Here is my favourite, when I get Photoshop I will clean the flash reflection dots from his eyes.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
The first shot I am happy with
The bad weather continued into the evening and with no plans and Star Wars Episode II on TV entertaining the youngest I started playing with my new camera, checking out some of the functions. Though I have now taken 215 shots - I love digital ! There are only 1 or 2 I actually like. The Youngest has snapped a fair few of the 212 as well, I am happy for him to use the camera as long as he is careful.
Here is my favourite, when I get Photoshop I will clean the flash reflection dots from his eyes.
Here is my favourite, when I get Photoshop I will clean the flash reflection dots from his eyes.
Running is boring
OK, running is a little bit boring, but not too bad, writing about going for a run is boring however, and I expect reading about someone who has been on a meaningless 5k run is more boring than writing about it. But that is what my life is going to be for the next 3 months as I train for this first marathon.
I could write about work but, man, that is even worse. Photography hasnt really started for me yet, though I hope to get some in this weekend. I have a few projects I am going to focus on - graffiti, bands, blue skies, punk/metal/goth people and imagery, but I will snap anything that is of interest.
Anyway back to the running.
As we were childless after work on Thursday my wife and I decided to go for a run along the waterfront, and she would have a go at 5 kms. We drove back into the city and out to the end of St Heliers beach, at the start of the marked 10 km run. It was quite windy and very humid though it wasn’t raining at least. We took a very slow jog from St Heliers to the traffic lights in Mission Bay and back again, Deana stopped about 100 metres from the end but I made her carry on so she achieved her goal. It was her longest run in many many years and a good achievement.
It was good for me to run slowly, I need to learn how to do this for the longer runs that are coming up soon.
This weekend I have two 10k runs scheduled, the forecast is awful for the whole weekend with strong winds, rain and high humidity set for the next three or four days. I was hoping to get and do something fun with the youngest over the weekend as he will be away for the next couple at least.
As the weather was so pants I got up late and had coffee and toast before heading out for a slow 10km at 8.30. My aim was to take my time and keep the pace down to a bare minimum but pick up the pace for the small climbs scattered along the course. I ran down Godley Rd, up past Craigavon park to Blockhouse Bay, along BHB Rd to Wolverton Rd, back down Portage and up Godley. It took 1 hour 5 and I am guessing it was between 10 and 11k, though I am not overly concerned about time on the slow runs. Tomorrow I am doing a faster 10k and will stick to the tried and true Titirangi Rd loop.
The damn MP3 playing mobile phone had a flat battery this morning, that just sucks, I do like to run to loud music, I have charged it up again for the run tomorrow but I think the battery is screwed. I am going to have buy myself a proper MP3 player I guess.
Having a play with the camera today, Hope to get out to Whatipu or one of the wild west coast beaches tomorrow to get some ‘stormy’ weather photos.
On Friday I finally managed to get a copy of the new Mint Chicks CD “Crazy Yes, Dumb No”. It was voted in numerous productions as one of the albums of 2006 so naturally it sold out, though I expecting it will sit un-played in a few collections. I have only had 1 listen and it is not as loud and fun as the first album “f**k the golden youth, but not too bad at all.
In celebration of listening to loud fast guitar pop (and I try to only listen to vinyl in the house as I cannot play it in the car !) I am listening a couple of early Soup Dragons EP’s. They are very Buzzcocksy, but with their own twist, they are such good EP’s, as is often the case the LP and everything since was crap.
I could write about work but, man, that is even worse. Photography hasnt really started for me yet, though I hope to get some in this weekend. I have a few projects I am going to focus on - graffiti, bands, blue skies, punk/metal/goth people and imagery, but I will snap anything that is of interest.
Anyway back to the running.
As we were childless after work on Thursday my wife and I decided to go for a run along the waterfront, and she would have a go at 5 kms. We drove back into the city and out to the end of St Heliers beach, at the start of the marked 10 km run. It was quite windy and very humid though it wasn’t raining at least. We took a very slow jog from St Heliers to the traffic lights in Mission Bay and back again, Deana stopped about 100 metres from the end but I made her carry on so she achieved her goal. It was her longest run in many many years and a good achievement.
It was good for me to run slowly, I need to learn how to do this for the longer runs that are coming up soon.
This weekend I have two 10k runs scheduled, the forecast is awful for the whole weekend with strong winds, rain and high humidity set for the next three or four days. I was hoping to get and do something fun with the youngest over the weekend as he will be away for the next couple at least.
As the weather was so pants I got up late and had coffee and toast before heading out for a slow 10km at 8.30. My aim was to take my time and keep the pace down to a bare minimum but pick up the pace for the small climbs scattered along the course. I ran down Godley Rd, up past Craigavon park to Blockhouse Bay, along BHB Rd to Wolverton Rd, back down Portage and up Godley. It took 1 hour 5 and I am guessing it was between 10 and 11k, though I am not overly concerned about time on the slow runs. Tomorrow I am doing a faster 10k and will stick to the tried and true Titirangi Rd loop.
The damn MP3 playing mobile phone had a flat battery this morning, that just sucks, I do like to run to loud music, I have charged it up again for the run tomorrow but I think the battery is screwed. I am going to have buy myself a proper MP3 player I guess.
Having a play with the camera today, Hope to get out to Whatipu or one of the wild west coast beaches tomorrow to get some ‘stormy’ weather photos.
On Friday I finally managed to get a copy of the new Mint Chicks CD “Crazy Yes, Dumb No”. It was voted in numerous productions as one of the albums of 2006 so naturally it sold out, though I expecting it will sit un-played in a few collections. I have only had 1 listen and it is not as loud and fun as the first album “f**k the golden youth, but not too bad at all.
In celebration of listening to loud fast guitar pop (and I try to only listen to vinyl in the house as I cannot play it in the car !) I am listening a couple of early Soup Dragons EP’s. They are very Buzzcocksy, but with their own twist, they are such good EP’s, as is often the case the LP and everything since was crap.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Hog run
The first Loaded Hog run of 2007 took place on Tuesday night, I had brought my running gear into work on the off chance my wife would join me in town for a quick run along the waterfront after work. The weather was vile, windy and wet, so it was no surprise when she did not come in. I was on my way home when one of the guys asked if I was running as he was going to attend, so I made my way to the car to get my gear instead.
As I headed out from the hog for a 5 minute warm up the heavens opened up and it poured down, it was not the most inspiring warm up ever ! The actual race was run with only a small amount of drizzle but the wind was quite strong. The pace was lightening fast and as usual I went out to quickly and was being passed by loads of people by the first kilometre as I started to drop back to the correct pace. I thought I was struggling by the time we hit the half way turn around point but my watch said slightly over 10 minutes which is pretty quick for me. The second half was harder but I kept to a reasonable pace and finished in 22:18 which I was pretty happy with, considering I had run 21k 2 days before. Sadly my work mate beat me !
My father in law has been slowly dying from gall bladder cancer for a while now and we got the message last night that he has 4 weeks left to go. My wife and youngest son are going to head over to Australia next week for a while and spend some time with him. I will head over later for the funeral I guess. Not the best news, but it is good to finally get some closure I guess.
My wife is 11 days into non-smoking and has started some slow jogging. When I got home from work tonight we went out for a slow jog along Exhibition drive. My program has me doing a slow 5 km so we started on that to see how she would go, in the end she turned around at the 2 km mark, but that is a pretty good effort some one who hasn’t run for a while. I cruised on and finished a 5kmer. It was quite humid and warm, but at least it was not raining and windy.
I sat down to load a marathon training schedule into Excel last night. It is quite scary how many klicks I have to run to be ready, I look at this schedule and find it hard to believe I will be able to do it. Slow and steady will be the way to go, I am doing lots of reading on training and rest and diet to keep me motivated and I have 3 half marathons along the way. I just hope my right knee holds out !
I think I will be dropping all riding for the next 3 and half months, the Colville race is out, I cannot train and compete in both events I am just not anywhere near fit enough. Though with wife and youngest in Aussie next weekend I might squeeze in a 21km run on Saturday and do the Vorb Waharau ride on Sunday, slow and easy ride (push up the hills) though. I should get the bike ready this weekend in case.
As I headed out from the hog for a 5 minute warm up the heavens opened up and it poured down, it was not the most inspiring warm up ever ! The actual race was run with only a small amount of drizzle but the wind was quite strong. The pace was lightening fast and as usual I went out to quickly and was being passed by loads of people by the first kilometre as I started to drop back to the correct pace. I thought I was struggling by the time we hit the half way turn around point but my watch said slightly over 10 minutes which is pretty quick for me. The second half was harder but I kept to a reasonable pace and finished in 22:18 which I was pretty happy with, considering I had run 21k 2 days before. Sadly my work mate beat me !
My father in law has been slowly dying from gall bladder cancer for a while now and we got the message last night that he has 4 weeks left to go. My wife and youngest son are going to head over to Australia next week for a while and spend some time with him. I will head over later for the funeral I guess. Not the best news, but it is good to finally get some closure I guess.
My wife is 11 days into non-smoking and has started some slow jogging. When I got home from work tonight we went out for a slow jog along Exhibition drive. My program has me doing a slow 5 km so we started on that to see how she would go, in the end she turned around at the 2 km mark, but that is a pretty good effort some one who hasn’t run for a while. I cruised on and finished a 5kmer. It was quite humid and warm, but at least it was not raining and windy.
I sat down to load a marathon training schedule into Excel last night. It is quite scary how many klicks I have to run to be ready, I look at this schedule and find it hard to believe I will be able to do it. Slow and steady will be the way to go, I am doing lots of reading on training and rest and diet to keep me motivated and I have 3 half marathons along the way. I just hope my right knee holds out !
I think I will be dropping all riding for the next 3 and half months, the Colville race is out, I cannot train and compete in both events I am just not anywhere near fit enough. Though with wife and youngest in Aussie next weekend I might squeeze in a 21km run on Saturday and do the Vorb Waharau ride on Sunday, slow and easy ride (push up the hills) though. I should get the bike ready this weekend in case.
Monday, January 08, 2007
2007 - the year so far.
Welcome to 2007.
The year so far has been OK. I did not take holiday time from work so have attended the office a few times. I have actually been busier than anticipated so did not get through much of the work I planned. But that is not entirely unusual.
As is tradition in New Zealand the weather over Christmas/new Year is arse, this year was no exception though it was less arse than it could be. On New Years Day we went up to Army Bay to go snorkelling as youngest son (13 years old) has a real bug for it now and Goat Island is too far to go to all the time. The weather was not the best and there was a bit of chop at Army Bay, we could see OK but there was just nothing to see which was a shame. We swam around for 30 minutes before youngest started to get cold – and he has a wet suit as well !. Once we got out of the water and changed it rained really heavily. We went home soon after that !
The following day we took youngest son and his mate down to the Karangaheke gorge, about an hour and a half drive south east of Auckland. The day was much nicer than New Years day and we had a pretty good drive there. The walk is quite nice, includes an old train tunnel that is over a km long plus numerous caves to explore. I took a lot of photos on the new camera but deleted most in the end. The camera is so different to my old SLR from 20 or so years ago, it is going to take me a while to work out all the functions.
I worked the next 3 days.
Last Saturday we went back up to Goat Island for another snorkel, though the sun never really came through the cloud so it stayed quite cool and the water lacked the clarity from two weeks ago. Had a fun snorkel around and came home early.
Sunday I was up at six and down to the waterfront for a 21 km run. The weather was almost perfect for running, light cloud and sunny patches, not too cold, though there was a reasonable breeze that moved around a bit. I parked at the St Heliers and ran from the changing rooms to The Strand, up through the domain, down St Stephens and Gladstone Rds back the The Strand and back along the waterfront to the car. The run went Ok, slower than I would have liked at exactly 2 hours, but I have not run that distance for well over a year and when I did run it I never ran routes with a hill like the domain… The main thing was I did not feel too bad, though I could not have run too much further. After the run I jumped into the sea for a cool down walk and dip before driving home.
For the last four weeks I have been, mostly, following quite a rigorous half marathon training program. I have not seen a program that has you running the distance twice before the event; normally you only ever do most of the distance prior to the big day. I quite like this new program ! In the next week or so I will start to check out the full marathon program as I am going to find that one tough.
My wife finished her degree at the end of last year and is now looking for a job, once she has settled into something I will review my own employment plans.
That’s about if for the start of the year, I have listened to some good music, read a couple of good books, seen some good movies, so all in all considering it has only been 8 days, 2007 has been good. I have some good things lined up, with a Marathon as my key physical goal and getting my photography going again to get my creative side working, rock on 2007. I even plan to ride the bike as much as I can without breaking the training program.
Bought the new Slayer CD as it was only $15, it is not too bad, certainly better than some of the other works. I have been after the last Mint Chicks CD but it was voted CD of the year for 2006 and has been out of stock ever since…
Oh yeah - I am back drinking coffee, though I have managed to keep it to 3 cups a day and only one ‘real’ coffee. The coffee reduction didn’t help my lack of sleep, today I am so tired…
The year so far has been OK. I did not take holiday time from work so have attended the office a few times. I have actually been busier than anticipated so did not get through much of the work I planned. But that is not entirely unusual.
As is tradition in New Zealand the weather over Christmas/new Year is arse, this year was no exception though it was less arse than it could be. On New Years Day we went up to Army Bay to go snorkelling as youngest son (13 years old) has a real bug for it now and Goat Island is too far to go to all the time. The weather was not the best and there was a bit of chop at Army Bay, we could see OK but there was just nothing to see which was a shame. We swam around for 30 minutes before youngest started to get cold – and he has a wet suit as well !. Once we got out of the water and changed it rained really heavily. We went home soon after that !
The following day we took youngest son and his mate down to the Karangaheke gorge, about an hour and a half drive south east of Auckland. The day was much nicer than New Years day and we had a pretty good drive there. The walk is quite nice, includes an old train tunnel that is over a km long plus numerous caves to explore. I took a lot of photos on the new camera but deleted most in the end. The camera is so different to my old SLR from 20 or so years ago, it is going to take me a while to work out all the functions.
I worked the next 3 days.
Last Saturday we went back up to Goat Island for another snorkel, though the sun never really came through the cloud so it stayed quite cool and the water lacked the clarity from two weeks ago. Had a fun snorkel around and came home early.
Sunday I was up at six and down to the waterfront for a 21 km run. The weather was almost perfect for running, light cloud and sunny patches, not too cold, though there was a reasonable breeze that moved around a bit. I parked at the St Heliers and ran from the changing rooms to The Strand, up through the domain, down St Stephens and Gladstone Rds back the The Strand and back along the waterfront to the car. The run went Ok, slower than I would have liked at exactly 2 hours, but I have not run that distance for well over a year and when I did run it I never ran routes with a hill like the domain… The main thing was I did not feel too bad, though I could not have run too much further. After the run I jumped into the sea for a cool down walk and dip before driving home.
For the last four weeks I have been, mostly, following quite a rigorous half marathon training program. I have not seen a program that has you running the distance twice before the event; normally you only ever do most of the distance prior to the big day. I quite like this new program ! In the next week or so I will start to check out the full marathon program as I am going to find that one tough.
My wife finished her degree at the end of last year and is now looking for a job, once she has settled into something I will review my own employment plans.
That’s about if for the start of the year, I have listened to some good music, read a couple of good books, seen some good movies, so all in all considering it has only been 8 days, 2007 has been good. I have some good things lined up, with a Marathon as my key physical goal and getting my photography going again to get my creative side working, rock on 2007. I even plan to ride the bike as much as I can without breaking the training program.
Bought the new Slayer CD as it was only $15, it is not too bad, certainly better than some of the other works. I have been after the last Mint Chicks CD but it was voted CD of the year for 2006 and has been out of stock ever since…
Oh yeah - I am back drinking coffee, though I have managed to keep it to 3 cups a day and only one ‘real’ coffee. The coffee reduction didn’t help my lack of sleep, today I am so tired…
2006 closed.
My general slackness has continued through the festive season and into the new year, though I have been picking up the training for the half marathons that are coming up in February.
I have just read back to the last post and I had missed a fair bit out of that, so lets do a brief summary of the end of 2006.
To celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary on the last week of November my wife and I went to Queensland for a holiday without the kids. The youngest stayed with my sister and the older two stayed at home by themselves. This was a big trust thing for us and we were pretty pleased with how it all worked out. The holiday itself was good, 4 days on the Gold Coast with the In-laws was OK and then we went up to Cairns for another few days which was great. We did a snorkel/dive on the barrier reef which was expensive but just amazing, drove up to the Daintree and around the tablelands for a couple of days. It was a great trip, no stress for 4 days, one of the better holidays I have had, and would have deserved a decent post.
Our daughter moved out for her first taste of flatting the week we got back from our holiday, it is strange not having her in the house. Though we have made her bedroom the computer room, which probably means less internet time for me as I usually surf while watching TV.
Had family Christmas day a week early this year as my parents were away for Christmas day in the south island with one of my sisters and my other sister was with the in-laws in Tauranga. Had a pretty good family afternoon, all the “kids” behaved themselves.
On the last day of normal work we packed it in early and had a few wines with lunch, I then went down to my old employers for a few drinks and ended up in the pub for a few more. Somewhere along the line things got beyond blurry and I have no recollection of anything at all happening between 6ish and 10ish. My memory kicks back in again around 10 and by this time I was at the Kings Arms tavern to see the Mint Chicks play. The support act Shaky hands were really good as well but the Mint Chicks, sans their recently departed vocalist kicked arse. I spent the whole set leaping up and down like, and with, the teenagers. My daughter was there as well and she gave me a lift home which was pretty cool.
The next day I vowed to stop drinking after new years eve, though I do not drink much or often, when I do I have a drink I seem to have blank spots in the night, this I have concluded is not a good thing !
Christmas was OK, we had a friend with us for the day and went visiting other friends for the afternoon, the weather was OK, had a few drinks and ate too much. I am not a big Christmas fan so it was all a bit ho-hum. Did get some good books though !
On Boxing Day we took the youngest up to Goat Island and went snorkelling, he has been wanting to do this for a while and the weather and tides were right. Had a great time, though the water is far from warm yet. Goat Island has been a marine reserve for many many years so there was a ton of fish and things to see. Youngest son had a blast.
I was meant to work through the non-stat holiday days, but the first day back at work was so supposed to be the only dry day for a few days I took the day off and a few of went down to Rotorua for the day to ride. Had a great ride, I took the SS and never regretted it, even though I did have to push up the hill to the top of a new trail called Billy T that is the highest point in the forest. The ride back down was grin inducing. As always we had a blast on the BRNT and Diamondback trails. Great riding was had by all…
Had two days back at work and didn’t really do much, surfed the net and fixed a few things, I should have been blogging then !
A while ago I decided that if I got a decent bonus this year I would buy myself a good camera, I spent a large portion of my two work days researching cameras and seeking opinions on them from friends. An old friend of ours who we haven’t seen for years even though they only live less than 2kms away is heavily into photography so I gave her a call and we went down to visit and talk cameras. It was really nice to catch up and decided then to get a Canon 400d twin lens pack as it was on special for $1800. I bought it the next day…
New years eve was quiet, went to a friend of Deana’s for dinner then to another friends for drinks and downtown to watch the fire works.
Finished drinking until at least April 28th when the Marathon is on.
I have just read back to the last post and I had missed a fair bit out of that, so lets do a brief summary of the end of 2006.
To celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary on the last week of November my wife and I went to Queensland for a holiday without the kids. The youngest stayed with my sister and the older two stayed at home by themselves. This was a big trust thing for us and we were pretty pleased with how it all worked out. The holiday itself was good, 4 days on the Gold Coast with the In-laws was OK and then we went up to Cairns for another few days which was great. We did a snorkel/dive on the barrier reef which was expensive but just amazing, drove up to the Daintree and around the tablelands for a couple of days. It was a great trip, no stress for 4 days, one of the better holidays I have had, and would have deserved a decent post.
Our daughter moved out for her first taste of flatting the week we got back from our holiday, it is strange not having her in the house. Though we have made her bedroom the computer room, which probably means less internet time for me as I usually surf while watching TV.
Had family Christmas day a week early this year as my parents were away for Christmas day in the south island with one of my sisters and my other sister was with the in-laws in Tauranga. Had a pretty good family afternoon, all the “kids” behaved themselves.
On the last day of normal work we packed it in early and had a few wines with lunch, I then went down to my old employers for a few drinks and ended up in the pub for a few more. Somewhere along the line things got beyond blurry and I have no recollection of anything at all happening between 6ish and 10ish. My memory kicks back in again around 10 and by this time I was at the Kings Arms tavern to see the Mint Chicks play. The support act Shaky hands were really good as well but the Mint Chicks, sans their recently departed vocalist kicked arse. I spent the whole set leaping up and down like, and with, the teenagers. My daughter was there as well and she gave me a lift home which was pretty cool.
The next day I vowed to stop drinking after new years eve, though I do not drink much or often, when I do I have a drink I seem to have blank spots in the night, this I have concluded is not a good thing !
Christmas was OK, we had a friend with us for the day and went visiting other friends for the afternoon, the weather was OK, had a few drinks and ate too much. I am not a big Christmas fan so it was all a bit ho-hum. Did get some good books though !
On Boxing Day we took the youngest up to Goat Island and went snorkelling, he has been wanting to do this for a while and the weather and tides were right. Had a great time, though the water is far from warm yet. Goat Island has been a marine reserve for many many years so there was a ton of fish and things to see. Youngest son had a blast.
I was meant to work through the non-stat holiday days, but the first day back at work was so supposed to be the only dry day for a few days I took the day off and a few of went down to Rotorua for the day to ride. Had a great ride, I took the SS and never regretted it, even though I did have to push up the hill to the top of a new trail called Billy T that is the highest point in the forest. The ride back down was grin inducing. As always we had a blast on the BRNT and Diamondback trails. Great riding was had by all…
Had two days back at work and didn’t really do much, surfed the net and fixed a few things, I should have been blogging then !
A while ago I decided that if I got a decent bonus this year I would buy myself a good camera, I spent a large portion of my two work days researching cameras and seeking opinions on them from friends. An old friend of ours who we haven’t seen for years even though they only live less than 2kms away is heavily into photography so I gave her a call and we went down to visit and talk cameras. It was really nice to catch up and decided then to get a Canon 400d twin lens pack as it was on special for $1800. I bought it the next day…
New years eve was quiet, went to a friend of Deana’s for dinner then to another friends for drinks and downtown to watch the fire works.
Finished drinking until at least April 28th when the Marathon is on.
Catch up 1
Wrote this in Word on December 15 and hvane posted it yet.
As well as spending 10 days away from computers on holiday I have continued to suffer my motivational crisis. I really cannot be bothered doing lots of things and keeping this record up to date has been one of those things. When I look at my last post from almost a month ago if suggest the same thing. So it is time to kick start the festive season and my event plan for 2007 with a blog update and good intentions to keep it up to date again.
Biking
Over the past month I or so I have done very little riding, I rode Wednesday night at Woodhill for the first time in ages. I took the AC for its maiden Woodhill voyage under my guidance. Found it tricky at first as I am used to riding the trails on the single speed, it took me a good hour to relax into riding a fully suspended bike, though at the end I was still grinding up climbs in the wrong gear. Riding down SPCA was so different, I had the seat too low, was always in the wrong gear and was bouncing around all over the place, I found there is a real difference in body positioning and balance between riding a hard tail and a fully suspended bike, I intend on riding the fully more over the next few weeks as I my ‘training plan’ is going to be based around road miles and 1 fun ride mid-week.
Last weekend I attended the final round of the Auckland MTB champs at Riverhead forest. Apart from an ill-fated run down to the bike shop the previous day I had not been on the bike for almost 5 weeks, so ‘racing’ at Riverhead was a bad idea. The day was good and there had not been too much rain in the preceding days so the course was remarkably dry, though Riverhead bogs never go away, its just the size that varies. I found the race to be incredibly tough, it was the first event I have ever competed in that I did not enjoy, not helped either by my first off road flat tyre…. The course was really not designed for single speeders, let alone unfit single speeders who have not been on their bike for 4 – 5 weeks. 9 started, 7 finished and I came last of the finishers, plus I only completed 2 of the 3 laps. I was not the only 1 who competed who did not finish though, there were a lot of drop outs in the geared classes as well. When I got home I found I had another flat tyre, which including the flat I had when I rode to the shops the previous day, means 3 flats in 2 days. I suspect something is up with my rim. One day I will take the tyre off and have a look, lethargy has prevented that happening so far…
Running.
I have semi-committed to doing the Rotorua marathon on April 28th so my focus over summer will be on getting my running miles up. I have also semi-committed to do the 70k Colville connection MTB race on 10 March so I need to develop a training plan till then that will get me some base miles on the bike up as well. Colville is 90% gravel road so road riding will be the go for training.
This weekend I aim to get together a decent training plan that will allow me to increase mileage on both bike and foot until Colville at least has passed. I am not really concerning myself with Colville too much, but I do have a time (and friends) to beat !
As well as spending 10 days away from computers on holiday I have continued to suffer my motivational crisis. I really cannot be bothered doing lots of things and keeping this record up to date has been one of those things. When I look at my last post from almost a month ago if suggest the same thing. So it is time to kick start the festive season and my event plan for 2007 with a blog update and good intentions to keep it up to date again.
Biking
Over the past month I or so I have done very little riding, I rode Wednesday night at Woodhill for the first time in ages. I took the AC for its maiden Woodhill voyage under my guidance. Found it tricky at first as I am used to riding the trails on the single speed, it took me a good hour to relax into riding a fully suspended bike, though at the end I was still grinding up climbs in the wrong gear. Riding down SPCA was so different, I had the seat too low, was always in the wrong gear and was bouncing around all over the place, I found there is a real difference in body positioning and balance between riding a hard tail and a fully suspended bike, I intend on riding the fully more over the next few weeks as I my ‘training plan’ is going to be based around road miles and 1 fun ride mid-week.
Last weekend I attended the final round of the Auckland MTB champs at Riverhead forest. Apart from an ill-fated run down to the bike shop the previous day I had not been on the bike for almost 5 weeks, so ‘racing’ at Riverhead was a bad idea. The day was good and there had not been too much rain in the preceding days so the course was remarkably dry, though Riverhead bogs never go away, its just the size that varies. I found the race to be incredibly tough, it was the first event I have ever competed in that I did not enjoy, not helped either by my first off road flat tyre…. The course was really not designed for single speeders, let alone unfit single speeders who have not been on their bike for 4 – 5 weeks. 9 started, 7 finished and I came last of the finishers, plus I only completed 2 of the 3 laps. I was not the only 1 who competed who did not finish though, there were a lot of drop outs in the geared classes as well. When I got home I found I had another flat tyre, which including the flat I had when I rode to the shops the previous day, means 3 flats in 2 days. I suspect something is up with my rim. One day I will take the tyre off and have a look, lethargy has prevented that happening so far…
Running.
I have semi-committed to doing the Rotorua marathon on April 28th so my focus over summer will be on getting my running miles up. I have also semi-committed to do the 70k Colville connection MTB race on 10 March so I need to develop a training plan till then that will get me some base miles on the bike up as well. Colville is 90% gravel road so road riding will be the go for training.
This weekend I aim to get together a decent training plan that will allow me to increase mileage on both bike and foot until Colville at least has passed. I am not really concerning myself with Colville too much, but I do have a time (and friends) to beat !
Sunday, November 19, 2006
The last week.
Another caffeine free passed reasonably successfully. I am still not sleeping managing to get a full nights sleep though which is very concerning, I do not think I am stressed with anything but I maybe I am ? I am going to not worry about avoiding coffee when I am in Australia next week, but I plan to keep off it at work any way. I guess the next thing to give up is alcohol but I don’t really drink that much or that regularly to believe it has any impact on my daily life.
Tai Chi was good again, we learnt a few more steps in the process, I started off the week getting up at 6.30 and doing 10 minutes each morning but got slack as the week progressed, will have another go this week at early rises.
After Tai Chi I went down to the school sports field and after a 10 minute warm up did a few sprint runs. I aim to do some sprints once a week to augment the slower runs I am supposed to be doing but aren’t. If I am planning on doing this marathon next year I am going to have the ramp the running up a lot over the next few weeks.
Tuesday night was another great little Murawai ride, it was just the 2 of us this week. I really struggled on the climb up the first hill to the forest entrance, all muscles hurt and breathing was a struggle. I do not why I am struggling with my running and riding at the moment, I have been fairly consistent with the amount I am doing and my diet has been pretty reasonable lately. Maybe I need a holiday from exercise as well ? We rode down Wild Thing and a bit of the Dak Track and then out the back and up the forest road to the quarry. There was quite a strong northerly blowing so riding up the road was quite hard work and I was pretty knackered by the time we got to the quarry. The quarry was an interesting place to ride, not a big area but lots of little challenges to play on, I had never been there before. I was worn out and riding like a real muppet so didn’t do try anything silly as it was just going to end badly, but I would like to go back there again. We left the quarry and continued north looking for trails made by the motor crosses that were rideable, we fond one great run that was no too chewed up and powered along there for a while before climbing over the fence and riding back down the road, with a nice tail wind back to the start. It was a good ride as it was a new set of trails and we saw deer, quail and rabbits, but I was very awkward on the bike for some reason.
I didn’t do much with the rest of the week, too lazy to get out and run, though I had good intentions !
On Saturday morning I did arrange to go riding with Miles and even got as far as driving all the way to the forest but the weather was awful and I waited in the rain for 10 minutes for the guys to turn up and it was cold and miserable so I packed the bike back in the car and piked. I think this must be my first pike ever from a ride. Normally the weather does not bother me at all. On the way home I dropped in at a new bike store in Henderson where I know the mechanic and had the disk brake fitted to my new wheel.
That night I cooked an OK butter chicken for dinner and had a couple of wines with Miles and the wife.
Sunday number 2 son went out to play softball with mates so I went out for a run. Drove up to Titirangi and ran from there to Exhibition drive, did 2 circuits and back to the car. One hour 27 minutes, 7 minutes faster than 2 weeks ago. I felt good, though again I had quite a sore arch. When I am in Australia next week I will look for a pair of Nike Pegasus from the Nike discounter shop, I have never had an issue with those shoes.
After the run I fitted a road tyre to the new wheel and now have the Cindercone going in road mode again. I now have 3 bikes that mostly work, though none of them are in perfect condition.
Been listening to a lot of Jawbreaker lately, loving that CD, but this afternoon has been Fields of the Nephilim on the stereo – loving the goth.
Tai Chi was good again, we learnt a few more steps in the process, I started off the week getting up at 6.30 and doing 10 minutes each morning but got slack as the week progressed, will have another go this week at early rises.
After Tai Chi I went down to the school sports field and after a 10 minute warm up did a few sprint runs. I aim to do some sprints once a week to augment the slower runs I am supposed to be doing but aren’t. If I am planning on doing this marathon next year I am going to have the ramp the running up a lot over the next few weeks.
Tuesday night was another great little Murawai ride, it was just the 2 of us this week. I really struggled on the climb up the first hill to the forest entrance, all muscles hurt and breathing was a struggle. I do not why I am struggling with my running and riding at the moment, I have been fairly consistent with the amount I am doing and my diet has been pretty reasonable lately. Maybe I need a holiday from exercise as well ? We rode down Wild Thing and a bit of the Dak Track and then out the back and up the forest road to the quarry. There was quite a strong northerly blowing so riding up the road was quite hard work and I was pretty knackered by the time we got to the quarry. The quarry was an interesting place to ride, not a big area but lots of little challenges to play on, I had never been there before. I was worn out and riding like a real muppet so didn’t do try anything silly as it was just going to end badly, but I would like to go back there again. We left the quarry and continued north looking for trails made by the motor crosses that were rideable, we fond one great run that was no too chewed up and powered along there for a while before climbing over the fence and riding back down the road, with a nice tail wind back to the start. It was a good ride as it was a new set of trails and we saw deer, quail and rabbits, but I was very awkward on the bike for some reason.
I didn’t do much with the rest of the week, too lazy to get out and run, though I had good intentions !
On Saturday morning I did arrange to go riding with Miles and even got as far as driving all the way to the forest but the weather was awful and I waited in the rain for 10 minutes for the guys to turn up and it was cold and miserable so I packed the bike back in the car and piked. I think this must be my first pike ever from a ride. Normally the weather does not bother me at all. On the way home I dropped in at a new bike store in Henderson where I know the mechanic and had the disk brake fitted to my new wheel.
That night I cooked an OK butter chicken for dinner and had a couple of wines with Miles and the wife.
Sunday number 2 son went out to play softball with mates so I went out for a run. Drove up to Titirangi and ran from there to Exhibition drive, did 2 circuits and back to the car. One hour 27 minutes, 7 minutes faster than 2 weeks ago. I felt good, though again I had quite a sore arch. When I am in Australia next week I will look for a pair of Nike Pegasus from the Nike discounter shop, I have never had an issue with those shoes.
After the run I fitted a road tyre to the new wheel and now have the Cindercone going in road mode again. I now have 3 bikes that mostly work, though none of them are in perfect condition.
Been listening to a lot of Jawbreaker lately, loving that CD, but this afternoon has been Fields of the Nephilim on the stereo – loving the goth.
I must get back to updating more regularily. Roll on my holiday 1 week to go.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
The last week wrapped up
Tai Chi was good on Monday night, learnt another step in the process of whatever it is we are learning, along with some more stretches, I was still feeling a bit crap when I got there though the appalling head ache I had been suffering during the day had abated a bit.
When I got home my wife and I were discussing what to do for our 20th wedding anniversary at the end of the month and rather on the spur of the moment have decided to go to the Gold Coast for 4 days and visit her family and then take 4 days up in Cairns. We booked the flights that night ! this will be the first time we have been away for more than a night without the kids for 12 years. My sister will take the youngest and the big 2 can stay at home by them selves. We are placing a lot of trust on the two teenagers to not have parties while we are away. I am not so worried about my kids but I do not have a lot of faith in some of their friend.
Tuesday I booked my leave from work.
Wednesday I bought two CD’s Jawbreaker – Dear You and Ride – Smile. Both old CD’s and both are great. First Jawbreaker I have bought and I really do like it, will be hunting down some of their CD’s now. The Ride CD is a compilation of their first two EP’s, it is also very good. 2 good music purchases in one day, awesome.
On Friday night I decided to stay for a couple of drinks after work and not unusually I ended up getting completely toasted by 9.00 PM. Had a couple of wines or 3 with a couple of the finance people at a pub down the road from work. Miles collected me about 8.30 and we went off to a Japanese place for food which I really did not feel like. It is times like these that you really appreciate BK ! My wonderful daughter came and picked me up and between us we located the party number 1 son was at and drove home.
The next day I was up at 7.30 for number 2 sons softball game, I felt like crap and spent the 30 minute game warm up slumped in the car. The game was Ok, they were winning up until the last innings when they got slaughtered… still the boys enjoyed the game and number 2 got player of the day for a fine hit. I also succumbed to a very week instant coffee to perk myself up, it was so week I certainly did not notice any caffeine hit.
After the game and lunch, number 2 son disappeared with mates for the afternoon, my wife disappeared to see some friends, so I rode the AC in to town to pick up my car. It was a real struggle, I wasn’t in prime form, and a heavy fully suspended bike with 2.3’’ tyres is no road machine, though I did have a new seat post…
Sunday morning I was awake very early, it was a gorgeous day so I was up at 6.30 AM and drove into town for a run along the waterfront. I parked at Okahu Bay and ran east along the waterfront and up the hill at the end of St Heliers, then back to the car. I felt pretty good during the run but the arch of my left foot was really tender by the time I got to the car. The intention was to run for an hour and a half and I believe if it wasn’t for the foot I could have easily have done that. I am now experimenting with some arch supports.
My daughter has decided to go flatting with a friend, in a house above the friends mother, so it not a complete cut off. I am quite excited for her, she is 18, has a job and this will be a good learning exercise for her to see what you actually have to do to run a house – she has no idea.
She also broke her wrist in a drunken slip on Saturday night, so I spent Sunday evening at the A and E clinic while they x-rayed and plastered her up. She could be off work for 4-6 weeks, though it was not a major break.
When I got home my wife and I were discussing what to do for our 20th wedding anniversary at the end of the month and rather on the spur of the moment have decided to go to the Gold Coast for 4 days and visit her family and then take 4 days up in Cairns. We booked the flights that night ! this will be the first time we have been away for more than a night without the kids for 12 years. My sister will take the youngest and the big 2 can stay at home by them selves. We are placing a lot of trust on the two teenagers to not have parties while we are away. I am not so worried about my kids but I do not have a lot of faith in some of their friend.
Tuesday I booked my leave from work.
Wednesday I bought two CD’s Jawbreaker – Dear You and Ride – Smile. Both old CD’s and both are great. First Jawbreaker I have bought and I really do like it, will be hunting down some of their CD’s now. The Ride CD is a compilation of their first two EP’s, it is also very good. 2 good music purchases in one day, awesome.
On Friday night I decided to stay for a couple of drinks after work and not unusually I ended up getting completely toasted by 9.00 PM. Had a couple of wines or 3 with a couple of the finance people at a pub down the road from work. Miles collected me about 8.30 and we went off to a Japanese place for food which I really did not feel like. It is times like these that you really appreciate BK ! My wonderful daughter came and picked me up and between us we located the party number 1 son was at and drove home.
The next day I was up at 7.30 for number 2 sons softball game, I felt like crap and spent the 30 minute game warm up slumped in the car. The game was Ok, they were winning up until the last innings when they got slaughtered… still the boys enjoyed the game and number 2 got player of the day for a fine hit. I also succumbed to a very week instant coffee to perk myself up, it was so week I certainly did not notice any caffeine hit.
After the game and lunch, number 2 son disappeared with mates for the afternoon, my wife disappeared to see some friends, so I rode the AC in to town to pick up my car. It was a real struggle, I wasn’t in prime form, and a heavy fully suspended bike with 2.3’’ tyres is no road machine, though I did have a new seat post…
Sunday morning I was awake very early, it was a gorgeous day so I was up at 6.30 AM and drove into town for a run along the waterfront. I parked at Okahu Bay and ran east along the waterfront and up the hill at the end of St Heliers, then back to the car. I felt pretty good during the run but the arch of my left foot was really tender by the time I got to the car. The intention was to run for an hour and a half and I believe if it wasn’t for the foot I could have easily have done that. I am now experimenting with some arch supports.
My daughter has decided to go flatting with a friend, in a house above the friends mother, so it not a complete cut off. I am quite excited for her, she is 18, has a job and this will be a good learning exercise for her to see what you actually have to do to run a house – she has no idea.
She also broke her wrist in a drunken slip on Saturday night, so I spent Sunday evening at the A and E clinic while they x-rayed and plastered her up. She could be off work for 4-6 weeks, though it was not a major break.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Giving up coffee
It is now Monday, my third day without coffee, I am at work and I feel less than average. If I did not have a budget finalisation meeting this morning I would probably have stayed in bed.
The weather has been very warm and sunny, the first of the summer weather arrived for the weekend. I did run on Friday, ride on Saturday and run on Sunday, I am guessing part of the issue is dehydration, though I did drink a reasonable amount over the weekend. I am also wondering if there was a small element of heat stroke. Though it is hardly hot at the moment it has been hotter than normal and I wonder if my body needs to adjust.
• I am extremely tired after 3 lousy sleeps with Friday and Saturday nights being particularly bad, I am not sure if it is the caffeine withdrawals or just my normal cycle of bad sleep, though I feel worse than normal.
• Yesterday I had a really bad headache in the afternoon and early evening, I really do not like taking pain killers but if it kicks in again today I will have to pop some Nurofen or I will not survive the day at work.
• Most of yesterday I had a mildly upset stomach and it is not 100% right today, not sure what that is related to, caffeine or something I ate ?
• I have long suffered from pain in my lower back, a couple of visits to a osteopath a few years back resolved the issues and rarely suffer anymore, and can usually stretch it out. The pain has come back again, though I have not really started to stretch properly again. I will get onto that tonight.
• I have had a stiff/sore neck for about a week, not terrible pain, more frustrating and niggling.
• My legs hurt….. I very badly broke the “do not exceed the previous weeks exercise by more than 10% rule” so it is my own fault. I was planning on introducing some sprint reps into my training after tai chi tonight, but I will wait until next week.
It was my wifes turn to do softball this week so I went riding on Saturday morning with Miles, I took the single speed up to Woodhill forest. If the dry weather remains much longer then Woodhill is going to be un-rideable soon, but Riverhead will be fantastic ! We had another slow ride, kept the pace down on the flat and climbs to as close to easy chatting pace as possible. I am really enjoying these slow chatty non-stop rides. Rode up Powerball, where we stopped so I could adjust my chain, then hit Big Mumma, and the back trail to enchanted forest, where we had to walk one section of this trail, though it has been un-rideable for years, I must talk to the bike parks people about making a bypass to that section… We then rode Haggis and Northern Exposure and stopped before riding no brakes. Stopped again at the top of no brakes and then did Iron Horse, I kept the seat right up and didn’t do any of the jumps this time round. We had another small break before the steep climb up to the fun back section of Conifer Loop that links back into Haggis, followed up with Tree Huggas, Link, Cookie and finally Raceface down, back to the car. Though we kept a fairly sedate pace we did cover a fair bit of ground and I was quite tired when I got home.
On Saturday night we celebrated Guy Fawkes with friends, though I was quite tired and I am guessing the caffeine withdrawals were starting to kick in. I still slept badly though.
As usual I had planned to get up early on Sunday morning and go for a run before my wife went to work and as usual I stayed in bed till 10.00 reading a novel. Once I had all the shopping completed I did get out for a mid afternoon run along Exhibition drive. I took it very slow as my legs were extremely tight and almost painful. I ran for an hour and half at a very slow pace, running from Titirangi, 2 laps of Exe and back again. One of the sections took me 21 minutes, I can do that lap in 16 minutes if I apply myself, I was running that slowly. I did keep my heart rate under 150 though which was the goal.
I am definitely not ready to do any distance running at this stage, 15kms in an hour and a half and I was pretty wrecked, not a good sign.
Had a BBQ at our place, my head was so sore and one of the guests tuend up an hour early so I was very unprepared and had not done all the house work I wanted to do. It was an Ok night, but I was not really up to it.
The weather has been very warm and sunny, the first of the summer weather arrived for the weekend. I did run on Friday, ride on Saturday and run on Sunday, I am guessing part of the issue is dehydration, though I did drink a reasonable amount over the weekend. I am also wondering if there was a small element of heat stroke. Though it is hardly hot at the moment it has been hotter than normal and I wonder if my body needs to adjust.
• I am extremely tired after 3 lousy sleeps with Friday and Saturday nights being particularly bad, I am not sure if it is the caffeine withdrawals or just my normal cycle of bad sleep, though I feel worse than normal.
• Yesterday I had a really bad headache in the afternoon and early evening, I really do not like taking pain killers but if it kicks in again today I will have to pop some Nurofen or I will not survive the day at work.
• Most of yesterday I had a mildly upset stomach and it is not 100% right today, not sure what that is related to, caffeine or something I ate ?
• I have long suffered from pain in my lower back, a couple of visits to a osteopath a few years back resolved the issues and rarely suffer anymore, and can usually stretch it out. The pain has come back again, though I have not really started to stretch properly again. I will get onto that tonight.
• I have had a stiff/sore neck for about a week, not terrible pain, more frustrating and niggling.
• My legs hurt….. I very badly broke the “do not exceed the previous weeks exercise by more than 10% rule” so it is my own fault. I was planning on introducing some sprint reps into my training after tai chi tonight, but I will wait until next week.
It was my wifes turn to do softball this week so I went riding on Saturday morning with Miles, I took the single speed up to Woodhill forest. If the dry weather remains much longer then Woodhill is going to be un-rideable soon, but Riverhead will be fantastic ! We had another slow ride, kept the pace down on the flat and climbs to as close to easy chatting pace as possible. I am really enjoying these slow chatty non-stop rides. Rode up Powerball, where we stopped so I could adjust my chain, then hit Big Mumma, and the back trail to enchanted forest, where we had to walk one section of this trail, though it has been un-rideable for years, I must talk to the bike parks people about making a bypass to that section… We then rode Haggis and Northern Exposure and stopped before riding no brakes. Stopped again at the top of no brakes and then did Iron Horse, I kept the seat right up and didn’t do any of the jumps this time round. We had another small break before the steep climb up to the fun back section of Conifer Loop that links back into Haggis, followed up with Tree Huggas, Link, Cookie and finally Raceface down, back to the car. Though we kept a fairly sedate pace we did cover a fair bit of ground and I was quite tired when I got home.
On Saturday night we celebrated Guy Fawkes with friends, though I was quite tired and I am guessing the caffeine withdrawals were starting to kick in. I still slept badly though.
As usual I had planned to get up early on Sunday morning and go for a run before my wife went to work and as usual I stayed in bed till 10.00 reading a novel. Once I had all the shopping completed I did get out for a mid afternoon run along Exhibition drive. I took it very slow as my legs were extremely tight and almost painful. I ran for an hour and half at a very slow pace, running from Titirangi, 2 laps of Exe and back again. One of the sections took me 21 minutes, I can do that lap in 16 minutes if I apply myself, I was running that slowly. I did keep my heart rate under 150 though which was the goal.
I am definitely not ready to do any distance running at this stage, 15kms in an hour and a half and I was pretty wrecked, not a good sign.
Had a BBQ at our place, my head was so sore and one of the guests tuend up an hour early so I was very unprepared and had not done all the house work I wanted to do. It was an Ok night, but I was not really up to it.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Work trip to Tauranga
I had a work trip to the Tauranga office on Friday, it was all kinda last minute so I did not try and arrange a ride bit took my running gear and planned on a run if the weather was OK.
In fact the day was awesome, warm and sunny with no wind. I finished work around 2.30 and drive up the road to Mt Maunganui and went for a run around the seaward base of the mount. I have never been round the base before so it was a great run, no idea of the distance but I ran for 50 minutes.
I then jumped into the sea here for about 30 seconds, it was still damn cold, before driving back to Auckland. It was a great ‘work’ day.
In fact the day was awesome, warm and sunny with no wind. I finished work around 2.30 and drive up the road to Mt Maunganui and went for a run around the seaward base of the mount. I have never been round the base before so it was a great run, no idea of the distance but I ran for 50 minutes.I then jumped into the sea here for about 30 seconds, it was still damn cold, before driving back to Auckland. It was a great ‘work’ day.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Tai Chi and Tuesday night riding
The week at work has been a real shitter, not too sure why, it has been no different than any other week, I am just not up for work any more. I would take a holiday but have no idea what to do or where to go and I do not want to just hang around at home doing the odd ride on my own.
I had my first tai chi lesson on Monday night, it was ok, I am not sure what my real expectations were but this is a pretty low brow course at the local high school. Still it was kinda fun and the hour passed fairly quickly. We learnt a basic move involving 4 steps (stances ?), the instructor was not that verbose… Anyway I have a few things to practise this week.
Tuesday night I headed up to Murawai for a ride. I am still riding the AC with a shortened seat post and it just feels so weird on the first climb, I still ride the AC like a single speed hard tail, standing and pounding on the climbs, it kinda works but I am sure sitting and spinning on the climbs would be more effective and a lot less tiring.
Had a good ride, just the three of us this week, rode straight to the forest and hit up Dan’s track, then back up to the old National downhill, only had a couple of runs down the jump section then we went and rode a really really old track called Wild thing. Wild thing existed when I sued to ride there years ago, though there is only a short section of it left now. Still it was a bit of fun. We then pushed back up and rode down Mainline. I have not ridden this track before, it was pretty sandy at the top but once we got into the trees it firmed up a bit and man it was a fun track, I do like to lead on these pedally downhill tracks as I can hit it at my own pace…. From the end of Mainline we pushed most of the way back up AFL. I am loving this track, I really nailed most of it, missed one of the tricky bits that I by pass so lost some speed, but I reckon I had my fastest run down that track, I must get a speedo to find out.
Got back to the car after an hour and a half of riding at 8.00 and it was still pretty light.
I had my first tai chi lesson on Monday night, it was ok, I am not sure what my real expectations were but this is a pretty low brow course at the local high school. Still it was kinda fun and the hour passed fairly quickly. We learnt a basic move involving 4 steps (stances ?), the instructor was not that verbose… Anyway I have a few things to practise this week.
Tuesday night I headed up to Murawai for a ride. I am still riding the AC with a shortened seat post and it just feels so weird on the first climb, I still ride the AC like a single speed hard tail, standing and pounding on the climbs, it kinda works but I am sure sitting and spinning on the climbs would be more effective and a lot less tiring.
Had a good ride, just the three of us this week, rode straight to the forest and hit up Dan’s track, then back up to the old National downhill, only had a couple of runs down the jump section then we went and rode a really really old track called Wild thing. Wild thing existed when I sued to ride there years ago, though there is only a short section of it left now. Still it was a bit of fun. We then pushed back up and rode down Mainline. I have not ridden this track before, it was pretty sandy at the top but once we got into the trees it firmed up a bit and man it was a fun track, I do like to lead on these pedally downhill tracks as I can hit it at my own pace…. From the end of Mainline we pushed most of the way back up AFL. I am loving this track, I really nailed most of it, missed one of the tricky bits that I by pass so lost some speed, but I reckon I had my fastest run down that track, I must get a speedo to find out.
Got back to the car after an hour and a half of riding at 8.00 and it was still pretty light.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
the week wrapped up.
It has been an interesting week, work has been as busy as usual and as frustrating as ever. I found that I slept really well over weekend but come Monday I slept badly again and have slept badly ever since. I am not really sure why I cannot sleep properly all the time I do not think I am overly stressed from work, certainly work is stressful but I have been in worse situations. I have decided on 2 courses of action, firstly I have long been thinking about starting something along the lines of yoga or tai chi. Primarily to help me relax, but also to help build some core strength, improve flexibility and balance and develop some breathing techniques. In the end I decided to try tai chi and the local high school has a community education course starting on Monday which I have signed up for. Secondly I have decided to give up coffee. I am going to reduce my intake this week with a plan to quit completely the following week, I am expecting a couple of weeks of hell when I stop though so I have started warning the family.
My youngest son, who turned 13 this week, has decided to join a few of his friends and play softball. This is pretty much going to kill Saturday morning riding. This weekend is out as it is the first game and I cannot miss that one. I am hoping/expecting my wife will go to every second game which means I can ride every second weekend at least. I hope to continue with the Tuesday night riding though.
With that in mind and with the Kaweka challenge coming up again February I am going to focus on running for a while, easier to get out and do before and after work - at least until I can get a decent bike for riding on the road. I am still keen to do the Kaweka run and then continue on and do a full Marathon later in the year. I will still do some events though, at least the last round of the Auckland champs and probably 1 or 2 24 hour team events depending on timing.
Yesterday we had my sons 13th birthday outing, we took him and 6 friends to the hot pools at Parakai for an afternoon session and BBQ dinner. At least with 12 and 13 year olds you do not need to watch them all the time, so my wife hung around the pool to provide food and drink and I got out for a run. I ran west for 45 minutes and then turned round and ran back. Fairly simple run, kept the pace down, though there was a reasonable westerly blowing. It was Ok, I was really knackered by the end and probably could not have gone out and done much more running. I think I could pull off a half marathon if I needed to right now but it would not be easy. Having said that in the last 8 days I have done a 1 hour run an hour twenty run and now an hour thirty, which is an awful lot more than in the last 3 or months so I should expect to be a bit tired. I will not run again until Thursday.
I hope to finally get the right seat post for the AC today...
My youngest son, who turned 13 this week, has decided to join a few of his friends and play softball. This is pretty much going to kill Saturday morning riding. This weekend is out as it is the first game and I cannot miss that one. I am hoping/expecting my wife will go to every second game which means I can ride every second weekend at least. I hope to continue with the Tuesday night riding though.
With that in mind and with the Kaweka challenge coming up again February I am going to focus on running for a while, easier to get out and do before and after work - at least until I can get a decent bike for riding on the road. I am still keen to do the Kaweka run and then continue on and do a full Marathon later in the year. I will still do some events though, at least the last round of the Auckland champs and probably 1 or 2 24 hour team events depending on timing.
Yesterday we had my sons 13th birthday outing, we took him and 6 friends to the hot pools at Parakai for an afternoon session and BBQ dinner. At least with 12 and 13 year olds you do not need to watch them all the time, so my wife hung around the pool to provide food and drink and I got out for a run. I ran west for 45 minutes and then turned round and ran back. Fairly simple run, kept the pace down, though there was a reasonable westerly blowing. It was Ok, I was really knackered by the end and probably could not have gone out and done much more running. I think I could pull off a half marathon if I needed to right now but it would not be easy. Having said that in the last 8 days I have done a 1 hour run an hour twenty run and now an hour thirty, which is an awful lot more than in the last 3 or months so I should expect to be a bit tired. I will not run again until Thursday.
I hope to finally get the right seat post for the AC today...
Monday, October 23, 2006
A rainy day public holiday run
Yay – another wet day, got to love long weekends ! Raining a bit more persistently today, though it is not heavy. I got up at 7.30 and went for a run.
Started doing the same Godley Rd, Portage Rd, Clark St, Titirangi Rd loop as Friday but carried on up through Titirangi and along Kohu Rd to the bottom of Scenic Drive were I looped back into Titirangi again and down to home. It took me 1 hour 19 minutes to complete the 13.5 km loop, which is not particularly fast really but I was pacing myself and there is a fair amount of climbing which is really the purpose of this run. I hope to get out this week and do some sprint runs at the park as well but we will see how it goes.
I did measure the run in the car today and took some section distances as well so I can start to build some runs with a reasonable idea of distance.
I planted some tomatoes, lettuces and beat root this afternoon, get the vege garden going for summer. Will have to see how long the enthusiasm for growing veges lasts, it is not ling usually…
Started doing the same Godley Rd, Portage Rd, Clark St, Titirangi Rd loop as Friday but carried on up through Titirangi and along Kohu Rd to the bottom of Scenic Drive were I looped back into Titirangi again and down to home. It took me 1 hour 19 minutes to complete the 13.5 km loop, which is not particularly fast really but I was pacing myself and there is a fair amount of climbing which is really the purpose of this run. I hope to get out this week and do some sprint runs at the park as well but we will see how it goes.
I did measure the run in the car today and took some section distances as well so I can start to build some runs with a reasonable idea of distance.
I planted some tomatoes, lettuces and beat root this afternoon, get the vege garden going for summer. Will have to see how long the enthusiasm for growing veges lasts, it is not ling usually…
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Saturday ride
Drizzly morning again today.
I got up early and went into work at 7.15 to print off some stuff for my wife and print, sign and scan a document for work.
From work I drove up to Woodhill for my normal Saturday morning single speed ride with Miles. Had a pretty good ride, kept the pace down and just rode for 2 hours, didn’t really stop much – gate crossings, adjusted brakes once early on, so it was a pretty solid nicely paced work out.
We rode Powerball to the main network, then down Spaghetti as far as Afterglow, then finished off with Tortellini. We then took the easy road option to Haggis then Northern Exposure, No Brakes, Python and the horrible Anaconda, I really do not like that trail it just goes on and on and mostly seems to be up hill, there is just no fun in that trail… After Anaconda we did the last section of Conifer and I cleaned the rooty pinch climb which I haven’t done for a while, then powered through the lovely flowy section just before it joins back into Haggis. After Haggis we rode Tree Huggas, Link, all of Cookie for a change before thrashing down Raceface Down back the car. It was a good ride, I really tried again to focus on body position through the downhill sections and keeping my fingers off the brakes. I believe I am getting better at this and I do appear to be faster. I only had a couple of moderately scary moments as I got the body postioning wrong going into rutted corners.
After the ride I spent the afternoon scaring the neighbours by working in the garden with my shirt off, weeding and digging over the vege patch...
Listening to some old XTC - Go 2 LP on vinyl
I got up early and went into work at 7.15 to print off some stuff for my wife and print, sign and scan a document for work.
From work I drove up to Woodhill for my normal Saturday morning single speed ride with Miles. Had a pretty good ride, kept the pace down and just rode for 2 hours, didn’t really stop much – gate crossings, adjusted brakes once early on, so it was a pretty solid nicely paced work out.
We rode Powerball to the main network, then down Spaghetti as far as Afterglow, then finished off with Tortellini. We then took the easy road option to Haggis then Northern Exposure, No Brakes, Python and the horrible Anaconda, I really do not like that trail it just goes on and on and mostly seems to be up hill, there is just no fun in that trail… After Anaconda we did the last section of Conifer and I cleaned the rooty pinch climb which I haven’t done for a while, then powered through the lovely flowy section just before it joins back into Haggis. After Haggis we rode Tree Huggas, Link, all of Cookie for a change before thrashing down Raceface Down back the car. It was a good ride, I really tried again to focus on body position through the downhill sections and keeping my fingers off the brakes. I believe I am getting better at this and I do appear to be faster. I only had a couple of moderately scary moments as I got the body postioning wrong going into rutted corners.
After the ride I spent the afternoon scaring the neighbours by working in the garden with my shirt off, weeding and digging over the vege patch...
Listening to some old XTC - Go 2 LP on vinyl
Friday, October 20, 2006
Day off work
It is Labour Day in New Zealand on Monday so we all get the day off work. I have been feeling particularly sluggish this week, though I have actually got things done so I decided to take Friday off as well for a 4 day weekend. My plan for the day was to get a decent run in and then go do a whole bunch of shopping stuff, present for juniors 13th birthday, wheel barrow, seat post etc so the weekend can be spent doing stuff and avoiding the shopping areas at all costs. Well that half turned to crap as junior ended up being off school as well so I could only do half the shopping. He was off school to attend a funeral of an old cub leader, well he wasn’t old, he died of cancer 2 days ago at the age of 54. My wife went to the funeral, but I decided not to attend as I did not really know the family that well and some days I am a selfish asshole. I did get the wheel barrow…
As usual when a public holiday long weekend come around the weather turns to pants…cloud and drizzle forecast for the weekend.
I did get out for a run, did my almost 10km loop down Godley Rd, Portage Rd, Clark St, up Titirangi Rd and back down Godley again. The weather was OK, slight rain, no wind not too warm, but I still ran like someone who is 2 -3 kilos over weight. The fun felt Ok just not very fast, though at 55 minutes it was way off the slowest I have done it.
Seat post still not in the shop !
As usual when a public holiday long weekend come around the weather turns to pants…cloud and drizzle forecast for the weekend.
I did get out for a run, did my almost 10km loop down Godley Rd, Portage Rd, Clark St, up Titirangi Rd and back down Godley again. The weather was OK, slight rain, no wind not too warm, but I still ran like someone who is 2 -3 kilos over weight. The fun felt Ok just not very fast, though at 55 minutes it was way off the slowest I have done it.
Seat post still not in the shop !
Tuesday riding
I have tried to source a new seat post for the AC so I could get the seat up a bit higher for the more XC focused rides, though the local bike shop had loads of posts in varying sizes they did nnot have one for me, I do have one on order though. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if there was some standardisation ?
This week I got a new work phone - so I have taken a couple of sample shots, and for the first time in ages I have been able to upload photos to here.
The riding area
I managed to get away from work nice and early on Tuesday and had a reasonably slow, though stress free drive up to Murawai. 10 of us rode this week so we took the longer ride option and rode all the way up the road to the dodgy walking track down hill. The AC is a pain to ride up prolonged (it is only 1.5km but it feels prolonged) climbs when you are sitting so low your knees are banging into your chin. The ride down was not too bad, faster than I have done it on the SS but I am still such a chicken on fast DH runs. The brakes on the AC were really grabby, felt like they were either on or off, very little modulation, could be just need some time to settle after not being used for a while, or maybe they just need a good bleed.
We rode back up and into the forest and then up to the top of the old down hill course for a play on the little jumps. the climb to the top
I had replaced the cleats in my shoes so my feet were not popping out of the pedals and I was a lot more comfortable getting little bits of air. Had a fun session, man - the groms are just so comfortable leaping about on any sort of bike…
We then dropped down and did the riverside trail and by then it was too dark to ride back up to do AFL so we cruised back along the road to the cars.
Another good ride.
This week I got a new work phone - so I have taken a couple of sample shots, and for the first time in ages I have been able to upload photos to here.
The riding area
I managed to get away from work nice and early on Tuesday and had a reasonably slow, though stress free drive up to Murawai. 10 of us rode this week so we took the longer ride option and rode all the way up the road to the dodgy walking track down hill. The AC is a pain to ride up prolonged (it is only 1.5km but it feels prolonged) climbs when you are sitting so low your knees are banging into your chin. The ride down was not too bad, faster than I have done it on the SS but I am still such a chicken on fast DH runs. The brakes on the AC were really grabby, felt like they were either on or off, very little modulation, could be just need some time to settle after not being used for a while, or maybe they just need a good bleed.We rode back up and into the forest and then up to the top of the old down hill course for a play on the little jumps. the climb to the top
I had replaced the cleats in my shoes so my feet were not popping out of the pedals and I was a lot more comfortable getting little bits of air. Had a fun session, man - the groms are just so comfortable leaping about on any sort of bike…We then dropped down and did the riverside trail and by then it was too dark to ride back up to do AFL so we cruised back along the road to the cars.
Another good ride.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Spring has sprung
Yay spring is here, it has been quite windy the last few days but it is certainly warmer and now day light saving is here we have light until 8.00 or so in the evening.
I am going to try and not waste my evenings and at least get out in the garden and do ‘stuff’, the place is a bit out of control but I have no real plans so will just do the basic stuff like weeding and pruning.
I have been fairly productive the last few days;
Edged the lawn with my bro-in-laws weed whacker – that was fun.
Mowed the lawn twice, it needed doing really badly.
Pruned the trees over the path so now I can wheel the bin down without hitting my head.
Drilled out and replaced the cleats in my old shoes so I can ride with the platform spd pedals on the AC.
Bought the wrong size seat post for the AC so need to return it.
Bough some herbs and started a little herb garden for summer.
Tided and swept the garage.
Cleaned the bikes
Cleaned the car
I am turning into a bit of a porkenstein again, we have had 2 nights for dinner at friends this weekend, both nights I ate lots and drank too much. This week I really must start to turn this back around.
I did get out for a light run today, did 1 session on Exhibition drive, was thinking of doing 2 but ran out of time again.
Right less type more work in garden…
I am going to try and not waste my evenings and at least get out in the garden and do ‘stuff’, the place is a bit out of control but I have no real plans so will just do the basic stuff like weeding and pruning.
I have been fairly productive the last few days;
Edged the lawn with my bro-in-laws weed whacker – that was fun.
Mowed the lawn twice, it needed doing really badly.
Pruned the trees over the path so now I can wheel the bin down without hitting my head.
Drilled out and replaced the cleats in my old shoes so I can ride with the platform spd pedals on the AC.
Bought the wrong size seat post for the AC so need to return it.
Bough some herbs and started a little herb garden for summer.
Tided and swept the garage.
Cleaned the bikes
Cleaned the car
I am turning into a bit of a porkenstein again, we have had 2 nights for dinner at friends this weekend, both nights I ate lots and drank too much. This week I really must start to turn this back around.
I did get out for a light run today, did 1 session on Exhibition drive, was thinking of doing 2 but ran out of time again.
Right less type more work in garden…
First Riverhead ride of the spring.
As we ha not had a lot of rain in the last few weeks, discounting the heavy fall with hail on Tuesday, Graham wanted to go and check out some of the trails are Riverhead to see how rideable they are. The Freeriden boys had a loop that was supposed to be fairly dry but we did not get organised enough to get a map of the loop so decided to go and check out some of the tracks we rode last year.
Miles, Brendon, Graham and I rode today - with The Boys on their fully’s and me on the single speed. The ride up Barlow Rd to the start of Pattersons has not got any less steep but it felt OK, I have definitely gotten stronger over the winter period which is good. Pattersons 1 and 2 were a mixed affair, muddy in parts and dry in others, but the horses have been through there over winter and track is in awful condition, very hard work for a fairly flat track, not a lot of flow and the exposed roots are a lot further out of the track giving the upper body a good workout as well. I managed to get to the top of Christ hill Ok but was pretty broken, and took the opportunity of being first there to have a bit of a break. Richies is not one of my favourite tracks at the best of times, the down hill section was surprisingly dry so there was plenty of traction but there was some huge bogs on the flat sections and some of them were pretty smelly… As we were pushing time and the trail was not getting easier to ride we went left at the bottom of Richies with the intention of getting to the Chatham road trails and then to bottom of Anzac Rd. It appears the Chatham Rd trails have all disappeared now with all the trees and we ended up on a long section of old fire road that was at least heading in the right general direction. At the end of the fire road I was not 100% sure where we were but headed off again to the left and after a hundred metres or so ended up at the end of Anzac Rd which was most cool. Anzac was a fair old slog to the top, I had forgotten the final few metres was quite steep and I was again happy to get there first so I could suck some air down before the others arrived. The final run down Nature trail was Ok, again not a favourite trail as there are a few sections I get off and walk as they are too steep, both up and down, for me. I must get control of my fear and ride the down sections, they are perfectly rideable as Graham shows us every time.
Not a bad ride, ended up muddier than expected, muddy enough to clean the bike when I got home which I have had to do for a while !
Miles, Brendon, Graham and I rode today - with The Boys on their fully’s and me on the single speed. The ride up Barlow Rd to the start of Pattersons has not got any less steep but it felt OK, I have definitely gotten stronger over the winter period which is good. Pattersons 1 and 2 were a mixed affair, muddy in parts and dry in others, but the horses have been through there over winter and track is in awful condition, very hard work for a fairly flat track, not a lot of flow and the exposed roots are a lot further out of the track giving the upper body a good workout as well. I managed to get to the top of Christ hill Ok but was pretty broken, and took the opportunity of being first there to have a bit of a break. Richies is not one of my favourite tracks at the best of times, the down hill section was surprisingly dry so there was plenty of traction but there was some huge bogs on the flat sections and some of them were pretty smelly… As we were pushing time and the trail was not getting easier to ride we went left at the bottom of Richies with the intention of getting to the Chatham road trails and then to bottom of Anzac Rd. It appears the Chatham Rd trails have all disappeared now with all the trees and we ended up on a long section of old fire road that was at least heading in the right general direction. At the end of the fire road I was not 100% sure where we were but headed off again to the left and after a hundred metres or so ended up at the end of Anzac Rd which was most cool. Anzac was a fair old slog to the top, I had forgotten the final few metres was quite steep and I was again happy to get there first so I could suck some air down before the others arrived. The final run down Nature trail was Ok, again not a favourite trail as there are a few sections I get off and walk as they are too steep, both up and down, for me. I must get control of my fear and ride the down sections, they are perfectly rideable as Graham shows us every time.
Not a bad ride, ended up muddier than expected, muddy enough to clean the bike when I got home which I have had to do for a while !
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
First ride on the AC
I had a great ride tonight.
I got the AC ¾ sorted on Sunday, all I need now is a long seat post as the one in the bike has been cut down really short so Dom could drop the seat. There was just 4 of us riding tonight Pete and his 2 teenagers and we got away early enough for a hour and half ride without lights. Pete and I rode our AC’s and the kids had their DH bikes so this was going to be e bit of fun…
The wind was very strong off the beach so we decided to avoid the normal circuit and just get into the forest and play on the fun trails. We rode up to the top of Dan’s down that trail then back up to the top of the old national DH course. We played around on the small jumps on the this track for a while and I had a bit of a play on a new Giant Glory which was a lot of fun, these DH bikes get air born so easy compared to the DMR. I was riding with clip pedals and the cleat in my old shoes are too loose to really jump as my feet keep coming out which is not a good look – or feeling when you land on the top tube. So I kept it small and only hit the flowy jumps – not that I was going to bigger anyway…. From the midway point of the old nat’s track we moved on to the AFL track and sessioned a couple small jumps there for 15-20 minutes. I did get more and more comfortable hitting the jumps at higher speeds which was really cool – and the whole idea of getting the AC going again.
We then rode back to Pete’s place via a small loop down towards the beach that was like riding into a sand blaster, the wind was so strong.
A great first ride on the AC, will replace the cleats in the shoe’s so I can stay stuck to the bike.
I got the AC ¾ sorted on Sunday, all I need now is a long seat post as the one in the bike has been cut down really short so Dom could drop the seat. There was just 4 of us riding tonight Pete and his 2 teenagers and we got away early enough for a hour and half ride without lights. Pete and I rode our AC’s and the kids had their DH bikes so this was going to be e bit of fun…
The wind was very strong off the beach so we decided to avoid the normal circuit and just get into the forest and play on the fun trails. We rode up to the top of Dan’s down that trail then back up to the top of the old national DH course. We played around on the small jumps on the this track for a while and I had a bit of a play on a new Giant Glory which was a lot of fun, these DH bikes get air born so easy compared to the DMR. I was riding with clip pedals and the cleat in my old shoes are too loose to really jump as my feet keep coming out which is not a good look – or feeling when you land on the top tube. So I kept it small and only hit the flowy jumps – not that I was going to bigger anyway…. From the midway point of the old nat’s track we moved on to the AFL track and sessioned a couple small jumps there for 15-20 minutes. I did get more and more comfortable hitting the jumps at higher speeds which was really cool – and the whole idea of getting the AC going again.
We then rode back to Pete’s place via a small loop down towards the beach that was like riding into a sand blaster, the wind was so strong.
A great first ride on the AC, will replace the cleats in the shoe’s so I can stay stuck to the bike.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Single Speed Poker race day
Friday night was spent making up card packs for the dealers, as I had no real idea of how many people were likely to ride or how many of the volunteers were going to show up. I guessed on 8 volunteers and 22 riders so made up 8 packs of 20 cards each and a nice distribution of high value cards for the furthest away dealers, but a few wild cards thrown in for good measure ! I had dealers standing in Big Mumma, Spaghetti, at Dead Mans Corner, Tree Huggas, No Brakes, Iron Horse, Slipperies Delight and the beer stop in the old car park.
Race daydawned nice and sunny and I wandered the road at 7.45 for a paper and came home had coffee and toast. It was looking like being a top day, naturally half an hour later the cloud had moved in and the wind had picked up a bit…
I was quite nervous about the race, maybe nervous is a bit extreme, but I was certainly something, too much energy, luckily I had a few house jobs to do before I packed up and left. I had borrowed my brother in laws petrol weed wacker so I made good use of that and flattened the grass edges which is always fun, petrol powered tools are so cool.
I left home at 11.00 with a car load of bike, (which I didn’t ride) beer and prizes and headed for the supermarket to buy some basics for the BBQ. Got to the forest about an hour before the start and found a good spot to set up the barbie for race headquarters.
The riders and helpers started to show up soon after I arrived and the time before the race disappeared in a blur of chatting and getting peoples names down for the prize draw after the event. Luckily all the people who said they would help out, did and I was amazed to get 28 riders, which was a few more than I expected.
There was a small amount of chaos as I read the rules and shifted everyone to the start line, some of the helpers were not quite ready so I had to hold everyone back for a few minutes. Next event I will get this organised a bit better, I wanted to make sure the riders knew what the ‘dealers’ looked like so they knew who to ride up to in the forest.
Once the riders left 5 minutes late 2:05 I went and borrowed the bike parks BBQ and got that set up, I then hung about for an hour a half waiting for the riders to come back for food and a drink at 3:30.
The BBQ and prize giving were a bit of a blur for me, I remember having a couple of beers, cooking one hell of a lot of sausage, chatting to a lot of riders, handing out spot prizes and generally having a good time. The race was won by a girl with 4 kings.
The feedback on the day was everyone enjoyed it, which was just great, I wasn’t sure how people would find it. With the larger number of riders, more people would have missed out on cards then I planned. There was enough interest to run one of these again next year but next time I will ensure there are more cards and more dealers out there. At least next time it will be easy to get interest going now everyone knows what the heck it is all about !
Photos are here ;
http://aucklandsinglespeed.spaces.live.com
Race daydawned nice and sunny and I wandered the road at 7.45 for a paper and came home had coffee and toast. It was looking like being a top day, naturally half an hour later the cloud had moved in and the wind had picked up a bit…
I was quite nervous about the race, maybe nervous is a bit extreme, but I was certainly something, too much energy, luckily I had a few house jobs to do before I packed up and left. I had borrowed my brother in laws petrol weed wacker so I made good use of that and flattened the grass edges which is always fun, petrol powered tools are so cool.
I left home at 11.00 with a car load of bike, (which I didn’t ride) beer and prizes and headed for the supermarket to buy some basics for the BBQ. Got to the forest about an hour before the start and found a good spot to set up the barbie for race headquarters.
The riders and helpers started to show up soon after I arrived and the time before the race disappeared in a blur of chatting and getting peoples names down for the prize draw after the event. Luckily all the people who said they would help out, did and I was amazed to get 28 riders, which was a few more than I expected.
There was a small amount of chaos as I read the rules and shifted everyone to the start line, some of the helpers were not quite ready so I had to hold everyone back for a few minutes. Next event I will get this organised a bit better, I wanted to make sure the riders knew what the ‘dealers’ looked like so they knew who to ride up to in the forest.
Once the riders left 5 minutes late 2:05 I went and borrowed the bike parks BBQ and got that set up, I then hung about for an hour a half waiting for the riders to come back for food and a drink at 3:30.
The BBQ and prize giving were a bit of a blur for me, I remember having a couple of beers, cooking one hell of a lot of sausage, chatting to a lot of riders, handing out spot prizes and generally having a good time. The race was won by a girl with 4 kings.
The feedback on the day was everyone enjoyed it, which was just great, I wasn’t sure how people would find it. With the larger number of riders, more people would have missed out on cards then I planned. There was enough interest to run one of these again next year but next time I will ensure there are more cards and more dealers out there. At least next time it will be easy to get interest going now everyone knows what the heck it is all about !
Photos are here ;
http://aucklandsinglespeed.spaces.live.com
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