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