the week wrapped up.

It has been an interesting week, work has been as busy as usual and as frustrating as ever. I found that I slept really well over weekend but come Monday I slept badly again and have slept badly ever since. I am not really sure why I cannot sleep properly all the time I do not think I am overly stressed from work, certainly work is stressful but I have been in worse situations. I have decided on 2 courses of action, firstly I have long been thinking about starting something along the lines of yoga or tai chi. Primarily to help me relax, but also to help build some core strength, improve flexibility and balance and develop some breathing techniques. In the end I decided to try tai chi and the local high school has a community education course starting on Monday which I have signed up for. Secondly I have decided to give up coffee. I am going to reduce my intake this week with a plan to quit completely the following week, I am expecting a couple of weeks of hell when I stop though so I have started warning the family.

My youngest son, who turned 13 this week, has decided to join a few of his friends and play softball. This is pretty much going to kill Saturday morning riding. This weekend is out as it is the first game and I cannot miss that one. I am hoping/expecting my wife will go to every second game which means I can ride every second weekend at least. I hope to continue with the Tuesday night riding though.

With that in mind and with the Kaweka challenge coming up again February I am going to focus on running for a while, easier to get out and do before and after work - at least until I can get a decent bike for riding on the road. I am still keen to do the Kaweka run and then continue on and do a full Marathon later in the year. I will still do some events though, at least the last round of the Auckland champs and probably 1 or 2 24 hour team events depending on timing.

Yesterday we had my sons 13th birthday outing, we took him and 6 friends to the hot pools at Parakai for an afternoon session and BBQ dinner. At least with 12 and 13 year olds you do not need to watch them all the time, so my wife hung around the pool to provide food and drink and I got out for a run. I ran west for 45 minutes and then turned round and ran back. Fairly simple run, kept the pace down, though there was a reasonable westerly blowing. It was Ok, I was really knackered by the end and probably could not have gone out and done much more running. I think I could pull off a half marathon if I needed to right now but it would not be easy. Having said that in the last 8 days I have done a 1 hour run an hour twenty run and now an hour thirty, which is an awful lot more than in the last 3 or months so I should expect to be a bit tired. I will not run again until Thursday.

I hope to finally get the right seat post for the AC today...

A rainy day public holiday run

Yay – another wet day, got to love long weekends ! Raining a bit more persistently today, though it is not heavy. I got up at 7.30 and went for a run.

Started doing the same Godley Rd, Portage Rd, Clark St, Titirangi Rd loop as Friday but carried on up through Titirangi and along Kohu Rd to the bottom of Scenic Drive were I looped back into Titirangi again and down to home. It took me 1 hour 19 minutes to complete the 13.5 km loop, which is not particularly fast really but I was pacing myself and there is a fair amount of climbing which is really the purpose of this run. I hope to get out this week and do some sprint runs at the park as well but we will see how it goes.

I did measure the run in the car today and took some section distances as well so I can start to build some runs with a reasonable idea of distance.

I planted some tomatoes, lettuces and beat root this afternoon, get the vege garden going for summer. Will have to see how long the enthusiasm for growing veges lasts, it is not ling usually…

Saturday ride

Drizzly morning again today.

I got up early and went into work at 7.15 to print off some stuff for my wife and print, sign and scan a document for work.

From work I drove up to Woodhill for my normal Saturday morning single speed ride with Miles. Had a pretty good ride, kept the pace down and just rode for 2 hours, didn’t really stop much – gate crossings, adjusted brakes once early on, so it was a pretty solid nicely paced work out.

We rode Powerball to the main network, then down Spaghetti as far as Afterglow, then finished off with Tortellini. We then took the easy road option to Haggis then Northern Exposure, No Brakes, Python and the horrible Anaconda, I really do not like that trail it just goes on and on and mostly seems to be up hill, there is just no fun in that trail… After Anaconda we did the last section of Conifer and I cleaned the rooty pinch climb which I haven’t done for a while, then powered through the lovely flowy section just before it joins back into Haggis. After Haggis we rode Tree Huggas, Link, all of Cookie for a change before thrashing down Raceface Down back the car. It was a good ride, I really tried again to focus on body position through the downhill sections and keeping my fingers off the brakes. I believe I am getting better at this and I do appear to be faster. I only had a couple of moderately scary moments as I got the body postioning wrong going into rutted corners.

After the ride I spent the afternoon scaring the neighbours by working in the garden with my shirt off, weeding and digging over the vege patch...


Listening to some old XTC - Go 2 LP on vinyl

Day off work

It is Labour Day in New Zealand on Monday so we all get the day off work. I have been feeling particularly sluggish this week, though I have actually got things done so I decided to take Friday off as well for a 4 day weekend. My plan for the day was to get a decent run in and then go do a whole bunch of shopping stuff, present for juniors 13th birthday, wheel barrow, seat post etc so the weekend can be spent doing stuff and avoiding the shopping areas at all costs. Well that half turned to crap as junior ended up being off school as well so I could only do half the shopping. He was off school to attend a funeral of an old cub leader, well he wasn’t old, he died of cancer 2 days ago at the age of 54. My wife went to the funeral, but I decided not to attend as I did not really know the family that well and some days I am a selfish asshole. I did get the wheel barrow…

As usual when a public holiday long weekend come around the weather turns to pants…cloud and drizzle forecast for the weekend.

I did get out for a run, did my almost 10km loop down Godley Rd, Portage Rd, Clark St, up Titirangi Rd and back down Godley again. The weather was OK, slight rain, no wind not too warm, but I still ran like someone who is 2 -3 kilos over weight. The fun felt Ok just not very fast, though at 55 minutes it was way off the slowest I have done it.

Seat post still not in the shop !

Tuesday riding

I have tried to source a new seat post for the AC so I could get the seat up a bit higher for the more XC focused rides, though the local bike shop had loads of posts in varying sizes they did nnot have one for me, I do have one on order though. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if there was some standardisation ?

This week I got a new work phone - so I have taken a couple of sample shots, and for the first time in ages I have been able to upload photos to here.

The riding area

I managed to get away from work nice and early on Tuesday and had a reasonably slow, though stress free drive up to Murawai. 10 of us rode this week so we took the longer ride option and rode all the way up the road to the dodgy walking track down hill. The AC is a pain to ride up prolonged (it is only 1.5km but it feels prolonged) climbs when you are sitting so low your knees are banging into your chin. The ride down was not too bad, faster than I have done it on the SS but I am still such a chicken on fast DH runs. The brakes on the AC were really grabby, felt like they were either on or off, very little modulation, could be just need some time to settle after not being used for a while, or maybe they just need a good bleed.

We rode back up and into the forest and then up to the top of the old down hill course for a play on the little jumps. the climb to the topI had replaced the cleats in my shoes so my feet were not popping out of the pedals and I was a lot more comfortable getting little bits of air. Had a fun session, man - the groms are just so comfortable leaping about on any sort of bike…

We then dropped down and did the riverside trail and by then it was too dark to ride back up to do AFL so we cruised back along the road to the cars.

Another good ride.

Spring has sprung

Yay spring is here, it has been quite windy the last few days but it is certainly warmer and now day light saving is here we have light until 8.00 or so in the evening.

I am going to try and not waste my evenings and at least get out in the garden and do ‘stuff’, the place is a bit out of control but I have no real plans so will just do the basic stuff like weeding and pruning.

I have been fairly productive the last few days;

Edged the lawn with my bro-in-laws weed whacker – that was fun.
Mowed the lawn twice, it needed doing really badly.
Pruned the trees over the path so now I can wheel the bin down without hitting my head.
Drilled out and replaced the cleats in my old shoes so I can ride with the platform spd pedals on the AC.
Bought the wrong size seat post for the AC so need to return it.
Bough some herbs and started a little herb garden for summer.
Tided and swept the garage.
Cleaned the bikes
Cleaned the car

I am turning into a bit of a porkenstein again, we have had 2 nights for dinner at friends this weekend, both nights I ate lots and drank too much. This week I really must start to turn this back around.

I did get out for a light run today, did 1 session on Exhibition drive, was thinking of doing 2 but ran out of time again.

Right less type more work in garden…

First Riverhead ride of the spring.

As we ha not had a lot of rain in the last few weeks, discounting the heavy fall with hail on Tuesday, Graham wanted to go and check out some of the trails are Riverhead to see how rideable they are. The Freeriden boys had a loop that was supposed to be fairly dry but we did not get organised enough to get a map of the loop so decided to go and check out some of the tracks we rode last year.

Miles, Brendon, Graham and I rode today - with The Boys on their fully’s and me on the single speed. The ride up Barlow Rd to the start of Pattersons has not got any less steep but it felt OK, I have definitely gotten stronger over the winter period which is good. Pattersons 1 and 2 were a mixed affair, muddy in parts and dry in others, but the horses have been through there over winter and track is in awful condition, very hard work for a fairly flat track, not a lot of flow and the exposed roots are a lot further out of the track giving the upper body a good workout as well. I managed to get to the top of Christ hill Ok but was pretty broken, and took the opportunity of being first there to have a bit of a break. Richies is not one of my favourite tracks at the best of times, the down hill section was surprisingly dry so there was plenty of traction but there was some huge bogs on the flat sections and some of them were pretty smelly… As we were pushing time and the trail was not getting easier to ride we went left at the bottom of Richies with the intention of getting to the Chatham road trails and then to bottom of Anzac Rd. It appears the Chatham Rd trails have all disappeared now with all the trees and we ended up on a long section of old fire road that was at least heading in the right general direction. At the end of the fire road I was not 100% sure where we were but headed off again to the left and after a hundred metres or so ended up at the end of Anzac Rd which was most cool. Anzac was a fair old slog to the top, I had forgotten the final few metres was quite steep and I was again happy to get there first so I could suck some air down before the others arrived. The final run down Nature trail was Ok, again not a favourite trail as there are a few sections I get off and walk as they are too steep, both up and down, for me. I must get control of my fear and ride the down sections, they are perfectly rideable as Graham shows us every time.

Not a bad ride, ended up muddier than expected, muddy enough to clean the bike when I got home which I have had to do for a while !

First ride on the AC

I had a great ride tonight.

I got the AC ¾ sorted on Sunday, all I need now is a long seat post as the one in the bike has been cut down really short so Dom could drop the seat. There was just 4 of us riding tonight Pete and his 2 teenagers and we got away early enough for a hour and half ride without lights. Pete and I rode our AC’s and the kids had their DH bikes so this was going to be e bit of fun…

The wind was very strong off the beach so we decided to avoid the normal circuit and just get into the forest and play on the fun trails. We rode up to the top of Dan’s down that trail then back up to the top of the old national DH course. We played around on the small jumps on the this track for a while and I had a bit of a play on a new Giant Glory which was a lot of fun, these DH bikes get air born so easy compared to the DMR. I was riding with clip pedals and the cleat in my old shoes are too loose to really jump as my feet keep coming out which is not a good look – or feeling when you land on the top tube. So I kept it small and only hit the flowy jumps – not that I was going to bigger anyway…. From the midway point of the old nat’s track we moved on to the AFL track and sessioned a couple small jumps there for 15-20 minutes. I did get more and more comfortable hitting the jumps at higher speeds which was really cool – and the whole idea of getting the AC going again.

We then rode back to Pete’s place via a small loop down towards the beach that was like riding into a sand blaster, the wind was so strong.

A great first ride on the AC, will replace the cleats in the shoe’s so I can stay stuck to the bike.

Single Speed Poker race day

Friday night was spent making up card packs for the dealers, as I had no real idea of how many people were likely to ride or how many of the volunteers were going to show up. I guessed on 8 volunteers and 22 riders so made up 8 packs of 20 cards each and a nice distribution of high value cards for the furthest away dealers, but a few wild cards thrown in for good measure ! I had dealers standing in Big Mumma, Spaghetti, at Dead Mans Corner, Tree Huggas, No Brakes, Iron Horse, Slipperies Delight and the beer stop in the old car park.

Race daydawned nice and sunny and I wandered the road at 7.45 for a paper and came home had coffee and toast. It was looking like being a top day, naturally half an hour later the cloud had moved in and the wind had picked up a bit…

I was quite nervous about the race, maybe nervous is a bit extreme, but I was certainly something, too much energy, luckily I had a few house jobs to do before I packed up and left. I had borrowed my brother in laws petrol weed wacker so I made good use of that and flattened the grass edges which is always fun, petrol powered tools are so cool.

I left home at 11.00 with a car load of bike, (which I didn’t ride) beer and prizes and headed for the supermarket to buy some basics for the BBQ. Got to the forest about an hour before the start and found a good spot to set up the barbie for race headquarters.

The riders and helpers started to show up soon after I arrived and the time before the race disappeared in a blur of chatting and getting peoples names down for the prize draw after the event. Luckily all the people who said they would help out, did and I was amazed to get 28 riders, which was a few more than I expected.

There was a small amount of chaos as I read the rules and shifted everyone to the start line, some of the helpers were not quite ready so I had to hold everyone back for a few minutes. Next event I will get this organised a bit better, I wanted to make sure the riders knew what the ‘dealers’ looked like so they knew who to ride up to in the forest.

Once the riders left 5 minutes late 2:05 I went and borrowed the bike parks BBQ and got that set up, I then hung about for an hour a half waiting for the riders to come back for food and a drink at 3:30.

The BBQ and prize giving were a bit of a blur for me, I remember having a couple of beers, cooking one hell of a lot of sausage, chatting to a lot of riders, handing out spot prizes and generally having a good time. The race was won by a girl with 4 kings.

The feedback on the day was everyone enjoyed it, which was just great, I wasn’t sure how people would find it. With the larger number of riders, more people would have missed out on cards then I planned. There was enough interest to run one of these again next year but next time I will ensure there are more cards and more dealers out there. At least next time it will be easy to get interest going now everyone knows what the heck it is all about !

Photos are here ;

http://aucklandsinglespeed.spaces.live.com

Race day tomorrow

Plans for the single speed poker race are as complete as they are ever going to be with race day tomorrow. This being my first eventy racey thing I have ever done I am a bit pensive about how it will all turn out, but at least the weather has turned it on for me - big blue skies forecast for the day.

I have the prize giving beer and more than I expected, prizes from Vorb.org.nz arrived in the mail on Wednesday and the rest should turn up tomorrow with their respective riders.

I guess now it comes down to getting enough volunteers to lur in the forest and enough riders to make it fun !

I have put together a blog site with some info about the race and a place to store photos.

The weather was filthy early in the week with massive rains and high winds, the winds are just about gone now, but it is still quite cold. I went out for a ride on my own on Wednesday night to check out the tracks and the rain has really settled them down, they are hard are going to be fast. I had an OK ride, I havent ridden on my own for a while and it was quite a challenge to keep motivated... It was an Ok ride, though I had issues with one a screw in one of my cleats and had to stop and tighten it twice.

Last night I went around to my friend Darin's house with the AC and he took out the BB, which is pretty knackered, greased it up and installed it, it is still stuffed but at least it doesn't creak so bad....

Still have issues getting one of the flat pedals out of the cranks, the crank insert keeps coming out with the pedal, we have super glued it back in again and I will try and remove the pedals again tomorrow morning. I will take the AC for a ride on Sunday morning, I haven't ridden a fully for a while, and have never ridden the AC in anger before. It should be fun !

Fingers crossed the race will go well tomorrow

I am keen to organise someting else if it does !

81.2 KG

Arse - a kilo heavier than 2 weeks ago.

Shows what a week of bad diet and doing less exercise than normal does.

But now for the good news.

Last night I took possesion of 4 9 packs of Matakana Lager for the race this weekend.

That is 1 9 pack for first place, 2 for the beer stop on the ride and an extra pack that I can share around the volunteers. - Awesome

My fitness is slipping

I must weigh myself tonight when I get home from work. I have been rather slack lately and have not kept up a regular exercise routine, though this is quite typical of how I, and I assume many others, work. I had a good couple of weeks on the gym and I can feel it all slipping away, over my belt in some cases. In the last couple of weeks I have really hit the chocolate biscuits, chips and ice cream again. What is worse is I have bought (relatively) expensive protein shakes to have as a mid afternoon snack to replace the free biscuits at work, and I am now having both the shake and the biscuits and some days I even drop $1.20 into the snack box and have an early biscuit. Bad, bad, bad.

So this week it is back to exercising more regularly again, 2 rides, 2 runs. Some time on the gym thing in the sleep out and walking the stairs at work.

I have also decided to have a look at something along the lines of Tai Chi. I want to find an activity that I can do to improve fitness, build core strength and help with flexibility, balance, breathing and stretching. It looks like it could fit the bill. It also looks like an activity I can do at home to train without specialist equipment. I hope to find something over the next few weeks that is local, in the evenings and not on a Tuesday night so I can still ride.

I had my first crack at the 14 floor stair walk today, it hurt !

Sunday ride with the lads

I have had a really sluggish week with my wife away. I ate dinner just before bed after riding Tuesday night, ate out Wednesday night my wife came home Thursday night so I cooked, we had burgers and chips on Friday night at friends and I had a couple of wines, went shopping on Saturday and I cooked Saturday night and had a couple of beers then as well. I seemed to have spent the whole week eating and/or drinking. I feel fat, slow and uncomfortable. The weather finally turned to crap on Saturday afternoon, the forecast for the whole week had been rain but it managed to hold off, when it rained it did rain though ! heavy and short. I decided to go run in the afternoon, and luckily by the time I had got organised the rain had stopped. I did a quick splash along Exhibition drive, ran it in just over 32 minutes which was reasonably quick for me but I felt awkward the whole way.

Day light saving started this morning, so I had to get up an hour earlier than normal, luckily one of the riding group sent a text to see who was riding or I would have slept late – shame – it was the best sleep I had had in ages.

While the clouds were quite heavy overhead it wasn’t raining, and didn’t rain until very late in the afternoon, lightening storm at the moment ! so the ride remained dry. I was riding with the jumping crew so it was not a high paced or long ride, had a lot of fun and it was good to spend a couple of hours with the lads. I popped the single speed off a couple of jumps but I am having trouble getting the front wheel off the ground at the moment, I just cannot seem to ‘pop’ it , not sure why. I had a couple of close calls on jumps on the Big Mama trail with front wheel landings. I think I need to practise more. I was going to ride the AC, but still have not got around to getting it completely rideable. Aim to do that this week if I can though with the race next weekend I won’t be riding anyway and the following weekend is round 2 of the Auckland champs.

Rode Big Mama and Afterglow with the lads. Josh did the biggest jump I have ever seen on the junior mama jump, it was just huge, I think he scared himself as the landing is sketchy. I then did a sprint up Link down the side of Cookie and Raceface Down to the car.

Not a bad ride, nice and relaxing for the most part.

Broke out some old Brian Eno vinyl this afternoon, felt like listening to something cruisy.