Track digging day

I did not get out for a ride again this weekend, this is getting to be a bit repetetive, but that is life I guess.

I had a good reason this weekend not to ride as I did go track building up at the Bikepark on an official track building day. Considering that it had been hammering down with rain for the past week and was raining at the scheduled start time it was amazing that close to 20 people turned up to help cut a new trail.

The Bikeparks crew had marked out the basic plan so it was a simple matter of following along the path with a rake and a shovel. I was in a nice small crew building berms at the tail of the group. The Woodhill forest is sand based so trail building is a relative breeze, and building berms is simple...

I spent half a day there and had a good time building berms with a couple of riders I know well. The track is going to be really good once it has been completed.

Went out for a run in the afternoon, ran from home up through Titirangi and out along Exhibition drive. I had had some yoghurt for lunch a couple of hours before and it really did not sit well in my stomach. I was burping the whole way and was really quite uncomfortable. I did keep a reasonable pace up considering so was fairly happy.

I have decided I am going to try running with some electronic music with no vocals. I find that I spend too much time singing in my head to the lyrics and not concentrating on what I am doing. I also pace myself to the song which means I am sometimes going too fast for the run. For the longer runs I do need to hit that magic pace and then zone out, I am hoping that listening to some repetetive musix will allow that to happen. I am not sure if I can do 2 + hours of running with no music - though running to electronic dance music could be interesting as I am not a fan.

Loaded hog run - again

I did the Loaded Hog 5km fun run last night for the first time in weeks.

The weather had been dubious all day but it did not actually rain until I got out of my parked car just up from the Hog. In the end i decided to run without a rain jacket, which was the wise decision as it stopped raining 10 minutes into the run.

I felt good for most of the run, I thought I had kept a consistent pace throughout the run, but half way split was 11:08 and my full run time was 23:01 so a minute slower on the return leg. I was hoping to do under 23 minutes and was a bit gutted to do 23:01. Oh well...

next week is the final run for the series so I will dig it in a bit harder and get that sub 23 again.

Bought a live Get up Kids CD, yesterday it is pretty good, needs to played at some volume though.

Listening to Monster Magnet tonight.

Quick zap around the bike park

I got up this morning with aching legs and stiff hips, I had not felt this bad after a run for a quite a long time so it was definately a good wake up call if I am planning on doing any long runs this winter. I wasnt sure how the ride would go so planned on taking it easy. I had not arranged to ride with anyone nd was hoping to see some one in the car park to ride with, but having said - I do like to ride on my own.

I was a bit stiff getting up the entrance trail but by the time I got to Spaghetti my legs had freed up and I was ready to ride comfortably. There was two events on at the park today so the place was a bit of a zoo, at the end of the Spag. trail I had to ride the road up to the northern end as the middle block was closed for a race, I also found out that most of the northern block was closed for an event as well so I did a sneaky couple of trails between races and then shot back out on the road for the long haul back to the carpark.

So a short ride, mostly on the road, but my less felt OK, though they have tightened up now.

I discovered yesterday when I was getting the bike ready that I have bent the seapost on the DMR. It is a very thin post at 25.8 - so I may have a bit of fun finding one. I tried the Freeriden shop on the way back today but they didnt have one. At least it is rideable.

19.5 km run

I was intending on getting some trail work done this morning and finally finishing the addition to my old trail, but as usual time and family conspired against me. I spent the morning doing odd jobs around the home and cleaning up the trenches that had been dug in my front lawn by various cars over the past 7 days. I did clean the single speed from last weekends 24 hour ride and have that ready for riding tomorrow.

After dropping youngest son off at a friends house so he can go camping tonight - (man that is going to me cold) I went up to Exhibition Drive to get an afternoon run in.

The weather was almost perfect for a run, cool and cloudy but with an unwelcome light wind that hit at the depressing 500 meters to half way on each lap point. I intended on doing 2 laps of the 6.5 km circuit, but after lap 1 I was feeling good and decided to go for 3 laps if at the end of lap 2 I was still perky. Lap 1 went in a respectable 35 minutes, for the first half of laptop 2 I ran about 50 metres behind a girl for the whole way, I just couldn't catch her but did a reasonable time and ended up with a 36 minute lap. I started lap 3 feeling good but about quarter of the way round really started to feel it in my legs, I made it to the end without stopping, but it was a tough run, the last lap took 39 minutes. Total for 19.5 km was 1 hour 50 which was Ok considering I have not run that sort of distance for probably 10 months.

I am thinking of doing my first half marathon in almost a year at the start of July so now I know I can do it, I will squeeze in some decent training and it should be easy. Except for the climb up Mt Wellington ! Am thinking of doing the full Auckland marathon in October - but I thought that last year and ended up doing a 12 hour solo mountain bike ride instead.

Also going to do the 12 hours of Woodhill race in July in a team of 4 Single Speeders. All ready have Mikey from the Moonride signed up and the mad 24 hour solo SS'er Paul keen to do a team race. Will train for that to...

Quick ride in the morning as I have to pick up number 2 at 12 so car is packed and ready to go.

Listening to The Get up Kids again, havent listened to them in a while, they are so cool.

Moonride 24 hour event

The Moonride 24 hour and 12 hour team bike race is an annual event in Rotorua. Last year I competed as a 12 hour soloist – it was my first attempt at a solo 12 hour and it went well- I didn’t come last !

This year I organised a single speed team in the 24 hour event, the intention was to have a team of 5 but after 2 drop-outs we ended up with a team of 4 with a couple of people who were in geared teams volunteering to do a lap for us on a single speed. Our team site was also hosting a 24 hour single speed soloist and his wife who was crewing. I was the oldest guy in the team by 10 years and had never met 1 team member before so it was going to be an interesting weekend.

The week before the race the weather was pretty lousy, heavy rain across the north island and Friday dawned cloudy, when team member number 2 arrived in his rented camper things were looking decidedly average. The forecast was good for the duration of the race, though I took a ton of gear with me in case. Rider number 2 had decided to rent a camper van with 3 beds, cooker, fridge etc so we would have a bit of comfort for the event. We loaded up my crap and the mighty DMR and left home at 9.30 AM to pick up rider number 3 in Hamilton, about 120 kms away. The drive to the Tron was wet and windy with some very heavy rain storm! After picking up rider 3 we continued heading south towards Rotorua, luckily the weather got better and better as the further sough we got. We had a quick stop in Rotorua for a BK power lunch and then shot out to the site to pre-ride the circuit as the event starts at 10.00 PM and we wanted a quick squiz first.


As we found out at the race briefing a few hours later, the course had to be redesigned 2 days before due to the rain so there was a lot more fire road than we and the designers would have liked, but the single track that was there was just lovely. The course was just over 8km long with a gentle 1 km climb and a correspondingly sexy downhill! Towards the end of the single track the trail took a sudden hard left turn and I commented to the others that someone would take out the marker tape on the first lap and chaos would ensue – sadly I was correct ! The course was fun, but I think we were all glad we pre-rode it before the night time start.

After the pre-ride we went back into town to complete registration and then headed back to the site to find a spot for the camper. We had the perfect place, on the hard park car park, 20 metres from the finish line, with a portaloo hidden behind some other caravans about 50 metres away. Mad solo turned up soon after us and we got the site set up with an easy-up next to the caravan and a ‘borrowed’ bit of fencing that made a great bike rack, until the race organisers took it back just before race start. We were onsite at 4.30 PM though the race did not start to 10.00 so there was a quite a bit of sifting around chatting to old friends for a while. Ride number 4 turned up at 8.00 PM and we were ready to race.

As always I did the first lap, it does not bother me, but most people just do not seem to like doing it. The lap started with a 1600 metre ride along a flat tarmac road which just sucks on a single speed with 32:18 gearing, when we did hit the forest I was closer to the back than the front. The first lap went Ok until we hit the section of trail with the hard left and the now missing tape. The group I was in got lost and we ended up back on the up hill fire road and went back to the start line. The first lap took me 33 minutes which ended up being consistent with my average so it was not too bad. Mad soloist got lost in another group and ended up taking 45 minutes and a rider from our neighbours got lost in further group and was gone for an hour 15. We were lucky… I did a double lap and then got back to the camper for some rest. All the other riders did single laps so I was back out sooner than I wanted to be and it was starting to get cold, down to 1 degree at 5.00 AM. The night laps were fun, I did 6 laps in the dark. On my 4th lap my light went and I could see nothing, the rutted bumpy downhill in the dark was a real challenge. I did not get much sleep during the night, it was cold and I was out riding every couple of hours.
The day dawned sunny and soon warmed up, this certainly raised everyone spirits. The 12 hour teams started at 10:00 AM and we had the deck chairs out by the start line to heckle/cheer/jeer friends and soloists as they went past.
Our guest riders did their laps during the day so I got some nice length breaks, and mainly did single lap circuits as well, trying to post the fastest lap, rider four got the quest in at 27 something and it was close who came second or third with two of us posting times in the mid 29’s.

I gave the bike its one and only service during the day and apart from some clogged up brake it worked very well.

Mad solo bugger
By the end of the day the mud was getting very sticky, there was one point just before the start of the climb that became un-rideable on the single speed, the mud was just so sticky that all momentum was lost and as it was the start of a light climb I ended up getting off and running up – it was quicker.

My 11 and 12th and final lap was started at 7.30 and I was pretty broken by the end of it, I walked the ‘big’ hill and was passed by mad soloist on his 34th lap still riding….

The team did OK, we came 32 out of 56 in the open category which was Ok considering there was only 4 of us and we were on SS’s. Mad soloist came 3rd in his category which was very cool for him, though he has sworn to never do a 24 hour single speed again.

49 hours till the Moonride

49 hours until the start of the 2006 Moonride 24 event. I can never really call these things races as I only ever intend on finishing.

This year we have a team of 4 single speeders, was meant to be 5 but 1 team member disappeared. Last year I did the 12 hour solo, so this should be a breeze.

The DMR is going well, it is cleaned and lubed and the bike box is packed, so I am half ready to go. Friday morning I am being picked up by Thorg a fellow Vorber from Whangarei in a rented camper and we will head to Rotorua.

Forecast is average, Friday showers, Saturday fine, Sunday rain. Hopefully Sunday's rain will not come early as the race finishes 10.00 PM Saturday night.

I am reasonably pumped for this...

Dirty Riverhead Winter Ride

Had a most awesome ride today. Organised by the Freeriden shop guys, the first of,what will hopefully be, a series of Riverhead rides. The weather had been pretty bad during the week with some quite heavy rain - Riverhead is clay based and does not like rain, Saturday however was a great day for riding, sunny with a gentle breeze. 21 riders turned up for the 18km afternoon ride which is a large number by Auckland standards.














The ride was a mix of slippery, gluey, dirty generally downhill single track and nice stony climbs. The single speed worked a treat and I managed to get up most of the hills, some of the greasy clay was impossible (for me) to climb, in fact it was hard to walk in some places. Though I easily cleared this climb, but the boys on the heavy free ride bikes with an extra 5 kilos of clay stuck to their wheels did not find the up hills as much fun as me. 1 of the back 2 riders broke his rear free wheel so had no pedals. We had 1 read deraileur snap off and 2 flats, but apart from that it was an injury and damage free ride.













I walked down 1 steepish section but otherwise stayed on the bike for the rest of the ride.Thats me at the top in the black shirt













It was damn good dirty muddy fun...













The bike the next day before it was cleaned. The big chunks were scraped off before I put the bike in trhe car to come home.

The Stairs

I work on the 18th, and top, floor of my building. Well my empoyers are only on that floor so it is hardly the whole building. The main foyer is on level 4 and this week I have started walking the stairs with an aim to walk them at least once a day. So far so good - I acheived that goal succesfully last week with a slightly better time each day, I am sucking serious air at the top of the 14 flights though.

Old cassettes

The Mazda does not have a cd player and the radio is tuned ex Japan (though it has been in NZ for 12 years). This means I can get approximately 2 radio stations and both are shite. On AM I do get National radio which is good at times but I cannot listen to it all day.

It does, however, have a cassette player so I dug out my box of old audio tapes and there is some damn good listening in there. This week I have been listening to, and enjoying, Bitch Magnet, Southern Death Cult, Wire, Head like a hole, Helmet and a whole bunch of old Flying Nun bands.

There was some good music in those boxes that was just not getting listened to.