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.