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.