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 !
Friday, October 06, 2006
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
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
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
Monday, October 02, 2006
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 !
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, October 01, 2006
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.
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.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
"Japanese" food
My family are still mostly away so I met a mate after work for a couple of beers and then we went doen to Ken's Japanese restaurant.
We sat on stools in front of where the chef was cooking and drank a beer and ate. it was a damn good evening. I was a bit annoyed I had the car as I could have stayed there a lot longer eating this great Japanese BBQ food and drink Sapporo. The atmosphere in the place was so convivial. I am definately going back.
We sat on stools in front of where the chef was cooking and drank a beer and ate. it was a damn good evening. I was a bit annoyed I had the car as I could have stayed there a lot longer eating this great Japanese BBQ food and drink Sapporo. The atmosphere in the place was so convivial. I am definately going back.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Tuesday night ride
With most of the family away I took the opportunity to slip out for a Dodgy Tuesday ride. My intention was to take the AC out but it was still not in a rideable state. I got it back from the shop yesterday and the pivot bearings were all done nicely but the shop wanted the BB was pretty dodgy and it was making one hell of a noise. I was happy to ride with it like that but in the end I had to flag it as I could not get one of the pedals off, the crank insert came off with the pedal and there was no way I was going to ride with flats so the trusty DMR was loaded into the car again.
The weather over the past few days has been gorgeous and as I was having one of those days at work when I could just not focus, I got a good lunch time walk in to stretch my legs out, it took a while to open them up so I am glad I got out prior to the ride. I arrived at Pete’s place at Murawai and there was a good crowd already there, nice mix of teenagers and older folks and there was another single speeded DMR as well which was good, all up 9 of us rode, the biggest crowd yet.
We rode up the road as normal and down the walking track then back to gannet colony and down the steps, traditional start and I am getting more and more comfortable with the steps though I am still one of the slowest riders down both those trails. I have realised that compared to the other riders my home made lights suck big time on the down hills. I am just not getting a range of light that makes me comfortable to hit things at speed. They are ok in the tighter slower stuff or on trails where I know every corner and every root, but for speed in not too familiar territory they just suck !
In the forest we rode up past the start of Dan’s track which we normally do to look at a new trail being built by one of the young guys. It was steep and short with a number of lethal looking jumps. I like steep and short and I am not opposed to jumps, but what pissed me off a bit on this trail was the first jump I saw had a small sand kicker to a steep bank tranny, nothing wrong with that you might think, except the mong had dug a pit on the transition forcing it into a step down. If I had been coming down the hill I would have hit that jump as it was tiny and then landed front wheel first into the pit and brained myself. Given that we are not supposed to ride here and the land owners seem to tolerate sensible trails and well designed jumps – and there are some big jumps here, building something stupid that some one is going to get hurt on is brainless. Anyway….
We rode back and did Dan’s trail which is a fun and well designed short downhill trail and then rode the riverside trail as normal. We then rode back up to the top of AFL through the back road, I haven’t ridden this road for a while and got a bit of a sprint on one of the climbs until I realised/remembered this was the start of the climb – I ended up walking the top of it, it just seemed to go on and on (we are talking Auckland climbing here folks so on and on is not much !)
AFL is such a fun trail to ride down, I really want to do it during the day so I can see here I am going and get to learn all the corners and where the jumps are. I missed one corner and went straight off the side of track, but it is just scrubby cutty grass so no injuries.
From the end of AFL we rode back to the cars and went home.
The weather over the past few days has been gorgeous and as I was having one of those days at work when I could just not focus, I got a good lunch time walk in to stretch my legs out, it took a while to open them up so I am glad I got out prior to the ride. I arrived at Pete’s place at Murawai and there was a good crowd already there, nice mix of teenagers and older folks and there was another single speeded DMR as well which was good, all up 9 of us rode, the biggest crowd yet.
We rode up the road as normal and down the walking track then back to gannet colony and down the steps, traditional start and I am getting more and more comfortable with the steps though I am still one of the slowest riders down both those trails. I have realised that compared to the other riders my home made lights suck big time on the down hills. I am just not getting a range of light that makes me comfortable to hit things at speed. They are ok in the tighter slower stuff or on trails where I know every corner and every root, but for speed in not too familiar territory they just suck !
In the forest we rode up past the start of Dan’s track which we normally do to look at a new trail being built by one of the young guys. It was steep and short with a number of lethal looking jumps. I like steep and short and I am not opposed to jumps, but what pissed me off a bit on this trail was the first jump I saw had a small sand kicker to a steep bank tranny, nothing wrong with that you might think, except the mong had dug a pit on the transition forcing it into a step down. If I had been coming down the hill I would have hit that jump as it was tiny and then landed front wheel first into the pit and brained myself. Given that we are not supposed to ride here and the land owners seem to tolerate sensible trails and well designed jumps – and there are some big jumps here, building something stupid that some one is going to get hurt on is brainless. Anyway….
We rode back and did Dan’s trail which is a fun and well designed short downhill trail and then rode the riverside trail as normal. We then rode back up to the top of AFL through the back road, I haven’t ridden this road for a while and got a bit of a sprint on one of the climbs until I realised/remembered this was the start of the climb – I ended up walking the top of it, it just seemed to go on and on (we are talking Auckland climbing here folks so on and on is not much !)
AFL is such a fun trail to ride down, I really want to do it during the day so I can see here I am going and get to learn all the corners and where the jumps are. I missed one corner and went straight off the side of track, but it is just scrubby cutty grass so no injuries.
From the end of AFL we rode back to the cars and went home.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Auckland Champs race 1
The weather for race day was great, the first really warm day of spring, maybe even too hot for racing so early in the season (especially the day after seeing a documentary about global warming…). There has been a warning over the last few days that the hole in the ozone layer has a temporary tear in it so today was supposed to be particularly hazardous with extreme levels of ultra-violet radiation.
The first round of the four round series was held in Woodhill forest so it was a good place for me to start as I am familiar with all the trails and will know how to pace myself against the rest of the riders in the expert 40+ class. I arrived in the forest with plenty of time to spare and got my registration completed with about any hassles. As always there seemed to be very few riders given that there are a few thousand riders in Auckland, probably only 150 across all the classes. This is a real shame as the racing is fun, it may be called the Auckland Champs, but a lot of the punters, like me, are only there for the fun of racing and testing oneself against peers.
The race was scheduled for 5 8km laps for the 40+ men with a lap cut off of 1 hour 45. I wasn’t 100% clear on that at the start as I had never experienced that in an event before, soon found out what it meant though! The course was supposed to be fast and for some it was, I thought it was tough for single speeding, but then I am not a racer.
The race village was next to the training ground by the old car park. The loop started with a 1km climb up to the top of Link, then down the fence line between the Travis trail and the road we just climbed. We then rode through the valley between Link and Upland and walked up the steep climb a the end of the valley towards Enchanted Forest, down Enchanted Forest and straight through the firebreak down the middle of the Haggis block. We then climbed No brakes – (this was going to hurt) down Conifer the wrong way up the nasty pinch climb and into Tree Huggas, then across the finish line and back up the hill. There seemed to be a lot more up than down… I completed 4 laps before being stopped on the way out for my 5th at the 2 hour mark. If I had realised I would have ridden harder on the last lap but I would not have made up the 8 minutes I was behind the single speeder who finished in front of me.
As there were a few single speeders riding the organisers, at our request, split us off into a separate class which was cool – and even better the class will remain through out the series.
I managed to average around 30 minute laps which was slower than the lap times for the Taupo race even though the course was shorter, it was definitely a tougher course.
In the end I came 6th out of 9 single speeders which I was happy with.
The first round of the four round series was held in Woodhill forest so it was a good place for me to start as I am familiar with all the trails and will know how to pace myself against the rest of the riders in the expert 40+ class. I arrived in the forest with plenty of time to spare and got my registration completed with about any hassles. As always there seemed to be very few riders given that there are a few thousand riders in Auckland, probably only 150 across all the classes. This is a real shame as the racing is fun, it may be called the Auckland Champs, but a lot of the punters, like me, are only there for the fun of racing and testing oneself against peers.
The race was scheduled for 5 8km laps for the 40+ men with a lap cut off of 1 hour 45. I wasn’t 100% clear on that at the start as I had never experienced that in an event before, soon found out what it meant though! The course was supposed to be fast and for some it was, I thought it was tough for single speeding, but then I am not a racer.
The race village was next to the training ground by the old car park. The loop started with a 1km climb up to the top of Link, then down the fence line between the Travis trail and the road we just climbed. We then rode through the valley between Link and Upland and walked up the steep climb a the end of the valley towards Enchanted Forest, down Enchanted Forest and straight through the firebreak down the middle of the Haggis block. We then climbed No brakes – (this was going to hurt) down Conifer the wrong way up the nasty pinch climb and into Tree Huggas, then across the finish line and back up the hill. There seemed to be a lot more up than down… I completed 4 laps before being stopped on the way out for my 5th at the 2 hour mark. If I had realised I would have ridden harder on the last lap but I would not have made up the 8 minutes I was behind the single speeder who finished in front of me.
As there were a few single speeders riding the organisers, at our request, split us off into a separate class which was cool – and even better the class will remain through out the series.
I managed to average around 30 minute laps which was slower than the lap times for the Taupo race even though the course was shorter, it was definitely a tougher course.
In the end I came 6th out of 9 single speeders which I was happy with.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Inconvienient Truth
My wife and I took our youngest son to the airport this morning as he is flying down to Nelson to stay with my sister and her young boys just out of Blenheim for the first 10 days of the school holidays. I think everyone is looking forward to his trip. My oldest son has moved out for a couple of weeks and is supposedly living with his girl fried and her family. I am not 100% sure, it is a major concern to us, but not something here. On Monday my wife goes away for a holiday with a friend for 3 nights so there will be me and my daughter home for a few days. I think I will squeeze a couple of night rides in
My wife and I went to see An Inconvenient Truth this afternoon, interesting movie, I liked it, Gore is a good presenter and covered the at times technical material in an interesting and easy to understand fashion. I will need to think more on the film.
Listening to some D and B - NZ band Concorde Dawn. I have never been a fan of D and B but I really like this, my daughter bought their CD.
My wife and I went to see An Inconvenient Truth this afternoon, interesting movie, I liked it, Gore is a good presenter and covered the at times technical material in an interesting and easy to understand fashion. I will need to think more on the film.
Listening to some D and B - NZ band Concorde Dawn. I have never been a fan of D and B but I really like this, my daughter bought their CD.
Friday, September 22, 2006
The week wrapped up
Well it has been a busy week since I came back from the Day Night Thriller, caught up on sleep on Sunday night after a family birthday dinner at my parents.
The first race of the Auckland MTB XC Champs is this Sunday so I intended on taking the exercise easy this week while watching my diet. Sadly I have managed over exceed in the taking it easy part but have stuffed my self stupid with all sorts of crap all week – a real chocolate biscuit blow out. I am looking forward to the race even though I am doing it on the single and really expect to more last than first. There are some quick guys in expert 40+.
The Auckland DH series schedule has also been posted and I am sort of interested in having a go in one of the easy races. I will at least turn up for practise day and see how I go. I will ride this on the AC, though it is no way near a DH bike it will be heaps quicker than the DMR. I have taken the AC into get the rear swing arm pivot bearings replaced. Hopefully that is all that is wrong with the bike as I do not want to spend too much money on it. It has only been ridden a couple of times this year as number 1 son is not interested in riding any more. I plan on riding it on Tuesday night for my first Dodgy Tuesday ride in a while.
Went for a run last night, did the Godley, Portage, Astley, Taupo road 8k, loop. It was OK, I haven’t run for a while. I neglected to stretch after and later in the evening I really was quite tight.
The race is coming along nicely. I have had enquiries from over 30 people now, quite a few I have never heard of before so I am getting a bit excited about the whole thing. I have also had some spot prizes donated by the NZ Fox clothing distributor which is very cool as well…
The first race of the Auckland MTB XC Champs is this Sunday so I intended on taking the exercise easy this week while watching my diet. Sadly I have managed over exceed in the taking it easy part but have stuffed my self stupid with all sorts of crap all week – a real chocolate biscuit blow out. I am looking forward to the race even though I am doing it on the single and really expect to more last than first. There are some quick guys in expert 40+.
The Auckland DH series schedule has also been posted and I am sort of interested in having a go in one of the easy races. I will at least turn up for practise day and see how I go. I will ride this on the AC, though it is no way near a DH bike it will be heaps quicker than the DMR. I have taken the AC into get the rear swing arm pivot bearings replaced. Hopefully that is all that is wrong with the bike as I do not want to spend too much money on it. It has only been ridden a couple of times this year as number 1 son is not interested in riding any more. I plan on riding it on Tuesday night for my first Dodgy Tuesday ride in a while.
Went for a run last night, did the Godley, Portage, Astley, Taupo road 8k, loop. It was OK, I haven’t run for a while. I neglected to stretch after and later in the evening I really was quite tight.
The race is coming along nicely. I have had enquiries from over 30 people now, quite a few I have never heard of before so I am getting a bit excited about the whole thing. I have also had some spot prizes donated by the NZ Fox clothing distributor which is very cool as well…
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Day night Thriller 12 hour race
Stayed the night at Nici’s family’s bach in Kinloch as we are down in Taupo for the annual Day night Thriller 12 hour team race. I am in single speed team riding under the Essence Bicycle banner again. My normal event buddies Miles, Nici and Graham are riding in geared teams. This is the 6th time I have been down for this race, though it is my first year on the single speed.
Had my usual pre-race really bad nights sleep so got up when I heard noises coming from the kitchen about 6.15. Had breakfast and a couple of coffees with Miles and then we drive to race site meeting some of Miles team mates on the way. Their teams had sites in block A but I was way the heck up in block C. So after helping put the tent up I humped my ten tons of crap over to my team. We had 2 teams of 4 single speeders racing in the open mens 4/5 person class. All the usual suspects were there plus a couple of guys I have not raced with before but had met at previous rides. We had riders from all over the north island riding with us which was pretty cool.
The race itself started at 10.30 AM and our first rider completed the first lap in the chaos of 400+ riders on a fixed gear bike – the nutter came past in 38th place, setting a big challenge for the rest of us. Apart from some screw ups with the timing system that saw us, plus others lose laps the race went well. We were not overly serious about it all, but every dug it in for their laps and we ended up 22nd out of our class of about 120 teams with the other teams not far behind in 27th place. We completed 28 of the 8.2km laps with only 1 lap over 30 minutes long, my longest lap was 27 and something minutes so I was very pleased. I have never done 7 laps before and never have all my laps been under 30 minutes, I am getting fitter and faster !
From our site the course was flat on a dusty/sandy path for about 100 meters then it shot down a grass hill with a tasty off camber corner at the bottom that was sure to see some carnage if it rained. After a further 200 metres of open riding the track started a gradual climb into an open pine forest. The single track of previous years had been widened the whole way to double track to allow for easier passing it had also been extended by quite a bit as well which was cool. It was not in any way a technical course, but it do have some small pinch climbs, some down bits and some flat bits so it was fun in the forest. After the forest there were 2 nasty little pinch climbs that I managed to ride up very time, though it was close a couple of times and then there was a kilometre or so of riding through the camp sites and over the timing line back to the site were you changed rider.
Not sure where we came out of the whole event as the results and timing was a bit screwed this year, normally it is fine so not going to whinge too much.
I left my team as the last rider crossed the finish line and made my way back over to Miles car and he drove us home. I had to be home as my youngest did not organise himself somewhere to be on Sunday when my wife went to work and I believe it is unfair if I tell where to go just so as I can go off and have fun. Miles was happy to drive home as well so we did. My wife decided not to work and went with the youngest and stayed the night at a friends place – oh well. I Got home at 2:30 AM, had a shower and went to bed. Slept till 6.30 and work up starving and 1 year older. I am 44 today. I got up at 9.00 and made myself eggs and baked beans on toast, as that was kinda all there was.
Went and picked my wife and youngest up and had lunch with friends got a couple of good books for my birthday so spent most of the afternoon reading and dozing.
3 rides in 3 different locations in 1 week - Awesome !
Had my usual pre-race really bad nights sleep so got up when I heard noises coming from the kitchen about 6.15. Had breakfast and a couple of coffees with Miles and then we drive to race site meeting some of Miles team mates on the way. Their teams had sites in block A but I was way the heck up in block C. So after helping put the tent up I humped my ten tons of crap over to my team. We had 2 teams of 4 single speeders racing in the open mens 4/5 person class. All the usual suspects were there plus a couple of guys I have not raced with before but had met at previous rides. We had riders from all over the north island riding with us which was pretty cool.
The race itself started at 10.30 AM and our first rider completed the first lap in the chaos of 400+ riders on a fixed gear bike – the nutter came past in 38th place, setting a big challenge for the rest of us. Apart from some screw ups with the timing system that saw us, plus others lose laps the race went well. We were not overly serious about it all, but every dug it in for their laps and we ended up 22nd out of our class of about 120 teams with the other teams not far behind in 27th place. We completed 28 of the 8.2km laps with only 1 lap over 30 minutes long, my longest lap was 27 and something minutes so I was very pleased. I have never done 7 laps before and never have all my laps been under 30 minutes, I am getting fitter and faster !
From our site the course was flat on a dusty/sandy path for about 100 meters then it shot down a grass hill with a tasty off camber corner at the bottom that was sure to see some carnage if it rained. After a further 200 metres of open riding the track started a gradual climb into an open pine forest. The single track of previous years had been widened the whole way to double track to allow for easier passing it had also been extended by quite a bit as well which was cool. It was not in any way a technical course, but it do have some small pinch climbs, some down bits and some flat bits so it was fun in the forest. After the forest there were 2 nasty little pinch climbs that I managed to ride up very time, though it was close a couple of times and then there was a kilometre or so of riding through the camp sites and over the timing line back to the site were you changed rider.
Not sure where we came out of the whole event as the results and timing was a bit screwed this year, normally it is fine so not going to whinge too much.
I left my team as the last rider crossed the finish line and made my way back over to Miles car and he drove us home. I had to be home as my youngest did not organise himself somewhere to be on Sunday when my wife went to work and I believe it is unfair if I tell where to go just so as I can go off and have fun. Miles was happy to drive home as well so we did. My wife decided not to work and went with the youngest and stayed the night at a friends place – oh well. I Got home at 2:30 AM, had a shower and went to bed. Slept till 6.30 and work up starving and 1 year older. I am 44 today. I got up at 9.00 and made myself eggs and baked beans on toast, as that was kinda all there was.
Went and picked my wife and youngest up and had lunch with friends got a couple of good books for my birthday so spent most of the afternoon reading and dozing.
3 rides in 3 different locations in 1 week - Awesome !
Friday, September 15, 2006
Whirinaki Ride
The track is in the Whirinaki National Park which is managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). It has only been very recent that DOC have started to allow mountain bikers back into selected wilderness areas so we were keen to show our support for this initiative.
I would like to say I have been looking forward to this ride for a long time but since I only read about it in the June/July NZ MTBer magazine and the trail only officially opened in mid-August I could be called a liar. I can say I have been looking forward to this ride for a very short time, but I have been really really looking forward to it! The review in the magazine and the feedback I have read from other riders suggests this 2 or so hour ride in virgin native bush is just stunning so it sounded like the perfect warm up for the Day Night thriller 12 hour event the following day.
My normal riding buddy – Miles (I am going to use names from now on) picked me up at 7.00 AM Friday morning with coffee at the BP being the first stop for the day. We had an uneventful, and quite fast trip to Rotorua arriving about 30 minutes earlier than expected so we stopped in for a coffee at Fat Dog, met up with Brent who was riding with us and then went looking for a bakery to pick up some lunch for later on. I spotted a bakery and noticed it was next to a new bike shop Kiwi Bikes, owned by Jeff who custom builds bike frames. I have never met Jeff before but have seen his beautifully crafted steel frames under a number of fellow single speeders, in fact there are 2 of them in the Essence Bicycle SS teams at tomorrow’s race. Jeff is a pretty cool guy, had a good chat, rode his SS around and got measured up in case I want to order a frame ! – which I do. This could be the plan for next year. While I love the geometry of the DMR it is a bit too small for XC racing, a frame an inch or so larger but keep the style and geometry of the DMR would be perfect. We then carried on down towards the Whirinaki forest, I have not been down to that part of NZ in well over 20 years, it is quite rugged, quite beautiful and for the folk living there, quite poor, verging on Deliverance country. We got to the car park earlier than expect and had to wait around for a while for Colin who was coming up from Wellington.
Though the day had started off wet and cold, by the time we hit the forest the clouds had parted and we spent an hour waiting here ;
Could there be anything better ? I really regret not having a decent camera, my next purchase major purchase, even before bike stuff, is going to be a camera.
Once Colin arrived we set off on the ride, the trail was wonderfully crafted, a fairly gentle gradient led the way up into the hills. For most of the rise the track was fairly wide single track, well benched and with a number of water bars, there were a couple of fire road sections and one log ride over a gully. The whole track was easily rideable, though I chose to walk a couple of sections to avoid blowing out the day before a race.
At the top of the climb we stopped here for photos and a snack.
The forest was incredible to ride through, sub-tropical native bush full of massive Tawa, Kahikatiha and Rimu trees (I think). From the mid-way stop there was a 1-2km downhill that was grin inducingly good, not steep, just long and swoopy, fast but not furious – oh was I smiling when it ended…
There was another longish climbing section out of the park, which reduced the width of the grin a bit but it is such a lovely place that even climbing was good.
After 1.45 we popped out of the forest and into the car park and into the waiting arms of 2 DOC workers. These were the 2 guys who built the track, neither were bikers – they said so, but you could tell by their size ! They had had some guidance from one of the local Rotorua riders but the rest of the trail was there own work. It was hard to believe that this trail had not been built by riders and experienced trail builders, it was so well constructed. They were so keen to discuss the track with us, their enthusiasm was quite infectious, we discussed various sections of the trail and why they did it the way they did and did we like the log, and were the water bars too intrusive. Great to see such enthusiasm for delivery a quality product from DOC.
After they left Miles and I took a slow drive down to Taupo and purchased some supplies for the race tomorrow. We then drove out to our Friday night accommodation with Graham and Nici at Nici’s family bach in Kinloch, had a beer or two and went to bed.
It was a great day !
I would like to say I have been looking forward to this ride for a long time but since I only read about it in the June/July NZ MTBer magazine and the trail only officially opened in mid-August I could be called a liar. I can say I have been looking forward to this ride for a very short time, but I have been really really looking forward to it! The review in the magazine and the feedback I have read from other riders suggests this 2 or so hour ride in virgin native bush is just stunning so it sounded like the perfect warm up for the Day Night thriller 12 hour event the following day.
My normal riding buddy – Miles (I am going to use names from now on) picked me up at 7.00 AM Friday morning with coffee at the BP being the first stop for the day. We had an uneventful, and quite fast trip to Rotorua arriving about 30 minutes earlier than expected so we stopped in for a coffee at Fat Dog, met up with Brent who was riding with us and then went looking for a bakery to pick up some lunch for later on. I spotted a bakery and noticed it was next to a new bike shop Kiwi Bikes, owned by Jeff who custom builds bike frames. I have never met Jeff before but have seen his beautifully crafted steel frames under a number of fellow single speeders, in fact there are 2 of them in the Essence Bicycle SS teams at tomorrow’s race. Jeff is a pretty cool guy, had a good chat, rode his SS around and got measured up in case I want to order a frame ! – which I do. This could be the plan for next year. While I love the geometry of the DMR it is a bit too small for XC racing, a frame an inch or so larger but keep the style and geometry of the DMR would be perfect. We then carried on down towards the Whirinaki forest, I have not been down to that part of NZ in well over 20 years, it is quite rugged, quite beautiful and for the folk living there, quite poor, verging on Deliverance country. We got to the car park earlier than expect and had to wait around for a while for Colin who was coming up from Wellington.
Though the day had started off wet and cold, by the time we hit the forest the clouds had parted and we spent an hour waiting here ;
Could there be anything better ? I really regret not having a decent camera, my next purchase major purchase, even before bike stuff, is going to be a camera.
Once Colin arrived we set off on the ride, the trail was wonderfully crafted, a fairly gentle gradient led the way up into the hills. For most of the rise the track was fairly wide single track, well benched and with a number of water bars, there were a couple of fire road sections and one log ride over a gully. The whole track was easily rideable, though I chose to walk a couple of sections to avoid blowing out the day before a race.
At the top of the climb we stopped here for photos and a snack.
The forest was incredible to ride through, sub-tropical native bush full of massive Tawa, Kahikatiha and Rimu trees (I think). From the mid-way stop there was a 1-2km downhill that was grin inducingly good, not steep, just long and swoopy, fast but not furious – oh was I smiling when it ended…
There was another longish climbing section out of the park, which reduced the width of the grin a bit but it is such a lovely place that even climbing was good.
After 1.45 we popped out of the forest and into the car park and into the waiting arms of 2 DOC workers. These were the 2 guys who built the track, neither were bikers – they said so, but you could tell by their size ! They had had some guidance from one of the local Rotorua riders but the rest of the trail was there own work. It was hard to believe that this trail had not been built by riders and experienced trail builders, it was so well constructed. They were so keen to discuss the track with us, their enthusiasm was quite infectious, we discussed various sections of the trail and why they did it the way they did and did we like the log, and were the water bars too intrusive. Great to see such enthusiasm for delivery a quality product from DOC.
After they left Miles and I took a slow drive down to Taupo and purchased some supplies for the race tomorrow. We then drove out to our Friday night accommodation with Graham and Nici at Nici’s family bach in Kinloch, had a beer or two and went to bed.
It was a great day !
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Oropi Grove ride
I had a work trip to Tauranga booked in today, conveniently one of the Vorb Tauranga locals had a bit of free time in the afternoon so we planned to hook up for an afternoon ride at Oropi Grove.
Had a painfully slow drive to Tauranga in the morning, I left home at 6.45 AM thinking I would miss the worst of the traffic, damn road works proved me wrong, it took me an hour to get to the BP fuel stop on the motorway, get a coffee and back on the road. 3 hours to Tauranga – slow !
However, work went pretty well, I had the audit complete by 12.00, the network upgrade went pretty good at mid-day and most things were wrapped up by 1.00. I went to catch up with a friend for a coffee at 2.00 and then managed to clear the office by 3.30 to go to Oropi for a ride. I have been pretty lucky with getting rides in when I go to Tauranga on work trips, and you would think I could find the damn place…. No ! I had instructions from a guy in the office plus instructions from the guy I was meeting; they sort of conflicted so I ended up getting quite lost. To compound this my horn started to go off kind of randomly, which was a bit embarrassing as it hooted at the car in front of me at a red light. Luckily I found an auto electrician who spent an entire 10 seconds disabling it for me. Once that was sorted I got new directions and soon found my way to the bike park and met my riding buddy.
The weather was good but there had been a bit of rain over the weekend, so the tracks were a bit greasy in places, most of the track was pretty good, but I did slide off once when I my front wheel did not go round a corner at the same pace as the rest of the bike. We rode at fairly decent pace, not too fast but definitely not slow, we also hardly stopped so it was quite a good pre-race build up ride. There is not a lot of trail at Oropi, In the 50 minutes we were riding we covered most of the trails and one section twice, nice mix of short climbs and twisty downhills. It is a fun place to ride with heaps of little (and not so little jumps and drops to play on).
It was a good ride, I felt good getting back into the car for the long drive home.
No injuries and no mechanicals, though I do need to buy some more brake pads before I go away at the weekend.
Had a painfully slow drive to Tauranga in the morning, I left home at 6.45 AM thinking I would miss the worst of the traffic, damn road works proved me wrong, it took me an hour to get to the BP fuel stop on the motorway, get a coffee and back on the road. 3 hours to Tauranga – slow !
However, work went pretty well, I had the audit complete by 12.00, the network upgrade went pretty good at mid-day and most things were wrapped up by 1.00. I went to catch up with a friend for a coffee at 2.00 and then managed to clear the office by 3.30 to go to Oropi for a ride. I have been pretty lucky with getting rides in when I go to Tauranga on work trips, and you would think I could find the damn place…. No ! I had instructions from a guy in the office plus instructions from the guy I was meeting; they sort of conflicted so I ended up getting quite lost. To compound this my horn started to go off kind of randomly, which was a bit embarrassing as it hooted at the car in front of me at a red light. Luckily I found an auto electrician who spent an entire 10 seconds disabling it for me. Once that was sorted I got new directions and soon found my way to the bike park and met my riding buddy.
The weather was good but there had been a bit of rain over the weekend, so the tracks were a bit greasy in places, most of the track was pretty good, but I did slide off once when I my front wheel did not go round a corner at the same pace as the rest of the bike. We rode at fairly decent pace, not too fast but definitely not slow, we also hardly stopped so it was quite a good pre-race build up ride. There is not a lot of trail at Oropi, In the 50 minutes we were riding we covered most of the trails and one section twice, nice mix of short climbs and twisty downhills. It is a fun place to ride with heaps of little (and not so little jumps and drops to play on).
It was a good ride, I felt good getting back into the car for the long drive home.
No injuries and no mechanicals, though I do need to buy some more brake pads before I go away at the weekend.
Monday, September 11, 2006
A rare sunday ride.
My wife worked Saturday this week so I was able to do a Sunday ride with my old buddies, it was good to ride with them again so soon after the last time. It was lucky really as the weather on Saturday was just awful with really heavy rain, Sunday was no summer’s day but at least the rain held off for the ride. The great thing about Woodhill is it sand based so the really heavy rain does not cause too much damage to track or create miles of bog land. The tracks were the wettest I can remember though with some massive puddles. So bad I had to clean my bike when I got home, which is really rare after a Woodhill ride…
For various reasons only 2 of the Sunday crew turned up, along with my normal Saturday riding buddy there were just the 4 of us. With all the miserable weather the car park was quite empty as well which is pretty unusual for a Sunday.
I was still getting over the head cold so the first climb up to the main riding hour was almost a struggle. The old Sunday crew are a pretty slow bunch, so I was fairly settled into a slow ride with lots of breaks, which really suited how I was feeling. We meandered along through the first few stage of Spaghetti and then took a run down Afterglow. I dropped my seat for the down hill section and really had a blast riding down it, took all but the big jump at the end as well, so really getting some confidence back in the air. I think once I get the AC all fixed I will take some time and go do some jumps and try to get into doing some of the bigger ones again.
Took a bit of a slow grind out through Fattucine and then I did a sprint up the link trial because it was there. Slow meander through Cookie and another sprint down Raceface down back to the car.
Not a bad ride, nice to see the guys again and good to blow some of the last of the head cold out.
For various reasons only 2 of the Sunday crew turned up, along with my normal Saturday riding buddy there were just the 4 of us. With all the miserable weather the car park was quite empty as well which is pretty unusual for a Sunday.
I was still getting over the head cold so the first climb up to the main riding hour was almost a struggle. The old Sunday crew are a pretty slow bunch, so I was fairly settled into a slow ride with lots of breaks, which really suited how I was feeling. We meandered along through the first few stage of Spaghetti and then took a run down Afterglow. I dropped my seat for the down hill section and really had a blast riding down it, took all but the big jump at the end as well, so really getting some confidence back in the air. I think once I get the AC all fixed I will take some time and go do some jumps and try to get into doing some of the bigger ones again.
Took a bit of a slow grind out through Fattucine and then I did a sprint up the link trial because it was there. Slow meander through Cookie and another sprint down Raceface down back to the car.
Not a bad ride, nice to see the guys again and good to blow some of the last of the head cold out.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Sick
Bugger I am sick again
Second time this year, I am never sick more than once a year. So far just a crappy head cold and nothing too bad, though I did not ride tonight on the normal dodgy Tuesday ride.
I am hoping to sneak out tomorrow night if I can though the forecast is pretty average, well it is for rain..
I bought the new Drive By Truckers CD yesterday with the CD vouchers I got. It is not bad, but I think I prefered the early darker stuff. I havent had a good listen yet though.
Second time this year, I am never sick more than once a year. So far just a crappy head cold and nothing too bad, though I did not ride tonight on the normal dodgy Tuesday ride.
I am hoping to sneak out tomorrow night if I can though the forecast is pretty average, well it is for rain..
I bought the new Drive By Truckers CD yesterday with the CD vouchers I got. It is not bad, but I think I prefered the early darker stuff. I havent had a good listen yet though.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Sunday run
Sunday was Fathers Day – so naturally there were no children about to welcome in the day with me or make me breakfast. I had a few wines last night so the day started slowly. I couldn’t be bothered riding which was a surprise. I had breakfast about 9 and got out for a run at about 10.00.
I ran up through Titirangi and along exhibition drive and back, about 13.5k with a nice hill to start. Felt Ok though my time was a bit slow at 1:11.
Though in the day I started to come down with a crappy head cold, so I guess that was a key to my average run.
Got a nice stainless hip flask and cd vouchers for Fathers day.
I ran up through Titirangi and along exhibition drive and back, about 13.5k with a nice hill to start. Felt Ok though my time was a bit slow at 1:11.
Though in the day I started to come down with a crappy head cold, so I guess that was a key to my average run.
Got a nice stainless hip flask and cd vouchers for Fathers day.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
A normal ride for me and my various riding crews is to ride a trail, usually as hard as possible and then stop at the end of the trail for a chat and wait for the group to reform. The plan for this and next weeks Saturday morning ride is to do 3 x 30 minute non-stop sessions as a final build up to the 12 hour event in 2 weeks. Most of the trails in Woodhill are about 10 minutes long so I am very used to a 10 minute ride, rest, another 10 minute ride. While I can now do these rides at a reasonable pace, I need to be able to easily sustain 30 minutes at pace.
It was another good riding day, cloudy and cool with no wind. 3 of us rode this morning same as crew as last week. We took the first climb up Powerball at a leisurely pace as a warm up and then started the first 30 minute ride on Big Mama, I tried to keep to a fairly regular pace along the trails and was feeling good at the top of the Big Mama hill, possibly the easiest I have done it on the SS. By the end of Big Mama I had a bit of a gap on the other two riders, so I dropped the pace a touch as we went into Big Mama’s tail. I haven’t ridden that trail for ages, may even be the first time on the SS, the trail starts off quite nice with a swooping twisty ride down hill before rolling up and down for a lot longer than I remembered. Pretty much hit the 30 minute mark at the end of the trail. I have developed a really bad habit of riding with fingers over the break levers – I have dropped this to one finger now. But what this means is I feather brakes going into most corners, whether I need to or not, this is very very evident on trails I do not ride much. Today I really focused on keeping all my fingers around the bars except on down hill sections where I tried to brake as little as possible. I think I succeeded, I definitely went into some corners faster than I felt comfortable with but I never came close to crashing so I have new boundaries to push in my drive to be faster round the track.
Next ride was Upland, Lightening, Enchanted forest, all of Haggis and Tree Huggas. It took just over 30 minutes. I stopped briefly on Haggis to make sure my riding friends went straight ahead rather than taking the turn into Conifer. When we stopped we got passed by a rider who was hitting a nice fast pace so I caught him and hung on his rear wheel for most of the trail until he ducked off near the start of No Brakes. I did get run down and passed by a fast rider at the end of Haggis though. Man I haven’t been passed while riding for months, it sucks…
Next lap was a quick ride to the end Link, Cookie, Off Piste 2 and Raceface down. I haven’t done Off Piste for months so that was kinda fun. This last section took almost 30 minutes as well, though we were chatting as we rode.
Good ride, 3 30 minute rides as planned.
I have been listening to a bit of Slayer lately, really liking them at the moment.
It was another good riding day, cloudy and cool with no wind. 3 of us rode this morning same as crew as last week. We took the first climb up Powerball at a leisurely pace as a warm up and then started the first 30 minute ride on Big Mama, I tried to keep to a fairly regular pace along the trails and was feeling good at the top of the Big Mama hill, possibly the easiest I have done it on the SS. By the end of Big Mama I had a bit of a gap on the other two riders, so I dropped the pace a touch as we went into Big Mama’s tail. I haven’t ridden that trail for ages, may even be the first time on the SS, the trail starts off quite nice with a swooping twisty ride down hill before rolling up and down for a lot longer than I remembered. Pretty much hit the 30 minute mark at the end of the trail. I have developed a really bad habit of riding with fingers over the break levers – I have dropped this to one finger now. But what this means is I feather brakes going into most corners, whether I need to or not, this is very very evident on trails I do not ride much. Today I really focused on keeping all my fingers around the bars except on down hill sections where I tried to brake as little as possible. I think I succeeded, I definitely went into some corners faster than I felt comfortable with but I never came close to crashing so I have new boundaries to push in my drive to be faster round the track.
Next ride was Upland, Lightening, Enchanted forest, all of Haggis and Tree Huggas. It took just over 30 minutes. I stopped briefly on Haggis to make sure my riding friends went straight ahead rather than taking the turn into Conifer. When we stopped we got passed by a rider who was hitting a nice fast pace so I caught him and hung on his rear wheel for most of the trail until he ducked off near the start of No Brakes. I did get run down and passed by a fast rider at the end of Haggis though. Man I haven’t been passed while riding for months, it sucks…
Next lap was a quick ride to the end Link, Cookie, Off Piste 2 and Raceface down. I haven’t done Off Piste for months so that was kinda fun. This last section took almost 30 minutes as well, though we were chatting as we rode.
Good ride, 3 30 minute rides as planned.
I have been listening to a bit of Slayer lately, really liking them at the moment.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Thursday quick run
In my effort to capitalise on the 2 solid weeks of gym work I did last month I really want to get a couple of runs in each week as well as my 1 – 2 rides. If I can get an hour long run and a shorter run once a week I will be reasonably happy. My original plan was to do at least 1 morning run a week as I did get used to getting up at 5.30 to go to the gym. 2 weeks later I have failed miserably to get up before my normal work time of 6.48 – damn.
I did however go for a quick run last night. My goal was to the gently rolling 4.2km return run down Godley rd in under 20 minutes. I started off at a good pace and was 200 metres or so into the run before I realised my watch was not going. Arse. I ran the rest at a decent pace and set my watch at the half way point to see how I would have tracked, the return is slightly more up hill than the first leg so it was not a great test. I completed the return leg in 10:38 which could have been an under 20 but I doubt it. I did struggle a bit on the return. I really do not like running after a meal and I had stomach pains which I do not normally get.
Next week I focus on a morning run..
For this Saturdays ride I am planning on doing 2 or 3 30 minute non stop bursts to start getting used to short bursty rides before the day night thriller in 2 weeks time.
I did however go for a quick run last night. My goal was to the gently rolling 4.2km return run down Godley rd in under 20 minutes. I started off at a good pace and was 200 metres or so into the run before I realised my watch was not going. Arse. I ran the rest at a decent pace and set my watch at the half way point to see how I would have tracked, the return is slightly more up hill than the first leg so it was not a great test. I completed the return leg in 10:38 which could have been an under 20 but I doubt it. I did struggle a bit on the return. I really do not like running after a meal and I had stomach pains which I do not normally get.
Next week I focus on a morning run..
For this Saturdays ride I am planning on doing 2 or 3 30 minute non stop bursts to start getting used to short bursty rides before the day night thriller in 2 weeks time.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Another Dodgy Tuesday ride
Had a great Tuesday night ride this week, there was only 2 of us riding so the stops were less and the pace up a bit. We seemed to cover a lot more ground than normal, though we were being fairly sifty and chatting all the way.
Started off with the 2.5km ride up the road to the walking track, that we took fairly cautiously, I must learn to DH faster, at least trust myself more on these night trails. As the wind was not so bad this week we decided to ride up to the gannet colony trail and slowly drop down the stair ridden track. It is kinda fun but slightly nerve wracking, though I am getting more confident riding them. At the bottom of the stairs we ride past the beach car park and there was a car load of drunken hoons who started yelling a bit of abuse. We ignored them but it was a bit never wracking riding up the road to the forest entrance. The road is quite narrow, dark and twisty, and drunken hoons in cars are not what I want to see on the road when I am riding.
We rode the riverside trail which is getting better and better to ride as I get more familiar with the “trail”. As this is quite un-official riding the riverside trail is probably only ridden by 10 people once a week, it is quite hard to follow as there is no defined trail yet, just markings here and there, but we are getting better and predicting the flow of the trail now. As we were way ahead of where we were the previous week then rode back up the 1.5 of road and back into the forest. I am getting so much better at the road climb, it isn’t at all steep but the more I ride it the further I can get while remaining seated. I am definitely getting stronger! We then rode down the AFL, I have never ridden this track before and man was it fun, my sort of DH, not steep, but pointing down all the way, lots of corners and lots of small jumps. I only did one of the jumps as I do like to scope these out first. Hopefully we will do it again with a bigger crowd and I can follow someone down who knows the jumps and can advise me as we go. Great track ! and a great way to end the ride.
Started off with the 2.5km ride up the road to the walking track, that we took fairly cautiously, I must learn to DH faster, at least trust myself more on these night trails. As the wind was not so bad this week we decided to ride up to the gannet colony trail and slowly drop down the stair ridden track. It is kinda fun but slightly nerve wracking, though I am getting more confident riding them. At the bottom of the stairs we ride past the beach car park and there was a car load of drunken hoons who started yelling a bit of abuse. We ignored them but it was a bit never wracking riding up the road to the forest entrance. The road is quite narrow, dark and twisty, and drunken hoons in cars are not what I want to see on the road when I am riding.
We rode the riverside trail which is getting better and better to ride as I get more familiar with the “trail”. As this is quite un-official riding the riverside trail is probably only ridden by 10 people once a week, it is quite hard to follow as there is no defined trail yet, just markings here and there, but we are getting better and predicting the flow of the trail now. As we were way ahead of where we were the previous week then rode back up the 1.5 of road and back into the forest. I am getting so much better at the road climb, it isn’t at all steep but the more I ride it the further I can get while remaining seated. I am definitely getting stronger! We then rode down the AFL, I have never ridden this track before and man was it fun, my sort of DH, not steep, but pointing down all the way, lots of corners and lots of small jumps. I only did one of the jumps as I do like to scope these out first. Hopefully we will do it again with a bigger crowd and I can follow someone down who knows the jumps and can advise me as we go. Great track ! and a great way to end the ride.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Sunday run
I watched a bit of the worlds on TV, it is on quite late (by my standards). Last night they had the 4X. It was pretty cool to watch, of course I would have loved to have been there ! But I think on balance I would mush rather have been at SSWC06 in Stockholm, maybe 1 year I can get there.
Miracle of all miracles all the kids were home today which meant that the oldest was around to watch the youngest while I went out for a run. I didn’t take off until 11.30 and drove into town so I could run along the water front. It had been a while since I had run further than 8kms so I wanted to find something fairly flat to start with plus I had bought an arch support for my right shoe and I didn’t want to stray to far from the car. The weather was OK, though there was a reasonable breeze blowing which I hate as it really stuffs up my sinuses. I drove for 6 kms from the start of Ngapipi Rd, which took me most of the way into St Heliers, parked the car and started.
I had a reasonably OK run, I thought I was going fairly slowly as my goal was to keep a low HR, but made it to Ngapipi Rd just about dead on 30 minutes. The run back to car had a bit more of a head wind but again I kept my HR down and completed the 12.4km run in just under an hour. I was pretty happy with that, I felt OK afterwards as well.
If I can keep up a minimum 1 hour run once a week, plus a shorter run during the week then I should maintain a reasonable base for when I decide to train for the marathon.
Miracle of all miracles all the kids were home today which meant that the oldest was around to watch the youngest while I went out for a run. I didn’t take off until 11.30 and drove into town so I could run along the water front. It had been a while since I had run further than 8kms so I wanted to find something fairly flat to start with plus I had bought an arch support for my right shoe and I didn’t want to stray to far from the car. The weather was OK, though there was a reasonable breeze blowing which I hate as it really stuffs up my sinuses. I drove for 6 kms from the start of Ngapipi Rd, which took me most of the way into St Heliers, parked the car and started.
I had a reasonably OK run, I thought I was going fairly slowly as my goal was to keep a low HR, but made it to Ngapipi Rd just about dead on 30 minutes. The run back to car had a bit more of a head wind but again I kept my HR down and completed the 12.4km run in just under an hour. I was pretty happy with that, I felt OK afterwards as well.
If I can keep up a minimum 1 hour run once a week, plus a shorter run during the week then I should maintain a reasonable base for when I decide to train for the marathon.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Saturday ride
Had an average ride on Saturday, not sure if I am a bit tired but I felt I rode OK, certainly cleaned some sections while remaining fully seated, which I always view as a good sign. But I also rode like a muppet in other sections, washed out tires, dug my front wheel in on a corner and just about went over the bars and failed to make a technical climb I have done dozens of time due to bad line choice.
Rode with my normal riding buddy and a friend of his that hasnt ridden with for a very long time. Last time we rode together he cleaned us out with his power and fitness, though I was pretty confident we were a hell of a lot stronger now.
Rode up the normal Powerball trail then took the back road of Cookie to the water tower and down the Travis trail. I haven’t ridden that track for a while and had a little bit of fun on the small jumps at the end. I am getting more confident getting small amounts of air while riding with the seat right up. We then road Upland, Lightening, Enchanted Forest, Haggis, Northern Exposure, No brakes, Ironhorse – where I did drop my seat and got some air, back through Haggis and the Doris to Slipperies Delight. Slipperies was riding well, I love that trail, it is probably the most technical bit of single track in the park, nothing too complex, a few rooty tight sections with pinch climbs and drops all through it - it is fun to ride. We then rode Tree Huggas, link, by passed Cookie again and did the new section on Raceface down. We were out for 2 half hours and covered quite a bit of ground. Rode at a reasonable pace on average and had a few breaks. We did break the new guy a bit, which is always good !
It is my birthday in a couple of weeks so I will pick myself up a cheap cycle computer as I am quite keen to see how much ground we cover on some of these rides. We are certainly doing a lot more than we used to.
The next event is in 3 weeks time, the Taupo day Night Thriller 12 hour. I have done it 6 times now (maybe 5) once as a solo. I was not going to do it this year but am now in a team of 4 single speeders so it should be fun. Though the track is not really that SS compatible with quite a long grass section that is just hard work on a geared bike, will be a b*stard on the SS.
I watched a bit of the worlds on TV, it is on quite late (by my standards). Lasty night they had the 4X. pretty cool to watch, of course I would have loved to have been there !
Rode with my normal riding buddy and a friend of his that hasnt ridden with for a very long time. Last time we rode together he cleaned us out with his power and fitness, though I was pretty confident we were a hell of a lot stronger now.
Rode up the normal Powerball trail then took the back road of Cookie to the water tower and down the Travis trail. I haven’t ridden that track for a while and had a little bit of fun on the small jumps at the end. I am getting more confident getting small amounts of air while riding with the seat right up. We then road Upland, Lightening, Enchanted Forest, Haggis, Northern Exposure, No brakes, Ironhorse – where I did drop my seat and got some air, back through Haggis and the Doris to Slipperies Delight. Slipperies was riding well, I love that trail, it is probably the most technical bit of single track in the park, nothing too complex, a few rooty tight sections with pinch climbs and drops all through it - it is fun to ride. We then rode Tree Huggas, link, by passed Cookie again and did the new section on Raceface down. We were out for 2 half hours and covered quite a bit of ground. Rode at a reasonable pace on average and had a few breaks. We did break the new guy a bit, which is always good !
It is my birthday in a couple of weeks so I will pick myself up a cheap cycle computer as I am quite keen to see how much ground we cover on some of these rides. We are certainly doing a lot more than we used to.
The next event is in 3 weeks time, the Taupo day Night Thriller 12 hour. I have done it 6 times now (maybe 5) once as a solo. I was not going to do it this year but am now in a team of 4 single speeders so it should be fun. Though the track is not really that SS compatible with quite a long grass section that is just hard work on a geared bike, will be a b*stard on the SS.
I watched a bit of the worlds on TV, it is on quite late (by my standards). Lasty night they had the 4X. pretty cool to watch, of course I would have loved to have been there !
Friday, August 25, 2006
Thursday night run
Had a good run last night, it was quite a cold evening with a fair breeze blowing as well.
I did the 7.9km Godley Rd/Portage Rd/Astley Ave/Taupo/Godley loop.
My aim was to keep the pace down enough that my HR stayed below 160. Normally I find it is quite hard to run slowly enough to keep my Hr down, but last night I managed to do just about the entire loop under 160.
The last 1km back up Godley Rd I kept quite a decent pace on as well. I stopped at the end of my drive and walked back up to the house, by the time I was inside I was not puffing and my HR was close to normal.
I have had a pretty good week of exercise and reasonable diet management, lots of protein. I am hoping that my weight going back up again to 81.5 means it is muscle and not fat. I dont feel fatter.
I did the 7.9km Godley Rd/Portage Rd/Astley Ave/Taupo/Godley loop.
My aim was to keep the pace down enough that my HR stayed below 160. Normally I find it is quite hard to run slowly enough to keep my Hr down, but last night I managed to do just about the entire loop under 160.
The last 1km back up Godley Rd I kept quite a decent pace on as well. I stopped at the end of my drive and walked back up to the house, by the time I was inside I was not puffing and my HR was close to normal.
I have had a pretty good week of exercise and reasonable diet management, lots of protein. I am hoping that my weight going back up again to 81.5 means it is muscle and not fat. I dont feel fatter.
The SS race is taking shape
The Race I am organising is starting to take some shape.
I have permission from the bike parks managers to hold the race on Saturday Oct 7 as proposed.
I have a reasonable amount of interest from the local SS community and a small amount from riders from out of town. I would be really happy with 12 riders, but I have 20 on my possibles list.
I have had some people volunteer their time to be ‘dealers’.
The SS Poker rules are taking shape, at least in my head, and I cannot see why it cannot work the way I have planned it, and still be fun for all the competitors.
I now have a prize pack from a small boutique brewery which should allow me to attract a couple more riders. I can also have a beer stop in the event which will provide an extra card for those who partake.
I hope this turns out OK, and that we can have some more social riding events, and hopefully a ‘serious’ SS race later in the year.
I have permission from the bike parks managers to hold the race on Saturday Oct 7 as proposed.
I have a reasonable amount of interest from the local SS community and a small amount from riders from out of town. I would be really happy with 12 riders, but I have 20 on my possibles list.
I have had some people volunteer their time to be ‘dealers’.
The SS Poker rules are taking shape, at least in my head, and I cannot see why it cannot work the way I have planned it, and still be fun for all the competitors.
I now have a prize pack from a small boutique brewery which should allow me to attract a couple more riders. I can also have a beer stop in the event which will provide an extra card for those who partake.
I hope this turns out OK, and that we can have some more social riding events, and hopefully a ‘serious’ SS race later in the year.
MTB World champs
The MTB World champs are in in NZ right now - this week.
They are on in Rotorua 3 hours drive away. Why am I at work, when some of my riding buddies are they for a week of marshalling, riding, hanging out and having fun.
Why ? - because I am an idiot...
They are on in Rotorua 3 hours drive away. Why am I at work, when some of my riding buddies are they for a week of marshalling, riding, hanging out and having fun.
Why ? - because I am an idiot...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Dodgy Tuesday ride
I have been having another one of those weeks at work so decided I should sneak out 15 minutes early, try get home before 5.15 and then go for a dodgy Tuesday night Murawai ride. For once it all came together ! I was home on time, got changed into riding gear and had the car loaded before 5.30, which is the cut off time for getting to the ride meeting point to be riding for 6.30.
Had a small group tonight - 2 teenagers and 3 adults, though the weather is not the best, quite a strong wind, the odd light shower and cool enough to be wearing long pants, thermal top, long sleeve shirt and a wind breaker. We rode up the road to the walking track which is a great warm up on the single speed. I had a much better run down the walking track than last time, though I am sure an 8 year old would till beat me, I am just so unconfident when it comes to downhill in the dark – well downhill period I guess. I still need to learn to trust my tyres and relax more. We did not do the gannet colony loop as the wind was so strong so we looped back up the road and into the forest for a run down Dan’s track and then down the riverside track. There was quite a few downed branches and small trees in the forest from all the bad weather over the past couple of days so we stopped to clear the trail a couple of times.
The riverside trail is just so much fun to ride, we are probably the only people who ride it so it is very unclear, quite rough, but a load of fun. We then pedalled our way back to the cars and I went home.
A damn good ride.
It must be very cold at the worlds...
Had a small group tonight - 2 teenagers and 3 adults, though the weather is not the best, quite a strong wind, the odd light shower and cool enough to be wearing long pants, thermal top, long sleeve shirt and a wind breaker. We rode up the road to the walking track which is a great warm up on the single speed. I had a much better run down the walking track than last time, though I am sure an 8 year old would till beat me, I am just so unconfident when it comes to downhill in the dark – well downhill period I guess. I still need to learn to trust my tyres and relax more. We did not do the gannet colony loop as the wind was so strong so we looped back up the road and into the forest for a run down Dan’s track and then down the riverside track. There was quite a few downed branches and small trees in the forest from all the bad weather over the past couple of days so we stopped to clear the trail a couple of times.
The riverside trail is just so much fun to ride, we are probably the only people who ride it so it is very unclear, quite rough, but a load of fun. We then pedalled our way back to the cars and I went home.
A damn good ride.
It must be very cold at the worlds...
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Sunday Woodhill ride...
A couple of Vorbii were up from Wellington this weekend so a ride had been scheduled for 10.00 AM at Woodhill, there seemed to be quite a bit of interest with some riders coming up from Hamilton as well.
My youngest son was at scout camp so I could go ride Sunday for a change. Wahoo ! As I had been preparing for the race yesterday and did not get to do the full 35km ride I had bit of excess energy today so decided to go to the forest early and meet some of my old Sunday riding crew and ride with them for an hour. Surprisingly everyone was there early so we hit the trail on time, some things have obviously changed since I have been away. The Sunday crew are definitely more into hucking and other freeriding type activities than I am so it was a slow grind up to the Spaghetti trail and then a chat and ride session for 50 minutes through the various jumps and stunts on Spag until I had to shoot back down to the car park to catch the Vorb crew. It was good to ride with the lads again but I could not sustain the slow pace for too many rides. My fitness and ability has improved immensely over the last 1 months and I just like to trail ride as fast as I can for as long as I can.
Met up with a big bunch of Vorbii and guys from the Freeriden shop, probably 20 riders altogether. We left 30 minutes late as expected and started up Powerball, waited and waited at the top and then a couple of us went back down the trail to find the other SSer had broken his chain – just like me yesterday – and did not have the bits to fix it – also like me yesterday ! Luckily some one else had all the required bits and after 15 minutes of shagging around we were back on trail chasing after the big group who had ridden on, we caught them fairly quickly on the big mama trail. We left Big Mama about half way along and shot down SPCA, had a good run down and the out of towners really had a blast. The bunch split at the end of SPCA with some riding the road up to Ironhorse and a bunch taking the longer single track options up Upland, down the Lightening and enchanted forest and through Haggis. At the end of the Haggis we lost a few more riders who took the short option and 2 of us went and rode Northern Exposure and then No Brakes. Finally meeting what was left of the group up at the top of Ironhorse. I dropped my seat for the first time in a while and hammered down Ironhorse clearing most of the jumps. It was great to get some air again and I really enjoyed the run down the track. I was really pushing my time limits to pick up my youngest so a few of us jumped onto the forest road and went back to the start of Link and then rode that and the side of Cookie, whipped down raceface down and I threw the stuff in the car and took off for home.
Had a great ride, was quite wiped out afterwards. Did a bit of chatting but most of the ride was done at a pretty good pace and we covered a bit of ground. Great to see the Wellington and Hamilton crew and to show them our bike park.
My youngest son was at scout camp so I could go ride Sunday for a change. Wahoo ! As I had been preparing for the race yesterday and did not get to do the full 35km ride I had bit of excess energy today so decided to go to the forest early and meet some of my old Sunday riding crew and ride with them for an hour. Surprisingly everyone was there early so we hit the trail on time, some things have obviously changed since I have been away. The Sunday crew are definitely more into hucking and other freeriding type activities than I am so it was a slow grind up to the Spaghetti trail and then a chat and ride session for 50 minutes through the various jumps and stunts on Spag until I had to shoot back down to the car park to catch the Vorb crew. It was good to ride with the lads again but I could not sustain the slow pace for too many rides. My fitness and ability has improved immensely over the last 1 months and I just like to trail ride as fast as I can for as long as I can.
Met up with a big bunch of Vorbii and guys from the Freeriden shop, probably 20 riders altogether. We left 30 minutes late as expected and started up Powerball, waited and waited at the top and then a couple of us went back down the trail to find the other SSer had broken his chain – just like me yesterday – and did not have the bits to fix it – also like me yesterday ! Luckily some one else had all the required bits and after 15 minutes of shagging around we were back on trail chasing after the big group who had ridden on, we caught them fairly quickly on the big mama trail. We left Big Mama about half way along and shot down SPCA, had a good run down and the out of towners really had a blast. The bunch split at the end of SPCA with some riding the road up to Ironhorse and a bunch taking the longer single track options up Upland, down the Lightening and enchanted forest and through Haggis. At the end of the Haggis we lost a few more riders who took the short option and 2 of us went and rode Northern Exposure and then No Brakes. Finally meeting what was left of the group up at the top of Ironhorse. I dropped my seat for the first time in a while and hammered down Ironhorse clearing most of the jumps. It was great to get some air again and I really enjoyed the run down the track. I was really pushing my time limits to pick up my youngest so a few of us jumped onto the forest road and went back to the start of Link and then rode that and the side of Cookie, whipped down raceface down and I threw the stuff in the car and took off for home.
Had a great ride, was quite wiped out afterwards. Did a bit of chatting but most of the ride was done at a pretty good pace and we covered a bit of ground. Great to see the Wellington and Hamilton crew and to show them our bike park.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
N-Duro 3 35km race
Friday night was nice and quiet, had a wine and then left work on time, traffic was light so I was home quite quickly. Had dinner with the family members that were actually at home and then took youngest son to his scout camp and bought a bottle of Riesling on the way home. My riding buddy turned up at 8.00 to stay the night so we could get away early tomorrow for the race in Rotorua. Had a quiet evening and I went to bed quite early.
Up at 6.00 for a quick breakfast and coffee and on the road by 6.30. Stopped for gas and a proper coffee at a truck stop on the motorway and then took a slow (determined not to get a speeding ticket this time) and steady drive down to Rotorua arriving at 9.30. We unloaded the bikes and sifted up to the registration tent and got our race numbers and then I hung around and chatted to a bunch of friends and other riders, got back to the car in time to get changed, load the pack with food and get my the last minute tasks done and head up to the start line to watch the 70km riders leave.
With the MTB world champs happening in Rotorua next week there were a lot of international riders in town and a few of the team racers were in both the 70 and 35k race today.
30 minutes later a small bunch of us single speeders drifted to the back of the 35km pack and waited for the gun.
I got off to a good start, felt strong, the first bit of climbing is on a sealed road and I stayed at a fairly steady slow pace, but surprisingly was passing people in a fairly steady stream, this continued on for pretty much the entire 20 minute climb, we walked one section that was steep and quite lose, but the rest of the climb I managed to pedal away and was felling pretty OK at the top of the first single track – the lovely downhill Gunna Gotta. I managed a great run down the trail, I passed 1 slow rider before the fun parts and then had a clear run to the end. Picked up another single speeder on the way into the next bit of single track and realised I had another 1 behind me. The 3 of us moved along in convoy at a good pace until we hit the traffic where we were forced to slow down significantly, which was probably a good thing. Cleared the end of A trail, passed the slow people on the road section before tickler and dropped down into the twisty section of tickler down to the stream.
I got about 100 metres into Tickler when BANG – my chain snapped. The quick links exploded. I had no chain breaker and no spare links. I managed to get the chain back together but it was too short and I could not get it around the cogs. Race over. Arse. My first DNF. I was gutted, annoyed that I had links in the car and not in my pack. I took the walk of shame back to the finish line and handed in my race number.
I had a coffee and a feed and hung around chatting to friends until the riders started to come in. Some of the international riders were incredibly fast. The 70k riders were coming in before some of the 35k riders, even riders I consider quite quick. Guess that is why they are at the world champs.
Watched the riders come in over time, one of my SS riding buddies also DNF’d with a damaged wheel, but every one else came in happy but tired. They enjoyed the race, said the course was tough but good and commiserated with my DNF.
We left the site about 2:30 and drove the 3 hours back to Auckland for beer and pizza. 490kms and just under 6 hours of driving, $90 of gas for a 10k 50 minute ride…
At least I had legs for a ride tomorrow.
Up at 6.00 for a quick breakfast and coffee and on the road by 6.30. Stopped for gas and a proper coffee at a truck stop on the motorway and then took a slow (determined not to get a speeding ticket this time) and steady drive down to Rotorua arriving at 9.30. We unloaded the bikes and sifted up to the registration tent and got our race numbers and then I hung around and chatted to a bunch of friends and other riders, got back to the car in time to get changed, load the pack with food and get my the last minute tasks done and head up to the start line to watch the 70km riders leave.
With the MTB world champs happening in Rotorua next week there were a lot of international riders in town and a few of the team racers were in both the 70 and 35k race today.
30 minutes later a small bunch of us single speeders drifted to the back of the 35km pack and waited for the gun.
I got off to a good start, felt strong, the first bit of climbing is on a sealed road and I stayed at a fairly steady slow pace, but surprisingly was passing people in a fairly steady stream, this continued on for pretty much the entire 20 minute climb, we walked one section that was steep and quite lose, but the rest of the climb I managed to pedal away and was felling pretty OK at the top of the first single track – the lovely downhill Gunna Gotta. I managed a great run down the trail, I passed 1 slow rider before the fun parts and then had a clear run to the end. Picked up another single speeder on the way into the next bit of single track and realised I had another 1 behind me. The 3 of us moved along in convoy at a good pace until we hit the traffic where we were forced to slow down significantly, which was probably a good thing. Cleared the end of A trail, passed the slow people on the road section before tickler and dropped down into the twisty section of tickler down to the stream.
I got about 100 metres into Tickler when BANG – my chain snapped. The quick links exploded. I had no chain breaker and no spare links. I managed to get the chain back together but it was too short and I could not get it around the cogs. Race over. Arse. My first DNF. I was gutted, annoyed that I had links in the car and not in my pack. I took the walk of shame back to the finish line and handed in my race number.
I had a coffee and a feed and hung around chatting to friends until the riders started to come in. Some of the international riders were incredibly fast. The 70k riders were coming in before some of the 35k riders, even riders I consider quite quick. Guess that is why they are at the world champs.
Watched the riders come in over time, one of my SS riding buddies also DNF’d with a damaged wheel, but every one else came in happy but tired. They enjoyed the race, said the course was tough but good and commiserated with my DNF.
We left the site about 2:30 and drove the 3 hours back to Auckland for beer and pizza. 490kms and just under 6 hours of driving, $90 of gas for a 10k 50 minute ride…
At least I had legs for a ride tomorrow.
Friday, August 18, 2006
General update
The Loaded Hog fun run season started again on Tuesday night. The weather wasn’t too bad, cool and a bit of a breeze that seemed to drop before the run started. There didn’t seem to be as many people as last year, but there were 109 runners so that is not too shabby. I was expecting to do a 23 minute 5km but ended up with a 21:34 which I was more than happy with and came 47th, top half to start the season is pretty good.
Though Tuesday nights are starting to get a bit crowded with the dodgy night ride, Hog runs, Adidas have a run on Tuesdays with 3 distance options, and there is now a spin class in a hall in Titirangi, which looks fun. Will try and do the dodgy night ride next week if I can.
The bike is pretty much ready for the race this weekend, will tweak one of the wheels either tonight or when I get there tomorrow morning. I was going to swap the cleats in my shoes but I cannot one of them out so will run with the old cleats, or maybe swap shoes to the Nikes, which don’t fit as well but do have new cleats plus a better sole for walking, and there is going to be some walking in this race. The course has 2 big climbs, neither of which I have ridden all the way to the top of before, but then I have done one of them in a race situation either.
I am expecting some of the riders from the world champs to be racing as well, as the worlds are next week, it would be great to be in a race with a world champ. Must remember to take the camera.
The social race is taking shape, just waiting on clearance to hold it at Woodhill at it will be on. Have had more interest than I thought with a few emails from some absolute strangers…
The SSWC06 is on this weekend – one year I would love to attend this, sounds like a blast.
Though Tuesday nights are starting to get a bit crowded with the dodgy night ride, Hog runs, Adidas have a run on Tuesdays with 3 distance options, and there is now a spin class in a hall in Titirangi, which looks fun. Will try and do the dodgy night ride next week if I can.
The bike is pretty much ready for the race this weekend, will tweak one of the wheels either tonight or when I get there tomorrow morning. I was going to swap the cleats in my shoes but I cannot one of them out so will run with the old cleats, or maybe swap shoes to the Nikes, which don’t fit as well but do have new cleats plus a better sole for walking, and there is going to be some walking in this race. The course has 2 big climbs, neither of which I have ridden all the way to the top of before, but then I have done one of them in a race situation either.
I am expecting some of the riders from the world champs to be racing as well, as the worlds are next week, it would be great to be in a race with a world champ. Must remember to take the camera.
The social race is taking shape, just waiting on clearance to hold it at Woodhill at it will be on. Have had more interest than I thought with a few emails from some absolute strangers…
The SSWC06 is on this weekend – one year I would love to attend this, sounds like a blast.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Bike maintenance
I must admit I suck at maintaining my bike. I can do the basics, but I do not have the tools to do the bigger jobs and well I am just not that good. One of the great things about the single speed is there is just so little to go wrong. I have taken this to a bit of an extreme and have got a bit slack at cleaning and lubing – though I do look after the chain.
Last night I went around to visit my buddy - he is an awesome bike mechanic, to get one of those once every few years jobs done which was replacing the BB. He installed a new, though, cheap bottom bracket in the DMR. I was given a Raceface BB with flogged bearings, which I will still use one day, but in this instance it was cheaper to buy a new BB.
Also replaced the chain, I did not get a test ride in so tonight I go for a quick zap around the block and make sure everything works, adjust the brakes and lube the chain. Tomorrow night I will try and get a longer short ride in to stretch the chain a bit and get the cranks going so I can make final adjustments before the 35km race on Saturday.
Last night I went around to visit my buddy - he is an awesome bike mechanic, to get one of those once every few years jobs done which was replacing the BB. He installed a new, though, cheap bottom bracket in the DMR. I was given a Raceface BB with flogged bearings, which I will still use one day, but in this instance it was cheaper to buy a new BB.
Also replaced the chain, I did not get a test ride in so tonight I go for a quick zap around the block and make sure everything works, adjust the brakes and lube the chain. Tomorrow night I will try and get a longer short ride in to stretch the chain a bit and get the cranks going so I can make final adjustments before the 35km race on Saturday.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Final gym session
Got up at 5.35 and went to the gum for my final free session.
Had a good spin and did a few of the weight machines. I think I am stronger than when I started, I sure hope so. I managed 12 out of 14 days, had 2 Sunday lie ins.
At least tomorrow I can stay in bed until 6:30... Yahoo.
Nice and quiet at work this morning, so listening to some Clutch
Had a good spin and did a few of the weight machines. I think I am stronger than when I started, I sure hope so. I managed 12 out of 14 days, had 2 Sunday lie ins.
At least tomorrow I can stay in bed until 6:30... Yahoo.
Nice and quiet at work this morning, so listening to some Clutch
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Riverhead trail digging
Friday I registered for the 35km leg of the N-Duro Marathon race. I will do it on the SS but I believe I am going to be broken at the end. There are 2 good climbs, neither of which I have ever completed on the bike. There is also some nice single track with the inclusion of Hot X buns this year as well as Be rude not to which is still one of my favourite Rotorua trails, even though I am always half broken when I get there.
The MTB world champs are in Rotorua the week after the race, with the race being the first event in a week of MTB stuff happening in town. I really wish I had got my shit together and organised to go down for a few days. I know so many people taking the week off and volunteering during the week day events for free entry in to the big weekend.
I had a good morning at the gym, got a decent ride and some weights in, it is my second to last free day and I don’t think I will join.
After the gym I went straight to Riverhead forest for a trail scoping exercise with James to try and find an old trail to be cleared as part of designing a course for the last round of the Auckland champs in December. Riverhead is a commercial pine forest that has been half felled. The area we are looking at was felled about 2 years ago and 10 ft pines are starting to grow. Unfortunately the gorse has been rampant and it is incredibly thick and well over 6 feet tall in places.
Riverhead has long been an Auckland mountain biking institution though there have been access issues over the past few years with the previous forestry company. The new owners have yet to decide on what access they will allow the various interested parties and where and how they will allocate access, so we are all being cautious and following the basic trail building rules.
He was looking for a ‘trail’ that he had seen from overhead photos, the aim was to scope the trail and see where it ends, clear the worst of the gorse so that a trail cutting crew can go through on Sunday with scrub cutters to start cleaning the mess.
The weather was not the best for scoping at Riverhead, or in fact for doing anything at Riverhead. It rained on the way up to the forest but luckily it did not rain while we there. We walked up one track clearing some of the worse old gorse until we hit the top and then climbed the road to the top of Pattersons. There was an old fire trail off to the right that had been widened into a full forestry road and at the top of that an old bit of single track headed off down the ridge. We cleared the entry into the trail with the loppers and opened up the first 20 ft or so before heading down the trail clearing the worst of the old hard gorse as we went, leaving enough space to walk down without getting too scratched. The track was fairly greasy and in parts was over 6 inches deep in muddy water, there will be quite a bit of drainage work needed as well to prevent large ruts forming before the race. We realised time was moving away from us so really started to only clear the really thick stuff that would prevent a larger gang from seeing the track. About half way down the gorse cleared a bit and we had a good run to the end of the trail, before walking back to the car.
There is going to be a lot of work needed to complete the trail before any racing can be done it, gorse and cutty grass needs to be completely pushed back, otherwise it will grow over the trail again, the major ruts need to be taken out and some decent drainage put in. It will be a fun trail when it is finished though and is another option in quite big loop.
The MTB world champs are in Rotorua the week after the race, with the race being the first event in a week of MTB stuff happening in town. I really wish I had got my shit together and organised to go down for a few days. I know so many people taking the week off and volunteering during the week day events for free entry in to the big weekend.
I had a good morning at the gym, got a decent ride and some weights in, it is my second to last free day and I don’t think I will join.
After the gym I went straight to Riverhead forest for a trail scoping exercise with James to try and find an old trail to be cleared as part of designing a course for the last round of the Auckland champs in December. Riverhead is a commercial pine forest that has been half felled. The area we are looking at was felled about 2 years ago and 10 ft pines are starting to grow. Unfortunately the gorse has been rampant and it is incredibly thick and well over 6 feet tall in places.
Riverhead has long been an Auckland mountain biking institution though there have been access issues over the past few years with the previous forestry company. The new owners have yet to decide on what access they will allow the various interested parties and where and how they will allocate access, so we are all being cautious and following the basic trail building rules.
He was looking for a ‘trail’ that he had seen from overhead photos, the aim was to scope the trail and see where it ends, clear the worst of the gorse so that a trail cutting crew can go through on Sunday with scrub cutters to start cleaning the mess.
The weather was not the best for scoping at Riverhead, or in fact for doing anything at Riverhead. It rained on the way up to the forest but luckily it did not rain while we there. We walked up one track clearing some of the worse old gorse until we hit the top and then climbed the road to the top of Pattersons. There was an old fire trail off to the right that had been widened into a full forestry road and at the top of that an old bit of single track headed off down the ridge. We cleared the entry into the trail with the loppers and opened up the first 20 ft or so before heading down the trail clearing the worst of the old hard gorse as we went, leaving enough space to walk down without getting too scratched. The track was fairly greasy and in parts was over 6 inches deep in muddy water, there will be quite a bit of drainage work needed as well to prevent large ruts forming before the race. We realised time was moving away from us so really started to only clear the really thick stuff that would prevent a larger gang from seeing the track. About half way down the gorse cleared a bit and we had a good run to the end of the trail, before walking back to the car.
There is going to be a lot of work needed to complete the trail before any racing can be done it, gorse and cutty grass needs to be completely pushed back, otherwise it will grow over the trail again, the major ruts need to be taken out and some decent drainage put in. It will be a fun trail when it is finished though and is another option in quite big loop.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
No cable - no ride !
I left work early to rush home to get the car back from the shop, it did not cost too much to get the electric window repaired, but any money spent on the car is money wasted.
Made it home by just after 5 which was enough time to get changed, load the car with bike and bike stuff, ram some bread into my mouth and hit the road to get to Murawai for a sifty illegal Tuesday night ride by 6.30 PM.
I managed the get changed bit, the start to load the car bit, before realising I did not have the bit of cable that goes between light and battery. It got left with someone at the Woodhill 12 hour. Shit bicks, unloaded car, got unchanged and sat in the lounge.
I did go round to a mates place to talk about replacing bearings in the new old BB I was given. I will check out bearing prices on Wednesday, but it could be cheaper to buy a new BB.
I have had 3 good gym sessions so far this week, getting the intensity level up, it is feeling just right now, mixing the bike one day with a run the next. 4 more days of free gym to go.
Made it home by just after 5 which was enough time to get changed, load the car with bike and bike stuff, ram some bread into my mouth and hit the road to get to Murawai for a sifty illegal Tuesday night ride by 6.30 PM.
I managed the get changed bit, the start to load the car bit, before realising I did not have the bit of cable that goes between light and battery. It got left with someone at the Woodhill 12 hour. Shit bicks, unloaded car, got unchanged and sat in the lounge.
I did go round to a mates place to talk about replacing bearings in the new old BB I was given. I will check out bearing prices on Wednesday, but it could be cheaper to buy a new BB.
I have had 3 good gym sessions so far this week, getting the intensity level up, it is feeling just right now, mixing the bike one day with a run the next. 4 more days of free gym to go.
Monday, August 07, 2006
SS Poker race
Had a day off from the gym yesterday, just didn’t get around to going in the morning and then I had the youngest and his cousin for the day so couldn’t go till my wife got home from work at 7.00 and then it was dinner and then yada yada.
I did get up at 5.30 this morning though and got in a reasonable session before work. With the car off the road until I get the window repaired tomorrow I did not want to take it to work so caged a lift of an old colleague and caught the bus home. The bus ride was OK, not too crowded and relatively quick, took an hour but that is tolerable. Will be bussing in and out again tomorrow, as well. Thank God for MP3 players though !
I have decided to organise a single speed race at Woodhill. I have posted on a couple of forums and emailed a few single speeders to see if there is any interest. If I can get 10 definite starters it will be on. Tentative date is Oct 7.
Going to be based loosely on Bike Poker. There has been some reasonable interest so far, including a few people who are happy to help out with the event.
I did get up at 5.30 this morning though and got in a reasonable session before work. With the car off the road until I get the window repaired tomorrow I did not want to take it to work so caged a lift of an old colleague and caught the bus home. The bus ride was OK, not too crowded and relatively quick, took an hour but that is tolerable. Will be bussing in and out again tomorrow, as well. Thank God for MP3 players though !
I have decided to organise a single speed race at Woodhill. I have posted on a couple of forums and emailed a few single speeders to see if there is any interest. If I can get 10 definite starters it will be on. Tentative date is Oct 7.
Going to be based loosely on Bike Poker. There has been some reasonable interest so far, including a few people who are happy to help out with the event.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
A good rainy ride
The gym has been going well, 5 days in a row and lifting the effort each day by a tiny amount. I still wonder if I am whimping out a bit though with the weights, but I am happy with what I am doing. I even went this morning before mountain biking.
The drivers side electric window in my car has broken, unfortunately it is in the full down position and for the first time in weeks it is raining solidly. Luckily I got a ride to the forest today otherwise I would have been unable to ride.
The plan for the ride today was to do a fire road loop and get some consistent hill work in – though the hills are not big, high, steep or long. With the rain and wind we decided to go straight into the forest. Rode Powerball, Spaghetti to the start of Afterglow, quick break there to take the rain coat off then a fast zap down Afterglow and the down Tortellini to the car park. Over the road and up Upland straight down the Lightening and Enchanted forest and brief break at the start of Haggis. Kept riding at a reasonable pace and was aiming to stop as little as possible. Haggis was great, cleaned that again without getting out of the seat, then the same on Northern exposure. Had a quick 5 at the start of my track and then rode up that, again sitting down for as much as possible. Had to stop in the middle a shortcut line had started to appear that cut a good 250 metres out of the track. I closed it off with logs and trail trash as best I could and we rode on. I guess one of the good things about people putting short cuts in a track means that it is a challenge to ride and they have failed to meet the challenge, which makes those who meet the challenge are the better for it. Shit the track ain’t that tough, I can ride the whole thing on the SS and I am not that good a rider. We rode the first section of Ironhorse then dropped out and finished Conifer loop and Haggis the rode the road back to the start of Raceface down and back to the carpark.
Fitness wise, I rode extremely well today, I felt good, kept a reasonable pace up, rode as much as I could sitting down. I am not sure of I was going to quickly or the conditions were a bit slippery, but I felt like I was riding like a muppet, washed out the front wheel, slipped on wet roots, Pity I cannot get skill and fitness all together in the same ride…
I have decide to do the 35km N-duro race in Rotorua in 2 weeks, will do it on the SS and it s going to be the longest SS ride I have done.
Listening to the Misfits this morning, I never really liked them that much but have borrowed a bunch of CD’s from a friend to see if my tastes have changed at all. They are still only OK.
The drivers side electric window in my car has broken, unfortunately it is in the full down position and for the first time in weeks it is raining solidly. Luckily I got a ride to the forest today otherwise I would have been unable to ride.
The plan for the ride today was to do a fire road loop and get some consistent hill work in – though the hills are not big, high, steep or long. With the rain and wind we decided to go straight into the forest. Rode Powerball, Spaghetti to the start of Afterglow, quick break there to take the rain coat off then a fast zap down Afterglow and the down Tortellini to the car park. Over the road and up Upland straight down the Lightening and Enchanted forest and brief break at the start of Haggis. Kept riding at a reasonable pace and was aiming to stop as little as possible. Haggis was great, cleaned that again without getting out of the seat, then the same on Northern exposure. Had a quick 5 at the start of my track and then rode up that, again sitting down for as much as possible. Had to stop in the middle a shortcut line had started to appear that cut a good 250 metres out of the track. I closed it off with logs and trail trash as best I could and we rode on. I guess one of the good things about people putting short cuts in a track means that it is a challenge to ride and they have failed to meet the challenge, which makes those who meet the challenge are the better for it. Shit the track ain’t that tough, I can ride the whole thing on the SS and I am not that good a rider. We rode the first section of Ironhorse then dropped out and finished Conifer loop and Haggis the rode the road back to the start of Raceface down and back to the carpark.
Fitness wise, I rode extremely well today, I felt good, kept a reasonable pace up, rode as much as I could sitting down. I am not sure of I was going to quickly or the conditions were a bit slippery, but I felt like I was riding like a muppet, washed out the front wheel, slipped on wet roots, Pity I cannot get skill and fitness all together in the same ride…
I have decide to do the 35km N-duro race in Rotorua in 2 weeks, will do it on the SS and it s going to be the longest SS ride I have done.
Listening to the Misfits this morning, I never really liked them that much but have borrowed a bunch of CD’s from a friend to see if my tastes have changed at all. They are still only OK.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
2nd day at the gym
Hit the gym again this morning, got there 10 minutes earlier than yesterday at 5.45 AM but had a better idea of what to do so did not feel so stupid standing there staring vacantly at the machines. Jumped straight on to the bike and did the hill climb ride again for 30 minutes. Slightly higher level this time, and the one I will stick to for the next few days. Though tomorrow I may run instead to break up the training a bit. I followed that up with 8 minutes on the rowing machine, I wanted to do 2km but on this particular machine I could not work out how to change the view to show distance. I feel so stupid.
I did get to use some more of the weight machines today, there were more people there so I could sneakily watch how they used them and then follow. I did get stuck on one ugly piece of machinery that I gave up on. I now have 3 leg exercises sorted and 1 upper body pull down thing.
I appear to be really weak compared to other gym users as I cannot shift some of the weights the machines are set to.
Listening to some Skatalites this morning. Oh Yeah – the music at the gym sucks terribly.
I did get to use some more of the weight machines today, there were more people there so I could sneakily watch how they used them and then follow. I did get stuck on one ugly piece of machinery that I gave up on. I now have 3 leg exercises sorted and 1 upper body pull down thing.
I appear to be really weak compared to other gym users as I cannot shift some of the weights the machines are set to.
Listening to some Skatalites this morning. Oh Yeah – the music at the gym sucks terribly.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
12 Hours of Woodhill
I have been looking forward to this event since the team was called together. We have a 4 person SS team entered in the 4/5 person open team category. I have ridden with all the riders before, 2 at the Moonride 24 hour in May and 1 from N-Duro 24 hour in Feb. I am the only local which makes it all that much cooler. I have team leader and his wife staying at my place for the weekend which is cool, nice to be able to assist out of town racers for a change. We are all Vorbers... We are racing as Essence Bicycles Singole Velocita and now have matching shirts so really look the part. Though of course we are all riding different bikes.
Saturday morning dawned extremely foggy, though the forecast was good. Team leader went directly to the site where the other guys plus a couple of other Vorb related teams had set up and camped overnight. I went into town to pick up another out of town Vorber was racing 6 hour solo women. The 50 minute drive out to Woodhill saw the fog dissipate and nice clear sky come through for by the time we arrived at 9.00 AM. We left the car at the top car park and I took 2 trips to hump all my crap down to the site, man I am a heavy packer…
The main site
By the 10:30 race start, the bike had been tweaked, though I had horrid noises coming from the BB, I had sifted around and said hello to numerous riders I knew and had a good cup of coffee from the on-site cart. I felt for the organisers as sod all people turned out for the event. I am not sure of exact numbers yet but expect less than 1 third of the maximum was there. Really disappointing as there are around 3500 riders in Auckland more could have turned out to race. At least the traffic in the forest would not be too bad.
Our site
For a change I was not the lead rider, team leader took that honour which was great as it started with a 500 metre run to the bikes. Our plan was to take this event at a gentle pace and have fun and aim to not come last. Team leader came out of the forest 8.5kms and 28 minutes later in 7th place !
Team leader on the trail
which sent number 2 rider off at a charge. I took a couple of photos at the end of the single track and there was a steep sandy descent that was screwing people up on the first lap. It was going to be fun later in the day when it got really carved up. Team leader and No 2, both looked pretty broken and when it was my turn to go out I determined to take a slow ride up the hill and conserve energy for the rest of the lap, I also had a reasonable idea of the course and knew areas where I could gain an advantage on other riders if I had the grunt left in my legs.
A broken rider 2
The lap started with a 200 metre ride up and metal road and into the single track, going up Raceface Down the wrong way, turning off and down a narrow wooden bridge to the new section of trail we dug a few weeks back, the trail meandered up the hill with a couple of tiny pinch climbs but mostly doable seated. We then went over the road into stage 1 of Big Mama, then down into a tiny section of Cry Baby, popping back out onto the unsealed road and then back into Cray Baby and down all off Cookie. I nailed it in Cookie, patience on the climb meant I had plenty for this slightly uphill but wide, twisty single track. At the top off Cookie we crossed back into Spaghetti into one of my favourite sections of really twisty, slightly rooty single track, perfect for SS, couple of small jumps and some ride-alongs. I was starting to pass people from the end of No 2’s lap and aimed to nail all the slow ones before the tight decent as that was gong to be one of the fun parts of the track, fortunately no one held me up on that and I popped out at the bottom of Granny Hill. This was a bit of a grind – didn’t really need granny, I expected this to go through to the tent site, but it popped back into the forest again for another 500 metres of single track, then out and down the steep sandy descent, up a short climb then out into the tents, and a 29 minute lap done. I was happy…
Lap change Over
No 4 went out for his lap and we were all settled down relaxing when 17 minutes later he came running back into the site pushing his bike with the chain dragging on the ground. We quickly sent rider no 1 back out while rider 4 lay collapsed in a fetid heap on the ground. His tensioner gave up half way into the forest…
My BB was making really awful grinding noises so too fix that I put the MP3 player in my pocket and turned the punk rock up loud…
My next lap came around all too quickly, so I cranked up the volume and took a nice slow ride up the first climb, passed a group of 5 solos just before hitting the single track and had a fairly steady climb, surprisingly I passed a few people on the way up. I held off a guy behind me most the way through the top single track though he finally got me just before the top of the Cookie trail, I kept him well in site as we worked through the next couple of kms, pushing the pace a bit to try and pass as many of the slower riders as I could before the tight decent – mainly because it is way more fun at speed. I got behind the guy who passed me just as we hit the steepest section and he went sideways off the side of the track allowing me to shoot past and down to the bottom of Granny Hill. I kept a fairly static pace up the climb, passing a few walkers !!! (this early in the race) on the way up, then down through the last section of forest and back to the tent site. 30 minute lap. I thought I was faster than the first but had dropped a minute.
At this point in the race we were 1st out of 20 in our category of open 4/5 person team – this actually showed how bad the field was as we would normally expect to come around half way through the field. Especially as we were on single speeds. Though we did realise we had 17 minute lap when we were averaging 29 minutes. We went and told the organisers so they could pull the lap from our results, which would add to the challenge, but this still left us in 3rd place.
In between laps I had a quick feed of some homemade chicken pasta, a couple of bars and a lot of water, it was quite warm considering it is still winter, I was in a short sleeve riding shirt and still sweating.
Lap 3 I started out slowly again, aiming to pace myself for the expected 6 laps and allow plenty of room to hammer the top trails. The field was quite spread out so I did not really see anyone on the road climb and passed a group of 5 slow riders in the forest section of the climb. The top section passed by in a blur of old school punk rock and I was soon passing the odd slow rider prior to hitting the descent again. Got most of the way down the descent, till the steep sandy section where 2 riders had got themselves a bit tangled up , 1 managed to clear himself off to the side and the other started to tripod his way down before running off the side of the track, I don’t think I had to slow down at all and I am wondering if I scared them off a bit… Got to grant hill, took the right hand line and it was so much smoother than the left, managed to get most of the way up sitting down. Saw a group of riders ahead that were struggling a bit and knew I had to pass them before the next downhill section as they would be too slow and would ruin the enjoyment of riding down hills. I managed to catch them before the single track but could not pass them before the descent. I picked off 1 on a bit of single track and as we approached the final steepish and very sandy section I saw a new line had been made high up on the left bank, I shot up their past 2 of the slow people, hopefully not cutting them off as I got back onto the main line. The last 2 held me up on the final very short ascent, I was going so slowly I had to struggle to maintain balance – so much harder on a single speed. Into tent city and off the bike in 31 minutes. Dropping a minute a lap – damn. I thought that last run was good.
When I got back to our site I had a few missed calls on my mobile, including 1 from my wife. After calling her I ended up having to go home half way through the event for a family situation – fortunately not as serious as it could have been. Luckily there was a friend lurking about with his SS looking for a ride so he stepped into my place in the team and did my remaining 3 laps. Bummer of a way to end what was a good morning and should have been a good evening.
Apparently the rest of the event went well, the weather stayed good and lap times dropped a little bit as night set in and the course got a bit cut up in places.
Next event for me could be the 35km N-duro race in 4 weeks, will do it on the SS if I can get the BB replaced in time.
Saturday morning dawned extremely foggy, though the forecast was good. Team leader went directly to the site where the other guys plus a couple of other Vorb related teams had set up and camped overnight. I went into town to pick up another out of town Vorber was racing 6 hour solo women. The 50 minute drive out to Woodhill saw the fog dissipate and nice clear sky come through for by the time we arrived at 9.00 AM. We left the car at the top car park and I took 2 trips to hump all my crap down to the site, man I am a heavy packer…
The main site
By the 10:30 race start, the bike had been tweaked, though I had horrid noises coming from the BB, I had sifted around and said hello to numerous riders I knew and had a good cup of coffee from the on-site cart. I felt for the organisers as sod all people turned out for the event. I am not sure of exact numbers yet but expect less than 1 third of the maximum was there. Really disappointing as there are around 3500 riders in Auckland more could have turned out to race. At least the traffic in the forest would not be too bad.
Our site
For a change I was not the lead rider, team leader took that honour which was great as it started with a 500 metre run to the bikes. Our plan was to take this event at a gentle pace and have fun and aim to not come last. Team leader came out of the forest 8.5kms and 28 minutes later in 7th place !
Team leader on the trail
which sent number 2 rider off at a charge. I took a couple of photos at the end of the single track and there was a steep sandy descent that was screwing people up on the first lap. It was going to be fun later in the day when it got really carved up. Team leader and No 2, both looked pretty broken and when it was my turn to go out I determined to take a slow ride up the hill and conserve energy for the rest of the lap, I also had a reasonable idea of the course and knew areas where I could gain an advantage on other riders if I had the grunt left in my legs.
A broken rider 2
The lap started with a 200 metre ride up and metal road and into the single track, going up Raceface Down the wrong way, turning off and down a narrow wooden bridge to the new section of trail we dug a few weeks back, the trail meandered up the hill with a couple of tiny pinch climbs but mostly doable seated. We then went over the road into stage 1 of Big Mama, then down into a tiny section of Cry Baby, popping back out onto the unsealed road and then back into Cray Baby and down all off Cookie. I nailed it in Cookie, patience on the climb meant I had plenty for this slightly uphill but wide, twisty single track. At the top off Cookie we crossed back into Spaghetti into one of my favourite sections of really twisty, slightly rooty single track, perfect for SS, couple of small jumps and some ride-alongs. I was starting to pass people from the end of No 2’s lap and aimed to nail all the slow ones before the tight decent as that was gong to be one of the fun parts of the track, fortunately no one held me up on that and I popped out at the bottom of Granny Hill. This was a bit of a grind – didn’t really need granny, I expected this to go through to the tent site, but it popped back into the forest again for another 500 metres of single track, then out and down the steep sandy descent, up a short climb then out into the tents, and a 29 minute lap done. I was happy…
Lap change Over
No 4 went out for his lap and we were all settled down relaxing when 17 minutes later he came running back into the site pushing his bike with the chain dragging on the ground. We quickly sent rider no 1 back out while rider 4 lay collapsed in a fetid heap on the ground. His tensioner gave up half way into the forest…
My BB was making really awful grinding noises so too fix that I put the MP3 player in my pocket and turned the punk rock up loud…
My next lap came around all too quickly, so I cranked up the volume and took a nice slow ride up the first climb, passed a group of 5 solos just before hitting the single track and had a fairly steady climb, surprisingly I passed a few people on the way up. I held off a guy behind me most the way through the top single track though he finally got me just before the top of the Cookie trail, I kept him well in site as we worked through the next couple of kms, pushing the pace a bit to try and pass as many of the slower riders as I could before the tight decent – mainly because it is way more fun at speed. I got behind the guy who passed me just as we hit the steepest section and he went sideways off the side of the track allowing me to shoot past and down to the bottom of Granny Hill. I kept a fairly static pace up the climb, passing a few walkers !!! (this early in the race) on the way up, then down through the last section of forest and back to the tent site. 30 minute lap. I thought I was faster than the first but had dropped a minute.
At this point in the race we were 1st out of 20 in our category of open 4/5 person team – this actually showed how bad the field was as we would normally expect to come around half way through the field. Especially as we were on single speeds. Though we did realise we had 17 minute lap when we were averaging 29 minutes. We went and told the organisers so they could pull the lap from our results, which would add to the challenge, but this still left us in 3rd place.
In between laps I had a quick feed of some homemade chicken pasta, a couple of bars and a lot of water, it was quite warm considering it is still winter, I was in a short sleeve riding shirt and still sweating.
Lap 3 I started out slowly again, aiming to pace myself for the expected 6 laps and allow plenty of room to hammer the top trails. The field was quite spread out so I did not really see anyone on the road climb and passed a group of 5 slow riders in the forest section of the climb. The top section passed by in a blur of old school punk rock and I was soon passing the odd slow rider prior to hitting the descent again. Got most of the way down the descent, till the steep sandy section where 2 riders had got themselves a bit tangled up , 1 managed to clear himself off to the side and the other started to tripod his way down before running off the side of the track, I don’t think I had to slow down at all and I am wondering if I scared them off a bit… Got to grant hill, took the right hand line and it was so much smoother than the left, managed to get most of the way up sitting down. Saw a group of riders ahead that were struggling a bit and knew I had to pass them before the next downhill section as they would be too slow and would ruin the enjoyment of riding down hills. I managed to catch them before the single track but could not pass them before the descent. I picked off 1 on a bit of single track and as we approached the final steepish and very sandy section I saw a new line had been made high up on the left bank, I shot up their past 2 of the slow people, hopefully not cutting them off as I got back onto the main line. The last 2 held me up on the final very short ascent, I was going so slowly I had to struggle to maintain balance – so much harder on a single speed. Into tent city and off the bike in 31 minutes. Dropping a minute a lap – damn. I thought that last run was good.
When I got back to our site I had a few missed calls on my mobile, including 1 from my wife. After calling her I ended up having to go home half way through the event for a family situation – fortunately not as serious as it could have been. Luckily there was a friend lurking about with his SS looking for a ride so he stepped into my place in the team and did my remaining 3 laps. Bummer of a way to end what was a good morning and should have been a good evening.
Apparently the rest of the event went well, the weather stayed good and lap times dropped a little bit as night set in and the course got a bit cut up in places.
Next event for me could be the 35km N-duro race in 4 weeks, will do it on the SS if I can get the BB replaced in time.
The gym
I have never been one for gym's, I would rather be out on the street in the 'fresh' air than stuck inside an air-conditioned room listening to loud music, but my youngest son's school has a fundraiser supplied by the local gym so off I went.
Every time you go to the gym in a 2 week period from the day you sign up the gym donate a whole 1$ to the school for sporting equipment. It is free to use the gym for that period. Now 1$ is not much but it is worth supporting, and 2 weeks worth of free gym is exactly what I need right now to kick training along.
I am thinking about doing the 35km N-Duro 3 race in 4 weeks on the single speed, it will be a tough event for me so anything I can do to build some leg strength for the hills will be all good.
I aim to go to the gym at 6.00 AM evyer day for 2 weeks, donate an entire $14 to the school and get some base in.
Hopefully if I can achieve that then once the free 2 weeks has finished I will be motivated enough to get out and run first thing in the morning. I just do not like road riding in the dark, especially at that time of day when drivers are going a bit faster and are a bit less focused.
I did my first session this morning, 30 minutes on the bike thing, with a nice climb program, 1km on the rower and a couple of weighty type things. As this is a free session I did not have a program and as I have been to a gym in 5 years or so I had very little knowledge about how the equipment worked. Will work out some more tomorrow. The musix was crap and too loud - louder than my mp3 player, arse.
Every time you go to the gym in a 2 week period from the day you sign up the gym donate a whole 1$ to the school for sporting equipment. It is free to use the gym for that period. Now 1$ is not much but it is worth supporting, and 2 weeks worth of free gym is exactly what I need right now to kick training along.
I am thinking about doing the 35km N-Duro 3 race in 4 weeks on the single speed, it will be a tough event for me so anything I can do to build some leg strength for the hills will be all good.
I aim to go to the gym at 6.00 AM evyer day for 2 weeks, donate an entire $14 to the school and get some base in.
Hopefully if I can achieve that then once the free 2 weeks has finished I will be motivated enough to get out and run first thing in the morning. I just do not like road riding in the dark, especially at that time of day when drivers are going a bit faster and are a bit less focused.
I did my first session this morning, 30 minutes on the bike thing, with a nice climb program, 1km on the rower and a couple of weighty type things. As this is a free session I did not have a program and as I have been to a gym in 5 years or so I had very little knowledge about how the equipment worked. Will work out some more tomorrow. The musix was crap and too loud - louder than my mp3 player, arse.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Updated DMR
Finally got the DMR all ready for the race yesteday.
The front mechanical disk installed and the cranks on and running.
The seat is not at a weird angle - honest...
Really need a new BB as it is making some awful noises.
The front mechanical disk installed and the cranks on and running.
The seat is not at a weird angle - honest...
Really need a new BB as it is making some awful noises.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Afternoon off work ride
Our illustrious team leader of the single speed team for the 12 hour event this weekend has come up to Auckland early and I volunteered to take the afternoon off work and show him the pleasures of Woodhill mountain bike park.
The weather was not bad for a ride, little bit cloudy and a little bit cool, but certainly a good winter’s afternoon. The park was pretty empty as you would expect mid-week, though the event organisers were there taping up the course.
We started riding up the road towards the trail block but saw that the event trail was being marked out next to the road so jumped the fence and started up the hill, the climb was not bad and well suited for a single speed, gentle climbs for a 100 meters then flatting out and then climbing again, climb was probably a km all up, with over half of it on single track, some on the new trail we had been digging – with some nice rooty bits to keep it honest – though it was an all skill level event. At the top of the hill we had to guess which way the trail went (and I think we guessed wrong) and we headed down the spaghetti trail, this was a great section for racing as it is quite flowy, some nice turns, some rooty corners but plenty of room for passing. About ¾ of the way through Spag stage 1 there was a newly dug and very narrow descent back which aimed back to the carpark, we shot down there to the bottom and then cut into the end of Charlies Angels and pushed up the hill back to Spag and off the event course. Had a flier down SPCA , so much fun and then took the road up to and I showed my guest Northern Exposure and my trail, then down Python, end of Haggis, Enchanted Forest the wrong way, up Link to Cookie. The Cookie trail was marked off for the event which was really pleasing as it is hard packed fairly fast trail with a couple of small jumps, plenty of passing room and I can do it in my sleep at reasonable pace. We picked up another SSer who I had never met before, who was young and fast, so we chatted to him for a while and he followed us back down Raceface Down to the carpark.
Nice ride, good last minute preparation for the race on Saturday. The bike rode well with its new cranks and brakes. Few minor adjustments to the rear brake, a re-tighten off the cranks and she will be ready for the race.
I would so much rather be riding than working.
The weather was not bad for a ride, little bit cloudy and a little bit cool, but certainly a good winter’s afternoon. The park was pretty empty as you would expect mid-week, though the event organisers were there taping up the course.
We started riding up the road towards the trail block but saw that the event trail was being marked out next to the road so jumped the fence and started up the hill, the climb was not bad and well suited for a single speed, gentle climbs for a 100 meters then flatting out and then climbing again, climb was probably a km all up, with over half of it on single track, some on the new trail we had been digging – with some nice rooty bits to keep it honest – though it was an all skill level event. At the top of the hill we had to guess which way the trail went (and I think we guessed wrong) and we headed down the spaghetti trail, this was a great section for racing as it is quite flowy, some nice turns, some rooty corners but plenty of room for passing. About ¾ of the way through Spag stage 1 there was a newly dug and very narrow descent back which aimed back to the carpark, we shot down there to the bottom and then cut into the end of Charlies Angels and pushed up the hill back to Spag and off the event course. Had a flier down SPCA , so much fun and then took the road up to and I showed my guest Northern Exposure and my trail, then down Python, end of Haggis, Enchanted Forest the wrong way, up Link to Cookie. The Cookie trail was marked off for the event which was really pleasing as it is hard packed fairly fast trail with a couple of small jumps, plenty of passing room and I can do it in my sleep at reasonable pace. We picked up another SSer who I had never met before, who was young and fast, so we chatted to him for a while and he followed us back down Raceface Down to the carpark.
Nice ride, good last minute preparation for the race on Saturday. The bike rode well with its new cranks and brakes. Few minor adjustments to the rear brake, a re-tighten off the cranks and she will be ready for the race.
I would so much rather be riding than working.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
New old cranks
Well the cranks arrived at work today so I had them on the bike about 15 minutes after I got home, got the XC SPD’s screwed in, ripped open the little chain bit I bought to replace the quick links I lost and bugger it - the guy in the shop gave me a link that was too small. I told him it was for a SS chain… so no test ride tonight.
But I did pump the shocks, pump the tyres, adjust the hand grips and brake levers so it was not a complete dead loss.
Race in 3 days…
Loaded the old 256mb MP3 player with 256mb of punk rock…
But I did pump the shocks, pump the tyres, adjust the hand grips and brake levers so it was not a complete dead loss.
Race in 3 days…
Loaded the old 256mb MP3 player with 256mb of punk rock…
Monday, July 24, 2006
Yay for Vorb
Just secured some second hand cranks off a fellow Vorbii for an extremely good price, event better he is going to courier them to me today and I will pay him at the weekend when he is up for the Woodhill 12 hour event.
I love Vorb ! and its network of extremly cool mountain bikers.
I love Vorb ! and its network of extremly cool mountain bikers.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Bugger bugger bugger !
In preparation for the team 12 hour event I am doing next Saturday I pulled the SS to bits and gave her a good old clean. I haven’t even had the rear wheel off since the race in May, and cleaning has been more of a wave the hose over the worst of the dirt since then as well.
As well as cleaning and lubing the bike I intended on swapping the platform SPD pedals for the XC spuds, as well fitting the front disk brakes with new pads and putting new cleats on the Nike shoes.
So yesterday afternoon I took the wheels, pedals and chain off and gave her a good clean. gentle brush, rag, toothbrush for the nooks and crannies. She was looking pretty clean by the end of it.
Today after everything had dried off I started to reassemble, first the chain, wiped it down after it had dried off and found I must have dropped the quick lines into the soapy water bowl with the chain. Sadly I threw the dirty water into the weed patch behind the shed yesterday afternoon, quick links – long gone…. OK, I thought, not a biggie I can pick up some more Monday, I will just get the chain back on and carry on assembling and getting things ready.
Next up pedals. Hmmmmm next issue – the crank was pretty old and had already been stripped once and had an insert put in, this was also pretty much wrecked and I could not get the pedal in… Shit. OK, I will swap the cranks from the Cindercone, rang a friend and drove round to get his crank puller. Pulled the square splined crank from the SS and then found the Cindercone had a isis crank. Shit shit shit. Time for a new plan…
Well I go the brake pads changed successfully anyway…
Now I need to find cranks or arrange to swap the BB and cranks between bikes by Thursday when I go riding before the race on Saturday.
I should have stayed in bed.
As well as cleaning and lubing the bike I intended on swapping the platform SPD pedals for the XC spuds, as well fitting the front disk brakes with new pads and putting new cleats on the Nike shoes.
So yesterday afternoon I took the wheels, pedals and chain off and gave her a good clean. gentle brush, rag, toothbrush for the nooks and crannies. She was looking pretty clean by the end of it.
Today after everything had dried off I started to reassemble, first the chain, wiped it down after it had dried off and found I must have dropped the quick lines into the soapy water bowl with the chain. Sadly I threw the dirty water into the weed patch behind the shed yesterday afternoon, quick links – long gone…. OK, I thought, not a biggie I can pick up some more Monday, I will just get the chain back on and carry on assembling and getting things ready.
Next up pedals. Hmmmmm next issue – the crank was pretty old and had already been stripped once and had an insert put in, this was also pretty much wrecked and I could not get the pedal in… Shit. OK, I will swap the cranks from the Cindercone, rang a friend and drove round to get his crank puller. Pulled the square splined crank from the SS and then found the Cindercone had a isis crank. Shit shit shit. Time for a new plan…
Well I go the brake pads changed successfully anyway…
Now I need to find cranks or arrange to swap the BB and cranks between bikes by Thursday when I go riding before the race on Saturday.
I should have stayed in bed.
Saturday morning Woodhill ride
Had a good ride today, went out with my normal riding buddy for a SS thrash at Woodhill.
It was very cool this morning, around 3 degrees, but it was another crystal clear day so riding was going to be good.
We road up the new PowerBall trail to Spaghetti along Spag to SPCA. SPCA was riding so nicely, 1 or so Km’s of gentle downhill a fun fun ride. Wicked.
We pushed up the hill from the end of SPCA through the old car park and then up Upland, I struggled a bit on the climb which was unusual, shot down Lightening and Enchanted Forest to the Haggis. We were riding at a cracking pace and by the time we were halfway up Haggis I was really sucking air, definitely not as good as last weeks ride. This week we rode all of Haggis and did not cut out to Conifer loop and up to my trail. I so rarely do the full Haggis loop which is a shame as it is a neat trail and the back section that we miss is 1 of the older sections of track in the park. After Haggis we rode Slipperies delight and the climb at the end, even though it is not big damn near killed me, really was feeling the ride this week. Tree Huggers was next and then up the Link where my riding buddy slayed me on the climb and left me a wheezing struggling mess by the top, I killed him last week so it was definitely his turn. We then rode the side of Cookie and down into the new section of trail back to the carpark as I wanted to bed the trail into my head before the race next weekend as the new trails are supposed to be in it.
Not a bad ride, definitely not as good as last week though.
I did ride with the HRM and hit 100% at times, sustained 101 going up Upland, so will definitely adjust that a bit. Set max heart rate from 179 to 187 and see if I go over that at 100%
It was very cool this morning, around 3 degrees, but it was another crystal clear day so riding was going to be good.
We road up the new PowerBall trail to Spaghetti along Spag to SPCA. SPCA was riding so nicely, 1 or so Km’s of gentle downhill a fun fun ride. Wicked.
We pushed up the hill from the end of SPCA through the old car park and then up Upland, I struggled a bit on the climb which was unusual, shot down Lightening and Enchanted Forest to the Haggis. We were riding at a cracking pace and by the time we were halfway up Haggis I was really sucking air, definitely not as good as last weeks ride. This week we rode all of Haggis and did not cut out to Conifer loop and up to my trail. I so rarely do the full Haggis loop which is a shame as it is a neat trail and the back section that we miss is 1 of the older sections of track in the park. After Haggis we rode Slipperies delight and the climb at the end, even though it is not big damn near killed me, really was feeling the ride this week. Tree Huggers was next and then up the Link where my riding buddy slayed me on the climb and left me a wheezing struggling mess by the top, I killed him last week so it was definitely his turn. We then rode the side of Cookie and down into the new section of trail back to the carpark as I wanted to bed the trail into my head before the race next weekend as the new trails are supposed to be in it.
Not a bad ride, definitely not as good as last week though.
I did ride with the HRM and hit 100% at times, sustained 101 going up Upland, so will definitely adjust that a bit. Set max heart rate from 179 to 187 and see if I go over that at 100%
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Spinning
Still spinning, had 2 more sessions on the bike this week. Monday night for about 30 monutes before I was interupted by a visitor and then last night I got a good 45 minutes in at a decent pace.
Hope to get back on the bike again tonight and give it a good nudge, just had a massive lunch with the old work crew so need to get ride of those fries. Then a gentle spin Friday night before Saturday mornings ride.
Sadly my bro-in-law wants the trainer back after the race next weekend so that is a bit of a bummer -gues I could buy my own ?
Hope to put the disk brakes on the DMR tonight as well, that will be the first job I do when I get home.
Hope to get back on the bike again tonight and give it a good nudge, just had a massive lunch with the old work crew so need to get ride of those fries. Then a gentle spin Friday night before Saturday mornings ride.
Sadly my bro-in-law wants the trainer back after the race next weekend so that is a bit of a bummer -gues I could buy my own ?
Hope to put the disk brakes on the DMR tonight as well, that will be the first job I do when I get home.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Tuesday night in Area 51
I had a really good ride last night. I hooked up with some people from the Freeride’n store and hit some ‘illegal’ trails up at Area 51. I do not normally condone illegal trail riding, but in this case most of these trails are in a publicly accessible forest, and there used to bike trails all through this section of the forest, untill things all got a bit commercial – enough said trying to justify myself, I really shouldn’t have been riding there anyway, but I did and I probably will again.
There was 7 of us riding, 3 groms and 4 adults. I took the SS though I wasn’t sure what the climbing would be like and from experience of riding there in the past when it was allowed I did expect to have to walk some sections.
We met at 6.30 PM at the home of one of the rider leader and then pedalled for a KM or so up the road to a downhill walking track. The track was fun, though I am always a bit nervous riding downhill trail for the first time in the dark, especially when it is A) designed for walkers and may have steps and B) I suspected it was close to the edge of a cliff. It was a nice wide trail and pretty tame, be a lot more fun next time. At the bottom of the track we rode some more sealed road the hill to the gannet colony track. I haven’t been there for a while and was surprised that after a 100 meters of gentle climb to the top the track had been stepped all the way back down to the bottom car park. The steps were in sets of 4 with about 4 metres of flat between them, there was probably 10 sets of steps down which was the longest run of steps I have done, enjoyed it, though I will say I was a bit worried about blowing the rear tube as I was running very low pressures from riding in the sand and was not expecting to be riding more wooden framed steps.
After the steps we rode back up the road and into the forest itself, having a bit of local knowledge certainly helped as I have always gone in from the bottom road which has meant a steep climb/push to the top, but we snuck around the easy gradient sealed road and in the back way almost at the top. There has been an awful lot of trail work in this end of the forest, seeing as we are not supposed to be riding there a lot of effort had gone into developing some gnarly short downhill tracks with some quite carefully constructed jumps, including road gaps. We did not do anything that serious and soon dropped back to sea level and rode some very vague tight twisting shingle track back to the beach road and then back to the cars.
All up it was a 2 hour ride, damn good fun as all rides are, cool to ride with some different people and some different trails and not take any of it too seriously. I will definitely be back for some Tuesday night rides.
Listening to some old "shoegazer" bands - Chapterhouse and My bloody valentine today.
There was 7 of us riding, 3 groms and 4 adults. I took the SS though I wasn’t sure what the climbing would be like and from experience of riding there in the past when it was allowed I did expect to have to walk some sections.
We met at 6.30 PM at the home of one of the rider leader and then pedalled for a KM or so up the road to a downhill walking track. The track was fun, though I am always a bit nervous riding downhill trail for the first time in the dark, especially when it is A) designed for walkers and may have steps and B) I suspected it was close to the edge of a cliff. It was a nice wide trail and pretty tame, be a lot more fun next time. At the bottom of the track we rode some more sealed road the hill to the gannet colony track. I haven’t been there for a while and was surprised that after a 100 meters of gentle climb to the top the track had been stepped all the way back down to the bottom car park. The steps were in sets of 4 with about 4 metres of flat between them, there was probably 10 sets of steps down which was the longest run of steps I have done, enjoyed it, though I will say I was a bit worried about blowing the rear tube as I was running very low pressures from riding in the sand and was not expecting to be riding more wooden framed steps.
After the steps we rode back up the road and into the forest itself, having a bit of local knowledge certainly helped as I have always gone in from the bottom road which has meant a steep climb/push to the top, but we snuck around the easy gradient sealed road and in the back way almost at the top. There has been an awful lot of trail work in this end of the forest, seeing as we are not supposed to be riding there a lot of effort had gone into developing some gnarly short downhill tracks with some quite carefully constructed jumps, including road gaps. We did not do anything that serious and soon dropped back to sea level and rode some very vague tight twisting shingle track back to the beach road and then back to the cars.
All up it was a 2 hour ride, damn good fun as all rides are, cool to ride with some different people and some different trails and not take any of it too seriously. I will definitely be back for some Tuesday night rides.
Listening to some old "shoegazer" bands - Chapterhouse and My bloody valentine today.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
hmmm - 107% of max Heart Rate
A stunning late winter day today. Crystal clear blue skies, gentle but cool breeze, so I stayed in bed till 9.30 then went round to briefly visit my parents before they went on their 5 week trip to the UK.
I picked up the DMR from the bike shop after having the BB re-greased, the mechanic says the BB is just about totally shot – it is 6 years old so fair enough, but I want it to last a few more weeks until I can get the cash to buy another one. This week I am buying some almost new Shimano pedals and cleats from a fellow Vorber so need the cash.
Started installing the front mechanical disk brake but found the outer cable I had was not long enough so used what I had and got the rim brakes running sweetly for this weeks riding and will have another go at the weekend.
Went for a run up Exhibition drive. My plan was to do a fast lap then a slow lap. At the halfway point on the first lap I was hitting a reasonable pace and then realised had not set my damn watch, I tried keeping up the pace on the way back, but had really lost the motivation to push for a record time. So basically gave up, dropped the pace to slow and jogged back.
About 1km from the car I put on a good burst to see how far I could push the heart rate over 100% got up to 107 at 189 bpm. I will change the HRM to reflect the higher heart rate as I do worry that even on an average run I spend too much time over 85% of max.
I picked up the DMR from the bike shop after having the BB re-greased, the mechanic says the BB is just about totally shot – it is 6 years old so fair enough, but I want it to last a few more weeks until I can get the cash to buy another one. This week I am buying some almost new Shimano pedals and cleats from a fellow Vorber so need the cash.
Started installing the front mechanical disk brake but found the outer cable I had was not long enough so used what I had and got the rim brakes running sweetly for this weeks riding and will have another go at the weekend.
Went for a run up Exhibition drive. My plan was to do a fast lap then a slow lap. At the halfway point on the first lap I was hitting a reasonable pace and then realised had not set my damn watch, I tried keeping up the pace on the way back, but had really lost the motivation to push for a record time. So basically gave up, dropped the pace to slow and jogged back.
About 1km from the car I put on a good burst to see how far I could push the heart rate over 100% got up to 107 at 189 bpm. I will change the HRM to reflect the higher heart rate as I do worry that even on an average run I spend too much time over 85% of max.
Mechanical disk brakes.
I have been thinking about buying some second hand mechanical disk brakes for the DMR for quite a while and have been keeping a casual eye on a couple of forums and the trademe web site.
Finally someone on Vorb posted their old Shimano mech. disks for sale and I leapt in and accepted his price of $50. To make this the coolest thing the seller said he would gift them
to me for all the work I have been doing track building.
In return I gave the $50 to Vorb and became a foundation member.
We were all winners.
Here are the brakes, I went to put them on the DMR today but the outer cable I had lying around was too short, will get some fresh cable tomorrow and have a crack tomorrow night.
Finally someone on Vorb posted their old Shimano mech. disks for sale and I leapt in and accepted his price of $50. To make this the coolest thing the seller said he would gift them
to me for all the work I have been doing track building.In return I gave the $50 to Vorb and became a foundation member.
We were all winners.
Here are the brakes, I went to put them on the DMR today but the outer cable I had lying around was too short, will get some fresh cable tomorrow and have a crack tomorrow night.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
A good ride
Had a pretty good ride at Woodhill today. Rode with a friend who was on his fairly new GT single speed, and on his second ride after knee problems. The weather was not too bad, cloudy and cool but no rain.
Unusually we rode up the road to the start of the Big Mama track and then dropped in for the first half of Big Mama. I was riding Ok, we rode up the Big Mama hill and I was feeling pretty good at the top which was way better than last time I rode it. Sadly the top 2 jumps, which I have always felt comfortable doing, have been changed.
Historically Woodhill has had most of the smaller, and even some of the bigger jumps, with flat landings, bad design in an era of ignorance. But they have been like that for an awful long time and while some don’t like them I was used to them and it meant that I could hit them at a speed that suited me, slowly ! Now they have been rebuilt with wooden framed landings and I am sure if I hit them I would case the landing and trash my rear wheel. Which means I do not jump much any more as there are not too many jumps that do not have newly built landings. This pisses me off a bit as I did enjoy doing the jumps I did in the way I did them… oh well, back to the ride.
We dropped down the last section of Spaghetti to the old car park and then did more road work up to the start of Haggis. I had a great ride up Haggis, I really hit the groove on that track, first time I have ridden the whole first section fully seated, I do believe that some of the trainer work and the session at Rotorua has built a bit of grinding strength. We then did Northern Exposure and then hit my trail again. The new section is bedding in well though there was one bend that just does not flow for me, I have gone over the side both times I have ridden it, so I will take a spade up and widen and berm it. We the rode down Ironhorse which I have not done in its entirety for ages and then back up Anaconda, felt good on that trail as well which was a first.
Back up the side of Conifer and Haggis then up the combo trail which was a bit of a grind and then down through the new trail which has bedded in well. This section of trail is in the race in 2 weeks so I will ride it again next week and get the layout firmly bedded in my mind.
All up a really good ride, things glowed well though my rear brakes need a serious adjustment and the BB was squeaking like mad. I dropped the bike in to the LBS and they said they would do re-grease and pack the BB ready for me to pick up tomorrow.
Unusually we rode up the road to the start of the Big Mama track and then dropped in for the first half of Big Mama. I was riding Ok, we rode up the Big Mama hill and I was feeling pretty good at the top which was way better than last time I rode it. Sadly the top 2 jumps, which I have always felt comfortable doing, have been changed.
Historically Woodhill has had most of the smaller, and even some of the bigger jumps, with flat landings, bad design in an era of ignorance. But they have been like that for an awful long time and while some don’t like them I was used to them and it meant that I could hit them at a speed that suited me, slowly ! Now they have been rebuilt with wooden framed landings and I am sure if I hit them I would case the landing and trash my rear wheel. Which means I do not jump much any more as there are not too many jumps that do not have newly built landings. This pisses me off a bit as I did enjoy doing the jumps I did in the way I did them… oh well, back to the ride.
We dropped down the last section of Spaghetti to the old car park and then did more road work up to the start of Haggis. I had a great ride up Haggis, I really hit the groove on that track, first time I have ridden the whole first section fully seated, I do believe that some of the trainer work and the session at Rotorua has built a bit of grinding strength. We then did Northern Exposure and then hit my trail again. The new section is bedding in well though there was one bend that just does not flow for me, I have gone over the side both times I have ridden it, so I will take a spade up and widen and berm it. We the rode down Ironhorse which I have not done in its entirety for ages and then back up Anaconda, felt good on that trail as well which was a first.
Back up the side of Conifer and Haggis then up the combo trail which was a bit of a grind and then down through the new trail which has bedded in well. This section of trail is in the race in 2 weeks so I will ride it again next week and get the layout firmly bedded in my mind.
All up a really good ride, things glowed well though my rear brakes need a serious adjustment and the BB was squeaking like mad. I dropped the bike in to the LBS and they said they would do re-grease and pack the BB ready for me to pick up tomorrow.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Woot woot - The Buzzcocks are coming to town
Just read in the paper today - The Buzzcocks are playing a gig on September 10th at the Saint James Theatre in Auckland.
I am very excited. My favourite band of all time, though I have never seen them, they played in Auckland once in the 90s but I was out of time on a family holiday and couldn't go.
Yes they are old, and yes they have released a new album that is probably awful, though I will purchase it, but they will play old stuff.
Yahoooooooo
I am very excited. My favourite band of all time, though I have never seen them, they played in Auckland once in the 90s but I was out of time on a family holiday and couldn't go.
Yes they are old, and yes they have released a new album that is probably awful, though I will purchase it, but they will play old stuff.
Yahoooooooo
Spin spin spin
Had 2 good rides on the trainer this week.
Wednesday night I did a good hour long session, worked up a massive sweat even though the tempreture was below 10 degrees. good mix of spin and digging it in.
Spent the hour listening to Dead Kennedys "Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables" LP followed by some Clutch as that was the next CD in the stacker.
Thursday night I did a 40 minute light spin, watched an episode of Prison Break to keep me amused. So far I have not been bored on the spinner ! Will aim for a 2 hour session one night next week.
The 12 hour race is 2 weekends away. team of SSer's - I am looking forward to to it.
Listening to the Buzzcocks - Singles going steady
Wednesday night I did a good hour long session, worked up a massive sweat even though the tempreture was below 10 degrees. good mix of spin and digging it in.
Spent the hour listening to Dead Kennedys "Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables" LP followed by some Clutch as that was the next CD in the stacker.
Thursday night I did a 40 minute light spin, watched an episode of Prison Break to keep me amused. So far I have not been bored on the spinner ! Will aim for a 2 hour session one night next week.
The 12 hour race is 2 weekends away. team of SSer's - I am looking forward to to it.
Listening to the Buzzcocks - Singles going steady
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Today's run
Had a quick road run this afternoon. 10km 56 minutes.
Did the Titirangi Rd loop, not the best time, but I felt very flat for most of the run and there was quite a strong head wind up Titirangi Rd. Still it was nice to run again and to follow up yesterdays ride with a run.
World cup final tomorrow morning so up early. England did not make it again, out on penalties as usual...
Listening to Built to Spill after a good write up in the paper.
Did the Titirangi Rd loop, not the best time, but I felt very flat for most of the run and there was quite a strong head wind up Titirangi Rd. Still it was nice to run again and to follow up yesterdays ride with a run.
World cup final tomorrow morning so up early. England did not make it again, out on penalties as usual...
Listening to Built to Spill after a good write up in the paper.
Rotorua Sifty Single Speed ride.
Photos to come - for some reason I cannot post them.
Another Vaguely Organised Ride (Vorb.org.nz) for single speeders on the wonderful Rotorua single track. 10 riders from 4 towns said they would attend, but there is always more enthusiasm than reality on Vorb rides.
I wasn’t sure if I would make this ride either after being a bit down with a head cold earlier in the week. The weather forecast had not been that hot either and riders were starting to make noises about not going. My wife decided to come down wit the youngest and 1 of his friends and enjoy some of the other many pleasures of this wonderful adventure tourism town.
Saturday morning we work up at 7.00, 30 minutes late, and quickly piled into the car and took off 22 minutes later than planned. Stopped for breakie at the traditional MacDonalds stop, though I just filled the car with gas and didn’t even get my morning coffee. We were still running about 20 minutes late so but I wasn’t really driving too fast, tried to keep the speed between 100 and 110 km’s (speed limit is 100, but they ‘allow’ up to 110). But as always happens when my wife comes away on biking trips I got stopped for speeding, first time in 5 years. Damn $80 fine for 113km and another 10 minute delay. Stopped for a takeway coffee at Fizgerald Glade and rang the boys, I wasn’t the only one not there ! the Hamilton boys were late as usual. Finally got there 35 minutes late, Unloaded my stuff from the car and the wife and kids left me to it.
Amazingly almost everyone turned up. We had 8 singles speeders and 2 geared bikes. I have never seen 8 single speeders together ever. Awesome !
We rode the road as a warm up, of course there was a bit of racing going up the short climbs, but in theory it was a warm up…
The first trail we rode was A Trail, nice flowy single track – as is all of Rotorua, then the Tickler were we stopped for a munch and a photo before 7 of us took off for the ride up Hill Rd to the Rollercoaster, then Spring roll and Chop suey – or vice versa, not sure of all the names up there. I rode most of it, walked one small section, not realising the trail ended a few metres round the corner. The ‘back’ trails are just so wonderful, even after all the rain the conditions were generally firm underneath, with the soft section. We picked up the 2 geared bikes and the other single speeder at the start of Be rude not too (one of the best tracks in the forest), though the tank was starting to run low as always when we hit this trail. We ended up with a sore tired ‘sprint’ of the Diamondback trail, which is a fairly flat, almost rock hard trail with some nice big berms and natural(ish) drops and jumps. At the mid way point on the trail there is a gully that drops fairly steeply, and rises the same, we were catching our breath there when we heard the slide of brakes, a moments silence, the thump of a body hitting the ground and an ‘oooo’ from those who could see. We all rushed over to help/observe and saw and older guy in the mud on the ground. He was ok, (maybe bruised ribs) fortunately, lost the front wheel while riding the brakes down the gully. His mate had filmed it fortunately for us, and man it was a stylish over the bars dive !
Finished off the ride, and then met for a pre-ride scoff at Burger King before driving home.
Awesome ride, good company, wicked trails, no mechanicals and only one person fell off – getting on his bike at the end of the road climb…
Link to the ride post is here. http://www.vorb.org.nz/ftopicp-892978.html#892978
Listening to the Velvet Underground this morning, it has been a while and I am very much enjoying it.
Another Vaguely Organised Ride (Vorb.org.nz) for single speeders on the wonderful Rotorua single track. 10 riders from 4 towns said they would attend, but there is always more enthusiasm than reality on Vorb rides.
I wasn’t sure if I would make this ride either after being a bit down with a head cold earlier in the week. The weather forecast had not been that hot either and riders were starting to make noises about not going. My wife decided to come down wit the youngest and 1 of his friends and enjoy some of the other many pleasures of this wonderful adventure tourism town.
Saturday morning we work up at 7.00, 30 minutes late, and quickly piled into the car and took off 22 minutes later than planned. Stopped for breakie at the traditional MacDonalds stop, though I just filled the car with gas and didn’t even get my morning coffee. We were still running about 20 minutes late so but I wasn’t really driving too fast, tried to keep the speed between 100 and 110 km’s (speed limit is 100, but they ‘allow’ up to 110). But as always happens when my wife comes away on biking trips I got stopped for speeding, first time in 5 years. Damn $80 fine for 113km and another 10 minute delay. Stopped for a takeway coffee at Fizgerald Glade and rang the boys, I wasn’t the only one not there ! the Hamilton boys were late as usual. Finally got there 35 minutes late, Unloaded my stuff from the car and the wife and kids left me to it.
Amazingly almost everyone turned up. We had 8 singles speeders and 2 geared bikes. I have never seen 8 single speeders together ever. Awesome !
We rode the road as a warm up, of course there was a bit of racing going up the short climbs, but in theory it was a warm up…
The first trail we rode was A Trail, nice flowy single track – as is all of Rotorua, then the Tickler were we stopped for a munch and a photo before 7 of us took off for the ride up Hill Rd to the Rollercoaster, then Spring roll and Chop suey – or vice versa, not sure of all the names up there. I rode most of it, walked one small section, not realising the trail ended a few metres round the corner. The ‘back’ trails are just so wonderful, even after all the rain the conditions were generally firm underneath, with the soft section. We picked up the 2 geared bikes and the other single speeder at the start of Be rude not too (one of the best tracks in the forest), though the tank was starting to run low as always when we hit this trail. We ended up with a sore tired ‘sprint’ of the Diamondback trail, which is a fairly flat, almost rock hard trail with some nice big berms and natural(ish) drops and jumps. At the mid way point on the trail there is a gully that drops fairly steeply, and rises the same, we were catching our breath there when we heard the slide of brakes, a moments silence, the thump of a body hitting the ground and an ‘oooo’ from those who could see. We all rushed over to help/observe and saw and older guy in the mud on the ground. He was ok, (maybe bruised ribs) fortunately, lost the front wheel while riding the brakes down the gully. His mate had filmed it fortunately for us, and man it was a stylish over the bars dive !
Finished off the ride, and then met for a pre-ride scoff at Burger King before driving home.
Awesome ride, good company, wicked trails, no mechanicals and only one person fell off – getting on his bike at the end of the road climb…
Link to the ride post is here. http://www.vorb.org.nz/ftopicp-892978.html#892978
Listening to the Velvet Underground this morning, it has been a while and I am very much enjoying it.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Rip it up and start again
As the new car does not have a cd player and the radio has not been converted from Japanese frequencies to New Zealand so I only can pick up 3 (awful) stations, I have been listening to a lot of cassettes lately.
I have about 100 old cassettes stored out in the sleep out, some of these are just awful, some do not work but some are just fantastic. Most of these were either purchased or recorded in the early 80’s, though there are a few from the late 90’s before I had a car cd player. It is the late 70’s and 80’s stuff I have had the most pleasure listening to, old Wire, Joy Division and New Order, Killing Joke and obscure New Zealand bands. This has also inspired me to go back to my vinyl collection to record some mix tapes, especially the 45’s which I tend not to play when I do throw vinyl on the stereo. It has been a great musical re-education, there was so much good music happening back then, and a lot of it was so fresh.
I have been off sick from work for the past couple of days with a head cold that laid me down on Monday afternoon. Tuesday I had to go down to the local library to get some reading material and found a new book called “Rip it up and start again – Post punk 1978 – 1984”, it is quite a weighty tome, coming in at over 550 pages. A lot of it is full of twaddle with the author showing off lots of big words and name dropping all sorts of artists/activists etc etc, but it is a very interesting history of that immediate post punk period when I was a teenager. It also arrived at the time I have been listening to music from that period again. A recommended read.
So today I am listening to a whole range of fairly obscure artists from 78-84 – Swell maps, Throbbing gristle, Cabaret Voltaire etc etc
I have about 100 old cassettes stored out in the sleep out, some of these are just awful, some do not work but some are just fantastic. Most of these were either purchased or recorded in the early 80’s, though there are a few from the late 90’s before I had a car cd player. It is the late 70’s and 80’s stuff I have had the most pleasure listening to, old Wire, Joy Division and New Order, Killing Joke and obscure New Zealand bands. This has also inspired me to go back to my vinyl collection to record some mix tapes, especially the 45’s which I tend not to play when I do throw vinyl on the stereo. It has been a great musical re-education, there was so much good music happening back then, and a lot of it was so fresh.
I have been off sick from work for the past couple of days with a head cold that laid me down on Monday afternoon. Tuesday I had to go down to the local library to get some reading material and found a new book called “Rip it up and start again – Post punk 1978 – 1984”, it is quite a weighty tome, coming in at over 550 pages. A lot of it is full of twaddle with the author showing off lots of big words and name dropping all sorts of artists/activists etc etc, but it is a very interesting history of that immediate post punk period when I was a teenager. It also arrived at the time I have been listening to music from that period again. A recommended read.
So today I am listening to a whole range of fairly obscure artists from 78-84 – Swell maps, Throbbing gristle, Cabaret Voltaire etc etc
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Sick
Been sick the last few days, no work, no ride, no run.
stupid head cold.
Have been reading books.
stupid head cold.
Have been reading books.
Monday, July 03, 2006
A great Woodhill ride
The last week has had some stunning winter weather, crisp and cool with cloudless skies and no wind – it was also the officially coldest June in since 1972. The forecast for the coming week is not so hot unfortunately with rain supposed to settle in this afternoon, luckily my head cold chose this week to start so I am not going to miss out on too many crystal clear nights.
Had a most awesome ride on Saturday – for a change I rode with 2 other single speeders and no geared bikes. We all had different gear ratios, levels of fitness and abilities though when everything was all added together we were reasonably compatible and I think everyone felt as broken as me at the end of the ride. I had ridden with 1 of the riders before as we are both Vorbii but the second guy was a complete stranger to both of us, but we all got on well which was good.
We rode up Powerball, down Spaghetti to Afterglow, Afterglow, then up the road to Northern Exposure then onto my trail – No Brakes. Someone had changed the entrance to the new extension on the track, using a couple of small logs they had blocked off the existing trail forcing people to ride the extension - I wasn’t complaining as the track needed wheels on it to bed it in, I hadn’t even run my own wheels over it since I had completed the grooming. The track rode well; only one corner that felt like it needed changing so I will wait a few more weeks and then re-evaluate it.
After that we rode Python, Anaconda and back along the fence line to the top of Cookie then back down the new part of the Raceface trail that I helped dig a couple of weeks back. That trail has had a lot of bikes over it and is really well packed in – rides quite nicely. Not sure how many KM’s we did, but all up we were out for close to 3 hours and we were not riding particularly slowly either.
One of the great things about this ride is I spent a bit of time following the new rider, who has been riding single speed bikes for quite a few years. He rode his bike exactly how you read it the magazines so I tried to emulate him, follow his lines and body positions as we rode the tracks. I think I learned something !
Listening to Film School today – never heard of them before – quite like it so far.
Had a most awesome ride on Saturday – for a change I rode with 2 other single speeders and no geared bikes. We all had different gear ratios, levels of fitness and abilities though when everything was all added together we were reasonably compatible and I think everyone felt as broken as me at the end of the ride. I had ridden with 1 of the riders before as we are both Vorbii but the second guy was a complete stranger to both of us, but we all got on well which was good.
We rode up Powerball, down Spaghetti to Afterglow, Afterglow, then up the road to Northern Exposure then onto my trail – No Brakes. Someone had changed the entrance to the new extension on the track, using a couple of small logs they had blocked off the existing trail forcing people to ride the extension - I wasn’t complaining as the track needed wheels on it to bed it in, I hadn’t even run my own wheels over it since I had completed the grooming. The track rode well; only one corner that felt like it needed changing so I will wait a few more weeks and then re-evaluate it.
After that we rode Python, Anaconda and back along the fence line to the top of Cookie then back down the new part of the Raceface trail that I helped dig a couple of weeks back. That trail has had a lot of bikes over it and is really well packed in – rides quite nicely. Not sure how many KM’s we did, but all up we were out for close to 3 hours and we were not riding particularly slowly either.
One of the great things about this ride is I spent a bit of time following the new rider, who has been riding single speed bikes for quite a few years. He rode his bike exactly how you read it the magazines so I tried to emulate him, follow his lines and body positions as we rode the tracks. I think I learned something !
Listening to Film School today – never heard of them before – quite like it so far.
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