want to be the centre of attention. I see things with more clarity with a skin full of cheap red wine, the world has more focus with a gin or 3 in the belly, Scotch whisky turns me into a thinker.

Tonight I have been out for a very pleasant, and long over-due dinner party with friends, the food was great, the conversation was interesting, the wine was pleasant, the beer refreshing. A perfect evening, but….. there was no music, I am in a space right now where I need music, not just any music, but music I like.

And right now I am needing Lucero. I am very addicted to this band, I have never been a big fan of country-tinged rock before but every track I have heard of this band has been stunning, from the rocky ballads to the acoustic piano driven songs, every thing is good. They obviously are filling a space in my head that needs filling right now.

I am liking Lucero tonight as I have been drinking and Lucero are definitely a bad with their sites set on those who like a drink, and those who drink alone are an extra special target.

I can confess to having my Lucero cravings sated by a Limewire session fix (or 10 Limewire sessions), but yesterday I did buy their new(ish) CD, which I like but I do much prefer their earlier material. The CD was produced by the same guy who did the Replacements “pleased to meet me” LP which I remember as being their worst. I will be trying to hunt down some older material as I am loathe to only have downloaded material from a band I really like.

I can also confess to not really being a drinker, tonight is a rare thing. I haven’t had a drink in a few weeks as I trained up for the solo, luckily I have a date with the TV tomorrow for a good 8 hours of motor racing so no bike riding or running will take place.

Though tonight I have agreed to do a 30km mountain bike race next weekend which is going to be painful, especially as my mate has very much over played how much I am going to kick his arse….

Joy Division and alcohol

In a past life I had a passion for the music of Joy Division and a liking to the odd drink or 10. Over the years my passion for both has disipated and I rarely partake in either and even more rarely at both the same time.

When I split up with my first serious girlfriend in the early eighties I spent many an evening lying in my darkened bedroom drinking wine, smoking cigarettes and listening to Joy Division through headphones. I must have found it therapeutic as I survived those days.

Over the years I have occasionally repeated the exercise when I am feeling down and I have ready access to cheap red wine or scotch.

Though I am not in anyway feeling down tonight, I am sitting here in the lounge working on my laptop with the headphones on and the music player moving though my collection in alphabetical order. About half way through the second or third Joy Division song I found myself in the kitchen opening up a bottle of port I have had for about 2 years, and I am now into my third glass and 10th song.

I love Joy Division.

My fitness

I weighed myself last night 78.8 KGS (173 lbs). I am 6 ft tall (182cm).

Is it not odd that I weigh myself in KG's but say I am 6 ft tall, I had to find a distance converter to get my height in CM's as I wasn;t too sure.

This, I would suggest, is probably the lightest I have been in my entire adult life. While I was never really FAT I was always slightly overweight. The other good thing is a lot more of that weight is in muscle mass.

I am definately the leanest and fittest I have been in my entire life. I do remember struggling through the 12 minute (what an odd time) run at high school and now I can for 2 hours.

My only regret is I didnt get to this point in my 20's and 30's, my performance and events would be much better.

Taupo Day Night Thriller 12 hour

I would like to say this was a great days racing, but it wasn’t. The event itself was very well organised, the atmosphere amongst the 600 odd teams was really good. In the 5 years I have been doing these type of events I have never witnessed such good behaviour on the single track. The shop riders were polite, I saw no pushing and no-one abused me for being slow in the narrow bits.

Unfortunately I did not have a good race, here is why;

I had a bad and very stressful week at work, I did not get word of resolution of the worst problem till I was in Taupo the night before the event . I needed a relaxed build up and a chance to focus on diet and hydration prior to the race. Pre-race carbo loading just did not happen.

My bike was not quiet ready. I bought a new chain earlier in the week but broke my old chain tool so I didn’t get the chain on until half an hour before we left to drive to Taupo. I then found out on the first lap that the cluster needed replacing as well. I sent one of the team riders off to buy a new cluster and I had it replaced between laps.

The morning started off raining so I was wet before I started, though I had plenty of changes of clothes I still suffered a bit from chafing, though it was not so bad I could not ride. The weather cleared up for the rest of the event with just a fine drizzle in the evening.





I started the event on my spare seat rather than the good seat, I didn’t notice till after 6 laps. Th spare seat is not too bad but definately not as comfotable as my good seat.





My knees started to get quite sore after about 2 hours, I strapped my right knee, which improved things slightly, though my left knee is quite sore now.



I was so nauseous after about 6 hours my eating and drinking plan went out the window, I only drank about 5-6 litres of water over the 12 hours which was just insane I am still suffering some dehydration pangs 2 days later.









In the evening I stopped to change my light battery, ate some food and then forgot to change the battery so my light died about 100 metres into the single track, the only people who were not going too fast were a mother and son and the son’s battery had died as well, so that was a very slow lap.

My target was to do 20 laps, but I only managed to do 18, the winner did 30. Those guys are machines; I am seriously impressed by them. My other goal was not to come last which I did achieve.

Having said all that – I did enjoy the day, I wanted to do 30 minute laps which I managed to do fairly consistently. The event was fun, the support from my guys was awesome as was the general support from the other riders and teams, with their “go solo” calls as I rode past.

Not sure if I will do this event again as a solo, there is a lot of riding on grass between all the team tents and the "single" track is more double track and not technical enough to interesting for 12 hours.

1 day to go

Well - tomorrow is race day.

Crap week at work is over, I left early - finished packing, got the bike sorted and loaded.

the forecast has really taken a turn for the worse, moved from occasional showers to rain.

Oh Yay

Race day Mp3 load

1 of tonight’s jobs will be to load the MP3 player, the play list still needs to be ordered but the artists are a mix of punk, stoner rock, alt rock, indie-pop and my current favourites alt-country band Lucero (will they be too depressing ?).

Anti-flag
Buzzcocks
Ash
Childrens Hour
Clutch
Dance Macabre
Devo
Editors
Flesh D-vice
Fugazi
Jawbreaker
Kyuss
Lucero
Minor threat
Monster magnet
Nocturnal projections
Replacements
Son Volt
Superchunk
Saints
Stranglers
Unseen
YFC

I wish I had a bigger MP3 player, I can only do 4 hours worth, which should be enough as I hope to ride with some of the other slow solo riders to start with.

3 days till race day

Tomorrow we take the 4 hour drive to Taupo, hope to leave work at lunch time and get on the road by early afternoon.

Todays jobs are;
Get a new chain tool and fit my new chain.
Buy a new tail light as all I have left is the seat post clamp.
Get keys for the accommodation.
Fit bike speedo

Packing the race day box;

2 short and 1 long sleeve riding Shirts
2 X Gloves
Spare Pedals and shoes
Leggings and poly-prop tops
3 pairs shorts
2 jackets
3 pairs riding shorts
2 batteries for riding light
Torch
Knee strap
Entry forms
Hydrapak Tools
Anti-chaffing cream and Nurofen cream
Bars – Gel – Apples – Sandwiches
Horleys powder
Bottle cage and drink bottles
Heart rate monitor
Mp3 player

The weather forecast is for showers and strong winds – oh joy.

I have had a crap week at work, a million problems, hopefully today is going to be stress free and I can hit the road feeling relaxed.

4 days to go - work

Well work sucks this week.

Saturday was a database server migration that went pretty well, we had a couple of un-documented applications that didn't work at first but everything appears to running now, fortunately these were not core business apps.

Very laet Sunday night the disk controller failed in our email server and that took a day and half a night to recover so Monday was a right off.

Tuesday was spent finding out about all the small things that went wrong at the weekend, all the users who had direct connections set up on their PC's pointing to the databases adn couldn't email us on Monday. We also had another system failure in this weird little application that does some printing for us. This program is mission critical, sits on a dodgy old PC, has not been clearly documented and is not backed up. This took all day to get fixed and was the cause of much angst in the office.

Today I am going to discuss the option of delaying our business applciation replacement project for 6 months so that we can focus on fixing these other applications that are undocumented, insecure, on flaky hardware but our key applications to the business.


Am get a little anxious about the race now, need to get my diet back on track this week and load up as well as finish getting the bike sorted and myself organised.

7 days to go to race day and no bike !

Damnit - I went to the LBS to pick up my bike as it was supposed to have been ready yesterday but they hadn't finished, in fact they hadn't even started, I now hope to get it back on Tuesday. It only needs the rear brakes doing, but I do not have the tool to remove Shimano disks nor do I have any brake fluid and things to bleed them with. I was a bit pissed.

I wanted to get the bike today so I could strip it, clean it, lube it and go for a quick test road ride. If they haven't finished by Tuesday I will have to get it back and see what I can do. I leave on Friday and I do not need any more pre-race stress as I worry enough as it is. This is not good.

I really like my bike shop, but this is just not good enough.

My Bikes - part 2 of 2

The second of my current crop of bikes is a 2001 DMR Trailstar single speed. I have had the frame a couple of months so the rest of the bike is primarily bits from my Kona Cindercone, which was made up mainly of components from my 2000 Kona Nunu that snapped in half. Kona warranted the frame which was very cool.

The chain is not that slack anymore!

I really like this bike, I love the whole single speed thing and it has really improved my riding, I am reading the trail better, flowing through the corners more cleanly and am stronger on the climbs, which has been a big boost to my fitness as well as an improvement in upper body strength as well.

The next plan is to get a better fork and stem, replace the BB and cranks, make it a bit more robust, then start hitting more of the jumps and drops. At least until I crash again and then I will go back to cruising the trails.

9 days to go - Oropi Grove ride.

I had a work trip to our Tauranga office today to install a new switch and 4 printers.
Convieniently the weather was not too bad and there is a small bike park nearby.

I had pre-configured all the devices to be installed so the theory was I would leave home at 6.30 AM drive the 200km to the office, (within or close to the speed limit !) get the gear installed and get riding by 3.30PM. It was pretty close but we got a bit stuck getting the colour printer to work correctly under Citrix. Bollocks...

I mucked aorund with it till 4.00 then left it the experts at Datacom to look at remotely. I got to the bike park around 4.15.

Had a good, but short ride with Fraser who lives in Tauranga. Oropi is pretty small, basically either side of a river valley, so it is up and down either side. Trail conditions were good, though 1 trail was a bit greasy and my rear wheel shot out sideways and left me lying in the dirt, damn sand tyres.

Got a bit of air on some of the small jumps, left the big ones till another day (or lifetime). It was a neat ride, good work out but not too long to interfere with the tapering.

Pity about the 2 half hour drive home after though.

I took the single speed as the Dawg is still in the shop, I get it back on Saturday.

My Bikes - Part 1 of 2

I have 2 bikes, both mountain bikes, in a perfect world I would have 4 bikes - hardtail single speed "jump" style bike , cross country 'race' bike, 5'' (or 6) trail bike and a roadie. Unfortunately I do not live in a perfect world so I only have 2 bikes, neither of which are suited for the task I choose to use them for.

Here is bike number 1.

This is my Kona Dawg, 4'' travel "light" trail bike but now being used as my event bike.

It is too heavy for what I use it for but when I bought it it was intended to be my all round trail bike and the Kona Cindercone hardtail I had was my road/cross country/event bike. The Cindercone is now a frame lying in the shed and half the components are on the single speed.


This is the bike that I will ride the 12 hour race on as the thought of 12 hours without rear suspension is painful enough.

Loaded Hog run number 3

Had another awesome run tonight. Another new best time for 5km, by my watch it was 21:18 which is around 4 minutes 23 per km. Again the fastest I have ever run.

I am not sure how long I can keep this improvement up, but I cannot complain when it ends though.

It was another great evening, the weather has been awful the last few days, colder than most days in the depth of winter. It was very windy and cool at lunch time but by 6.00 PM the wind had died and it was a lovely still, cool evening. A good turn out of runners considering the conditions earlier in the day.

I must buy some new running shoes - and get a damn haircut...

12 days to race day - things to do

Things I have to do before the race;

-Get the bike back from the LBS – new rear disk, pads and bleed.
-Test ride the bike in the forest and re-adjust everything so it works.
-Strip the bike and clean, lube and check everything.
-Test ride on the street as I won’t have time to take it back to the forest.
-Get the seat off the SS and set it up on the spare seat post.
-Re-twink the seat height post markings.

-Buy a new short sleeve riding shirt.
-Buy more energy bars.
-Buy 2 more spare tubes.

-Change the bulb in my light for a more efficient one.
-Charge spare battery.
-Check the tool kit and bits in the Hydrapak.

If I had more cash I would also;
-Buy a new chain, cluster and chain rings.
-Buy a new Hydrapak bladder.
-Buy a new seat post clamp.

I like lists

I like Punk Rock

I am a married, father of 3, 43 year old IT manager who likes punk rock. Why is this ?

Is it normal to still like the music that set you on fire as a teenager ?

In the last 25 years I have had flirtations with other genres such as post-punk, goth, metal, alt-rock, indie-pop, but in the end I am drawn back into the warm embrace of 3 chord punk.

Over the past 6 months I have done a few 3 hour + slow single track rides – often on my own and usually take the MP3 player to keep me company. I have tried listening to a whole bunch of different artists in an attempt to keep the ride more interesting and the pace down, but each time I do not have the harmonic strains of Anti-flag or The Unseen soothing my ears I get off the bike feeling unsatisfied.

Maybe I should change my training and aim for a 12 hour race at punk rock pace ?

Having said all that my band of the moment is Lucero – alternative country music from Tennessee, but I cannot ride for 12 hours listening to songs of broken hearts.

2 weeks till race day

14 days now until the Powerade Day Night Thriller 12 hour race in Taupo.

As normal with any event I do I have not trained as much as I would have liked to. The longest ride I have managed has been a 5 half hour ride, pretty much the same as the last 12 hour. I am however a lot stronger than in May as I have almost exclusively been riding the single speed since then, with only a couple of long training rides on the Dawgie. I am starting to feel a little bit apprehensive that I am going to bonk badly with 6 hours to go due to a lack of long rides, knowing this course is tougher than Rotorua's Moonride course. Will see on the day I guess.

I have the Dawg in the shop getting new rear brake pads and disk fitted, when I get it back I clean and lube it and hope nothing breaks or wears out. It is just to expensive to do all the things I would like to that bike, the single speed and the Dom's AC.

Next week I aim to keep my diet simple, lots of protien and as little fat as possible, keep the carbs down and lose a couple more kilos before hitting the carbs again in the last week. I have been pretty good with my food over the last week however I did let rip yesterday, and have been grazing on left over birthday cake today - yummmm.

The weather is total pants, so lets hope this is winters final clean out and we have great weather over the next 2 weeks. I would hate to try and do 12 hours solo in the wind and rain. Of the 5 times we have done this event (as a team) in the past it has only rained once - so statistically we should be in for a fine, but cold 12 hours.

Woodhill ride with Ocky

Had a good ride today at Woodhill, I was orginally planning on a final 3 or so hour slow ride, but Ocky came up from Wellington so a few of the Vorb crew had sifty session instead. The weather held which was great as it rained all day in town. Dom and I plus 6 others rode today. Ocky and I did my new trail but the others were not hungry enough to ride up-hill. We hit ironhorse and I did all the small jumps on the SS and Dom easily cased the double at the bottom which was good for him as he has been looking at that job ever since it has been rebuilt.
Dom and the jumpers went off and rode the dirt jumps and Ocky, Kylie and I went and rode Slipperies Delight. I havent done that track on the SS before, but I was very surprised how easy it was, even the climb at the end was OK. My legs must be getting a lot stronger....

We ended up doing the new SPCA track which is just awesome, downhill pretty much all the way, fast and flowy, awesome on the SS...

It is my birthday today, 43 years old. I didnt get any bike gear but did finally get some scales amongst other stuff. I weigned myself this morning and was 80.2 KG. After a massive dinner I was up around 82kg - amazing what a lot of food can do...

It was a good day !

Loaded Hog run Number 2

At the start of the Hog 5km run season 5 weeks ago I intended on doing as many runs as I could as a useful cross train for the riding. Well that lasted an entire 1 week. Deana got an evening temp job for 2 and half weeks so I missed 3 runs, but I did get out there last night with 3 others from the office.

It is important to note that I am not a runner, or any other kind of athlete. I had pretty much done no exercise for 20 years from leaving school, while I was never really fat I was always over weight and I smoked for 24 years. Basically I was unfit. I dabbled with running off and on during my late 30's but really only managed to run for a few weeks and would never have done more than 8 or km. When I gave up smoking 21 months ago I was very committed to not replacing cigarettes with food and gaining weight so I started running more. I have completed 5 half marathons in the last 18 months, all at around 1 hour 1:58. I found it extremely difficult to increase my pace to under 6 minute kms over any distance, but gradually brought it down to 5 minute kms over 8km, which I could do reasonably consistently.

I was feeling quite tight as we walked down the street to the run, my legs felt like lead jelly from the riding I have been doing and I was planning on just getting to the end as fast as possible.

The conditions last night were perfect, cool but not cold, no wind, a 100 or so runners. I got off to a flying start, way faster than I wanted and way faster than I could sustain, I completed the first 2.5kms in 10 minutes and started to slow down around the 3 km mark. I had nothing left for the final 100 meter sprint which was a shame but I did manage to finish in an unconfirmed 21.29. I was stoked.

5 sub 4 half minute Km's. the fastest I have ever run in my life...

next week I go out slower and save somthing for the end, though it will be hard to beat that time.

Saturdays training ride

Had a good long ride on Saturday, 5 hours or so of single track goodness, though conditions were a bit dry, it was allo quite cool with a fairly strong wind. I rode my track twice, there is a temporary sign up now so hopefully a few people have started to ride it, I also rode Charlies Angels and SPCA for the first time, Charlies still needs a lot of work, had some good bits but the ride out is un-rideable. SPCA is one wicked bit of downhill track, very enjoyable.

I rode Combo, cry baby, big muma, cookie, charlies angel, spca, upland, bikeparks, haggis, conifer loop, northern exposure, my track, ironhorse, anaconda, python, more conifer loop, my trail again, the cutting, more haggis, the doris, slipperies delight, ed rush ravine, link, cookie (the other way), spaghetti and tortellini.

shoud have eaten better and my damn hydrapak leaks. I broke a spoke in my rear wheel in Ironhorse so took it easier from there.

It was a good ride, I thn went to mum and dad's for their wedding anniversary and my birthday dinner. My parents are away for my birthday next weekend. I just ate way too much... there went the diet.

3 more weekends till race day.

Night ride

We went for our first night ride in ages on Wednesday night, it was a gentle paced ride that was mostly enjoyable.

I had broken a spoke on the single speed a couple of weeks and had it fixed on Tuesday (for a cool $12 including true-ing - wicked price), when I put the wheel back on I tightened the chain line but there must have been a bit of stretch as half way through the rise I had nightmares with the chain coming off. What made it worse is the Hydrapak leaks like a sieve under a load so I had taken all the tools out to allow for the helmet light battery. Luckily about 3/4 of the way through the ride we ran in to some guys who had a spanner I could tighten the chain lugs with. Not making that mistake again...

Apart from that the ride was good, nice group of people, slow pace. We road up my new trail which was semi-officially opened yesterday. The track was pretty rough, the dry weather had made it quite soft, which made the climbing impossible. I dont think any of us made it to the top. Hopefully we will get some good rain in the next couple of weeks and I can ride the track to bed it down.

Planning ons a 6 hour ride tomorrow.

Brakes Not Needed

The new trail I have been working on a Woodhill, has a name "Brakes not needed" and has now been officially opened by Bikeparks. Well they have emailed everyone that it is now open. 1.1 km's of uphill and flat goodness.
The trail still needed more grooming but even more it needs lots of wheels on it to bed it down. I will get back in there after the Day Night Thriller and do any repairs, re-align any bad corners and finish the grooming.

I am quite keen to hear what people think as this is my first track I have "designed" and built myself. I like it, it is tough but fair and the reward is you are at the high point in the park and have the choice of 4 ways back down.

I hope to take the riding crew up there tonight for the first night ride in a long while.

First 100km road ride

This morning I finished my first 100km road ride, and I did it on the Kona Dawg fully suspended with knobbly tyres.

It took just under 5 hours, which is slower than I hoped, but I am more than happy that I completed it at all.

The weather was perfect, a stunning spring morning, though a little cool when I left home at 7.15. I rode to Miles's place in Parnell via Rosebank Rd, pick up Miles and did the round Auckland 50k ride then road home home the way I came. The round Auckland ride was extremely enjoyable, ridden at a pace we could chat most of the way, no wind, lots of girls running and walking along the waterfront and in the parks. Even the normally obnoxious and unsociable rodies were saying hi as they passed or came the other way. I passed car doing 61km down a hill which always leads to a good ride.

The last few Km's were a struggle but it is now done, the first 100km.

Stats - 103km, 4:38 ride time, 4:57 all up, I took the long trousers off at Miles's and the traffice slowed me down a bit on the way home at intersections and lights.

The best thing is - it is now 4 hours since I have been home and I have been to the supermarket and can actually walk...

Over training ?

Though I do not train as much as many, many other people, and some would laugh at my pathetic training regime, I had such a flat day yesterday I am wondering if I have over done it again.

I had an early morning run that just didn't fire, it was fairly cool, quite foggy, though the conditions were not bad. I ran for about 30 minutes and just didnt feel comfortable, I couldn't settle into a good rhythym and was passed by a lot of smooth flowing runners which is quite off-putting. I went and had a $2 shower at the Tepid Pools and it was cold...

Work was busy - not Hudson busy, but by new job standards it was a full on day, the kids wanted home made hamburgers for dinner, but the supermarket had no round rolls, so I bought long (hot dog) rolls, which apparently are yuck. Though dinner was Ok.

I did a quick ride on the trainer which just didn't feel good either, the TV was crap, the MP3 player did not inspire, I gave up after 45 minutes and went and tried to glue my rear vision mirror back on my windscreen, it did not work.

So all in all not a good day.

I think I will change my training plan for next week, I am hoping to do a 4 hour ride tomorrow, either on the road with Miles or in the forest on my own. Sunday will be a sifty ride with the boys I hope. Hard trainer ride Monday, spin Tuesday, hard ride Wed and then 2 days and no running for 2 weeks I think...

At least the body doesnt hurt too much

I am starting to love the training bike

Last night I finally changed the rear tyre on the mag. trainer bike to a slick road tyre from a knobbly mountain bike tyre. I have been meaning to do this for about 6 months now really wished I had.

The difference was huge, instead of a roar like a train the bike is smooth and quiet, I cranked the resistance up significantly last night and managed to get a far better ride in than normal. I almost enjoyed the hour.

Cranked up the volume on the MP3 player, loaded up a bunch of old metal, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Metallica, Kyuss etc and dug it in.

It was a good session.

Dear Diary

On Monday night I pulled out a bunch of old diaries that I kept for about 4 years in the mid 80's, I was looking for the actual date I flew to England in 1985, but I never made it that far, though it was sometime in November.

It seemed I had a lot of fun 20 years ago but drank an awful lot, drove drunk a lot, spent a lot of money and spent a lot of time doing what my daughter does now, just hanging out at people's houses, moving from one place to another.

It seems though that I was largely happy.

I am starting to hate the training bike

I have borrowed a mag. (I think) trainer from my brother in law, I have clipped Deana's bike in as she doesn't use it. I have had it for about 6 months and use it sporadically until I have an event coming up when I try to do 3-4 sessions a week. The thing is incredibly noisy unless I have it on quite a low setting, then all I can do is spin. I will change the tires this week and see if that makes a difference.

The main problem is it is so boring - spinning away in the playroom on my own, I have the TV - which is slowly dying, a video and an old stereo. I have watched TV, movies, biking movies, listened to music, read books (which isn't very efficient) and am now running out of things to do.

I really need to motivate myself for the next 3 weeks, then the race will be over and I can forget about the trainer again for a few months. Maybe I should say damn the noise, crank up the tension on the trainer, wind the volume to 11 on the MP3 player and dig it in.

Riding - riding - digging - riding

I had a very bike related weekend which, given the fact the 12 hour is now just 5 weekends away, was desperately needed. I still did not do as much as I wanted though, plus Saturday night my plan to only have a couple of glasses of wine had well and truly failed after the 8th , and not final, glass.

Saturday I went out to Woodhill to dig and meet up with some Vorb guys for a sifty ride. I rode with them for a couple of hours, did not do a lot of miles but I did get the single speed off the ground which was very good. I have not been doing any jumps at all for such a long time, even the small easy ones have been avoided this year. The older I get the more conservative my riding has become. So it was great to hit a couple of the easier 3 X jumps and just get some flow back. Unfortunately I did break a spoke on my rear wheel I discovered when I got home. So that is more cost, Sunday I damaged the brake lever on Dom's AC and I need new rear brak pads and disk for the Dawg and I have somehow lost one of my 2 short sleaved riding shirts - this sport is not cheap.


I then spent a couple of hours digging the new track, I completely redesigned the entry though I cannot avoid a short sharp climb that I cannot get up on the single speed. I think once the track has been ridden a bit and bedded down it will be rideable on the SS. I then went up and finished a small berm I was working on then rode the whole track and noticed there is still quite a lot of clean up work required.

Sunday I took Dom up to the forest and he rode with Darin, Wayne and Cam and I went off and did a 2 hour slow session (I used the HRM to keep focused) on the Dawg. I rode the the new track twice, got up the first hill the first time but not the second, even with gears it is a tough climb on the soft fresh ground. The track is 1100 metres long and is almost entirely up hill, though in the main the gradient is pretty shallow. It is the longest climb in the park - which was my objective.

Day Night Thriller 12 hour MTB race

I sent the registrations off for the Day Night Thriller this week. I was hoping to have a fairly small crew of regular riders coming but we seemed to have ended up with a cast of thousands again with 2 * 5 person and 1 * 3 person team, as well as myself riding solo. I am a bit disappointed that people kept inviting their mates, as last year it was just a pain the arse having 3 teams, with a number of non-regular riders. While we do not take the team racing too seriously - to me there is always some element of competition in these events. I like to ride the hardest and fastest I can, prepare for each lap, eat and drink right during the day and it annoys me when others do not treat the day the same. Maybe I need to change

I have registered myself as a 12 hour solo so I am going to treat this year seriously, at least I won’t be sitting around the site getting frustrated with the sifters. I am however going to really have to kick the training along, the event is in 5 weeks and I have no long rides under my belt. This weekend I hope to get the trail digging finished so my track is ride-able and then at least I can focus on riding. Aiden has gone to scout camp so I will dig Saturday and ride Sunday morning, try and squeeze 3 hours riding in, which will be a good indicator of where I am at.

I have been doing 3 nights a week on the trainer and have got a couple of small runs in as well. The diet has improved over the last 3 weeks, no alcohol, less ice cream and other junk, I have noticed my weight has dropped and I "feel" leaner. I must get some scales. I am not so much worried about weight, more about carrying un-productive body mass around on a bike for 12 hours. Hopefully this time I can keep the momentum up until the event.

The New Job

The new job is going OK. I am wondering if this is work is supposed to be like.

I have my own office - this is the coolest thing in the world, I have been in open plan for the past 8 or so years so it just so cool to slob in the office, play music, type stuff on the computer and if I cannot be bothered with people, I dont have to.

I turn up at 7.30 AM, and there are only a couple of people here, I get breakfast and a coffee then surf the net reading blogs, doing my personal email and, currently, organising stuff for the Day Night Thriller in 6 weeks time. This takes up about an hour when the rest of the company start arriving.

I do "stuff" during the day, as I am not really operational I do not get involved in the murky dealings of helpdesk queries and "urgent" requests. Though the whole outsourced helpdesk option is up for review when I have completed the system review, but for now, though it is my responsibility, I do not have to get involved at the sticky end.

I have lunch - so far (4 weeks in) I have managed to go for a walk every day, just to get out of the office and breath some air is just great, I cannot wait for summer.

At 5.00 I go home ! and when I get there I do not do work stuff.

The downsides
- There is no shower here so I cannot easily ride to work in summer and a lunch time run is just painful as I would have to go to a gym and pay to shower. It may come to that later in the year. - The people here are not as nice as the last place, given that I have only been here a few weeks, and I am in an office! I can accept that I have to grow on them.
- I have to wear a suit, at least a collar and tie - that sucks..

All up - a good move - I just hope I do not get bored here.

N-Duro 3 35km bike race

Yesterday, Dom (15 year old son) and myself left home at 5.45 AM and drove the 3 hours to Rotorua for race 3 of the N-Duro Mountain bike series. I have not ridden an N-Duro before but have heard some good things about the race. Dom and I were riders 443 and 442 respectivly so assuming consistancy of numbers there was not a bad turnout. There are 2 options a 70km and a 35km race. As Dom was riding in his first, non-team event we elected the easy option. (it was the right option !)

Rotorua has to have some of the best single track XC/trail riding in the world, the riding is primarily through well established pine forest but there are areas of native bush and some clear felled pine forest (with some awesome views.

The race started with a 6km climb, that was mostly rideable, I am sure it was fully rideable for some though, then down into Gunna Gotta some lovely fast flowing single track. Unfortunatly it was pretty much ruined by the slow traffic in front of us, there was no overtaking, unless riders fell off the side of the track ! but it was still better than riding up hill.

The rest of the ride was through a combination of fast flowing single track, some steep climbs, and fire and forestry roads. The single track was mostly fantastic, though we did consistantly get stuck behind the same group of riders on the more technical trails, who passed us on the climbs. Dom did clean out a woman on the final down hill to the finish line, which meant we had a quick run to the car to get changed before we sifted around the finish line chatting to a few riders.

All up it took us about 2:45, I have no idea how fast the winner was as the results have yet to be posted. But we were happy, Dom did an awesome job on his first long race, especially riding a Giant AC2 with 6 inches of suspension and flat pedals.

I am damn glad I did not do the 70km race as I was stuffed after the 35, and the 70km had some additional gruesome climbs by all accounts.

I will be back next year, maybe do the nice short race 1 on the single speed.

New single speed frame

During my week off between jobs, I picked up a 4 year old DMR Trailstar frame I purchased from Trade me. I took the frame round to my friend Darin's house and we (well mainly he) built the bike for me.

The main difference between this and my old frame, a Kona Cindercone, is the DMR is cold steel and it has horizontal drop outs. This meant I could drop the chain tensioner which makes the bike run a whole load smoother and quieter.

I have ridden the bike a couple of times, and it is so sweet, it is definately less harsh on the rough trails, handles well and is so so quiet...

Single speeding is the bomb

Mangere half Marathon

I completed the Auckland Masters Half in Mangere, Auckland on 17 July 2005.

I ran it in 1:57:02, which is my fastest half by a few seconds, I was quite keen to do 1:55 but I wasnt disappointed. It was quite cool, I ran in a jacket for the first 40 minutes and there was a bit of a head wind on the return leg, which wasn't there on the way out. It is quite a scenic run, which surprised me, being Mangere and all.

It was my first race with the mp3 player and it was not bad, kept a good pace on the first 10k, but blew out again around 13-19kms and picked up the pace for the final 2.

I was happy. Talked to a few guys from the Glen Eden running club about the club and training for a full marathon. I think I realised while I was talking to them that I really didn't have it in me to do a full marathon, and that I really didn't want to give up bike riding for 3 months to run.

New beginnings

I havent blogged for quite a while and, being perfectly honest, I had lost some interest, but as the title says "New Beginnings"

So here is what I have been upto in the las month.

I completed a half marathon.
I have started my new job.
I have given up on the marathon idea.
I have half finished a mountain bike track.
I am going to do the 12 hour solo ride at the Day Night Thriller race on Oct 1.

2 upcoming gigs

The morning started slow and typical, Meliesha had her school ball and pre-ball and post-ball, Deana took Meliesha to the post ball at 1-30 AM so it was a late night.

I got up and did a 10km run, it was not the best run ever though I was happy with my time of 53 minutes. I did not think I ran that quickly round the Titirangi Rd loop.

On the warm down I walked to the dairy to get the paper, as always I started with Time Out, and wow - I mean wow...

Dance Macabre are reforming for a 1 off gig on the 22nd July at the Kings Arms. I saw them a few times in their brief career in 81/82. They were primarily a synth band but very much influenced by the post-punk music of Joy Division/cure etc. I really liked they released 1 stunning EP, Between the lines and a soso LP. I have neither and have been looking in record shops and on-line for years. Top cap this great news off they are releasing a CD of both works on the 15th..

The following weekend Children's Hour have also reformed for a one of gig at the KA as well. They have a CD of all their works out already, but I have all their material on vinyl. They were stunning live as well. Late 83-84 they were around, very agrresive but again influenced by the post-punk era music coming out of the UK.

I have not been to many gigs in the last 10 years, and I must admit to being very excited about this.

London bombings

A couple of days after every other person on the planet has blogged this.

I was "lucky" enough to be watching TV when the breaking news came on, and I sat and stared for 2 hours, in shock initially (though in the cold light of day it was no surprise) and then as no real news came in I went to bed about 11.30 PM, about 12.30 PM London time.

It was a weird feeling watching the news, I watched 9/11, the aftermath of the Madrid bombing, the tsunami disaster in Indonesia/Sri Lanka etc and for each of those I felt for the people were injured the families of those who died and of those who were missing. With the London bombing there was more, even though I am 19,000 km's away from London, I am still English, I was born in the outer 'burbs of London - sort of. Though I have lived here for 30 years and have a NZ passport I still feel English. After spending a couple of years in London in the mid-eighties, I knew all the streets, the squares, the stations, I recognised bus numbers as they drove past, I have no idea why I remembered them, but I did.

The thing that really amazed me as I watched this live on TV, apart from the fact I was watching it live on TV, was how calm everyone was, the images from NY after 9/11 were full of a screaming and running chaos whereas in London it was so quite, maybe the scale was different.

At work on Friday we talked about the bombings and someone said that they could not understand why the bombers only did 4 small bombs and compared to 9/11 it was all quite minor. Well I disagreed I believe 4 small bombs was enough, it brought the Underground and the Red London buses to a stand still. These are major British icons, the underground is a bigger icon than the WTC, yes the death toll was less but the message was the same.

Track building stage 1

I took the day off of work today, with 2 and half weeks left until I leave I thought I should at leat use up my "personal day". Personal days are great, we are entitled to 1 day off a quarter to do stuff. Normally stuff you cannot get done during a normal week, like visit the lawyer, the dentist, the bank etc etc. Most people just use em as an extra day off, we are not supposed to add them to annual leave though. I took the cat (he's 11) to the vet this morning as he has been grumpy as hell since the kitten arrived 2 months ago, don't blame him the kitten's a nut ball, well he's a kitten anyway. Cat had an abscessed wound in his head from a fight, not bad, a few days antibiotics and he will be back to his miserable self.

The main reason for the day off was to go up to Woodhill and start to dig my bike track. I decided to build a track a while ago, mainly because a new track (Northern Exposure) that was built that I like to ride just sort of ends, in a dumb place, so I wanted to link this track to another track that I like (Ironhorse). I decided to link them together. I talked to the Bike park guys and they were happy for me to dig. So dig I did.

Unfortunately the weather was utter pants today, I decided to go up anyway and mark the track out in the rain. I was an interesting day, the idea of the track was to make it with a very gradual gradiant, so that it could be ridden by all. I made quite a few adjustments as I went, but think I have a rideable line. I got about half way through the marking anyway. I aim to go and complete the track when I have a week off between jobs.