Graham's Varied Adventures

Insert cricket noises here.....

2012-02-09T21:14:00.000+10:00

Yep, it's been pretty quiet around the old bloggosphere. It might lead you to think I haven't had much going on but the truth is the exact opposite.
January is a month of birthdays for our family. My son Jack turned 9 and received his first full sized 26 inch mountain bike. I think I was more excited than he was. It took nearly a fortnight for him to want to get out and ride the bike though. Finally we took off for a run along the rail trail near home. There is a walkway we normally use to get back to the bike path for the trip home but some construction work had it closed. It made this part of the journey pretty hazardous as it took us onto a busy road and Jack was less than keen. I offered the option of a bit of single track instead to get there. While Jack was a bit sceptical about the single track he was really not keen on the road. We did it. Before I knew it he was flying along down the trail and climbing like a champ! I reckon he needs a little more practice with the shifters and he will have it nailed.

A couple of red frogs later, away we went.

For the last couple of years January has also been crazy busy with work. We delivered a news set for a local TV bulletin in the last week of the month. It looked pretty cool and all went really smoothly. I know it isn't about bikes or family but it did keep me away from both. The video is a time lapse of the removal of the old set and install of the new one.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/local/qld/#fop

I got an early birthday present too. Matt and Brent from Giant handed me a spanking new TCR Advanced 0 road bike. Yep, a road bike. There will be a detailed review soon but suffice to say it is great to ride. It has the new Shimano Di2 electronic groupset and boy does it make changing gears easy. The weather here has been pretty wet and so I haven't put any really serious miles in on it yet but it's great to have a bike that fits with nice kit hanging from it. I look totally pro in the new Ronde kit too. Here's the goods....

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-au/bikes/model/tcr.advanced/9671/50835/
And right now. Well I made a promise to myself that every day this month I would ride. So far so good. I also have stopped drinking alcohol completely for an extended period. Feels pretty darn good so far. I am really looking forward to the end of the month to plug all the numbers in to the Garmin Connect and see how my totals come up. I know it won't be huge but after the amount of time I have spent doing everything but ride it should still bring a smile.
Anyway, stay tuned for the review on the roadie and as the race season heats up for more of my ramblings about riding bikes. I reckon this year will have a bunch more stories about riding with the kids given the look on Jacks face after the his first ride on the big bike.

2012-01-02T20:27:00.000+10:00

There are probably a lot of words I could say to sum up 2011. In the end if you watch the images, you'll get the point. We made it, we survived and hopefully in 2012 we will thrive.

Enjoy.

2011 is gone..... from Graham Menzies on Vimeo.

Updates on the new bike.

2011-12-06T10:57:00.001+10:00

I've now got a couple of races and some reasonably long rides in on the XTC 29er 0. Overall it is a solid and well behaved platform that can really haul arse. The feeling of sitting "in" the bike rather than "on" the bike adds a level of stability when descending fast fire roads and comfort during long, sustained climbing. Both of these traits are valuable in quite a lot of the riding I enjoy. The frame is stiff and responsive so there is no perceptible loss of power when you stand up and put the power down. The front tracks true with the Overdrive 2 head tube junction and the Fox forks teaming up to keep you pointed where you aim. I am a big fan of the Fox forks and after messing around with pressures a bit I have it right where I want it. I use the lockout a bit but generally I don't feel the need. I love riding this bike.

It's not all roses though. I am really not a big fan of the Schwalbe Racing Ralph tyres. I know a lot of riders love them, I'm not one of them. They are OK but I think the side walls are too soft and that means I feel I need to run more pressure to compensate for the squirmy feel. Once that happens you lose some of the bump absorption and traction in loose surfaces. A tubeless kit may fix it but as yet I haven't put one in. Not a big fix but worth mentioning. The Avid brakes. Man those things squeal. The performance is fine, the set up is fine and I quite like the lever reach adjustment but the noise is just hard to ignore. There is also a 205mm rotor specced on the bike for this year and for me it is too much brake. I can see that for a bigger human there would be value in it as the increased stopping power would come into it's own. For my 70kg frame I really don't need it though. When I grab a handful of lever I often need to check that my fillings have stayed put after I have nose wheelied down the trail. I'm picky. Too much brake, sheesh.
The highlight for me is still the Shimano XT drive train. This stuff works. I love that even after 4 hours of slop and crap it keeps shifting with confidence. I am not known for my light shifting technique (read masher) and sometimes when I get tired (read after lap one usually) my gear choices are made rather late forcing a big jump in ratios and that disturbing crunching sound to emanate from the drive train. Even with that obvious disadvantage the XT doesn't complain and hits the gear allowing me to look like I might actually know how to ride a mountain bike. Love it.
So if wishes were fishes what would I do? First up Shimano XT Icetech brakes. No question there. Next would be some tyres and that would probably be Maxxis Ikons. I have one to try here right now but as yet it hasn't made it onto a bike. At 2.2 inch it would hopefully give a bit more volume and suppleness to the ride without saggy sidewalls. I have had great success with Maxxis as a brand but again this is a personal thing. After that it's a hard decision. While there is a case for lighter wheels it is a big expense when the stock wheels are solid with hubs that roll well and are easy to service. Get the wheels checked after a few rides and keep the tension right and they aren't too bad. If however Shimano ever gets it together and makes the XT wheelset with a 15mm hub I'll be all over them like white on rice.
As always, these thoughts are based on my personal preference and keeping in mind that I have 2 small children, a wife and a mortgage. I search out performance balanced with value and the XTC delivers both of these in spades.

Wheels on Woodenbong.

2011-11-30T11:04:00.001+10:00

Funny name, great weekend.
So there's this new race called WoW. It's in the tiny township of Woodenbong about 2 hours south of home. As there was camping advertised at the race site and the family were keen for a little adventure we packed up early Saturday morning for the drive down and departed with the hope of a nice place to pitch the tent and some good food at the local pub. Both came true and really set the scene for the weekend.
The camp site was a massive, flat grassed area which backed onto a sandy creek. When we arrived there were barely half a dozen other campers and so we stretched out and made ourselves very comfortable. he boys got straight to exploring the creek with Rohan managing to "fall in" while fully clothed. Alison and I had both joked about how long it was going to take for that to happen. As it turned out we were pretty accurate with our estimates of half an hour. They were having fun though. We were also treated to the lovely surprise of Mark, a regular racer and often lap partner for me, showing up and setting his camp right beside us. We sat and chatted for a bit and once the tent was up my wonderful wife showed just why she is so awesome for the second time in a very short space of time. Alison let me go and do a test lap with Mark of the course to see how it was. More about the lap later, and about my awesome wife.
We had planned to go to the pub for dinner as often the food in a country pub is quite spectacular. Not in the "Quail toenails with a parsnip and mint jus rested on a stack of blanched bok choy" kind of way but more the head sized rump steak and thick cut chips kind of way. I was disappointed to see the menu was surprisingly short of some of my favourite pub fare. Rohan was keen on a pizza and as Alison thought she could share one with him I opted to get one too. All three of us would get a decent meal that way and seemed like a good idea. Now, the pizzas weren't good, they were frikken fantastic! Great bases, fresh topping and really nicely cooked. I was stoked. Rohan proceeded to destroy his usual half of an adult size pizza and a few of his brothers chips. Not bad for a 6 year old. Alison and I were very satisfied with the meal and the setting out the back in the beer garden just topped it off. Jack had fish and chips.At least he is predictable. After that it was back to camp with left over pizza in a box and into the showers before bed. A small mention must be given at this stage to the adopted family member and bit parter for the weekend, the green frog in the ladies showers. Rohan had gone for a shower with Alison so we could get the boys into bed quicker when he spotted the frog. It was like Christmas. Alison even had to go back the 200 meters to the toilets with the camera and get a photo of the frog to show me and Jack. Frogs are amphibians don't you know.......
Bed, slept like a log. Woke to a foggy (yep foggy in Spring) day with the temperature already going up steadily at 6:30am. It was shaping up to be a hot day. I cooked bacon and pancakes on the tailgate of the ute and watched as the boys engulfed as soon as they were cool enough. Man they can eat when we go camping. I just strolled around from then on eating a bit more, drinking a bit more and getting my shit together to go and do some racing. I had no high hopes for a result because you guessed it, I haven't really trained. I should just not even say it now and it should just be assumed that I don't train hard. I barely train at all. Anyway, enough griping about my lack of commitment to training.
Paul and Leanne were coming down for the race as well. As Mark could do with a hand putting up his gazebo I went over to the transition area and we set up a nice little race base before the crowds arrived. While I was there I reserved a spot next to us for Paul and Leanne and hung around until they rolled up. Another lovely surprise greeted me when Paul number 2 showed up as well. I used to ride quite a bit with Paul but just lost touch with work and life stuff. It was great to see him and he was looking pretty fit. Not as fit as the new and improved Paul B in his Superman cape and tights. I have no idea how much weight Paul B has lost but my, he is looking lean and strong. That fact was only proven to me as he dropped me like I was standing still on the first lap. If the racing had of gone to poo, the social aspect more than made up for it right there.
Race time. Got to the start line and felt okay if not a little hot already. The day was heading towards scorcher rapidly. Mark had said to me earlier in the day I should aim for 10 laps of the 5.3km course and see what happens from there. I have no data for the course as I hate racing with a Garmin or similar. The course was straight forward enough with the first half being a long, steady climb after a short double track section, then 3 heart breaking little boggy areas, another short false flat and then 3 long descents with short flat sections all the way back to transition. 161 meters of vertical according to the race profile.
As I get older it takes me so much longer to get into the swing of things come race time. The first 2 laps were like chewing broken glass. It hurt and to keep going just felt like it would make it worse. My only reason to keep going, and my dark little secret from a month or so ago is my complete failure at the last race I entered. I have never pulled out of a race before until then. Only 3.5 hours into a 6 hour race, pop! Broken Heartlidge and race over. Yeah, I didn't even do a post about it.
I had no idea about the times I was doing, no idea of a placing and less than no concern for either piece of information. On lap 3 though Rohan and Alison had come over to see how I was going from the campsite. Rohan handed me some gels and a new water bottle, told me about the fun he was having and said I looked muddy. I asked him if I looked alright and he stopped, considered his answer and then let me have it. "You look okay, but how's your bike race going Daddy?" Slap. Yeah, how is it going Graham? Well, I'm upright, I'm feeling a little better, there are guys out there suffering way worse than me and bugger it, I'm not trying to solve world hunger or perform life saving surgery. This should be fun. From then on I was good to go. My times didn't drop or anything miraculous like that but they did stay reasonably consistent and most importantly, I was having a good time.
I busted out my 10 laps and got a time check going around the last checkpoint. It was a close thing according to the marshal with only a few minutes left until the 4 hours ticked over. I came around the last corner only to see the clock sitting on 8 minutes to go! With such short laps that put me in for another slog around if I wanted it. I wasn't sure though. My legs had been cramping most of the last 2 laps and I just backed off and kept pedalling to stop the inevitable lock up that comes with effort. It didn't seem right to pull up though as I had managed it for 2 whole laps. 2 whole laps of gingerly pedalling and crawling up the climbs. Paul B saw me in a bit of trouble and immediately offered up some magic electrolyte tablets. I scoffed them down and drank deeply before swapping bottles and heading out again. I was happy to go and make the lap slow but finish it. what happened next was both stupid and surprising.
I had seen a guy lapping around at about the same time as me. I was also pretty sure he was on the same lap as me. While I sat at transition and pieced myself back together on the previous lap I had seen him pass me and go out for a final lap. As I trudged along the grass section just past transition I could see him in the distance approaching the long climb. To my great surprise when I got to the climb he wasn't that far in front of me and to my greater surprise as the climb went on I was actually making ground on him. A spark of competitiveness flickered to life in my pea like brain. My legs were saying "don't you dare!" while my heart was saying "it's the last lap, how bad can it be?" Hmm, a quandary indeed. Hang it, I'm going after him.
I got close before the first short descent into the boggy areas. I watched as he went through the bog and got off to walk up the pinch climb straight after it. Hmm, interesting. I powered through the bog and up the pinch with legs screaming. He was still in front.The second boggy area was much the same and on the other side of this bog I could almost hear him breathing. The third bog I was on his wheel. there weren't any places to pass right there but there was just the last little pinch climb before the long descents started. Hmm, a chance?
I'll tell what happened next as I saw it. There is also a touch of the dramatic to make it more fun to read and should the competitor it is about read this and call it another way, I'm more than happy to set it right later. When we reached the bottom of the climb I was millimetres from his rear wheel. The trail opened up slightly and I called track right, meaning I intended to pass on his right. Only problem was he went right. I could see the tendons in his neck straining, hear his breathing ragged from effort and it "looked" like he tried to block me. I saw his right shoulder drop and just that millisecond before felt he may do this and so was prepared. I ducked left and onto the smoother part of the trail. I had only called right as it was polite to make the pass in the tougher part of the course so as to not disrupt the flow of the other rider. Besides, you don't give up the prime line easily. I was hanging it all out up the pinch. I hit the top a meter in front and immediately slammed it up to the middle ring and stood up. I think you could have heard my legs screaming from Mars. Shut up legs and do as you are told. the final climb was maybe 50 meters long and I crested it with a small gap on him. It was big dog time and for the first time all race I was pedalling down the descent as hard as I could. So was he. A tight right hand corner slowed us both down and again for the first time all race I got it just right and powered out clean. Another meter or so opened up. I could still hear him breathing though. A little false flat was the last pedalling before the final descent down to transition. You had to negotiate a hairpin corner at the bottom and pedal over the line. Through the day I had been using a little short cut on the corner which allowed you to not lose so much speed provided you could make the 2 foot drop on the end of it. I was pinning it and as the corner came up I could hear him grabbing a handful of brake to get around. I shot over the corner and popped it off the drop and stood up on the pedals to sprint to the line. I got him by 1 second. Cool. My legs turned to toast soldiers and before I knew it I had cramps on my cramps. I was still smiling though.
Now I mentioned my wife was awesome. Why is that you ask? Well as I was out pummelling myself on a bike, she was quietly packing up our camp. No small job with 2 kids to watch as well. I got to head over to the camp, throw the stuff in the ute and relax in the creek and at the presentations before Alison drove us home. Awesome. Darling, you are the best pit crew ever.
I got 9th place. Not bad for an old fart racing an all in brawl.

2012 XTC 29er 0. Some first thoughts.

2011-10-11T20:53:00.000+10:00

Lucky me has a new bike to ride. Over the next couple of months I will be out there in the dirt with a shiny XTC 29er 0. I haven't had a chance to really put all that many miles on the bike yet but so far I'm pretty impressed. I have the 2010 model of this bike and the up speccing is pretty obvious this year. Shimano XT running gear, Avid Elixir 7 brakes and the banging Fox F29 RL fork. Another nice little addition is the Schwalbe Racing Ralph tyres. I haven't had a lot of experience with the brand but these tyres felt quite good right out of the blocks. Time will tell if that continues and whether they wear well or not.
My first ride was out at Clear Mountain in the steeps. It climbs like a spider monkey on Red Bull. There is no flex from the Power Core bottom bracket and that translates to all the power going into forward motion. again the tyres were a pleasant surprise with little slippage in the gravelly conditions.
I did get a little time in the singletrack over the weekend and I liked it. The steering is precise and quick. I got it around the trails with no effort at all and the brakes were good if not great. There is a 180mm rotor on the front this year and while it isn't essential for someone my size, I guess it will help with brake fade on long descents.
This may look a bit lack luster as far as thoughts go but that is far from the case. This is a step up from my 2010 XTC 29er no doubt however I knew what to expect. I expected the bike to ride as well as it did, I expected the XT to work as well as ever and I expected that the package would be as good as it is. All in all, I like it so far.
Once I get some more time and a race or two done on the bike I will do a more in depth review. For right now this is just a teaser. Check the specs below.
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-au/bikes/model/xtc.29er.0/9716/50971/

Pedal Til You Puke

2011-10-01T20:13:00.000+10:00

Today an intrepid bunch of guys from all sorts of riding backgrounds got together to do a charity ride. It was to raise money for Graeme Ardern who needs surgery to remove a tumor on his neck. Graeme's family and friends are trying to raise $30,000 to pay for the very expensive surgery. More of his story in the link here.
A massive shout out has to go to Neil Ennis for organising the whole thing. He organised the route, had T-shirts printed and was generally an awesome host for the ride. Props also to ALL the riders who showed up and rode to show support for the cause, donate a bit of cash and just generally climb like maniacs.
To add a bit of fun it was a challenge. There were some prizes that riders had donated and a T-Shirt for the person who cleared the most climbs. It was all in fun though. There was heaps of support for all the riders with a very relaxed vibe. Just how it should be.

The bunch with Graeme in the white T-shirt.

This is the link to my winning effort up Mango Trees. I got the win with my sparkling singing voice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B0KkbFRlU8&feature=share
I wish Graeme and his family all the best in his fight. There is a link below if you want to drop a couple of bucks his way to help out too.
http://www.gofundme.com/7io08
A whole bunch more shots here.

Eating Cake, Chasing Dogs.

2011-09-25T19:53:00.000+10:00

It's pretty obvious that my motivation has been in the red for the last couple of months. A combination of stress at work, too much booze and not enough riding has left the tell tale marks that the black dog has been gnawing away at my mental stability. I overslept on Saturday morning and missed a ride that day and felt really disappointed in myself. The only thing that can give me any chance of actually getting out of bed to ride is to set up a ride with someone else. If I am meeting someone, I will most likely show up. So I rang Rients.
The plan was simple. Ride up Nebo and have a coffee and then come back however we felt was best. The plan worked amazingly well with Rients in no hurry due to a big tour ride he has planned next weekend and me just happy to plod along and get some miles in. We talked all the way. Have a look at the average speed! The coffee was great at the top as was the massive banana muffin. The company was awesome all the way. It really was a perfect day for riding.
So here I am, kicking back to Nick Drake and wondering when the drive will come back. I'm off the booze (for a while at least) and I know that always helps to get some balance back. I usually start to get energy back after a week or so and hopefully then it will be on. I have had the black dog chasing me pretty solidly now for a couple of months. It's time for me to take that figurative rolled up newspaper that is my bike and give that bastard a touch up. Instead of having it chomping at my heels, I reckon its time I chased it down the street swinging that newspaper like a maniac. I know it is too much to ask to see it tuck it's tail between it's legs and scarper yelping all the way, but hey, just knowing I have the bastard on the run will do.
I'm happy and content now. The ride did it's magic today.

I went riding.....

2011-08-28T20:34:00.001+10:00

That is all. I got on my bike and rode for 3 hours. If it wasn't for Nick ringing me and giving me no excuses for pulling out I would have bailed and stayed on the couch. It was well worth it though. Breezing around Bunya on the single speed is something that should be put on the therapeutic goods list.
The plan was to roll around at a very relaxed pace but not stop. It means we get to chat along the way and get a workout without thinking about it. After an hour or so Nick got a call and soon Eric was joining us for our cathartic spin in the bush. The route was nothing new but it is always fun.
My legs hurt now but my brain feels great. There is precious little time over the next couple of weeks for me to ride but at least I got one ride in. A big thanks to Nick and Eric for the company and the awesome conversation. Now Nick has even convinced me to have a crack at an 8 hour race in a month or so. Should be a real laugh.

A spark to light the way.

2011-07-17T21:28:00.001+10:00

It's been a long time since I just sat here and waxed lyrical on why riding a bike is so important to me. I know it must be obvious to those people around me as today I had a family friend and my Dad asking me if I'd been riding lately. Life has been a bit up and down for me recently.
Riding gives much more than just fitness and a day out. Riding is "intelligent" in its therapy. You go out some days and just smash yourself, because that's what you need. Other days are a roll around with mates for laughs, conversation and time out. Sometimes the coffee post ride is the thing that sets all the buttons back to normal and washes away the dross of a day or week. How can something inanimate "know" what you need? Because you get out what you put in and you get to choose how much you put in.
I haven't been putting enough in for a little while now. The state of my riding is reflected in my life, or perhaps it's my life reflected in my riding. There are struggles to find motivation, to find the spark to ignite the fire again and burn away my lethargy and sloth.
I need the pain again. I have had my perceptions of what can be endured and what can be achieved irrevocably altered by the people around me, and indeed by my own efforts. When I think of the next challenge it gives me a brief vision of how I should be in life. Passionate, committed, determined. Now it is more persevering, controlled, listless. Time is drawing me closer to another challenge. I don't know what it will be but it needs to be big. I need to know that whatever I take on is not a certainty. I need to know I could fail, if I don't put my passion, commitment and determination on the line. Toe the damn line. It'll be on a bike though. My muse and my tormentor.

Moon light riding.

2011-07-04T20:57:00.000+10:00

I received some really exciting news a couple of weeks ago and have been busting to get it out there. The guys from QBC, the distributors for Giant and a number of other brands here in Queensland offered me the chance to ride with their new light brand, MOON Lights. Looking at the spec sheets for the various units had me salivating with the option for a 1500 lumen light with a 3 hour burn time and a 1000 lumen with a 4 hour burn time the top dogs.

Normally I only like to ride with a helmet light so when given the option of which unit I could get I went with the 1500 lumen X-Power 1500. With 5 power modes including a flash mode you get plenty of different light levels. They also come with both a helmet and bar light as standard as well as an extension lead and a strap to mount the battery wherever you might choose. All in all, a nice little package for a great price. The whole lot retails for $399.
These puppies are bright! After nearly blinding Drew on the first singletrack run I turned the light down to the 1100 lumen level. The quality and spread of the beam meant this was more than enough light to ride most trails. In fact it punched along the trail so well it was difficult for Drew to be in front. At least that was his excuse for lagging behind!
After the impressive results for the X-power 1500 I was also keen to try out the X-power 1000 units as for endurance racing I thought that one of these on the bars and one on the helmet might be a good combination. The 1000 uses 2 Cree XPG emitters and 1 XML emitter to give the lesser lumen output with a slightly better burn time. I really like the mounting brackets for these lights too. The bar mount is simple to use with a rubber strap that loops around and hooks back to the mount that sees only the rubber in contact with the bars. A nice touch particularly if you use carbon bars like me.
I got the opportunity to test the lights against another light in a similar price bracket and output. Again I was joined by Drew and also this time Reg came along for a roll too. Reg was running a 1400 lumen bar light and a 900 lumen helmet light. All three of us agreed that the MOON was a superior beam with a much wider throw and less hot spot than the light Reg was running. Not bad for $270 odd dollars! MOON lists the run times for the 1000 lumen as 3.5 hours.

The wash up of the first couple of rides with the MOON lights is that they produce an astounding amount of light. They might not be the lightest units in terms of weight but from my research they are comparable with lights of a similar output. You can go with the 1500 lumen model and need nothing else or go with 2 of the 1000 lumen units to put a light on the bars and the helmet. I still need to run the lights a few times to really confirm the run times. At this stage they seem pretty accurate though as I have ridden twice with the X-power 1500 with no issues and the X-power 1000 did a 2.5 hour ride with no issues.
I am really excited to get these lights out and race them. They fit right into my ethos of performance at a fantastic price. As I get more time with the MOON lights on the trail I will report back with updates. There are also a number of other products MOON does that the guys from QBC have given me to mess around with like tail lights and a very classy looking 300 lumen commuter light. All in all I could be spending a whole lot more time night riding from now on!

Enduro Series Race 4. Sunday in the Vale.

2011-06-21T20:02:00.000+10:00

There is a certain satisfaction in finishing what you start. Race 4 of the Enduro Super Series came and went this weekend with an 8 hour format on the cards. As an observation it has been really interesting to have to prepare and consider the 4 different durations of the events and to start to get a feel for just how hard I can go out in each one. It seems a consistent theme that I say I feel I could have gone harder. I might just need to get on with it and put the hurt on a lot more.
Anyway, a race report. I had a full dance card on Saturday with some kid commitments and that meant I wasn't able to get out to OHV to set up a pit area on Saturday as I had done previously. It also meant a 5am start to get out there on Sunday. I hate 5am starts. I arrived at 7am and already the pit lane was full. I wasn't surprised or even upset as with a solo rider all I needed was a spot to put my cooler to hold bottles and some food. Luckily though I ran into Meg and Pete and they very kindly allowed me to hand out in their shelter. All good. I did still have to rush to get ready to race and didn't really get to stretch properly and wasn't ever really sure if I had everything. I guess I'll know in 8 hours or so!
For the first time this year I pushed towards the front a little at the start. I wanted to get a good start as there was a small chance if I raced well I could get up into 3rd place overall on the series points. Well that was the plan. The start went around a hairpin corner and across a muddy land bridge in a dam which when all was said and done successfully killed my flow on the run out. I got around a few riders from there on the first lap and happily tapped out the lap. It was still under 50 minutes for the 14km lap and the second lap was even better. lap 3 was my best for the race as I caught up with Matt Killin and had a great chat and really pushed along nicely swapping pace setting duties along the way. Matt ended the day with a very respectable 4th place in elite after punching out consistent laps for the 8 hours. I stopped for food and water and Matt kept going through.
I had a little bit of bad luck. Lap 4 and going across the muddy land bridge a rider in front lost his front wheel and fell. My front wheel smacked into his rear wheel and I slipped forward and smashed my hip on my stem. It was no problem at the time, just a bummer for both of us really. As the lap progressed though my hip, or more precisely my ITB, started to tighten and make my knee quite sore. By the end of the lap though during the climb up Escalator my whole leg was killing me. After crawling back to the transition area i was feeling really bummed. We had fortunately set up next to the masseuse and as I was pretty well screwed anyway I thought I might as well give the ten minute massage a try. It did the trick. Trevor, the masseuse, knew his stuff and my leg felt almost good for a while. He instructed me to hydrate really well, do a few stretches and keep an eye on it.
I had been off the bike for 40 minutes and everyone had put at least a lap into me. Any chance of getting a podium were well gone so I just went out to ride some more laps and salvage some personal pride. I'd like to point out that when I say my chances of a podium had gone, I should qualify that the guys who finished in front of me and that I had gone into the race with the intention of matching it with were riding very strongly. I felt great until my hip went pop but the guys were just super consistent and may have left me weeping like a 3 year old who'd dropped his ice cream. Well done to Jay and John for finishing the series well and fighting out the minor places while Clint smashed everyone.
Anyway, 4 more laps after the massage for a total of 8 laps. That's 112km for the day and not a bad days work. Even with a disappointing 7th place in this race I still managed to finish 4th on points for the series. Happy enough. I want to mention some great performances by a couple of mates too. Well done to Matt Powell and Anthony Zahra for a series of great racing, well done Nick Westwood for putting in a gutsy effort on Sunday and being pipped for 3rd by seconds. Of course a big thanks and congratulations must go to Tailwind Promotions for running a really fantastic series of races.
So now what?

Long weekends

2011-06-13T20:42:00.000+10:00

When an opportunity arises, you should grab it. On Friday I normally have to play Daddy Daycare and collect the boys from school and don't get me wrong, I love doing it. Friday past though Alison managed an early finish and I was able to convince Nick to come out for a late afternoon jaunt. He said he was going out on the single speed and I thought, hang it, why not! I also thought it might mean the ride would be a bit more casual. I was pretty well as wrong as I could be.

Nick has a Friday loop. It is a really cool mix of the single track around Bunya with a few good fire road climbs to test the legs. We pushed along at a nice pace and while I was slowing Nick up a bit he didn't mind too much. at least I climbed all the hills and only walked "The Steps". They really are just steps. You can't ride them. We had a very entertaining ride and shot the breeze which helped keep my mind off the fact that my legs were screaming. It was a nice scream though and not a "get off the bike now" scream. What a top way to start a long weekend.

Saturday dawned rainy and grey. The forecast had predicted it would be but I had held out hope they would be wrong. The boys had a soccer match each in the morning which stops me riding early and then swimming lessons take us through until lunch time. By then the rain had started and riding in the afternoon was really not much of an option. I hate the cold, and I hate being cold and wet even more. The trails were most likely sodden and my wheels would only make that worse. By late afternoon though I was getting very restless. From time to time I have resorted to drastic measures when this is the case. I go for a trail run. Yep, me running. I stick mainly to the fire roads and some of the ridge line single track and as the weather scares of the mountain bikers it is perfect. Some people ride or run with music devices, but when I run I very purposefully don't. I figure if I am running on MTB trails the least I can do is wear bright clothes and pay attention in case a rider does come along. Running, well it smashes me. How someone does a marathon I don't know. Man my legs were stinging by the end of it. It's only 6km in a very moderate time of 30 minutes but wow, what a workout.

Friday's single speed ride showed it was time for a new rear tyre. I had a new Ignitor sitting at home for just the purpose and a quiet beer on Saturday evening saw the job done and ready for the next day. Again Sunday morning was pretty ordinary and my plans for a big ride up into the hills was looking more than a little shaky. It stopped raining at around 2pm and that was my cue to get busy! I bundled the single speed in the car, chucked the riding gear on and set off for Gap Creek. I wasn't keen on trashing my nice clean bikes and the single speed suits the task with no pivots to clean, no gears or cables to clog and a 5 minute clean after the ride. Oh yeah. Gap creek was deserted. I had the trails to my self and with that in mind I rolled around in a state of near bliss. I was almost disappointed when I finally did come across some other riders.

Up and over Dirt Girls and Pony Express, on through to Skink, the painful fire road climb up Magic and down Rocket Frog. Phew, time for a muesli bar before the next bit. There is a little bit of transit single trail to the bottom of Dingo and then up. I love this trail as it is an arse kicker. I'm yet to tame it on the single speed with a couple of little log roll overs that when wet are just damn hard. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor and with a race next weekend I wasn't out to prove a point. I got off and walked a couple of the trail features. Going down was an exercise in traction control and 2 wheel drifting. The lack off suspension on my bike made for more than a few butt clenching moments with the best being the split second I was able to see me rear tyre in my peripheral vision. Yeah, I hadn't turned my head.
It was nice to get warm back in the car. I was reasonably well soaked through and the thought of a hot cup of tea and a warm shower appealed greatly. Big smile on my face though and a very satisfied feeling to have snuck in a ride.
Then there was today. A late start because I could, a coffee to get going and the family off for an outing. I was off the hook with a whole world of trails to go ride. I didn't head far from home, I don't need to. Down to the end of the street and into Ironbark for a few hills to warm up. To my great surprise and delight I came across the new trail head for Sunset. I've written about this trail before. It had been closed due to erosion but the trail fairies have cut a new entry and cleaned up the really bad bits to improve drainage and it's good as new. In fact better than new. My undying respect and thanks to the trail fairies. You rock.
Over to Bunya for some single track. There is a short tarmac traverse to the top of "Track 8". I barreled around for another hour until I ran into Antz. He was out for a final run before the weekends 8 hour race in the single speed category. In the SS category he is running second with strong results in all the races. As we talked he told me he hadn't been able to find a link into Ironbark from Bunya. As I was heading home by this time I offered to take him over and show him the roads. We had a good chat along the way and as is often the case we both mentioned that it was about time that there were a few more rides for us. I look forward to it as Antz is a strong rider that can only make me go harder to keep up. If him and Nick come out for a ride it will be really on. We said goodbye at the turnoff back to Bunya with the promise of catching up next week. I was off home for some left over macaroni cheese and a big drink of water. I felt great.
So there it is. Now I just get a couple of commutes before the 8 hour race next Sunday. I really couldn't be happier with my weekend. I couldn't be happier with the years racing so far.

2011-06-10T20:55:00.000+10:00

I haven't had anything much of a positive nature to report for the last few weeks. I had a virus that knocked me around, didn't ride, I got lazy and I have suffered the emotional effects of all those factors sliding by my "Not all is well in my head" filter. I have felt pretty darn ordinary for a few weeks now. Yep I still have those days, sometimes weeks, where depression insinuates itself into my life and tries to mess with me. It usually manages to do some mischief before I wake up to myself and send it packing. How does that saying go? The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Never truer than with anxiety and depression.
Anyway, a ray of sunshine. I have commuted to work every day but today and feel tops for it. Somewhere along the way I got some balance back and my head and heart feel much more like they should. I have apologised to my long suffering wife for being a very second rate human of late, and as much as it never ceases to amaze me, she doesn't seem to hold a grudge. Yet another reason I love her. And today, I mentioned I didn't commute and there's a great reason, I went out and did "Nicks Friday Loop" with a twist. I did the ride on my single speed.
Nicks Friday Loop it is fair to say isn't particularly long, but it does have a few challenging hills. as much as I was wimping out with a very low gear ratio it is still heaps harder than dropping it into the granny and spinning up a hill. I am not unhappy with the fact that I rode every hill bar "The Steps" which is literally a set of steps and bloody steep. I certainly didn't set any land speed records but Nick was happy to let me chug along and not be too stressed if I was slow. I count it as a win.
The feeling of my legs burning and lungs popping when I try and muscle up a climb on the single speed is a heady tonic indeed. I am not a gear burning, lefty, extremist single speeder but I do appreciate the simplicity of not having gears, not being distracted by which gear you should be in, and just getting on with it. All hills are a challenge to be attacked and given no quarter and if you aren't honest with the effort the results are very predictable. You walk. Maybe it's a litmus test for how you really feel?
So life has been all about battling up the hills lately, both figuratively and physically. I might not be at the top emotionally but I'm cool with that because sometimes from there the only way is down. Physically I plan to crest a lot of hills this weekend and savor the view from the top. I know my legs will protest but they can just shut up and do as they are told. All in all, no distractions, no excuses.

Merida 24 Hour, the redux.

2011-05-17T21:21:00.000+10:00

It went well. Nice way to be able to start a post really.
I've spoken about why this race was important to me previously so I think enough of the in depth analysis on 24 hour racing for now. What I will say is that mt preparation was good, my planning was solid and my result is right about where I had hoped it to be. I didn't meet abritrary goals I set of 300km or riding non stop for 24 hours but I was sensible and well placed compared to the efforts of the other competitors. I managed 18 laps, for 252km and finished 4th in my category. It's worth mentioning that Clint Pierce won the overall honours and is also in my 40+ category. He's a machine.
Race report time.
I was lucky to have a fantastic support crew for this race. Marcel, Mike and Spencer had all given up part or all of their weekend to come out and make sure I ate, drank and rode as much as I could. Marcel and I rocked up to the venue on Saturday morning to be met by Mike who had travelled out there on his own. We set the pit tent up with an absolute minimum of fuss and I was ready to race well before the gun. All the essential were laid out and within easy reach and now it was just time to sit back and wait for the start.

Lining up for a mass start is always an excercise in frustration for me. There are the genuinely quick riders that I don't want to get in the way of, the soloists who will just want to pace themselves, the newbies who are just petrified and then the people who think they will be smashing it right up until they hit the first bit of technical single track. The last group are the ones who cause my frustration. Never mind, smile and just get on with it. No further than 300m past the start I came across a racer who had tried to take a line over a wooden obstacle and got it horribly wrong. A few people asked if he was OK but no one was stopping. I saw him struggling to get off the course and sit up and immediately pulled over next to him and worked out whether he was safe to move to the side of the course. Once off the course I asked his name and tried to see what exactly had happened. Poor guy was in Lala land. He insisted on finishing the 14km lap but with help from Andy, a fellow rider, we convinced him to stay put and let the medics have a look at him. There were still a lot of riders coming through at this stage so I ran back up the hill to the start line to get the medics. That got the old legs working! In the end the young guy was OK to continue after a little rest and being checked out. He might hate me for slowing him up but hey, he looked like poo when I got to him.

The offending jump. Take the B-line next time.

Anyway, on with a race. Andy and I struck out to complete our first lap together. It was cool to chat and pass the time and soon we were passing the first of the flat tyres for the day. At least stopping had let the course clear for us! We were flying along. So after a some what longer than expected first lap I came through transition and around to my pit area. The boys jumped too and I had food, water and a bike check in seconds flat and it was out for some more fun and frivolity. I just kept pumping out consistent times for the next 5 hours. I was in the zone, everything was working well and I was happy to be racing again. I had pretty much put all thoughts of a podium aside by that time with the 30 minutes lost to the first aid call on lap one. I had a fantastic mind set though as helping the young guy was the right thing to do. Karma was on my side.

At around the 5pm mark I came through transition to be instructed that it was time to fit the lights and get busy with some night laps. I'm not the best of night riders, my night vision is ordinary at best but do enjoy it heaps. You get to see all the little green eyes of the spiders and other insects and they just glow like emeralds. That and the fact that it is so quiet out there. I plugged up the MP3 player and got some reggae pumping to keep the mind occupied and off into the gloom.

The pit crew chillin'. Literally.

Man the temperature dropped though. Around then was when my only real issues of the race made their presence felt. With the cold came a few cramps, a few aches and a few dark thoughts. I couldn't get warm no matter what I did as my riding gear was wet through from perspiration and each time I stopped to take on water or food the next ten minutes were hell on wheels while I tried to warm up again. I persisted until midnight when I was scheduled to stop for a hot food break. At that point I made the decision to get changed, get a hot shower and grab a nap. I wanted to ride solid for 24 hours but the truth was trees were jumping out at me and I was riding like a nanna. I figured it was time to hit the reset button before the trees stopped jumping out at me and I ended up in one. In hindsight, it was the right decision.

Pit crew to the rescue again. Hot food was given to me, while I showered my swag was layed out and the guys had organised who was going for a sleep and who would make sure I got up in an hour and got riding again. That all went like clockwork. Total time off the bike was 2 hours, total time asleep was one hour and total goodness felt for having done it was off the hook. Now all I needed to do was punch it through for another 10 hours or so.
I popped out a few more laps while it was dark but really I couldn't wait for the sun to come up. As the glow increased in the East and I could turn off the lights my riding returned to some sort of normality. I got some flow back and could feel the laps get easier. I was no longer struggling to get the bike through the course and relaxed heaps at that point. It also warmed up and that was like a double espresso with a Red Bull chaser. Oh hang on, no that was breakfast.... Anyway, lots of caffiene and some food and I was really enjoying riding again.

Dawn coffee break.

Mike did a lap check for me around 6am and returned to tell me I was running fourth with some good gains in lap times and only 1 lap down. The thought of a podium fired me up a bit and so I got back out and did the best I could to keep chipping away at the lap times. No matter how hard I pushed though it wasn't going to be enough as Gary had the bit in his teeth and was gritting out gutsy lap after gutsy lap. I was still keen to get fourth though. It would still be my best result ever. Rather than monster myself and make mistakes I took it smooth and easy with consistent if not blistering laps to just make sure the gap was big enough. With 2 hours to go I was looking good and feeling relaxed on the bike. Not bad after 20 hours on the bike and 22 hours in the elements.

Still smiling after 22 hours.

Two laps to go. That should seal it. I have no drama filled moments, no suspense to drag out the inevitable, just the satisfying feeling of completing a race. I loved my last two laps because I got back to riding and had some fun. I got one lap in with Matt Powell on my second last lap and another in with Ky Lane to finish off. It was good to chat and hear that I was not the only one who felt the course was hard and made you earn your turns. Matt romped in the single speed category and Ky had battled through a head cold for 13 laps. Just to clarify, the single speed category means that the riders have only one gear for the whole race. No bail outs. These guys are hard as nails.
I crossed the line and dutifully Mike had checked the results and there was a small chance that 5th place could catch me. I had come over the line at 23 hours and 52 minutes which would have allowed me to start another lap for 19 total and a sure 4th place. I sat down with a beer instead. If the guy could smash out a lap faster than he had all night I would let him have it. Actually no I wouldn't. I sat and had my beer with my helmet and shoes still on and ready to go. I even snuck in gel just in case. I was glad when the announcement came that the time was up. There it is, my best result ever in a mountain bike race.

It's over.

Racing for 24 hours takes a lot of commitment and preparation. If it wasn't for the help and support of a number of people it would all be for naught though. First thanks to Giant and Cyc'd for Bikes who look after me with bikes and gear. My Anthem X29 never missed a beat and made a huge difference to the fatigue I felt last year. Of course my family are pretty awesome. They let me go out and train and indulge my dreams of being a boy racer. There needs to be a special mention made to my pit crew. I was fortunate enough to have help from Marcel, Mike and Spencer over the weekend. Spencer gave up some of his weekend to come out and hang out, make sure the bike was ticking and give some cyclist specific encouragement and advice along the way. He also lent me his awesome Ayup lights as I wasn't able to sort my set out before the race. Cheers geezer. During the week leading up to the race Mike called me and asked if there was some room in my tent for him to hang out and take a few photos. What that turned out to be was a whole weekend where he missed out on sleep to hand me bottles, food and encouragement over the 24 hour period. Marcel offered way back when I signed up for the race to come out and help. It's the second time Marcel has done so and he doesn't even ride bikes. They both just kicked back and made everything happen around me. I came back in after the first lap to see the whole pit area changed around to be better organised with all my stuff at my finger tips. When it was time to change into warm gear I found it ready to go and the help was there to get it on. I'm not sure if the guys even know how important all those little things are in the big picture. If you go out on a lap without the right bottle, some food or the right kit you can suffer through an hour of hell. That translates further down the line as it saps you of energy and motivation. So while my bike was faultless, my preparation and planning was great my pit crew was perfect. They never missed a beat so I never had to worry about anything but pedaling a bike. A massive thanks boys, massive.

The A Team

Now I am just going to bask in the success of the weekend for a while. I have a few plans for another race later in the year and I just have to work out how to get my pit crew to Victoria with me....... Hmm, I wonder.

Final thoughts of a 24 hour punter.

2011-05-10T20:21:00.000+10:00

I had a massive post drafted and ready to upload with heaps of filler about the last couple of weeks riding and preparation but in the end I thought, "Screw it, I am much more succinct than all that." So in a nutshell here it is.
This my fourth 24 hour race and my third solo. I've prepared pretty well physically, although as always for a punter racer like me you could have done more. I've got no excuses in that I have been healthy and had no major injuries so far this year. Above all else though I am looking forward to racing for 24 hours. Before you say it, yes I am a bit crazy because you have to be. I like the challenge so lets leave it at that. I feel better prepared mentally and emotionally to ride for 24 hours than I ever have before and I am actually relishing the thought of getting out there and proving something to myself.
Last year this course beat the snot out of me. No other way to put it. I missed a qualification for the worlds and lost all motivation to ride for quite a while. That problem is long gone now and I am enjoying riding more than I have for ages. I won't set land speed records or be up with the big boys but I will be consistent, and have a sense of humour the whole way through. If I can do that I will be one happy camper.
So come Saturday I'll be on the bike from midday with the intention of not getting off for any length of time until midday Sunday. With a lot of help from Marcel and Spencer, my fantastic pit crew, I'll get it done and have a cool story to tell you all about. Should make for some interesting reading. Lets be honest, my worst day on a bike is still better than my best day at work.......

A little of this, a little of that, and a lot to be thankful for.

2011-04-26T17:47:00.000+10:00

I haven't managed to get back to my blog for a little while now. Life has been pretty fast paced and when I did have time I was too busy enjoying time with my family to bother. We have just returned from a week in Tully, North Queensland visiting my parents. Unless you have been living under a rock or are from another country you will be aware that on the 5th of February this year Tully (more so the surrounding region) was hit by a Category 5 cyclone. Winds were estimated to have reached 300km/hour and the results are still everywhere to be seen. In true NQ style though the locals are bearing up and are still as laconic and friendly as ever. It shocked me though. I grew up in the area, I lived through cyclones, but this was very different.
Having the boys there really made my parents happy. The boys put on a good show too with heaps of cuddles for them and plenty of hilarious moments along the way. We made the most of the time with some activities that made my childhood happy and adventurous and the smiles and laughter from all of us showed the success of the trip. We swam in the creek at the back of mum and dads place, we went to my favourite beach in the whole world and we even got to the outer reef for a snorkeling trip. I won't go into all of the details but some snippets really must be mentioned. First is my favourite beach. Etty Bay. I spent hours there as a kid and all the reasons I loved it have become the same reasons Alison, Jack and Rohan love it too. we spent hours searching the rock pools for fish and crabs, swimming in the sea and of course eating fish and chips from the kiosk.

Jack contemplates whether it should be icecream or lemonade.

Rock pool adventurers

Rohan just kept smiling for a whole week.

The next adventure worth more detail was the reef trip. A whole day out on the outer reef of snorkeling sounded great but we had some concerns as Rohan is only six. We should not have been worried as he was ready to give it a go as soon as the boat stopped and when the first thing he saw once in the water was a green sea turtle the day was set. We saw so many fish, huge clams and starfish it got to be too much. Rohan and I swam through a huge cloud of small blue fish and got to see an eagle ray gliding over the bottom but all he wanted to see was a reef shark. The tour operators went to great lengths to assure everyone they were harmless and after that it was all he wanted. Alison had taken him for a while so I could dive down a bit and explore and just after they left I turned around to swim off and there, not ten feet away was a white tipped reef shark. Bummer, he missed it. It was OK though. The boys are both still talking about the day.

We are home now. I feel blessed to have shared more quality time with the family and lived every moment of it. Easter came and went with barely a whimper but again the time with family was the focus. Alison and I had a chance to kick back a little and let the grand parents spoil the kids so everyone was happy. I have had time to reflect on how lucky I am to be where I am now and be thankful for all the help and wonderful support that has been given to me and my family along the way. This time of the year is always a time for reflection for me. So much has happened, good and bad, all falling around this time of year.
Eight years ago today began 5 weeks of torture for Jack, Alison and myself. Jack was admitted to hospital with a lump under his right jaw line. It later turned out to be Neuro Blastoma, a malignant and aggressive type of tumour common in young kids. He under went too many procedures to mention and was then put through regular tests and check ups for another 3 years. Seven years on and he was given the all clear and is now the happy, bright kid I love and cherish.
I stopped being reliant on medication to deal with my anxiety and stress issues. After two years I learnt to deal with the demons and got off the pills and have remained so. It would not have been possible without my friends and family and all the love and support I received during "The War". I still keep my little "check up, from the neck up" going, and I still make sure my feet are firmly planted on the ground but now it's more as a precaution than a way of life.
So now I am just going to cuddle my kids too much, kiss my wife until she gets annoyed and generally keep a stupid grin on my face for a while. Thankful doesn't even come close.
Life isn't always perfect, but to be living life, sharing life and loving life is perfect enough for me.

Enduro Super Series 2, 6 Hours of Mud.

2011-04-11T21:02:00.000+10:00

So as far as race reports go it is really pretty straight forward. I showed up, I started riding, I rode for 6 hours and then I stopped riding. There was no real drama or close finishes to write about and my bike ran well with only a couple of small issues that were more than to be expected given the mud. Oh, did I mention the mud?
While there hadn't been too much rain, the soil was soaked and as 200 sets of wheels went over it, well it turned to more of a liquid than a solid. There was about a 300 meter section that became unrideable by my forth lap and seriously no fun for most of the day. After lap 9 I was stopping each time I passed the lake to give my bike a wash and clear the mud off the tyres. At least that dropped a couple of kilos after the mud section!
The bit that is writing about, at least from my point of view, is that I didn't pull the pin at 4 hours like I thought I wanted to. My day wasn't going well with my head in a particularly ordinary state and the mud and crappy conditions only added to that feeling. I struggled with a slow start as I got caught behind a lot of traffic due to a mass start and a very tiny start area. Imagine trying to fit a whole football match on a field the size of your living room. That about sums it up. anyway I got through to 4 hours and having thought I had done only about 6 laps I was fried in the head. A cold beer and a burger were all I wanted to think about by then and as I pulled into the start finish line I asked how many laps I had done just to be sure. To my surprise I was told I had done 8 laps! That was a surprise. Spencer had come out with me and had decided he had more than had his fill of mud and was sitting in the tent chatting to some people. As I came around he just said "Don't stop, just keep going." So I grabbed a gel or two, changed bottles and took off again. Once I had realised that I wasn't going to quit today, things got heaps better. Someone once said to me it is only as hard as you want to make it. I started the day telling myself how hard and crappy it was. I finished the day saying I was glad I hadn't quit and that I had a good day. Attitude people, attitude.
The upshot, 12 laps and a 6th place finish. I was still 3 whole laps behind the winner but there was a matter of minutes between me and 4th place. I am really stoked with the result and it has provided me with some more motivation to train a bit harder. My next race is a 24 hour race in 5 weeks and while the training hasn't been spectacular or even very consistent it is working slowly. My mental toughness is holding firm and I reckon if the race is dry I am a chance of a good result. Top five would be ace. Lets see what happens shall we.

http://www.mountainbikeaustralia.com/results/superseriesrace2-6hrresults.pdf

Up down across up down.

2011-03-28T21:06:00.005+10:00

My biggest mistake on Sunday was saying to Nick earlier in the week that I thought it was time I put a bit of hurt on myself for the next couple of rides. Now although he says things like "I don't feel great" or "We'll just take it easy" or that crowd favourite "It's just a cruisey ride" I pretty much know that each time we go out he somehow tricks me into going harder than I thought I would. I'm a stooge! This time I employed the technique of reverse psychology in an attempt to trick him into going easy on me. The result? 60 kilometers, 2000m of climbing and about 150 gels to get through it.
I do make this sound unpleasant don't I? The truth is it was a great ride. The plan changed a bit along the way, the hills got a bit longer and steeper but all in all I had a top day riding around with a top bloke. We started out with the climb over Camp Mountain the short way. It's a climb that has consistant pinches of over 20% gradient and goes for about 2.2km. It has also suffered pretty badly with the rains here and is broken up and loose most of the way. Nick sat just behind me and we chatted for most of the climb. Occasionally I had to stop talking and concentrate my energies on making the particular section and then get my breath and only be able to speak in short bursts. I employed the Dale Garvey method for this climb. Don't look up, just keep pedalling and don't give up. I was even surprised when the summit appeared and although I had worked hard to clean the climb I never felt like I wasn't going to make it. I do have to admit to taking a really long time to warm up though. I reckon Nick must have heard enough of me whining to last a life time in the first part of the ride. Sorry mate.
Before long we were ripping down the tarmac to start the short haul up Nebo Road and the start of Scrub Road. I still wasn't feeling great or even normal. Dr Nick prescribed a caffeine gel as I admitted to no coffee before leaving on the ride. Half way up the climb on Scrub Road it hit me like a train! Legs felt better, head felt better, now I actually feel like riding. Alright! So up past the shelter on South Boundary and turn left towards Creek Road. The descent down to the valley floor was awesome with the usual double track four wheel drive trails reduced to a single file ribbon of dirt. It was tacky, red and swept clean of the gravel that makes the surface slippery and treacherous usually.
At the turn off to Augies Nick suggested we go further down to the very base of Creek Road and take Lightline Road back up to Nebo Village. The vallet floor had 9 creek crossings. It was beautiful to see the creek flowing clear and deep and it was pretty hard to not stop, break out a bar and have an impromptu picnic there and then.

About crossing number 6.

Lightline is about a 12km climb with a section about 8km to start with and then a short respite before the final 4km grind to the top. It has been somewhat of a favourite of mine since the first time I made it to the top without stopping a couple of years ago. There were heaps of walkers out training for the Oxfam 100km walk. an old riding buddy of Nicks was amongst them and we stopped for a chat and a bite to eat. A pair of horse riders further up were very appreciative when Nick and I pulled over to let them pass on a steep hill. We really didn't want to spook the horses. As they passed us they stopped and asked where we had come from and told us of the conditions on Branch Creek Road where they had come from. Up we go now with the smell of coffee starting to invade my senses. it was like a ghost, just there and yet not quite. I was stoked to cross the gate at the top of the climb and hit the short tarmac traverse into Nebo Village and Boombana Cafe.
Coffee Nick style ensued. Long black, milk on the side and a panini with leg ham, swiss cheese and tomato with just a smear of dijon mustard. Heaven. On. Earth. We stayed heaps longer than we should have but the conversation was easy and the surrounds perfect. It's always times like that where the best planning for epic rides happens. Nick and I have a couple of crackers planned now.....

Refueling and planning. Oh, and a little sponsor placement!

Unfortunately I had a time constraint on the morning and it was fast running out. A combination of the longer route to the top and the slower traverse across the valley floor had left me tight for time to get back home and meet my familial obligations. The tough decision was made to stomp back down the bitumen to Camp Mountain and then take the steep, brutal and boring climb over the summit and take the short track back down to the start point for the ride. I was sad to cut it short as we were travelling well and could have pumped out a reasonably epic ride. Nick was happy enough to oblige me and not make me feel guilty about the shortening of the ride. It was still a really satisfying ride and has left me wanting to get out that way again soon. I think that this winter is going to hold some truly epic endeavours and I can't wait to get into them.

The Mount Coot-tha Challenge.

2011-03-21T21:15:00.000+10:00

So what else do you do on a rainy Sunday morning after throwing up for two hours the night before? The answer is ride 110km with some friends and have a to day!
I was shady when I got up. I had a wedding the night before and was careful not to drink too much. I ate heartily but not to excess but boy did I feel crook about midnight. So two hours of fun ensued and well, I was not happy.
In the last few months I have pulled the pin on quite a few rides with Nick. As he and Annick, his wife, were my riding partners for the day I knew if I bailed out from this ride and wasn't dead or missing a limb there would be merciless ragging. I got out of bed and struggled through the last of my preparations and rode over to the meeting spot, losing my breakfast along the way. Not looking good. Of course Nick coaxed me into cruising into the start line with the words"If you still feel crappy you can sit at the finish line and have a coffee while we ride." Yeah, I can see that working. Might even be fun. I got to the line and felt a whole lot better!
I didn't think I could eat anything so I drank sparingly of my energy drink and water and vowed to take it easy and just cruise along. The plan worked great as we rolled off the start and through the city streets. The first fun bit came when we got to ride through the Clem 7 tunnel. It is usually off limits to cyclists and has a long steady descent to the bottom of the tunnel where you can really crank it out. There were a few pace lines forming and I got on one or two and even made a couple of my own. It was cool to fly down the tunnel and then start the long steady climb back out into the rain. Did I mention it rained all day?
After that it was over to the hill for the timed ascent. I had no illusions about a good time as I am a reasonable climber at best. I managed a 11:06 while Nick nailed it in 8:35. He got second in his category! All this and he was complaining of not feeling great before the climb. Just to put my effort into perspective the overall winner did the climb in about 6:30. He could have done it twice in my time...... Once we were at the top it was awesome. There was mist! We never get mist here. The top of the hill was shrouded in cloud and you seriously could not see the other riders 50 meters in front of you. It felt like I was riding in the Swiss Alps or some other mist shrouded and exotic place. Cool.
Down the other side. It was really frustrating that everyone was on the brakes heaps. I hate that. It is much more dangerous trying to keep the speed down so much that you loose the rear wheel all the time. If you just ride through the corners and use the brakes sparingly the traction is much better. Oh well, I passed a lot of people. I also went really fast!
So there we were. Annick, Nick and I had all met up again and we were rolling along chatting and generally having a nice time. We met up with two other riders we knew in Troy and Tony at the first feed station and enjoyed some fruit and Winners Bars while chatting. The five of us set out from there and had a great ride swapping the front and trucking along at a very respectable pace. Troy has done some amazing rides around the area and is really into Audax style events and he and I chatted about some plans I have been formulating for a while. He is strong too. He held us no problems on his touring bike with mud guards and racks fitted. Tony is a laugh and we kept the banter going for ever. We just kept on trucking. With the ride over to the start and back it was about 110km.
We crossed the finish line, we had a coffee. It really wasn't much more than that. It was the company and the vibe that made it awesome. We were able to chat for the whole ride. Sure we all had a punt on the timed climb but even at the top we regrouped and rode along together again. Nice. There could only be one way to top off a perfect ride and that was with gourmet hamburgers at Nick and Annicks with my wifes lime syrup cake for desert with macadamia honey ice cream. The cup of Zambian single origin coffee, well there aren't words.
Not bad for a guy with a dodgy stomach.

Proof.

2011-03-15T19:47:00.000+10:00

Some shots from the Super Series 4 Hour. Check out the mud. It's really just proof that I do ride my bike sometimes and not spend all my time blogging and sitting around.

Rider briefing.

This carnage was after just lap one. I did fall off but hey, you get the idea.

The go fast berms. I loved this bit. The mud started just after though.

Spencer. Game face on.

Me still cackling maniacally

How's my form?

Yeah, almost over it. Almost.

Massive thanks to my wife for not chucking me out of the house when I brought my riding clothes home! Love you darling!

Classic Nebo, classic mates.

2011-03-14T19:40:00.000+10:00

I got a real treat on Sunday. It's a little run from Gap Creek up South Boundary Road to the Boombana Cafe for a coffee and muffin. It's the same ride I have done many times and it always makes me smile when I think about it. The difference was I got to do it with soem really ace people. I've ridden alone alot lately and while I enjoy that, the social part of this ride was the highlight. I also got to ride with some quite inspirational people.
It was a big group, 12 in total. The usual suspects, Nick, Pete, Meg, and Gaz and then there was John, Rob, Bruce, Brad, Hal, Ross and Tim. Now Nick, Pete, Brad, Gaz and myself are all over 40, Tim and Hal I think are in their thirties, Ross in his late twenties and the rest were all over 50. If anyone is thinking that this meant the pace would be slow they could not be more wrong. Right from when we set off to do a bit of single track to start the ride it was on like Donkey Kong. Man they were pushing it. We blasted out of Death Adder to start the first part of the climb up South Boundary and I thought my lungs were going to jump out of my throat. I had John breathing down my neck the whole way through the single track and it was only when I cleaned a tricky little pinch obstacle that I got away. He blew it.
The best was yet to come though. The climb up South Boundary started and the pace settled a bit for the first hill or two. We hit a long fast descent and I let it go and flew through overtaking a couple of the bunch as I went and started the grind up a long incline relaxed and feeling pretty good. That's when the train hit me. Three guys, all over 50, in a pace line up a 14% gradient. Wow. I tried to grab on and managed to cling by a thread sticking out of my gloves to the back of the line. What's even worse is they were goading each other on! "C'mon JT what are ya doin'?! Pick it up a bit. It's not an afternoon in the country!" No JT, don't. Just stay where you are. Please god no. Ahhhh! Sorry, that bit was me.
Now it is about 25km to the cafe up South Boundary and this kept up all the way. I might get past a couple of them on the descent and then it was grind and groan to try and stay with them. There were a couple of short stops to regroup and let the back markers catch up. The group was pretty evenly matched so these were short, and Bruce made sure they were. "C'mon, lets go. I'm cooling down here." Apparently Bruce is 60. I don't believe it.
Finally it was time for a coffee. Sitting there and thinking how lucky I am to do what I do, I thought also of how lucky I am that I can continue to do it for a long time yet. Bikes are good. We all shot the breeze and enjoyed a very lively conversation about bikes and life. Very nice.
Time for a leisurely cruise back down the hill. Well it was leisurely if you call smashing every climb and then sprinting on the descents as hard as possible leisurely. There is 890m of climbing to the top of Mt Nebo from Gap Creek in 25km. There is also 500m of climbing on the way "down". Not bad hey. It wasn't until the very last bit of single track that the legs fell off the old boys. I got to run riot over them and even managed to catch up with Nick and Ross. We cruised back along the last of the single track and down to Gap Creek and the cars.
So there we were, 50+km with over 1300m of climbing and an average of over 18km/h. Damn those old boys were fast! I am trying to be that fast now consistently. Great to think I could still be that fast in 15 to 20 years time. When I think of it I smile, a lot.

Oh yeah!

2011-03-11T20:58:00.000+10:00

http://www.tailwindpromotions.com.au/LinkClick.aspx?link=PDFs%2frace+1++4hr+-+complete+race+results.pdf&tabid=62&mid=491
Some where along the lines I got an extra place. I made the top ten! Well in my old fart category anyway. I am well pleased with this as my training has consisted of sitting at my desk working or drinking beer. Lets see what happens when I put a bit of effort in shall we. Still no photos though, sorry.

The 4 hour facial.

2011-03-09T20:40:00.001+10:00

No it isn't some kind of crazy beauty treatment. It was the first race in the Super Series here in Queensland. It's run by Tailwind Promotions and is new for this year. There are a 4 hour, 6 hour, 24 hour and an 8 hour race in that order all about 5 weeks apart. Nice idea, lots of racing.
I'll get the praise for the event out of the way now so I can get down to tin tacks in the race report. It was a well run event on a great course with a really good vibe. There was a lot of mud. A lot of mud. Even with all the mud it was a top day and a real challenge. The post race burgers were a highlight too!
Spencer had decided to do the race as well. He was even more under done than I was but it was a fun course and we were with fun people. We caught up with each other a couple of times and even lapped for a while together. It's great to shoot the breeze and take the mick out of each other while passing quite a few riders. It's also cool to have someone to have a coffee with on the way out to the race and a coldie on the way home with.
Right, to the pain and suffering. I got a good start although there was a lot of traffic and basically once we hit the first bottleneck it all turned to poo. Down through the first section of course looked really promising with fast corners and tacky dirt. Unfortunately once you were through that it turned into the first of the mud sections. It went on with little let up for about 2 kilometers and included a climb up a fire road that became the equivalent of having teeth pulled without anesthetic. I had little or no traction and it culminated in a spectacular 180 degree spin where I didn't even have time to unclip or put a hand out. One second the bike was tracking along nicely and then it started to let go and suddenly I was in the mud, fully clipped in and facing the wrong way back down the trail. No damage was done and all I could do was cackle maniacally as all the people I had passed so far rode through. That pretty much set the mood for the rest of the day. I was going to try my butt off to do well but was fully prepared to have fun and laugh my way through the race. What else can you do when half the time your bike is going where it wants and not where you point it?
I knocked out a couple of reasonably quick laps for the next two laps and all was cruising along fine. The mud was pretty sapping though and I didn't really factor that in too well to my race plan. More on that later though. As I came through the last of the mud sections on lap 4 I heard a strange noise that was like having a leaf of small stick caught somewhere in the drivetrain. As it turns out I had a slash in my rear tyre that was bleeding air for a minute or two until the sealant kicked in and after that it was smooth sailing again. I had felt a bit squirrelly in a couple of the fast descents and only realised I had a problem when another rider commented on how low my rear tyre looked. I have been well impressed with the Maxxis Aspen tyres and the Caffe Latex tubeless sealant I use. This is the first flat I have had in 10 months. Not bad.
Lap 5 probably cost me my goal of a top ten in my category. I had some shocking stomach cramps brought on by too much carb in my bottles. It came on fast and doubled me up on the side of the trail in a matter of minutes. I got off and tried to walk to complete the lap but found it getting worse. I decided to do the only thing I thought may sort me out and headed off into the bush and empty my stomach. After nearly 20 minutes of suffering and hurling my guts out I felt much better. I got back on the bike and finished the lap with just 5 minutes left on the clock. There was a lot of back slapping and "well dones" going around but I soon put the brakes on that! If I start the lap before the 4 hours elapses it counts. I wanted the 6 laps as my goal and the mud had made that a much bigger challenge than I first thought it would be. Suddenly I had bottles being changed, the bike getting a spray to clear the drivetrain and gels being slipped in my jersey pocket. A slap on the arse from some "helper" and I was off for my last lap. It's a good feeling even though it was close to the time limit to head back out on the track and know that you couldn't have given more than what you are doing right now. I chatted to a couple of riders on the last lap but still pushed a little up each of the hills. I was flat by then with the stomach emptying of the previous lap really stamping it's mark and no gel was going to dig me out of the hole I had dug through my own lack of understanding. It wasn't going to get me down though as with little training I had gotten to my goal in some less than ideal conditions. I love a tough race as it sorts out who really wants to be there. I slid, I ground, I groaned. But I got there.
I was stoked when I crossed the line. I gained what I consider high praise from Nick, he said it was gutsy. That will do for now. Stay tuned for race two. The game face is on! A big thanks to the rocking sponsors I have in Cyc'd for Bikes and of course the boys at Giant for the race van, the tent and all the other cool stuff. Cheers lads!

Everything in it's right place.

2011-02-27T20:59:00.000+10:00

Today promised to be hot. 33 degrees Celsius, 91 Fahrenheit. I planned to get away early and Spencer was meeting me at my place for a punt at about 50km in the hills. Unfortunately after a rough night Spencer had to pull the pin and I was on my own. I left a little late and had plans to pull the distance in a bit and maybe just avoid the heat. It sort of worked....
Over Camp Mountain the short way. What a misleading statement. It's 1.2km (or there abouts) at between 17 and 23% gradient. Add the fact that we have had the wettest summer since 1974, including floods that devastated a huge part of the city, and the erosion that has caused huge ruts to form and head sized boulders to litter the trail and it gets quite tricky to clear the climb without getting off. I zoned out, turned the pedals and listened to my MP3 player. Grind, grind grind. am always glad to reach the top of this climb. It is never a given that I'll make it without stopping. There was a bit of tarmac from there over to the next climb.
Scrub Road. One of my favourite trails as it starts with a descent into a quiet gully lined with huge trees and rainforest vegetation. Today was more exciting though as again the rain had taken a toll and the bottom of the descent was gone. It turned into a massive landslide followed by rut that was large enough to eat a bike and rider if you lost concentration. I managed to get through it and start the climb out to South Boundary Road and what had been planned to be my half way point. My MP3 and the Scrub Road climb had other ideas though.

Lucky I missed this one.

Sometimes it just clicks. A beautiful area, a song that starts at the perfect time, and the head space to hear it and know it is a sign. Radiohead, "Everything in it's Right Place". I was in my right place. On my bike, climbing a hill in a most beautiful place with my thoughts and my breathing for company. When I say the song started at the right time I mean it was in the perfect millisecond to make it's presence felt. I had felt OK until then but not "inspired". Here I was though out in the bush pushing my body to make the climbs, rail the descents and just be me. I was smiling on the inside so hard I reckon you could see the light from space. It got Zen from there.
Plugging up the hill, reggae blaring and past the half way point. No stops and then down South Boundary to Gap Creek. It all just rolled along. There was a brief chat to 3 guys heading in the same direction which was a chance to cool off a bit and just be sociable. Heck, if you can't enjoy what you're doing whats the point? I raced through some single track in Gap Creek and stopped just long enough to eat a bar and fill up a bottle. Now the only decision was which way home? I could go via the road for the shortest most direct route but that just seemed to go against the flow for the day. It was hot, but I had plenty of water and was feeling pretty strong. Nah, up the hill it is and over Centre Road. There is a great waterhole at he bottom of the descent down Centre. I have even heard that there may be platypus living in the creek.

Cantre Road waterhole

It's always a wake up call for the first 300m of the climb as it hits 25% and is loose as a goose. No problem, I have the groove on. It's funny what you think about as the pedals turn and my mind wanders. I had a few thoughts of a coffee on the way home, then it was the movie I watched last night and finally it was the surprise as the gate loomed at the end of the climb.
Two climbs to go and neither of them particularly taxing. The batteries had run flat on my MP3 but it didn't matter. I had heaps of tunes to sing and all the company I needed. I just kept pedaling, and smiling! By the time I had made it down the hill for the last time it was hot. Nearing midday the temperature has supposedly hit 33 degrees and my water was low. Once I hit home I just sat under the hose on a chair and let it cool me down. Man. it was good.
I lived in my own head for 5 hours and loved it. My legs are dead, I feel cooked and god it's the best feeling ever.

Last weekend.

2011-02-25T20:50:00.000+10:00

Sometimes there is just a big waste of time and energy associated with writing a blog. Today you can look at he pictures, have a look at the profiles and know I had a good time. Special thanks to Lance, Neil and Craig for Sunday. It was a top ride with really like minded people. The ginger beer at Lances was the topper for a great weekend.

Bunyaville and Ironbark for a roll and some dirt therapy.

Mermaid Mountain on Sunday.

I have never done this ride before. Let me tell you this is beautiful country and the view from the top is spectacular. The profile does not do this ride justice. Some climbs hit 30% and went on forever. I loved it.

Top of the first climb. It was steep! Craig lets me know.

Still smiling though..

It's bush. Beautiful bush.

Our intrepid leader. Lance climbs like a scalded cat.

He is shy though.

Neil gets there without dying.

Neil looks well pleased.

Why we did it. The view back to Ipswich and beyond.

Lake Manchester.

Get the dirt under your tyres kids. It puts the soul back in.

Summer Cup lovin', take 2.

2011-02-15T20:37:00.000+10:00

My lessons I did learn.

I didn't take a water bottle. I hydrated before the race.
I picked good lines and stayed smooth.
I had a great cheer squad (again).
I had a great time. The racing was tops and the event really well run.

The lessons I didn't learn.

I had a craptacular start! I was nearly last out of the first corner.
I hydrated TOO well. I had stomach cramps at about lap 2 and they really didn't go away until I ate something after the race. I felt bloated and really needed a pee.

But anyway, here's how the rest of the race played out.

This week there was an extra half lap added to the course and it was reversed. While my Garmin didn't show that it was more climbing or a harder course it really felt that way. I messed up the first corner and quickly found myself behind a lot of riders. I think I passed 4 riders during the race so I must have been nearly last. Once I got to the first climb I decided this was just not acceptable. I stomped on the pedals and made up some ground and then sat behind a little knot of riders until we hit the first descent. Down we go, two places made up.

My second lap was my fastest of the race and I got two more riders along the way. Up in front of me I could see Jeremy, who I had duked it out with last week for 9th and 10th. Now Jeremy had got the hole shot at the start but had faded a bit over the next lap. I put in some big efforts to catch him and get his wheel. I just sat there trying to get some composure back before having a crack at getting around him. That really is the best thing about this kind of racing. I'm not racing for sheep stations but just for fun. You get to have a go at beating your mates and there is always a bit of friendly ragging going on. You can have those little battles away from the top places but that are just as serious as if it were for the podium. I monstered him up a long climb on the back of the course. I got around! I just had to hang on for the second half of the course and I'd have the wood on Jeremy for 2 weeks in a row. The effort up the hill had monstered me though. I held him in the single track and all the way back to the last open section of the course. Jeremy sprinted hard and got past me. That was the last time I saw him for the race as he pulled away strongly and I faded faster than Justin Beiber's talent at a live show.

Oh well. I limped over the line in tenth this time rather than ninth. Jeremy put about 15 seconds into me in the last bit of course with his strong move to finish. I congratulated him at the finish line and went over for a post race rehydration ale. It was frosty cold and took the dust away. Pure bliss. Again big props to Brisbane South Mountain Bike Club, they really do run a great event.

New Contacts.

2011-02-11T21:04:00.001+10:00

I posted a while ago that the guys from Giant here in Queensland had set me up with new bars and a new seat post for my Anthem. I hadn't really had any time to put some miles in on the bike so I have waited this long to review my thoughts. Now after a 6 hour race, a couple of long rides and a short course XC race I think I can make some informed commentary.
The items in question are the Contact SLR versions which both happen to be carbon. There were a couple of reasons for wanting to try the carbon bars and post out and not the least of which was the weight savings so I'll address that first. The carbon post made a saving of 80 grams over the stock unit and that represented a saving of about 30%. Whether that is worth the $340 retail price is something only the individual can comment on. The finish and adjustment facilities on the post are fantastic, it looks hot and it is light. There is of course the fact that a 30% saving on any component would make most riders pretty bloody happy.

Now the bars. Wow. The stock units were 250 grams. The SLR's were 125 grams. Thats right, 50% lighter. Same width as my old bars, 31.8 clamp, half the weight. Again the finish on the bars is top notch with a nice textured area for the stem to clamp to and alloy turned bar ends to protect them from strikes or the odd bad leaning spot. The value is good with these too. $130 is the business. I run my bars at 620mm wide and luckily that is what the bars come as stock. So now to some performance notes.

The post does it's job. Whether or not the carbon offers the extra damping it is purported to in this application is impossible to say. It's a 4 inch travel 29er for farks sake. I can't tell the difference. As I said though, it is light and the adjustment functions well. And it's carbon. Cool.
The bars on the other hand have provided me some great results all round. I can definitely say that my wrists are not suffering from the soreness I have become used to on 4 plus hour rides. I swapped the grips straight across from my old bars and have been using the same gloves for some time. I can't say I feel any more flex than I did with the old alloy bars and I have certainly given them a good reefing during repeated sprints in the short course race I did last week. I'm not known for my finesse in these situations either. Rather I have been likened to a gorilla trying to open a jar of jam. No subtlety and often a messy result. I do really like the bars.... Now 620mm might not be wide enough for bigger guys. It just isn't that wide. These are firmly aimed at racer boy and girl though and lets be honest, they are all weedy little units with no shoulders. Just kiddin'.
So the wash up is that I knocked 205 grams off the bike. I am really happy with that and it gets me down to 11.6 kg ready to race. I will report on the longevity later in the year and give more thoughts on how the gear is holding up. With a 4 hour, a 6 hour, a 24 hour and a marathon all before the end of June it should show up any weaknesses. Lets hope the rider can keep up.

Summer Cup lovin'.

2011-02-06T10:31:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I had a crack at my first ever short course cross country mountain bike race. Before this the shortest race I had done was a 6 hour race. It's a lot different.....
To start with you can just throw a few things together and head out to race. It isn't like the days of preparation for a 24 hour race and I found myself standing around before we left wondering what I had forgotten! Three water bottles, check. Spare tube, check. Helmet, gloves, lights (the race didn't start till 6:15pm), check. That can't be all I need, is it all I need? Crikey! This is easy!
The car was still chokkas though. Alison and the boys were coming with me and so there we had the boys bikes in the car, chairs, an esky with some snacks, aargh! It was easy. I love having them out with me though. There is nothing like the cheers your kids can give you. It got even better as the sun went down because they had glow sticks and so I was getting a light show each time I crossed the start finish line. Good stuff.
Anyway, so the race. I raced B grade which was 4 laps. My 2 goals for the day were to go as hard as I could for the whole 4 laps and treat the race as a maximum effort session and to not get lapped! I was seriously worried about going into B grade as I am not that fast or strong at present. Usually it takes me the best part of 10k's to warm up and this race was only about 12k long. I lined up and waited while the A grade race was started, they were let go first to make sure there would be less traffic for them up front and to hopefully allow the B grade race to have a little less competition for track space. It worked pretty well n the whole and really the only problem was the first lap as is the case in every race I have ever done. The hooter went and we were off. There was a sprint into the first corner and really I should have gone harder there. There were few passing opportunities on the course and my first lap was really slow and when I got clear course my times reflected that. I slogged around in 13 minutes for 3k in amongst a big bunch of much slower riders. As I crossed the start/finish line though there is a short uphill where the track opens up and when I hit that I gassed it. I got 4 riders in that one move and managed to put my heart rate through the roof. The next section was a flowing descent through some switchbacks and into a slight rise to another short descent. Now this is racing and I would never ride like this otherwise but I sat so close to the rider in front of me I could hear him breathing. The pressure payed off and he binned it in a corner trying to stay ahead of me before the second of the passing chances in the back half of the course. It's only a tiny bit of fire trail again on a rise but I was in a prime position if I could gun it and get another two riders. I managed to get one of them.
I settled into a group of riders about the same pace as me for the next lap. I managed to keep connected and just stay smooth and get some breath back. It was a much quicker lap than my first one but took less out of me because I could keep a steady effort on rather than having to sprint every chance I got to make up places. The middle of the lap saw my best passing move though. I smacked it through a grassy section and out sprinted two guys and pulled a ballsy move over a drop off to beat a third rider into the corner at the start of a section of single track. He slowed to roll the drop and I launched it. I found out later it was someone who knew me. He tried for the rest of the race to catch me and only blew one corner to give me a bit of breathing space. Our times were almost identical. Onya Jeremy! It was fun and you kept me honest.
The last lap was just a case of keeping the work rate as high as I could manage and keep pushing. Once Jeremy had dropped back a bit I ended up behind the eventual winner of the B grade females race and while she was setting a great pace and there were no real passing opportunities I was happy to stay put. I must say her pace was excellent and she picked great lines. and she told jokes the whole way around! Nice.
So I finished the race in 44:14 and with an average speed of 16.28km/hr. The link shows the slow first lap and the much more respectable lap times after that. So my lessons are as follows for short course racing:

Sprint your guts out for the start. Hit the single track first or its a slow lap for you matey!
Pick good lines and stay smooth.
You don't need a water bottle for 12km races. Drink a bit before hand and you'll be sweet.
Have top cheer squad.
Smile, have fun and don't take it too seriously. It's a mountain bike race, you're not solving world hunger or curing cancer.

So here's the link to the results. I'll be back for more. It was a top event and the family had a great evening too.Well done Brisbane South Mountain Bike Club! A big thanks to Cyc'd for Bikes too for setting me up so well with bikes and kit. Well done Team Menzies! You lot rock.

http://www.bsmc.asn.au/images/stories/results/summer%20cup%202011%20race%201%20results.pdf

2011-01-29T20:52:00.000+10:00

My first road bike ride in some months. There realy isn't anywhere to hide on a road bike. I can get lazy on the mountain bike as it is so familiar but when you get a 10% grade for a couple of K's on a road bike you are just there to haul. And haul I did! I am not unimpressed with the ride as there was just over 1000m of elevation gain and all of the roads I traveled were quite hilly with a few steep pinches of over 12%.
My humble opinion is that road riding is THE best way to get base fitness efficiently. If you throw hills into the mix it really pushes the cardiovascular system. Today I showed myself just how much fitness I have lost and just how hard I will need to work to get back to anything like the level I want. That said, it was a top ride today.
I left home and headed over what has been affectionately dubbed "The Teaser". Settlement Road is not that long or that steep but it really tells you how your day will pan out. If you struggle up Settlement, then any climbs after that will probably suck. Usually I would head up Mount Nebo after doing this climb but today I was keen to try the new road around the back of Coot-tha along Gap Creek Road. My plan then was to head up Waterworks Road and over Simpsons Road and then up Coot-tha.

Training face on..... I look serious don't I.

Once I got there it was a blast down the front side and over to the Western Freeway bike way and around to Mogill Road. That road really sucks. The traffic was pretty ordinary but Gap Creek Road made up for it in spades. It's special cruising along the road in amongst the trees and the traffic calming adds a bit of fun as you rip down the descents. have a drink, spin the legs over and all that is left is the reverse side of Settlement Road. The side from the Gap is twisty with a passing lane for cars which means that they try and fly over the hill with scant regard for cyclists. Most times I just hold my breath and count to ten. It's easier that way.
I even let out a little whoop of joy as I blasted down the other side and up to Samford Road. I was nearly home and I hadn't thrown up! A cold ginger beer waited for me and some salty chips just topped it off. Yep, I'm happy.

It might be hot, but at least it is really humid......

2011-01-26T17:09:00.000+10:00

Well after nearly 2 months of very sporadic riding (and blogging!) I manged to drag my sorry butt out for a mountain bike ride today. It is my lovely wifes birthday today so I had a couple of things to attend to before I was able to sneek out. So as 9:30am ticked over I got on the bike and left for a ride of indeterminate length. The first haul up a bitumen climb let me know this wasn't going to be fast or particularly pleasant. The heat off the road was already intense and after the rain we have had the humidity added a hammer blow right to the back of the head.
Now my fitness has always been a bit at the mercy of my work life and over the past couple of months this has never been more so the case. I have not had time to ride, and even when I have had time it is usually after some huge effort at work that leaves me with no energy. Today really put the fullstop on that sentence. Man I suffered. I took on Camp Mountain as it has been as gauge for me over the last 2 years as to how I am going fitness wise. If i make it up in middle ring on the long side I am going fine and if I don't then it is a sliding scale from there. Today was like pedaling with my tongue. I sat in my lowest gear and turned the pedals at a very uninspiring rate to torture myself to the top. Wow, I have gone to crap. I even felt sick once I got to the top.
I had a few internal battles at the lookout while deciding that I was heading straight home with no further riding for the rest of my life until a gentleman came over and asked if I had ridden up. I won't speculate as to how old he was exactly but I will say he was doing well for fifty. I answered yes and he then asked how often I do the ride up. I said not often enough! It was then that he gave me a fantastic piece of advice. He said "I bet it was hard to get to the top, but I bet it gets easier every time you do it." That's exercise for ya folks. It's starts hard, but it gets easier.
After that little ray of sunshine I decided to not let the day beat me quite so easily. It was still really hot so I wasn't going to go nuts with a monster ride but decided to head down to Bellbied Grove and add another 10k's to my reasonably pathetic effort. The trails down to the Grove haven't seen a lot of use with all the rain and I got snagged in a dozen or so Golden Orb webs along the way. I had to back track over the steepest pinch on the trail due to a swarm of native bees that I only saw because a guy in his space suit came out and warned me off riding any further. Apparently they were swarming due to the rain and now fine weather. It was quite impressive apart from being a bit scary at first. There were literally clouds of bees.
Bellbird Grove was full of people celebrating Australia Day. The smell of sausages cooking on BBQ's was music to my nose! I cruised through and enjoyed watching the games of football and cricket on any open bit of ground and the sound of people just getting outdoors and having fun. It lasted all the way to the top of the climb out of Bellbird Grove in fact. I turned a corner having been lost in my own little world and there was the main fire road back over to the Macleans Road. Awesome. 3 little humps later and I was flying down the blacktop towards home. Only when I passed my favourite coffee shop and saw that it was open did I slow down and drop in for a brew. Perfect way to finish a ride.
I'll take it as far as a ride goes. Nothing mega or even that satisfying in terms of achievements but at least I didn't turn around at the top of Camp Mountain. Now I have 2 weeks of holidays starting on Friday and I hope to do some more riding, perhaps when it's a bit cooler. We'll see.

Cycling, not moving.

2010-12-28T16:35:00.000+10:00

It has been raining in Brisbane for what feels like months. We have had an amazing amount of rain considering that only a short time ago, a little over a year, the whole state was in drought. I am now at a point where the last dry ride I had was over a month ago and that was a rare occurrence on it's own.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Not only did I go for a wet and soggy trail run to get some excercise but I also bought a fluid trainer. I have long resisted the need to have one of these cruel and evil devices around the home and always thought it was much better to get out on the bike and cop a hiding in the rain rather than sit on a trainer and go nowhere in the dry. I may have been a little wrong.
Hmm, so I set the thing up, got some gear on and went down for my first stint of cycling going nowhere. I set my self an hour time limit with the intention of a 20 minute spin to warm up and 3 sets of intervals with 2 minutes on and a 4 minute rest between each set and then a 20 minute spin down. It wasn't scientific but it should give me a bit of a burn to get me going. I was right! Crikey it hurt. I used my Garmin to track heart rate and cadence to keep a bit of science in it as well as act as the timer. It felt pretty natural and the bike is allowed to move around under you quite a bit. At the end of each interval I was begging for a rest and my legs were burning pretty bad. I definitely felt good for the hurt though.
I did a little research last night on the net and came across a way of adding a bit of motivation to the workouts. There is a site that sells worlkout videos for cycling on stationary trainers. It is spliced together from actual race footage and has prompts through the session to tell you what to do and at what effort. It is a cool interval tool and lets you race Contador, Schleck and a whole heap of others I will never get near in a bike race. Fun stuff. I watched the video this morning and it will get it's maiden tryout tomorrow. Should be a real vomit fest by the looks of it.

Not glamorous, but it gets the job done......

My hope is that with the trainer I can get stronger. It should allow me to do some really good interval training no matter what the weather is like and no matter how crazy my schedule gets.

The year in review.

2010-12-18T21:02:00.001+10:00

While it is probably a little early to be reviewing a year in some circles, in my life the pace is still up and before I know it the year will be gone. I have been considering this post for a while now and trying to reconcile my compulsive need to put everything in order and chronologically correct when it is not the "when" that is important, it is just the fact that these things happened. So I have decided to put the moments in my life down here in no order other than the way they come out of my mind and depending on what the previous moment prompts to the front of my memory.
If you have read my ravings at any time during it's existence you will know the main themes. Life revolves around my family and riding bikes. I like to keep it simple if I can. I am not smart enough to live a complicated life and I certainly don't have the time or energy spare to have to "try" and live a life. My family is the thing in life I am proudest of, bikes keep me sane.

Bikes this year have been exceptional. I trained hard for the first part of the year and managed a finishers medal from the Terra Australis. Truly a highlight of my life in the sense it was never a given and I persisted. Thats all I did, persisted. Along came the Merida 24 Hour and an attempt at qualifying for the Worlds later in the year. Not my finest moment but still not bad given the circumstances. It was that race where I proved I could do it, if I wanted it. Next year I want it. Then came the Boonah Marathon. Fun but tough with some issues along the way. Having Alison and Jack as my pit crew will rate as my favourite moment for 2010. Jack yelling out the number of competitors that were passing me and changing over my bottles and giving me the gee up was gold. In a few years he will make an awesome pit chief for me, if he's not out there handing his old man his arse! To top off all of these things somehow I managed to score a deal with Cyc'd for Bikes and Giant and now get to ride around on what could be my ultimate bike. I pinch myself every time I go for a ride. So bikes, they're way cool....

When you love something and you are passionate about it quite often it will cross over into your personal life. I have made some awesome friends through riding and now sadly lost one too. This year a great guy lost his battle with cancer and left a little hole in the lives of all the people he touched. Pete was a true gentleman. I just hope the trails are fast where ever he is and that I think of him often.

I thanked all the mates and riding buddies earlier in the year after a particularly torrid time personally as they always find a way to snap me out of it. Nothing has changed there. Another month of being a hermit due to work and yet I still get calls to go for a ride. They haven't given up on me even if some days I have. I will pay them all back somehow one day. I tell you what though, I am going to be really busy doing so.
Spencer gets a special mention here though. He started as my mechanic for bike stuff, quickly became a friend and riding buddy and has stayed that way. He said yes to the Terra and in doing so helped me find out a lot about my self and I think learnt a lot about himself too. What is not common knowledge is that Spencer also set up my deal with Giant. Yep I owe him for that one! I probably owe him more for the pain and suffering I put him through on the Terra.

My best friend in life is still my wife. We have been together 13 years (give or take!), married for 3 years and parents to two wonderful boys. I can't ask for more than she gives, I can't want more than I get. If it hadn't been for her support and love through my battle with depression and anxiety I don't know where I would be now. I have the reality check I that's crucial for the times I can't see the danger coming. She has allowed and even encouraged me to do the racing I have done this year right up to giving me 10 days to go to Victoria and race. She is my strength.

The boys are growing up so fast it scares me some days. Jack is bright beyond belief and Rohan is developing into quite the people person. I am so proud of how they are growing up and I look forward to the adventures I am sure will come along with them as part of my life. This years highlights include the camping trip with Jack's best friends and his family, and watching Rohan sing a solo at his choir concert late in the year. Both boys have learnt to ride bikes as well. If that doesn't make a bike tragic dad proud, nothing will. I love them. They make me laugh and they sometimes make me cry. I guess that is parenting though.

On the personal side the year has been exhausting. I haven't made any secret of my battles with mental health and this year my goal was to get off my medication and deal with my demons head on with honesty and by revealing my true feelings and fears. It's no picnic admitting that you have a problem in the first place but deciding that it's time to take on life without a safety net so to speak is simply the most scary thing I have dealt with after the possibility of losing my son at 3 months old. There are no guarantees. Without my family and friends it is a dead certainty that I would have gone back to the medicated state and been reliant on that for a further period of time. I am lucky though. One safety net, the drugs, has been replaced by the realisation that I have another in the form of family and friends. Natural, unadulterated love and affection.

I have come out of 2010 a much stronger person. Thanks for reading and have a Merry Christmas and a happy, safe and prosperous New Year.

Happy trails......

Sunday crawling.

2010-11-23T19:58:00.000+10:00

How's this for commitment. Spencer and I organised a ride for 6:30am on Sunday and at 6:00am he called to tell me he had slept in and I should just cancel the ride. I said no, lets just go later. So we rescheduled for 7:00am, and then 7:15am, and then finally 7:30am. Commitment. I reckoned we would both need a little help to get going so I left a bit earlier and grabbed 2 coffees from my favourite coffee shop. Spencer thought I was pretty cool.
We had a fun ride. All the usual trails and even a bit of pace here and there. We were stomping along at one point when Spencer asked"Are we going fast or am I just out of practice?" The answer was a little of both. So then we slowed down a bit and chatted about the last couple of weeks. Spencer has just gotten back from New York and I have been stupidly busy. It was funny to hear him say he was only really out for the ride to catch up. It was made funnier because it was exactly the reason I had said we should reschedule rather than cancel our ride. He did struggle a bit towards the end so I offered to drop him home rather than have him ride as he usually does. The only proviso for him accepting the offer was that I had to stay for a coffee. I was happy to agree to those terms and we sat and shot the breeze with coffees in hand. Very relaxing.
In the end there are no events to train for, no massive miles to have to achieve at the moment. The chance to catch up with my mates and shoot the breeze while doing something we love is just as important as the training. It refreshes your mind and reminds you what the point of the riding is in the first place. All the racing and stuff is just the icing on the cake. I hope to knock over a few more rides just for fun over summer and keep that connection with my real reason for riding.
I'll be calling you all soon.........

Sneaky Gap Creeky.....

2010-11-12T19:15:00.000+10:00

Last night I snuck in an unexpected night ride. I haven't been able to plan anything lately due to a crazy work load and when the opportunity arose last night I just chucked the bike in the truck and bolted. I didn't even check the lights but just grabbed some spare batteries.
The car park was empty which had me a little worried as I was riding alone. Not the best idea but I had told Alison where I was riding and that I would ring her at 9pm to let her know where I was and ow I was travelling. She would have called out the search party if it got too late. Five minutes in and I had lost any concerns and was in the zone. Riding at night is such a cool experience. It totally changes your perspective on a ride as you just get that little isolated view in your beam of light. You really focus on that light. Its magically quiet and there were only the odd toad and an errant wallaby for company. I did see a couple of groups of riders who were surprised to see me out on my own and I had a chat to one group at a trail head. I was ripping along Rocket Frog when I heard a "Hey Graham!" as Rupert came whizzing past. How he knew it was me I don't know but we stopped and had a catchup right there on the trail. The mozzies were ferocious though! I reckon a few minutes more and the first group would have arrived back with some friends and carried us all away. Nasty.
Back to pedaling though. I tried the climb up Dingo. I love this trail. The climb is a good workout with some difficult technical sections both up and down and a nice steady grade for the most part. The view from the top was pretty cool too. Looking out over The Gap it reminds you that you're not in the middle of nowhere but just 10k from the city. I am a lucky man. Going back down was cool too. I did decide to walk the worst section as on my own a crash here would be painful and may leave me stuck there for a while. I was happy with that though.
Now it was through the lantana and up into the last of the single track before the car. I was feeling awesome. Rolling down to the car I thought I needed to finish off with the two short sections over the road. Dirt Girls and Pony Express are cool fun. Dirt Girls is a nice little climb and pops out on a fire road. It's pretty loose with some nasty little gravel sections and off camber corners to keep you guessing. Not hard on a normal day but in the dark it seemed harder and more fun! I got to the top of Pony Express and promptly gunned it. This was my normal approach to the trail but perhaps not the best idea in the dark. I almost binned it a number of times but managed to cling on with my butt cheeks and make it to the end. Rolling back down the fire road and the biggest surprise of all came along. A really big goanna! It must have been 7 feet long. The nice warm nights mean that they stay active well after dark. No harm done as he bolted in one direction and I bolted in the other.
When I stopped at the car to pack the bike it was quiet. Really quiet. There was a sliver of moon and not many stars. I just sat on the tail gate and took my shoes off and enjoyed the feeling post ride satisfaction. Bliss.
I'm glad I can't plan.

Round we go again.....

2010-11-08T09:48:00.000+10:00

Well another race run and done. I must say that I really enjoyed the Matrix 6 Hour. It was a great course and a very nice vibe around the course. With mostly singletrack through some very pretty areas I was quite happy to keep plugging away at the laps. I really enjoyed the fast descents around the back of the course and even the switchback climbs were enjoyable in that masochistic kind of way. At least once I got a rhythm going on them I could pass quite a few riders on the way up.
I started the day with the attitude of no training, no chance of a result. I was just enjoying riding and chatting to the other competitors. I smashed out 4 quick laps and stopped for a few minutes to get some food and bottles and went out again. Jack and Rohan were pretty helpful and changed the bottles over for me and Rohan gave my bike a squirt with the cleaner. I took off again and was really just rolling along. After 2 more laps I pulled in and had a bit of time for the kids. I really wasn't phased by not going out for any more laps at that stage but Alison assured me I would be really disappointed with my efforts if I called it quits there. It wasn't that I didn't feel like riding, I was just having a nice day andrelaxing while watching bikes go around and playing with the kids was at the front of my mind. I went out for another two laps and got through to the 5 hour mark. Instead of stopping I just went straight back out. I passed Alison and the kids at the creek where the boys had been playing most of the day. This was at 9 laps and I felt one more would be good. I got around to the creek again after having a few small cramps and yelled out that it would be my last lap. I got over the line with time to spare and thought "hang it, I've got one more in me." That's when the disappointment set in.
I rode past Hopey in the transition area and asked if he would tell Alison that I decided to go out again. He was really encouraging and kept saying how well I had been doing. He then told me when he had checked on the leader board I had been in second! While it was hours ago there was no reason for me to have not kept going as I felt OK. I could have been sitting in as podium position! Ah well, smash the lap and be happy.
So overall it ended with up that I did 11 laps. The winner in my category got 15 laps. That averages out at about 15km/hour and is totally achievable for me with a little training. Don't get me wrong, that is a great effort in singletrack and I am pretty sure I wouldn't have managed that yesterday but I could have done much better than I did. I lapped really consistently at under 30 minutes wehn I was riding. I was smooth and relaxed around the whole course and I was having a pretty good time. Maybe next race I might have a look at the results board before I decidie to treat it as a picnic.

Reset button, engage.

2010-11-05T20:46:00.000+10:00

Sunday looks like it could be wet and pretty muddy. Very muddy if you are racing in the Matrix 6 Hour Challenge at Canungra. I can't wait for the chance to slop around for 6 hours on my mountain bike with my family as my support crew. The boys are fired up about the kids race and the chance to mess around in pit lane and Alison is just happy to come along for the hijinx.
I do have a race plan if you could call it that. Smash a couple of fast laps and then grab some food. Smash another couple of laps and probably collapse. not much of a plan I know but it should still be a hoot. There are quite a few people I know racing and that always means a heap of friendly trash talk and "encouragement". I have a seacret weapon too. The last few weeks have been pretty intense and with that my heart rate has been sitting at about 120bpm for most of that time. Now that's endurance. I call it stress training.
My only intention for this weekend is to race hard, relax heaps and get the head straight. It's been a long couple of months.
Woohoo! Lets race some!

My little piece of paradise.

2010-10-24T20:40:00.000+10:00

You pedal for 30 minutes. Not long, but it is up. Three little rollers to the start of the serious stuff. We've had a lot of rain and the trails are pretty rutted out but that just makes it interesting. Control the breathing, keep the legs spinning, keep the quit thoughts away. Yeah, I really didn't feel like climbing a hill.

When the screaming meanies keep me from wanting to ride (or do much of anything) I make sure I stop and smell the roses. Actually it is a weed but it adds perspective and is a study in survival. Hang on, keep taking the nourishment life hands you, and thrive. I didn't stop on the way up but took this at the top. My game I play in my mind is to not stop. If you stop there is no reward at the top, no reason to take a minute and take in the view. Eat a muesli bar. Seems like a lot of work for a muesli bar and a look around.

Camp Mountain back towards the city.

Not a bad view though. You can see the city and beyond to Stradbroke Island over Moreton Bay. Thirty minutes from my door. I have the ability to get up here. I just sometimes need the motivation.

This way down....

My final reward is the trip back down the mountain. It's fast and fun with a few butt clenching moments thanks to the rain. Sweet. Life feels like it has been constantly handing me lemons lately. I must admit to just turning up my nose at them with disdain without a second thought for the strong, sweet flavor that they can release. So I grabbed the lemons the hill threw at me, lack of motivation, a bit of pain from not riding enough. I squeezed them and cajoled myself up to the top and there it was. Life's lemonade. Sweet as.
Squeeze the lemons people.

Armchair Rocketship Pilot. Riding the Anthem X29.

2010-10-20T20:17:00.000+10:00

Over the weekend I was able to spend time just riding the new bike and getting the settings dialed. I have also managed to get an accurate weight of the bike stock and as it will be for racing with my Stans 355 wheelset. I thought a good ride around Bunya and Gap Creek in the single track would help to get the shakedown started on familiar trails with no excuses on my behalf. I know these trails pretty well so it was all about the bike.

First to some long awaited numbers. My medium Anthem stock off the showroom floor weighed in at 12.17kg with Shimano XT pedals. Thats a little higher than some of the reported weights getting around and even more than the weight I got at the shop. I have changed the saddle and grips to my preferred units but the weights here made no discernible difference either way. I am a bit surprised by the difference in the weight I got in the shop of 11.9kg but that was a pretty quick weight while only holding the scales and not hanging them properly. Foolish me, I thought it wouldn't matter too much. With my Stans wheels the weight comes down to a respectable 11.7kg. Not too bad.

I won't go into the specifications as you can get them off the net. I'll also put it out there that I do have a great relationship with Cyc'd for Bikes and Giant and that obviously I am grateful for the support they have both given me. Having said that I will also try and be honest and true in my evaluation of the bike.

First the negative. The wheels are heavy. Not stupidly heavy, but still pretty weighty for a bike designed for XC racing. The wheels are still considerably lighter than last years model and a DT Swiss rear hub is a very smooth and reliable addition. Nice, loud and positive. I am non committal about the Crossmarks on this bike. They were consistent but not confidence inspiring.

I have set the fork up the same as my XTC with 80psi and then I have messed around with the external adjustments. There are so many ways to tune the Fox RLC fork that I was bamboozled for a while until I just started making changes and riding and noting the differences and whether I liked it or not. Hardly scientific but I ended up with 90psi and the preload at about half on the dial. I like the rebound pretty snappy and thats how I have it set now. So how was it? Bottomless travel and stiff. I enjoy the feel of the Fox F-29 on my XTC and the RLC version gives more adjustments and easier tuning.

So some riding. I rode the single track in the Gap Creek reserve to check out the suspension and handling. My first test was on Death Adder. There are some really nice technical sections that I could open the shock up and test the bump eating abilities of the anthem. I hit the first rock garden and threw caution to the wind. I bashed through it and was up the other side after a little pinch without even drawing a breath. Pretty impressive. The true test came later on Dingo though when I cleaned the climbs that are towards the top of the trail. Anyone who rides there will know the climbs I mean. They are tricky. I probably only clear the two climbs 1 in 3 times I ride them. I was able to carry more speed into the corner and punch it through the first pinch and then the rear wheel just stuck as the rock slab of the second pinch reared and was duly dispatched with just a little holler of triumph. I thought that was really fun, then I pointed the thing down. Holy shit.

The Maestro system.

I haven't owned a dually for a while and boy did it show. You don't feel trail chatter, you don't get bounced off line and you don't need to choose the smooth line and you can pick the fast line. I got to the bermed corners around half way down and got my mojo on. The rear compressed into the corners and lowered the centre of gravity which made the bike feel stable and let the tyres just drill in to the corner. A little more body english was required to get the bike over to take the next corner but the result was the same. In deep and fast. Well, fast for me.

There are a few things I should mention breifly that only when I went back to my XTC became apparent. The 3 x 10 XT gearing is smooth. Yep, the hype said so but even through all the muck and crud I threw at this bike it never even looked like missing the shift. The Avid Elixir CR brakes are great. You can adjust the pad clearance and lever reach. I like them a lot. They are a bit noisey when wet but hey, thats life.

There are a lot of people with opinions about 29ers being slow in single track. I want to point out that just as there are a multitude of 26 inch bikes available and not all of them are awesome in single track, so it is now with 29ers. Some of them though are awesome. Pick the bike for the purpose. The Anthem is a capable cross country bike with comfort to spare. It handles single track beautifully and while there are quicker bikes out there, I think you will be hard pressed to find a bike that will see you doing it in more comfort especially for the price range. Spend some time, set the bike up right and enjoy a very capable bike with a great spec and price Win,win.

It's all just good dirty fun.

I can't wait to get it on a 24 hour race.......

The Silver Bullet.

2010-10-09T20:50:00.000+10:00

Warning! To those people expecting some musing on how my life is at present or some philosophical comment then you will be sorely disappointed. The following contains extreme mountain bike geekery, technical content and descriptions that may or may not contain the word "rad".
On Wednesday my fantastic sponsors, Cyc'd for Bikes, presented me with my long awaited new bike. The Anthem X29. I have spent the last two days setting the bike up and waiting for the rain to stop! Today I was just starting to think there was no chance of testing it out when a little break in the weather presented itself and I jumped on it.
I headed out to Ironbark and Bunya to try and miss the worst of the muck and not trash the trails. My plan worked a treat as the trails around Ironbark were pretty dry up on the ridge lines and it gave the chance to test out the Propedal feature on the rear shock. It works. You'll hear that a lot. Everything works on this bike. It has been a long time since I have ridden a dually and the Anthem did not disappoint me one little bit. It was cool to just sit in the saddle and not suffer trail chatter and the fatigue that comes with it. I climbed up a technical trail and the rear wheel stuck to the ground and provided masses of traction on the slippery rocks and roots allowing me to put my energy into choosing a line and pointing the bike towards it. While this was all very nice, it was hardly surprising or earth shattering. When I got over to Bunya was when the real fun started.

Traction. That is the buzz I got from my singletrack blast. I hit corners hard as I normally would on my XTC but the difference was if the corner was broken or the trail a little loose the Anthem just stuck. Everything was smoothed out and I could just pedal and turn the damn bike. I liked it. My plan for this bike is for the longer enduros and 24 hour races next year and maybe some shorter races on the harder courses. I hope the ability to let the bike do some of the work for me may help keep my fatigue levels down a bit and let me go for a lot longer. Hopefully.
The other really nice feature of the bike is the brakes. The Avid Elixir CR's are a huge improvement over the Juicy 3's on my XTC. There are heaps of adjustments and I could really set the feel up perfectly for me. Nice. I guess my final comments should go to the bikes weight. It came out at 11.9kg stock. If I choose to put my race wheels on to the bike it will knock around a kilo off that weight. Thats really respectable.

I still have a long way to go in the set up process. More messing with shock settings, bar heights and seat heights. All these little things make a huge difference when you intend to sit on the bike for a whole day. From my first short bash out on the bike in wet muddy conditions though, I reckon my Anthem will be a winner.

Short bursts.

2010-10-04T19:20:00.000+10:00

There has been lots happening lately. Not really anything that would make a whole post on its own so here are some short bursts. They are most certainly listed in order of event, not of importance. All of them have affected me in some way.
Last weekend I did the Boonah Marathon. It was shortened to 75km instead of 85km and in the end I did a time somewhere around the 4 hour 15 minutes mark. I say "around" because my Garmin showed 4:04:53 as my time and the officila time showed it as a 5:18:00. Yep, A whole hour extra. Not sure what happened and still waiting on the reply from the race organisers. I had a good race though felt strong until I had to throw up. I felt better after that but couldn't eat or drink for the last 15km. Alison and Jack came out as support crew and it made me smile to see Jack changing my water bottles out for me and yelling "Hurry up Dad, here come some more riders! Now you are 37th, ohoh 38th! Quick!" Tops. Thanks to both of them being there.
My best mates mum passed away during the week. She had been battling a few serious health issues and had reached a pretty good age. I won't quote that age as I can't remember exactly what it was. Joyce was a darling and she always made me and my family welcome when we visited. She raised good kids and I am proud to say one of them is my mate. Joyce's funeral is tomorrow and Alison and I will be there to see her off. RIP Joyce.
The memorial for Pete (Big Turtle) McMillan was yesterday at his family home. There was an awesome turn out with people from the car club, his work and the mountain bike community all showing up and trying in vain to find bad things to say about him. It was a really fun afternoon of story telling, chatting and of course eating as befits Pete's great loves. The ride that followed was at a very relaxed pace in the rain with heaps of smiles and joking. Jen, Petes wife was on the ride and stoic as always. I could not be so graceful under the circumstances. We'll miss you Pete.
My cat of 17 years has to be put down. He has kidney failure and is rapidly deteriorating. I took him to the vet on Saturday for another matter and he suggested that I put him down before the pain gets really bad as that is the usual course of this disease. I took him home for the weekend so the boys can say goodbye. So tonight I took him back to the vet and ended his suffering. He was quiet and very relaxed through the whole thing, unlike me.
So there it is. Life is nuts sometimes.

A celebration of a life.

2010-09-22T20:39:00.000+10:00

I want to just share some sad news of the passing of a friend and riding buddy and just briefly celebrate his life through my fond memories of him. Pete or "Big Turtle" was a generous soul, a ready conspirator in any fun and a true gentleman. Pete and his lovely wife Jenn are responsible for the best race memories I have and I know I'm far from alone in this. Words can't ever portray how enthusiastic and giving Pete was to those around him and how much he loved life. I figure a few photos may show just what I mean better than me rabbitting on. Have a look, spare a thought for Jenn and Kristen and remember what Pete would have told you. "Live your life, you only get one of them...."

All the following photos are of the Insomnia 24 Hour Race, 2008. A triumph to the McMillan clan.

The Turtles organisation. Our camp rocked.

Pete making sure everyone was fed in between laps.

He broke a LOT of stuff! Fixing a chain at stupid AM in the morning.

The Cranky Old Bastards. Pete really wasn't...

Pete doing what he did best. Just like in life, stomping along and loving every minute of it.

Mate, you'll be missed. I hope the trails are fast and the laps fast. Roll on.

Super V X 2

2010-09-11T20:22:00.000+10:00

I must say I was pretty nervous about taking off on a 100k epic with a whole lot of hills thrown in this morning. I haven't done anything like that since getting back from the Terra Australis. Any worries that I had last night about the weather were blown away by the view out my front door! Perfect. It stayed perfect all day.
I met Rients at 6:30am and we took off along the Pony Trails to the base of the Goat Track. It was a nice warm up as the Goat Track is a steady climb with no real pinches to blow you up. There is a long bitumen haul over to the top of Lawton Road past Mount Glorious village we had a little chat along the way, drank some water and cruised along. You must realise that from home it's about 35km and over 1200m of climbing just to reach the trail head. It's a tough little haul to start a ride!
When we got to Lawton Road I was stoked to see Meg! Rients hadn't told me that there was a chance of catching up with her and another rider I hadn't met before. Nick, not the Nick I normally ride with, was a nice guy who we met along the Joyners Ridge Road as he had already knocked out lap of the V before we got there. So off we went. The four of us chugging along the road up to the Lawton Road turn off. From there its a long fast descent to the first of the climbs on the Super V. While it has the profile of a descent there is still a lot of steep climbing to be done in that descent. As well as spectacular views. You can see all the way to Esk and Wivenhoe Dam and today was no exception. It was clear and cool and it had us all commenting on how it was a perfect day for riding. We all just kept rolling the legs over and eating up the K's until we hit the next descent off Northbrook Mountain.
Climbing! Thats what you do for the next 10k's or so. It starts in the lush forest along England Creek Road and slowly makes it's way up through the eucalypt and into the the semi temperate rainforest with massive trees and lush undergrowth. You do work for it though. It pinches up to about 18% in a few places and the loose surface means you slide around on the saddle a lot to try and keep traction. That coupled with 10k's of up makes it an achievement to clear the climb without stopping. Meg and Rients were barreling along at a great pace. It wasn't blistering but it was certainly consistent. a couple of times I caught Nick and we chatted about life, riding bikes and how lucky we were to be out in an amazingly beautiful area right on our doorstep.
I reached the top of the first lap. The big drink and a couple of energy bars were welcome by that stage as was the chance to stretch my back and legs and just catch my breath. I have to admit I wasn't to keen on the second lap. I just knew I would feel disappointed in myself if I didn't.So off I went. Slowly but surely at first but as the lap went on I got better and better. Not much to tell from there. I got to the top and felt really good about it. We all headed up to the cafe for coffee and a burger. All there was left to do was the butt clenching descent down PEI Road and the 20 k's home. I got home shattered.
Check out the profile. It tells the story best.

Writers block.

2010-09-09T20:07:00.000+10:00

After three days of trying to write about whats been going on in my life, I decided to just go with the guts of what I wanted to say and leave the rest for another time. I have had a pretty ordinary time lately. My depression crept up on me and made life really hard work. There are heaps of little reasons and none that were big enough to make the radar on their own but add them together and you have trouble. I'm back on an even keel now and i want to say thanks to the people around me that helped me along. Whether they realise or not, it's important. Their input and understanding is the antithesis of the little troubles that build up and stump me because just like the troubles, a kind word or a quick call or a ride on the bikes put the smile back on my face and reconnects me with the world.
I have to mention my family first. I have two awesome kids that continually amaze me and make me laugh. The little monkeys are like the Duracell bunny on red cordial! and then theres my wife. I still wake up most mornings and wonder what the heck I did so right to end up with her. She listens to me when I need to talk and offers common sense when I can't see the wood for the trees. I am eternally grateful.
Now in no particular order and with just a brief explanation why:
Steve. Thanks for being supportive and understanding and not scared to tell it like it is.
Adam. Been mates for years and it's still great to catch up and chat.
Nick. Thanks for giving me that gentle and not so gentle push I need from time to time.
Ricki. Keepin' it real.
Paul and Leanne. You will probably never know how much a quick visit one afternoon meant to me.
So there you go. Finally I got it out there. Cheers you lot for just being you.

Boys and Bikes

2010-08-31T20:14:00.002+10:00

So this is just a couple of short videos of the boys riding around on their bikes. 2 weeks and the result is both of them nailing the concept and Daddy dropping a small fortune on new bikes. Loving it!

Jack gets the mountain bike thing from Graham Menzies on Vimeo.

Rohan decides it's time to learn to ride too! from Graham Menzies on Vimeo.

The proudest day.....

2010-08-21T20:37:00.000+10:00

It's been a big day in the Menzies household. In fact it has been a big week. First the exciting but somewhat overshadowed news that Cyc'd for Bikes has again pulled the goods for me and I will be riding a spanky new Anthem X29 in the next week or so! The photo below was jacked from the net but mine is pretty much the same. I can't wait as I think it will be the perfect endurance racing machine. Along with my XTC 29 I have an ideal kit to get out there and do some big races! rock on.

Now for the really big news. Today the family all went down to the park and practiced riding our bikes. doesn't sound like much does it? For a person who spends so much time on a bike the fact that my boys had no interest in riding a bike was somewhat confusing. Alison and I haven't pushed the issue in any way as we both feel it is best the kids make their own minds up about things like that. So yesterday when Jack suggested that we might go to the park and practice riding the bikes I was skeptical about it. This morning though he kept it up and was pretty keen even after the swimming lessons and soccer match so this afternoon we headed down to the park with the bikes. Rohan was the first to try out the bike! He jumped on and we did laps of the track while I held the back of the seat to keep him balanced After a while I even got to let go of the seat now and then and he flew solo. I was pretty stoked. Jack played on the swings.

Finally Jack got the urge to have a crack. He put the helmet on we got started right away. At first he complained that it felt weird and he couldn't balance. I was frustrated as we have tried to learn to ride before and he gave up really quickly but this time we both stayed cool and he kept trying. He was going really well too. After about twenty minutes of running along beside the bike holding the saddle he was nailing it, and I let go.

He rode on his own! It was the best 150meters of cycling I have ever seen. Before he knew it he was going it alone and loving it. The confidence went through the roof and before I knew it he was trying to start on his own, stopping and getting his foot down in time. Unreal. So in the end I was buggered, the kids loved the bike and now the Nintendo DSi they wanted has become a new bike each. Stoked.

Tomorrow is another day of riding practice. They are hooked and my bank account will get a hiding over the next few years as BMX's become mountain bikes and the mountain bikes become more expensive mountain bikes. I'm looking forward to every second of it.

I love public holidays

2010-08-14T15:01:00.000+10:00

Wednesday was the public holiday for Brisbanes "Ekka" or exhibition. The Menzies family took the opportunity to head off for a short adventure up Mount Mee and do a little dirt driving. We first headed up to the gantry off Sellin Road where we then headed into the state forest for a look around. The whole adventure took only 5 hours but we got a few photos and the boys had a great time exploring the Rocky Hole as well as Bull Falls.

The boys ran ahead down the walking track towards Bull Falls and marveled as the trees would join up over head to form the canopy of the rainforest. Whip birds called and let us know they were there and sometimes a glimpse of a small bird or insect would quieten the boys just for a moment. The recent rains meant the falls was quite spectacular with water spraying some distance over the cataracts.

We walked back to the car so we could head down to the Neurum Creek camp site. Hopefully over summer we can get up there for a weekend away. I didn't stop as I was conscious of not bothering the only family camped there but we did get a good look for planning purposes. As we got back to the main fire trail the sign to Rocky Hole beckoned. The boys loved it here! There were big rocks to climb and trails to explore. The water was gushing through here too which left it brown and turbid instead of the clear green water we had seen last time we visited up there. Rohan thought the water looked like a huge bubble bath. Yeah a bubble bath after those little grubs had been in it.

It was a little cool up there though.

The boys exploring the rocks

Jack was looking cool as always.

In a rare moment, the boys sat down long enough for me to take shot of them together. They were having a really good time!

With much protesting we all got back in the truck. It looked a little like rain and we were out on our own. I didn't want to risk getting stuck in heavy rain alone as the trails can turn to slippery water slides really quickly in the wet. It was only a 20 minute run back to the gantry and there were lots of plans being offered from the back seat about how we could camp at Neurum Creek soon and what we might be able to do there. This all stopped about 8 seconds after we hit the black top. The sounds of snoring from the back seat was deafening! Alison and I had a very quiet trip home. Kids make this stuff.

Merida 24 hour.

2010-07-27T20:06:00.000+10:00

Over the weekend I had the privilege of racing in the Merida 24 Hour mountain bike race. I was hoping to use the race to qualify for the world championships in Canberra this year but just couldn't pull the goods for that goal. While I am a little bummed about the result I am not really surprised given my lack of training and preparation for such a big undertaking.
Anyway, enough whining about how I could have done better and how I could have trained harder. I didn't. I did however get to ride a top track and even surprised myself with a few good laps. There is also the undeniable pleasure of hanging out with some mates and the camaraderie of your fellow racers asking you how you're travelling at 4am. Gold. By the way, I was travelling pretty badly.

The first couple of laps were really good. I got a great first lap and passed a few riders after taking it real easy off the line. I was almost last to leave as I couldn't really see the point in tearing off to only be caught in the mess of riders at the first corner. I rolled out and then hit the first climb a bit harder to pick up some places. All going well so far. Lap 2 was really a carbon copy of the first only that I had a clearer run in the single track and had a bit of fun railing the corners and bombing one or two sections. The sections through rock bottom and 007 were awesome but after 8 hours I was ready for some easy fire road. My arms and wrists were shattered and the dust was choking me. I had trouble seeing out of my left eye and under lights the trails became pretty scary. Nick had been filling me with food and coffee to keep me going up until this point and encouraging me to keep plugging out laps but my resolve failed at 8.30pm. I dropped my bundle big time and decided to get off and have a sleep. A hot shower and some food later I was tucked up in the sleeping bag quite comfortable. I didn't sleep much though.
The internal battle raging in my head kept me awake. I could have toughed it out and kept riding. I could have made a few more laps. My mental state was really fragile and it took a huge toll on my physical state with the prospect of more laps leaving me in a very dark place. I was struggling with every little climb and battling through the single track at night meant my lap times were going up faster than my emotional state was coming down. Finally at 2.30am I got up, put on the riding gear and went out for some more laps. I'm glad I did, but boy it hurt.

The dust had settled with the dew and I could see again through my left eye. I went out slowly to try and last through the morning until midday. I was a mile behind qualifying and had no real hope of getting back in the game. Each time I came around I would stop for a minute and eat a little and drink as I was finding it hard to eat on course. I had a chat to a few riders during those first two laps back and that was nice. It lifted my spirits quite a bit. As I came around for lap 3 Nick was waiting with coffee and some kind words. I thought he had been asleep but he said he had heard me slip out but had stayed in bed as he thought I was going for a comfort stop. The coffee was great and gave me a little bit more of a lift and saw me through that third lap quite nicely.

Really after that the whole thing became academic. I pumped out a couple more laps to total 15 for the race. This sat me in 10th in my age category and 46th overall out of 81 solo male competitors. Not good enough to qualify for the worlds but it just wasn't to be this time. The painful truth that my lack of preparation had meant I had not achieved my goal this time was a pretty bitter pill to swallow. It was made even worse by the fact that it was my mental strength and not my physical condition that let me down. I got to a point where I really did not want to complete any more laps and was happy to admit defeat. Oh well, back to the drawing board and lots more hours on the bike.

Green Light for Punishment

2010-07-17T19:53:00.000+10:00

No choppy choppy for my knee! The doctor has said that I will not require surgery at this stage and that I should be fine to ride in the Merida 24 hour next weekend. I can't wait. I have nursed my knee for the last few weeks and been really scared to push it hard in case the effort did more damage. One week out though and I can knock over a few big rides over the weekend and then some quiet spins during the week and then it's on.
Nick has kindly offered to be my support crew still and whip my butt if I get slack and decide to get off the bike. He is also helping me feel bad about not training by going out and doing 125km on the road bike today with 1890m of climbing and then backing up for a spin around Daisy Hill tomorrow.
I managed a run around Camp Mountain today finished off with a single track blast at Bunya and felt really good. At least recovery rate is still very good as if I was a bit puffed I could stop for a minute or two and bounce back strong. I ran into Matt Powell on the way back as he was completing a ride with 3000m of climbing as his preparation for the race next weekend. Luckily he is not in my age category. Unfortunately the guy he was riding with, Jeff Toohey is. I am not even in the same school let alone class as Jeff. He is a machine and it will be good to watch him tear apart the field over the race.
So do I have a plan? Nope. If I feel tired I will stop and eat. If I need sleep I will rest. Other than that it is go as hard as I can, enjoy the riding as much as possible and generally have a top time on the bike. I may qualify for the worlds if I am lucky as there are already a number of riders qualified in the field. Overall I and very excited about the prospect of another test for myself. I have been pretty slack in the last couple of months and found plenty of reasons not to train or push myself. This weekend will be a real wake up call and remind me how much I like riding and racing. Giddyup.

Whoosh clatter rattle.....

2010-07-11T20:51:00.002+10:00

I am sick and tired of thinking about work. I am sick and tired of not riding my bike. I ma sick and tired of being sick and tired. The cure temporarily is to bash out a few miles on the Gap Creek single track and just totally immerse myself in riding. I can't push too hard at present as "my little friend" on the back of my knee gets a bit tetchy and gives me gip for hours after a ride. I'll give you the tip though, unless the surgeon tells me I will lose my leg if I do the 24 hour race in two weeks I will be there.
Whats a whoosh clatter rattle? It's the noise my bike makes as I fling it through a corner and rumble over the braking ruts. It isn't a bad noise, it just means that you're hangin' it out and speed is bouncing your chain around and your tyres are chomping into the dirt making a very satisfying whoosh. My favourite sound today was the noise of the guys breath suddenly being inhaled as I nailed a tough line with gusto that he was walking up on "Dingo". A tricky little climb over a rocky ledge that comes straight after a rocky loose descent that takes all your speed and makes you either commit or fail. Truth be told I only make this section one in about four times I attempt it but today the frustration and disappointment of not riding enough bubbled up and exploded as a moment of sheer belligerence. I had too much speed on to be sensible and way too much to back out by the time I hit the base of the pinch. Fuck it, brakes off, sit forward and when the time comes pedal like your life depends on it. It kinda did. The reaction of the guy was like a cold beer on a hot day.
I really like riding my bike. Hopefully the doctor will say it's all good and the race will be on. I look forward to the hurt.

2010-06-27T20:55:00.000+10:00

What a fantastic weekend of riding! If the 90 odd k's of road riding yesterday through beautiful farmlands and along quiet roads wasn't enough today a visit to Parklands on the Sunshine Coast really topped it off.
First things first. It has been a while since I have ridden with Steve so we organised a spin for Saturday morning. We had spoken about a nice cruisey roll of about 24-25km/h and maybe for 60km. A great way to blast a few cobwebs out after all the sickness and health problems that have been plaguing me. As it turns out there were two other riders joining us and they were pretty darn handy on a bike. Darryl and Luke were waiting with Steve at the agreed spot and I knew I might be in trouble. I had ridden with Darryl before and I know that at 40+ he is strong as an ox and able to pump out the power.
I struggled a little from the get go. We weren't breaking land speed records but the pace was certainly up. There were some long flat sprints and they really hurt my knee and made me more than a little uncomfortable. I looked down at the Garmin at one stage and we were knocking out 45km/h along a flat into the wind and had been for some time. So much for the 24 km/h cruise. Around the back of the route there are one or two small climbs. They may be only short but at 18% they really nail the legs and get the heart rate pumping. Anyway, rolling right along. The final few k's were pretty steady. I didn't attempt to smash myself but rather took it easy and just kept the legs buzzing along. After all that it ends up at 28.5km/h for 90km. Not bad.
Parklands. I have never ridden there before and all reports had it as technical and bloody hard work. It lived up to all that and more with the first entrance into the trails being a monster steep run in through rocky broken single track. From then on it was 2 hours of on the rivet madness.
Nick and I were meeting Pete along the way to the coast and as Pete climbed in the car the banter started and the trash talk flowed like warm honey on hot toast. We pulled into the carpark and met up with Andrew who would be our guide for the day. It didn't take long before he had joined in on the ragging and snapping off merciless one liners if someone put a foot down or blew some maneuver on an obstacle. The fact that this was his backyard and he was a very skilled rider meant it was instantly on for young and old. Pete was smashing it through the single track and keeping pace with Andrew while Nick would easily catch up on anything that pointed up leaving me to hang on by railing the descents as fast as possible and struggling to stay with gang on the climbs. It's important to note that all of this riding was on single track. The whole day we did maybe 500m of fire road.

We popped out on a ridge line after riding through the rocky terrain characterised by the first part of the ride. Then we dropped into another world. It changed from dry eucalypt forest to lush temperate rainforest with all the slippery roots and tacky loam soils you can handle. It's fast and furious down in the valley with not a lot of elevation change and some areas to get off the brakes and make the most of the grippy soil. Man it was fast. There are some narrow bridges and log rides to get you across some of the gullies and tricky little G outs for the rest. I love this type of riding as it requires you to concentrate totally on what you are doing and look down the track in preparation for the next challenge, the next obstacle. Andrew was flying.
We rode around to the far side of the forest and had a little breather and a muesli bar. The park was busy and we saw at least another 5 or 6 riders just while we sat there. The trail that followed was just another highlight in a day full of them. There were several log rides and the tightest, twistiest switchbacks I have ever ridden. My rear wheel spent more time in the air then on the ground as I tried to muscle the bike around the corners. Once the flow came on though I had a smile you couldn't surgically remove. Sometimes it just takes one move, one perfect placement of a tyre to switch the brain from the mode that has you trying too hard to where you let it all go and just let the bike do the work while your body just floats with it.
More climbing. Up out of the eucalypts again and along the rocky single track back to the cars. Mega. we had been riding for 2 hours, covered only about 23km and worked for every single meter. As a measure of the difficulty of the trails I can usually average about 15km/h in single track without much drama. Managing only 10km/h was pretty humbling. As we scoffed coffee and cakes at the Swiss bakery though Andrew admitted that 10km/h was a pretty good result for Parklands. Even locals struggled to grind out that pace and we had done it without the advantage of prior experience of the trails. I feel pretty good. Smashed, but good.

Saddle sore and satisfied.

2010-06-20T12:36:00.000+10:00

Finally after 3 weeks of sore knees, spewing and coughing my way through life I got back on my bike and rode a few K's. Yesterday was only a 15 km stroll around Bunya to turn the legs over and basically sit on the bike to say I had. Not impressive, fast or hard but it was a ride nether the less. I ran into Nick at the start of the ride and he rolled around with me for a bit and we organised to meet for a ride this morning on the roadies to try and blow a few cobwebs out. The road bike is great for that as it tends to be a more consistent effort rather than the more intense efforts that characterise a long mountain bike ride.
It was bloody freezing this morning though. Luckily Nick and I have agreed that if we organise a ride then we both feel bad if one of us bails out. That and the fact that the person who pulls out is mercilessly ragged on for the next ride and publicly ridiculed to any person who will listen. The male ego provides some very powerful motivation when necessary. Anyway, pinch of concrete in the teacup consumed, winter woolies donned and I was off. Bloody freezing. The plan was a lazy loop of the dam, out to Samford on Wynn Road and home via the coffee shop near home. Should total about 50km and be pretty relaxed. It was. I was pleasantly surprised at how casual Nick was taking it and I was coping with the pace quite well. Then he told me he had knocked over a bottle of red the night before and was feeling a bit ordinary. Right then, time for some fun. I pushed it a bit harder than I thought I could with a head still full of snot and made sure I didn't slip back on the climbs and made him work just a bit. The payoff came as we headed over the Samford Range and he complained. "Where's the bloody elevator!" I have never heard Nick complain on a hill and he realised he had slipped up immediately. He turned to me and said "You're not going to tell anyone that you heard me complain about a hill are you?" Oh hell yeah I am. "Nick, I am going to get it sky written. I will shout it from the rooftops and tell random strangers in the street." It was one of my finest moments since starting to ride with that skinny mountain goat of a human and I am still savoring it now.
After that he pelted down the other side and I had to try really hard to not get left behind. The taste of coffee was pulling us along like an invisible rope and with the last push back to home flat and open it was down in the drops and on the gas. Nothing blistering but still a solid 50km/hr all the way to the coffee shop. Coffee carrot cake and conversation. The perfect finish to a ride. I may have even lit a little spark in his head about taking on the Terra next year. We'll see.
It feels bloody good to be back though......

2010-06-07T22:28:00.000+10:00

I must admit that my riding over the last few weeks has been sporadic and some what inconsistent in terms of distance. My left knee has been troubling me since the Terra and though I put it down to just soreness from fatigue. It turns out that there may be a bit more to it than that. A visit to the GP today after finding a lump behind my knee means that now I have to have an ultrasound to see what the heck it is. My doctor feels it is most likely a cyst that is causing other inflammation and giving me pain all over my knee. All I know is that after a few K's it's bloody painful and it doesn't stop hurting for days after a ride. Most annoying! The race at Mount Perry is on this Sunday and short of me having to have my leg amputated, I will be going. I may need a couple of pain killers after six hours of riding but hey, I've given up alcohol so whats the harm in that?
The medical front isn't all doom and gloom though. Today marked the start of my trial run of being off my anxiety medication completely. I have been steadily reducing the dose for a while now and today my doctor agreed that it was time to go solo for a while and see how that goes. I feel very positive about the move as I have been feeling really good with the lower dose and I have some great coping strategies now to deal with the stress and worry that plagued me for so long. I've learnt a lot about myself in the last year or so and while that sounds strange coming from a 40 year old guy it's the truth. Some of the things have been positive, and some not so much.
On the negative side was seeing that I weaknesses like any human being, I'm not perfect and I do make mistakes. Sometimes I can't please everyone and sometimes people aren't going to like me or want to listen to what I have to say. On the positive side is knowing now that all of those things are okay.
I'm stubborn and persistent. Sometimes thats a great thing and gets results but you can't let it rule your life. Keep some perspective on whats important and be prepared to "cut it loose" even if in the short term it is painful and causes you stress. In the long term it is most likely for the best.
Here's my dirty great caveat for what you read below. All of what is said and done below has been in consultation with my doctor.
I have treated getting off the meds like the training and preparation for a race. Set the goal, make a plan and do what needs to be done to achieve it. I have learnt to deal with stress and anxiety as my first step. Call that the base miles before the intensity training starts. During this time I was heavily dependent on my medication to moderate my stress but as I got better at it I decreased my dose and kept a close eye on the results. Just like upping your miles and watching your average speeds and heart rate. Monitor it, apply the results.

So if you like, the decreasing of the dose has been like increasing the intensity of training. As my dose comes down, I am dealing with more and more of the stress on my own so to speak. And now it's all me! I'm happy to take this step finally and even a little bit proud to be able to. Nowhere in the mental health handbook does it say it's a lock that you'll get off the medication once you have started it or that if you do you will stay off it. Life is just not that cut and dry. I feel pretty confident though that I have a red hot go at it because I have my family and a fantastic support network of friends to help me if I need it and that my "training" has been good and solid.

2010-05-23T20:40:00.001+10:00

What a weekend! A healthy dose of "Get off your arse and go ride" took hold yesterday with a 40km smash around some singletrack with two much stronger riders. It started out pretty cruisey but a crash to one of the guys that started the ride meant that 3 riders dropped out leaving me, Nick and Rupert. Nick most of you know by reputation as the "leg ripper offer" and Rupert is well, just younger. Fast, bloody fast and just keeps going.
We started at Bunya and headed straight over to Ironbark and the start of the hills. There are some cranking climbs in there and by the time we had made the top of "Fridge" the legs were burning with the 20% gradients and the promise of the fun technical descent was all that kept me going. After heading over to "Mexican" the next step is the bitumen climb up Bygotts Road to the link track that spits you out in Ironbark again. The reward is "Sunset". If you have the pleasure of doing this trail as the sun hits the horizon you will see where it gets its name. The grasses get a golden hue and the insects become little beacons as the sun bounces off their wings. Pretty special. The trail also happens to be wicked. Nice flow and some tricky little spots to negotiate before the balls out bolt down to the main fire road around Ironbark that runs parallel to Samford Road. Sweet.So then it was up to the top of the fire road and over to "Powerlines" for more fast and furious descending. The nice social punt along the rail trail to spit us out on the climb up "watertank" to finish off with the small bitumen roll back to the car park. Not bad for a shade over 2 hours and 1000m of ascent.
Now today. Boy howdy. The plan was to ride out to Granchester and Old Hidden Vale for the 3+3 event to have a look and then roll into Ipswich and catch the train back to Brisbane. About 130km at a pinch. 6am and we were off from home loaded with food, fluids and a positive attitude. Out to Jindalee via Bardon and some hills to warm up on and through the back of Darra to avoid the new road to Springfield and then finally onto the Centenary Highway for the 50 odd K slog out to the Roseview turnoff. All was going pretty well. I needed a stop at about Yamanto to refuel as a bonk of epic proportions started to hover with that empty feeling in my stomach and a loss of concentration as well. If you don't know, the bonk is the cycling equivalent of the wall. The body runs out of fuel and it may happen before you really know it and then its a hard road back with only food and rest as the cure. Iced coffee milk, a nougat bar and a banana and all is good. On to Roseview.
It felt like a bit of a death march into Roseview with a gravelly surface that bounced me around and made it hard to keep a rhythm. I was very relieved to see the sign announcing the township and even more relieved to stop for a comfort break! Full bladder, bouncy road, rigid carbon bike. Bad, bad mix. 20km from Roseview to Old Hidden Vale through the little town of Grandchester and we were there. After chatting for an hour or so and necking an espresso frappe (yep, espresso frappe!) Nick started making noises about rding all the way back. I said I wasn't sure but would ride back to Roseview with him and see how I felt. The bakery there served up a couple of pies and more fluids and the time came. What was I gonna do? I didn't feel great but thought it was time to harden up. Whinging about feeling crap wasn't going to cut it as Nick is very sympathetic listener when it comes to that whole excuse thing. Not! Suck it up and stop complaining. So off we went again. I was surprised to see that we were still ripping along at around 27km per hour as an average and pinging it along the flats at around 35km per hour! Not bad.
The road became smooth once back on the Centenary Highway and the pace didn't let up. That continued until the hills started again in Toowong. I reckon some of those hills had me pedaling with my nose I was so hunched over the bars. But I was still going. Finally Samford Road and the bike track home. I rolled along and chatted to Nick until I had to climb the last cruel hills to home.
I now have that nice feeling back of accomplishment. It has been a while since it hung around with me but now the motivation to train is back. All it took was 240km in two rides and the suffering and succeeding that comes with making it through a tough ride you were sure was going to beat you. Here come the big rides.

Wanted - Motivation.

2010-05-19T20:40:00.000+10:00

To say my motivation has been lacking over the last 2 weeks is an understatement. The term "lacking" indicates that there was some attempt that has fallen short or failed but my situation is more of a complete disappearance of said item. It is really unfortunate timing considering that I have this little race in a couple of months that I was hoping to do pretty well at. I have had a couple of small problems with a cold and some leg and back pain but nothing too serious. I just couldn't be arsed.....
I have really enjoyed the few rides I have managed over the last few weeks. The problem is more that the volume is seriously lacking in terms of training and preparing for a race. I know my leg strength has decreased and certainly my base fitness is declining rapidly. Funnily enough it doesn't stress me though. I'm OK with it for now. It'll hurt like a bee sting when the torch is lit though and I can expect that feeling of barely keeping my breakfast down and the suffocation of oxygen debt to be the wake up call I am needing. God I hate those feelings.
My mates will help snap me out of this funk too. The merciless ribbing when I drop off the back and struggle on the climbs will sting like that bee but last a whole lot longer. Such comments as "Are your brakes dragging?" and "No mate, you're not holding us up" when you know that really they are wishing you'd get a move on just sit in the back of your mind and eat away at you. It really does help though. Really.
Anyway if you are walking down the street and come across a lonely motivation looking lost and forlorn please just send it back to me as it is most likely the one I lost somewhere in the last few weeks.

Get 'er done.....

2010-05-07T20:17:00.000+10:00

The race has been entered, the money paid. Now it is just a simple case of sitting on a bike and pedaling as fast as I can for 24 hours.
How hard can it be?

Decisions, decisions...

2010-05-05T15:49:00.000+10:00

I have committed a vast amount of time and energy to some things this year that have proven incredibly fulfilling. There has been a feeling of pressure and of impending deadlines since September last year and sometimes this has really eaten at the enjoyment I might have gained from doing the things that I love. So I have made a decision. I am going to enter the Merida 24 hour race in July and attempt to qualify for the World 24 hour Championships in Canberra in October. Yeah I know, it's more riding. This time however it's for me. I have no team mate to let down, I have no donors onboard and most of all I have nothing to prove.

My training has started again and I plan to well and truly have my race face on by June for the Mount Perry 6 hour race which I will use as a tuneup for the Merida after which if I qualify for the Worlds, I will have a short break. To be honest, I don't even know if I can still qualify for the Worlds because the places were running out fast. Only the top 10 finishers are automatically eligible and it would take a miracle for me to finish in that company. But hey, you will fail at 100% of the things you don't try.

I have the luxury of a support crew willing to give up an entire weekend to come out to a race course and sit through 24 hours of me going around and around a track. There is definitely a certain amount of sadism involved in it as not often can you get away with telling a mate to harden up and go out and do some more laps and be thanked for it at the end. The difference between racing with a support crew as opposed to without is polar though. You can pedal the bike, navigate the course and thats it. Food and fluids are sorted for you, the bike might even get a little tune up and most of all there is at least one person in the place just to rev you up. So whois this sadistic samaritan? Bloody Nick. Maybe the hiding he gives me on our rides isn't enough? Now he wants to make me suffer through 24 hours.

I must also mention how stoked I am to once again be able to suit up in the Giant/Cyc'd for Bikes gear and aboard the XTC1 29er for both races. The bike continues to amaze me with how nicely it rides and with a few recent modifications how much more enjoyment I have gotten from it. Spencer made the discovery that torching the brake pads silenced them and improved the performance all in one go. When you couple that with a ghetto tubeless conversion and the ability to run much lower pressures now the thing corners on rails and stops hard enough to loosen your teeth! Awesome. My descent into the world of the XC whippets is now also complete. I have bar ends on my bike. Hey, they feel good.
So there you go. There should be some more fun and games to read about soon. Stay tuned and be along for the ride and see where the trails take us.

Giant XTC1 29er review.

2010-04-18T16:41:00.000+10:00

Ok, I am no MTB technical guru. Thats my disclaimer. I have however ridden bikes for most of my life and mountain bikes for the last 13 years. I have dabbled in everything from downhill to 24 hour racing. Thats a fair breadth of experience I reckon.
I guess the best, most positive and strongest endorsement for the XTC 1 is that after only a 20 kilometer shake down ride I rode this bike nearly 600 kilometers through some very challenging terrain and over some monster climbs and descents. And survived. The geometry of the bike suits long hauls and with some very minor adjustments to bar height and seat height it was very comfortable and felt natural. I was quite impressed with the mix of XT and SLX gearing as it worked flawlessly over the week of hard racing with only some small adjustments to deal with new cables. Not bad considering that on one day alone there was 6 creek crossings where we ended up drenched and the bikes where submersed on one or two occasions. There were a couple of issues though that did detract from the overall performance. The brakes sucked. No other way to put it. Not only did they grab badly when hot but they howled like a banshee. Spencer said he knew when I had fallen off on the one stack I had because he didn't hear my brakes for a couple of minutes. They were that bad. I changed pads, sprayed them with Swisstop and messed with alignment all to no avail. I suppose the positive is that at an RRP of $2399 you have room to move and change out the brakes at the shop. I didn't like the saddle much either but that is a personal thing and really I should have changed it out for my own saddle before deciding to ride 600 km on it. Dumb, really dumb.
I am quite happy with the Fox F29 fork and was very happy with the 15mm through axle as it was easy to use and very positive when tightened off. I do feel the Giant handled better than my Fisher with tighter and more responsive turning however whether this was due to the head angle or the 15mm axle and tapered steerer is open for debate. In singletrack the bike felt confident and grounded considering how little I had ridden it before the race. The Beechworth singletrack is rocky and very technical but I only felt that I had pushed to far on a couple of occasions and I think mainly because I was flying! I would recommend that if your intended use for the XTC is as a trail bike that you stick some slightly more aggressive rubber on with a bigger bag than the 1.9 Kenda Karma's that are supplied. Having said that, if it's an entry level racer you seek then just get out and thrash the thing. The Karma's will be fine. I ended up using 2.1 Maxxis Crossmarks mainly because I use them as an all round tyre here so stayed with the devil I knew.
My only other small gripe was the lack of a second bottle mount. Thats it. End of story. Yeah you can spend a bomb getting a boutique branded, custom specced bike and you will get what you pay for. With the Giant though you get MORE than you pay for. As a base the frame and fork are great and if like me you are on a budget the spec is very adequate and the price is hard to beat. chuck on some new brakes, bend the wheels beyond (good luck) saving and whack some lighter ones on and you have a rocket ship.
Go out and thrash it.

Terra Australis 2010, A Pictorial History. (Cecil B. DeMille I aint!)

2010-04-11T22:20:00.000+10:00

Terra Australis 2010 from Graham Menzies on Vimeo.

Single track, single minded, singular joy. Stages 6 and 7, Terra Australis 2010.

2010-04-06T14:25:00.000+10:00

No more numbers, no more elevation gains and losses, no more explanations of the route and how hard it was. You all get that. This was hard. I'm a stubborn SOB and at times I wanted to cry and curl up into a ball and rock. You all get that.
So what is it that made these two stages awesome and totally worth the pain? Single track. Beechworth's flowing, rocky, twisty goodness. It ended the stage on day 6 and started day 7. There is a fantastic mix of tight and twisty trail with real rock drops and roll overs and then the open, fast ribbons that weave through the trees and allow you to go so fast that it all becomes a blur and drops you into that special world where only the bike and you matter. This place should be visited by all mountain bikers once in their life.
I personally think that there is magical properties that exude from single track offering increased strength and concentration much like spinach does for Popeye or the elixir does for Asterix. Once your wheels hit it then all the encumberances of fatigue drop away to let the dogs off the chain to go chase that fun, no matter what. After feeling like death warmed up for the start of day 6 and continuing to feel that way most of the way around the course we were dropped into the first taste of Beechworth single track and it was like someone had just mainlined a double espresso into my veins and booted me in the arse with a size ten. Zip, gone, see ya later! We passed some of the riders who had been killing us on the long gravel roads like the were standing still. Stomp, stomp , stomp. All the way to the finish line.
Day 7, well it started with some new single track. I got a flat only about 20 minutes into the ride and watched as all the other teams went past me. I just calmly fixed it with the knowledge that te further ahead they got, the clearer the trails would be for me. I had been held up quite a bit on the early sections so was intent on enjoying this experience even if I had to wait an hour for the course to clear. Spencer had gone off the front when I got caught up but he called me and was happy to wait too. That clear single track was a real lure for us both.
Once I caught up to Spencer the trails didn't stay clear for long. We were bombing it! It really showed me how much time we could have made up if there was more technical single track on the other days. We ride it all the time and it showed as the pair of us carved a path through the other teams back to around the 2 thirds mark of the pack. Yep, we really could ride our bikes in this single track stuff. Real mountain biking. We talked and joked about it all the way to the finish line.
There is nothing much left to say about the race. The final two days were a fitting end to the race and the elation at crossing the line on Saturday is indescribable. There was a lot of congratulations and pats on the back, lots of cheering as teams crossed the line and a general feeling of comaraderie amongst the racers and support crew alike.
My final feeling as I crossed the line? Pride. Pride in Spencer for getting up after being knocked down and finishing every other stage. Pride in how we had carried ourselves as a team and as competitors. Pride in myself for taking that first step over a cup of coffee months ago, saying I would train and be ready for the start line, and most importantly pride in finishing.

Thanks again to Russ Baker for the kind use of the image. Onya Russ!

The Terra top ten.

2010-04-02T15:46:00.000+10:00

While I finish up the last of the race reports I thought I would just lighten the mood a bit and throw in a top ten. It's what all the TV stations do when they don't have anything else to program so why can't I. So here it is.
Graham's Terra Australis Top Ten. (In some kind of order...)
10. Greens pancake mix. The breakfast of champions.
9. Rockin it to dub and reggae all the way to Mount Beauty on the way down.
8. Steak at the Victoria Hotel in Goondi on the way home. Just awesome.
7. Spectacular scenery every day for seven days. Everywhere you looked it was another post card view and it just kept getting better.
6. Beechworth single track. If you ride it, you'll know......
5. Beechworth Brewery after Beechworth single track. What better way to exaggerate how good you were in the single track than with a couple of fantastic hand made brews and some good friends. Yeah, we were pretty cool.
4. The Giant XTC1 29er. It performed fantastically well. Not bad for a bike that retails for $2300.
3. Lucas's Paw Paw ointment. My butt thanks you. Lets leave it at that.
2.Finishline Events and all the other competitors. Amazing people, an amazing event, an amazing experience.
1. Spencer. He was crazy enough to say yes. We are even still mates!

Hump Day.

2010-04-01T21:01:00.000+10:00

Stage 5. Bright to Beechworth. 92.5km, 2297m alt gain, 1924m alt loss.

I was feeling pretty good about todays stage as I rolled up to the start line. The day before had been a massive hurdle and I felt I had cleared it and was now on the downhill run. The only problem with that was that noone had told the organisers of the race!

While physically I was in good shape mentally it was hard to get up for the start and to want to attack the first part of the course. I guess that a 14km climb up Mount Porepunkah will do that to you though. You heard right, 14km up. Granted this climb was at a very manageable 8% or so it was still long and had a couple of evil little pinches to throw the rhythm and max out the heart rate. I felt pretty settled after a couple of K's of turning the legs over but was having real issues just setting my head right. There was heaps of adrenaline and a healthy dose of fear for the day before but there was a very real sense of anti climax for this stage which made the ride feel like a chore.

Once we were over the first climb it was a very fast, fun descent down into the valley and a nice cruisey traverse across to the next feed stop. Vegemite and nutella sangers were consumed and we were on our way again. The fires in the boiler room had been re lit. I could smell the finish line. The tempo on the climbs went up and the descents became eye watering plunges into the valleys.
There was a very real feeling that this was the final hurdle in a week full of hurdles. I knew I could eat up the final two days in my sleep and wow did that put a rocket up my arse! As the 85km mark ticked over we knew we had climbed the last hill for the day. It was all down hill to the line now. Big dog engaged, attack formation and let 'er rip! The run to the line was blisteringly quick and we only took the foot of the gas as we entered the university grounds where the finish line was. We were joking and pinning along and then I heard it.
Click, click, buzz. Gears changing and wheels winding up to speed. I looked back and there were 2 guys coming up fast. I yelled at Spence to gas it. He looked at me and shrugged. "Go, fuck ya!" So he did and after 5 days of racing and being at the back of the field we sprinted. We had no chance of catching the 2 guys in the general classification, no chance of improving our overall position but I was sick of being beaten over the line. It was the single most futile effort I have ever undertaken but it felt good. We smoked them. As we crossed the line I was cackling and hollering like I had won a stage of the Tour de France. We slapped the hands of the guys in the sprint and laughed some more. Great finish to the day.

Beer O'clock........

2010-03-29T16:54:00.000+10:00

Stage Three, Dinner Plain to Bright. 72 km, 1219m alt gain, 2479m alt loss.

This was the stage we needed. After two gruelling days in the saddle we finally had a stage that was more down than up and had the promise of a short day on the bike for both Spencer and I. To his credit Spencer was up and ready to ride despite the disappointment of the previous day and even looking forward to a fun descent down to the Upper West Kiewa Valley. From Dinner Plain we climbed up to Hotham to begin the days first descent down the shaly side of Machinery Spur. This was rough and unforgiving with more than a few riders taking spills throughout the day due to loss of traction or hidden ruts. I was flying though. Spencer and I were whizzing past teams we hadn’t seen for the previous two days of climbing now and that really put the smiles back on our faces. The smiles only got wider as we made our way down into the valley and started the first of 6 river crossings on the Ovens River. Some riders were complaining about the wet feet but we just giggled like school girls as we plunged through the crystal clear water and past some of the most beautiful scenery so far. We even sat in the feed station and had a chat with a few riders as they came through and left again only to catch most of them on the climb out of the valley along Dungies Track. While the going was steep on this climb the surface was hard pack and smooth. We really attacked the climb and got a solid rhythm going all the way to the top. Very satisfying.

Once over the top of the spur we had a fast and flowing descent down to Bright with some sweet single track along the river into town. On the short dirt road and bitumen sections we teamed up with a Kiwi mixed pair and shared the load of the draft. As a mixed pair they were very strong but the previous day had really knocked them around. We slowed a little and then Karen fell right back. I checked if they were OK and once given the wave Spencer and I dropped into the big ring and powered along roady style to the finish line. We have now ridden with the kiwis quite a lot and they are a top pair. We have had long chats and even a beer or two together at the end of the stages. Another example of mountain bikers just getting along.

Finally now I could recover. I rested and ate and ate and rested with the knowledge that the next stage was the Queen of the race and the stage where the most DNF’s had occurred from 2009. It promised to be massive.

Stage Four, Bright to Bright. The Mount Buffalo circumnavigation. 117km, 3206m alt gain, 3191m alt loss.

I dreaded this stage from the day I decided to attempt the Terra. I’ve never done 117km on a mountain bike before, I’ve never climbed over 3000m in a day before and I certainly have never done it after 3 days of racing and possibly 2 of the hardest days I have ever spent on a bike. Daunted? You betcha.

We left Bright and basically the climbing started immediately. No warm up run in with some easy k’s, just bang in your face climbing at 17 percent. A little rest and then bang, here we go again. We climbed for around 17 of the first 20 kilometres of the day and that only set the standard for what was to come. There was a 19 kilometre stretch that was relatively flat on the profile but the truth was it was a gravelly heat trap that just seemed to go on forever with no real let up and nothing to keep you interested while you pedalled along. We stopped and ate some more with the view that the big climb was approaching and the fuel would be vital to get up it.

So what classes as a big climb in the Terra Australis? Well that would be a 12 kilometre climb that takes you up 1200m to around the 1300m mark above sea level on gravelly rutted tracks with little or no protection from the sun. Spencer was smashing it. He left me for dead several times but waited each time until I got my rhythm going and started to nail the pace. Somewhere along the way he just stopped. I pulled up to him and asked what was going on and he could only say to me that he was in a dark place mentally and needed a rest. I left him to his thoughts and continued on. Sometimes there are no words to fix a problem. We had been riding for about 6 hours and the fact we still had so much work to do to get home had just snuck up and overwhelmed him. I waited at the summit for him. We took on water and stretched the legs a little to loosen up after holding the attack formation for the last 12 k’s. He came around and I led off on the descent down to the valley floor and the second feed stop for the day. Again the volunteers put on a good show and picked us up mentally as well as physically with jokes and plenty of vegemite sandwiches. Another glowing report for the support crew.

Along a flat stretch to the pine plantation outside of town for the last of the climbs for the day. These were shorter but way pinchier especially with shattered legs and backs and fragile mental states. The day had also turned quite hot and the pines offered no respite from the sun with the reflection off the decomposed granite surface adding to the heat. Once we reached the top the relief was like a curtain being thrown open to reveal the sunshine. We started talking and joking again and flew into the descent down to the town of Bright. We crossed the finish line inside the 10 hour cut off for the stage and was met by handshakes from the race director as he shakes the hand of every rider who finishes this stage. 9 hours and 31 minutes in the saddle. We were both shattered but very happy to have made it over the stage. I won’t say I conquered it as that implies a victory but I do think I survived it and kept my dignity. That’s enough for this year.

The immages from this report were kindly supplied by Terra Australis, Russel Baker and Kaz and John. Cheers folks!

Terra Stage 1 and 2. How to suffer.

2010-03-26T14:33:00.000+10:00

Well finally I can take the time to get to a place to upload my blog for the Terra Australis 2010. The amount of emotional and physical feelings I have experienced in the past 5 days makes it hard to ensure that I can express them and carry you along for the ride.

I must premise it all by saying that the riding has been spectacular. The photos don’t do it justice as the scenery is breath taking and the sheer volume of amazing places you ride through is mind numbing. From the high plateau of Falls Creek and Dinner Plain to the lush forest around Bright and the slowly regenerating eucalypt forest of Beechworth you just keep being amazed. I have crossed the Ovens River 6 times, climbed to the top of Goldies Spur and seen the western side of Mount Buffalo, scaled shaly climbs that went on for kilometres and then plunged into lush forests with massive gums surrounding bracken ferns.

If this all sounds idyllic there is a definite sting in the tail of every vista I’ve seen, every beautiful creek I have crossed and most definitely every lush valley I have plunged into. I have suffered. I have sweated, sworn, struggled and bled for every kilometre and stage finish so far. This race is a beast and even if I get to the end I won’t say I have tamed it, only survived it.

Stage 1. Falls Creek to Mount Beauty. 92km, 2550m alt gain, 3726m alt loss.

I showed up at the start line with apprehension and fear. No other way of putting it. There was a 50km wind blowing across the top of the mountain which dropped the temperatures down to about 6 degrees and would later take a heavy toll on us on the plains as a head wind. Down to it. We set off and quickly gained our place at the tail of the field with the first climb of the day being a relatively gentle gravel road up to the edge of the lake and then turning off toward the plains. I was feeling OK by then even though Spencer had flatted and we had lost time already and were now well back in the pack with no real hope of picking up places. No matter, the aim is to finish. That’s when it got hard.

We hit the climb to Mount McKay and the terrain turned to hell. Imagine plate sized flat rocks that slid from under you when you pedalled coupled with bottom bracket deep ruts and you get the idea of what I mean. Now multiply that by about 15 kilometres. Yep, 15 kilometres of climbing at about 12% on that. The Terra was showing me who is boss and it’s only day 1. When I thought I had got a rhythm going on the climb I came to a curve in the trail then it hit me. A head wind at 50 kilometres per hour that took the temperature down to about 5 degrees was smashing me in the face while it’s buddies the rocks and ruts took turns at taking chunks out of my leg strength. Unreal.

I finally got to the top and was really looking forward to the descent down Timms Spur to the Big River Valley. If only it wasn’t the roughest, most technical, longest descent I have ever done. There are head sized boulders and sticks the size of small countries across the trail and all that is laid over a bed of slippery pea gravel and hard pack. Mega. My arms were so sore I had to sit down at the end of each descent and shake them out. I had no feeling in my fingers from grabbing the brakes and bars so hard and while I should have been able to rest my legs on the downs I found that I was constantly on the hammer otherwise it was flaming wreck time for yours truly. There was a comment made at the end of the stage by one of the elite guys that said he has never been so happy to start climbing again. It was simply that full on. The feed station at the end of this was a god send. Spencer and I sat in silence looking each other with fear in our eyes.

At this stage I still had around 1000m of climbing to do to the finish. If only it had been easy fire road or gravel but no, it was not to be. More of the fist sized, square edged rocks met us for the entire climb. The only comment I have on this section is I was numb. I climbed slowly and in silence. My heart was broken and my legs were trashed with no end in sight. I really am lucky to have got through this section as it could very easily have been the end of me. I finally saw the turn into the Mount Beauty single track and Big Hill. Another flat while in the single track further sealed the day as a complete disaster. I did not enjoy the single track or even take in the amazing views across the Kiewa Valley. I was smashed physically and mentally and it was only day one.

Day 2, Falls Creek to Dinner Plain. 102km, 2112m alt gain, 2052m alt loss.

I started the stage with a feeling of confidence and a plan to steadily gain the altitude needed and rest on the long descents into the valleys. The climb from the start was steady and on reasonable terrain so we just ticked along and ate up the first 15 km with ease. Then the rot set in. We missed a marker on a turn and headed up a steep and rock littered climb until we reached another intersection where there was no trail marker. I was pretty annoyed as we tried to get mobile coverage to find to where we were and how far off track we had gone. Finally after a 10k diversion with a lot of climbing we were back on the trail and moving towards the next check point. The whole adventure took a massive toll on both Spencers and my state of mind and there was a real negative vibe about the climb back out towards the Bogong Highway. More bad news. As we were now so far behind the pack, a sweep vehicle had been through and removed a further trail marker and now we had 4 options as to which way to go. Finally after a lot of swearing and cursing Spencer announced that he was heading down the bitumen no matter what and that someone could just come and get us from the next town. Fair enough too I thought.

We lucked out though and there was a checkpoint a few k along the road. I headed into it at 45 degrees, head down and attitude turned up to nuclear. I was pissed in a big way. We still don’t know what happened to the marker and I have since apologised to the guys that bore the brunt of my frustration but hey, it still sucked.

The climb that followed was brutal. 22 percent and covered in what can only be described as rider destroying, jagged edged demons. We both walked it most of the way and from all reports so did everyone else. 1.5k later we crested a spur and looked down at the same trail we had climbed only this time descending. My arms and shoulders were aching from the day before and this only nailed the coffin closed a little more. I think I lost a tooth on that descent. It was just that rough. You could not rest, you could not drink, you could not blink. The consequences of failing to ride the descent would be race ending as the speed gained due to lack of traction and the type of surface would have both ripped me apart and shattered bones.

The next part of the ride is a blur to me as fatigue was setting in and my brain was struggling to make informed decisions. Spencer was in a bad way too with his hip and knee in pain constantly and the toll of the off trail excursion messing with his head. There was another climb on pea gravel, we caught the back markers and the sweep vehicles, and we grovelled for every kilometre we made. Spencer cracked. As we came over a rise he could see the climbs continuing off into the distance and the knowledge of the 30 kilometre climb up to Dinner Plain was just too much. I had watched him struggle up every hill that day when normally he would lead me out and then he would drop off the back when I tried to rest him on the long straights. There were still 10 k’s to cover before the next aid station and it was just too much. We talked about it and I asked if he was OK for me to continue and try and make Dinner Plain. He agreed, slapped me on the back and gave me a push off. 40 k from home, 3.30pm in the afternoon and 10k until the next aid station. Alone.

I stomped the big ring into the aid station and covered the 10k in a little under 30 minutes. Up hills and down dales I smashed it. The aid station saw me coming and jumped to it. I will write more about them later but they are awesome. My Camelbak was taken and filled, electrolyte filled in the bottle and food was shoved at me from every direction. The Bicycle Superstore guy grabbed the bike, had it cleaned and lubed and in a good gear to set off in minutes flat and I was away again. Supportive words, a few jokes and a lot of best wishes pass the way of every rider on this race but Christ I felt special.

2.5 kilometres of bitumen climbing and the real climb began. Up. 27.5 kilometres. Dirt and stones. Cold. That was all that I could think of and I very nearly cracked. I did what I thought was my last option to get myself over this hurdle and called my wife. Her words, “You’ve done harder days at work than this doing things you hate and you survived. You love riding your bike. Get on with it. You can do it.” So I did. I chewed the bars, I swore at myself and I cried a few tears until finally nearly 3 hours later I approached the top. I saw a house and then another and then a gravel path. I could see a person on a bike at the end of the path and it turned out to be Meg. She and Spencer and Pete had all come down to see me over the line. What followed was a blur. Over the line and off to the accommodation for a shower. I only really clocked what was going on when i got to the pub and ordered my steak and tasted the first sip of beer. I finished the stage. How I still don’t know but I can tell you it has carried me through all the other stages so far. No matter how hard they are.

The Giant awakes.....

2010-03-16T19:57:00.001+10:00

I received my new Giant XTC 1 29er today. I have decided to ride it stock standard apart from changing the tires to 2.1 Maxxis Crossmark as the 1.9 Kenda Karma's I feel would be a bit light on for the rocky loose stuff we will encounter in Victoria. Apart from that, the bike feels great!

I won't bore you with all the specs but suffice to say a mix of Shimano SLX and XT make up the running gear with Avid Juicy 3 brakes and a selection of Giant branded bits to top it off. It weighs in at around 11.8kg with pedals so it is no light weight but it is still respectable.

I've set the bars and seat height and basically the bike feels pretty close to the Fisher. I have heard good things about the tapered steerer tube and the 15mm through axle (non bike nerds will have glazed over well and truly by now!) and when I get the thing on the dirt we'll see for real. All in all, we're both ready to race.

Massive thanks to Giant, I can't thank them enough. Massive thanks to Jarron and Mark at Cyc'd for Bikes for the race strip and other suppoort along the way and of course to Spencer for building it up and making it run smooth.

Check out the photos and stay tuned for the ride reports to come.

Lessons Learnt - Part Two.

2010-03-14T11:02:00.000+10:00

My training is officially over. I am now in the taper week which at this stage seems kind of a joke seeing as how the past week has been spent trying to shake an ear infection and not punching out K's as it should have been. I thought now would be a good time to drop some of the hard fought wisdom I have accumulated along the way. Hopefully you can read this and get something out of it and maybe take on a challenge yourself or even just get a laugh out of my experiences.
Lesson One: Get a training plan and stick to it.
There is so much information out there regarding the best ways to train and ways to maximise your time and efforts that there is NO excuse for not having a plan. I haven't spoken about my training plan much as I find it pretty boring to write about so I can't imagine you as a reader would get heaps out of it either. The trick is to plan your training around your life rather than your life around your training. It will ease the stress of balancing family commitments, work commitments and social life and allow you to ENJOY your training.
Lesson Two: Sort your logistics early.
This the one area I have felt totally happy with in my preparation for the Terra. The fact is that if you get this right you alleviate a whole level of fuss further down the road. Even though my plans have changed several times along the way I have had a clear idea of where I needed to be along the way. I did the research on weather, facilities and transport options early and as options became available I could adjust to them and make the most of them. This same advice goes for any race or event. If you plan well and early when things go pear shaped, and they will go pear shaped at some stage, you can adjust and cope with it with a minimum of fuss. Nothing in life ever goes perfectly to plan so why not have a couple of aces up your sleeve for when the chips are down.
Lesson Three: Set realistic goals.
I have always believed I can finish the Terra. While this may seem like a lofty goal that was kind of the whole point. You need to set yourself some challenges in order to feel that it is no walk in the park, and that it is worth doing. Just don't set the bar so high that you can't see it any more! Apply this theory to your training as well. Call it built in redundancy if you like. You WILL miss some sessions, you WILL have bad days, there WILL be speedbumps along the way. Life is like that! Challenge yourself but just don't set yourself up for failure from the outset.
My best example of this? I wanted to lose a few kilos and seriously cut back on the amount of alcohol I was drinking. This was all focused towards my health both physically and mentally. I want to get off my medication. I have succeeded in 2 of the 3 goals in losing weight, cutting back the alcohol consumption and the third goal is on course for after the race. Whats this got to do with racing? Everything. What is competing if not the setting of goals with the aim of reaching them to make us feel proud of ourselves and our efforts. Whether its to win or to just have fun, set that goal, go for it and feel proud of your efforts in doing so.
I think I have preached at you enough today. It is Sunday after all. I have just one parting thought. Courage is knowing that you will be testing your limits and that you may fail and being willing to do both in making an attempt for your goal.
Just try......

Medical update.

2010-03-08T20:10:00.000+10:00

Well at least I know why I have had a little trouble with my energy levels and heart rate jumping. The pain in my left ear turned out to be an infection! The doctor said it looked like someone has been stuffing cherry tomatoes down my eustacian canal. Oh well, into the antibioatics and hopefully it will clear up quickly and let me get back to training. I only have one week left before my week of taper and basically no riding.
Spencer and I will hopefully get a couple of good rides in over the weekend. The final tune up so to speak. There may be a new bike to add into the mix as well and give me that new bike buzz. Stay tuned for the final training logs and reports before the race.

A day in pictures.

2010-03-07T19:32:00.000+10:00

Spencer arrives for the ride. Finally.

We did a repeat of last weeks ride today. The weather has not been kind of late and so we stayed off the single track and headed out on the management roads instead.

Robbo got a basting last week for not bringing out his new bike. This week he brought it out and got it dirty

Scrub Creek causeway. It was looking awesome. I haven't seen this much water in the creek for ages. You could hear water flowing down the gullies on most of the ride today.

And now we go up. This is the start of the climb up Scrub Road from the bottom. The ground was soaked with spots of clay that grabbed the wheel and made going hard for quite a while.

Centre Road. It is a pinchy little climb with no breaks once you cross this causeway. There were trees across the creek and the water was flowing here stronger than anywhere else we had been. I struggled all day but the climb out of here was a real heart breaker for me. Good mental training though as a cup of concrete was consumed at the bottom and the teeth were gritted and many swear words passed the lips to goad and harangue myself to the top.

Bellbird Grove. A little rest before the final assault out to the road and the fast bitumen descent to Ironbark Gully. The bike is a Giant XTC 1 29er the same as the one Giant have very kindly provided to us for the race. I can't wait to get my grubby little fingers on one to put some K's in on it. It was also the official unveiling of the Velo Club Moulin strip today and I hope I did it proud. Onya Mark!

Dirty Sunday

2010-03-02T16:07:00.000+10:00

After a number of aborted attempts to get out on the dirt with Spencer we finally managed to do it on Sunday. The ride promised to be a good effort with the climb up Camp Mountain followed by Mount Nebo via Scrub Road and South Boundary Road. To mix up the return we thought we would take on Centre Road and Bellbird Grove. The day was perfect with a bit of cloud to cool things down and only a little mud around in a few places despite the constant rain of the week before.
Spencer and I were joined by Robbo for our little trek and after some very brief intros we were off. There wasn't a whole lot of conversation as we made our way to the base of South McLean Road for the bitumen climb up to the start of the dirt and the long way up Camp Mount. We were all kind of happy to just punt along and warm up before the climbing started in earnest. If I thought it was quiet on the way out there it was positively deathly silent as all three of us hit the 18% grade climb that meets you as soon as you turn onto South McLean. My heart rate did its usual slow start and my body was complaining bitterly. I am growing to dislike the first 10k's of most rides as I get older. It just seems to take an age to warm up and get a groove going where my heart rate, respiration rate and effort gel together and make the riding feel "strong" rather than "surviving". Of course the fact that the Camp Mountain climb is within the first 10k of the route meant I felt it even more.
Once at the top though everything seems a little easier. I had warmed up and used the little push along the tar to Scrub Road as a relaxing spin to loosen the legs back up. By the time I was at Scrub Road I was ready for a rip down to the causeway and the steep climb out. That descent is a favourite of mine. It isn't technical or twisty but man is it fast. I love the vegetation and the smell of the rainforest. All three of us were still very close at the end of the descent and remained that way as we climbed out to the intersection of South Boundary Road. At the shelter it was time for a quick drink and really no more. Robbo was keen and so was Spencer to keep pushing on to the top for a quick coffee. I felt really strong up this bit of the ride. Everything had clicked into place and my legs were spinning over effortlessly. The grade reduces and becomes more consistant from the shelter and it suited how I felt. Spencer and I chatted about the race to come and how we might approach the different days, what changes he might make to the Giant and what food and preparation we needed to finalise before we left. Robbo slipped back a little but was never out of eye contact. There was a very easy and understanding vibe and it felt like it was cool for us to just pick our pace and ride at it. We always regrouped at intersections but I think there was only 1 or 2 times we stopped to wait for anyone. It was a well matched group.
Eventually the cafe was in front of us! A great cup of coffee and a little dry out from the drizzle and sweat had us all ready to rock. If only we hadn't had mechanicals a plenty. A flat tyre for Spencer and constant drivetrain issues for me saw the time fall by. I had visitors coming at 12:30 for lunch and it was looking shaky for a while. Finally that was all sorted and I decided that I would try for the rookie mistake prize for 2010. I had no food along the way and only 2 gels with the cup of coffee. You could hear the crack from space as my heart broke and the bonk nailed me. As I headed up Bellbird Grove I was smashed. I had to stop and eat a muesli bar as Robbo and Spencer flew away from me. I opened another bar and ate it as I finished the climb out to meet the guys waiting for me at the turnoff to South McLean. I know it was bad because as I finished the first bar and it hit my stomach I instantly felt better. By the time I reached South McLean Road I felt like I actually might make it home without calling for a medi lift! Woah. Dumb.
I got back home. I cooked a huge feed on the BBQ and ate lots! After a few beers and a couple of steaks I felt much better. I was already planning with Spencer for the weekend to come and what massive ride we can fit in. Now I am really excited about racing in the Terra. My training is working and while I know I could have done more I think I can survive it. If I am smart with my recovery and race plan then it could even be fun. Who knows.

Reality check.

2010-02-26T20:27:00.000+10:00

I went out with Nick again this morning. It was an unremarkable ride apart from the cracking pace he set and how smashed I was about 15k's in. After a very ordinary effort on Wednesday the morning held some promise as I was feeling pretty good as we headed out along the Jinker Track and down Eaton's Crossing Road. Lilley Road was the crux though. A few small hills and I was breathing hard and coming up short in the leg department.
I shouldn't be too hard on myself though. We were holding a 30k per hour average for the first 27k's of the ride and that included a couple of decent hills along Winn Road. As my self esteem started to climb above room temperature Nick hosed it down by telling me he did a slaughter fest of hills on Tuesday and averaged 31.5k per hour! Phew! Back to the cellar, self esteem.

I have been very happy with my heart rate and recovery rates lately. My heart rate sits around 150-160 beats per minute during normal efforts and goes up to around 170-175 when I hit the hills or have a little dig for some speed. There is also the comfort I feel on the bike now during long rides. Probably a good thing seeing as how the days will be long on the bike in three weeks time. I will up the amount of time on the dirt for the next few weeks with some more relaxed road rides during the week. I aim to do a 5 hour mountain bike ride over the weekend to get dialed for the race.
Mentally I feel great. I have got a good balance going on in my head and heaps of people around me asking to train with me, offering advice and most of all supporting me. There has been an amazing amount of interest in this event and I have been really surprised at the number of questions I have fielded about it. If only the fund raising reflected that. I still have a little time though so the goal might get closer yet.
The excitement is growing. It makes the training feel worthwhile and the motivation is definitely easy to come by. Well, more K's this weekend, more hills and more smiles. Ride on.

A video tells a thousand words...

2010-02-23T19:15:00.000+10:00

What I did for charity! from Graham Menzies on Vimeo.

Pain is temporary, and so is waxing....

2010-02-21T19:38:00.000+10:00

Today I delivered on my promise to have my legs waxed for charity. It started out with a ride at Bunya for a couple of hours and then culminated in a festival of pain as my so called friends tore strips off me, literally. About 4 weeks ago when I set the target of $1000 I thought it would be a tough ask to reach. I thought my hairy legs were safe. How wrong could I be.
The event has raised well over the $1000 for Working Wonders and has reinforced the knowledge that I will have a number of keen supporters as I traipse across the country side. Quite humbling.
I promise that in the next few days I will post some photos and a much longer description of the whole disaster. Right now, I need a beer, a sit down and a little sob quietly in the corner as I lament 40 years of old growth leg forest having been clear felled and laid waste.
Fair well old friend.

There must be a purpose to this.....

2010-02-16T11:03:00.000+10:00

It's funny how if you just open up a little to people you are rarely disappointed by the level of personal experience and honesty that an individual will share with you. This revelation has come about over the last two years of my battle with depression and anxiety. As I have spoken about it, shared my experiences and thoughts I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who speak of their own battles and low times. Often the causes and symptoms are similar but always it's the love of family and the strength and understanding of friends that pulls them through.
There also seems to be that one thing in life that is the outlet, the action that helps maintain the equilibrium. Mine is obviously cycling as it is with many of my friends. I started to analyse what it was that made me feel so good about cycling and in the end decided it was a pointless waste of time I could be using to go ride! I stopped questioning it and started doing it. Thats what counts.
Recently a buddy of mine was telling me he was suffering a little from lack of sleep and the problems associated with that. You know, no energy, no motivation and no sense of humour. He complained of not feeling like riding and that how it was so difficult to get out of bed some mornings he simply didn't bother. As we talked more and he told me more it seemed the light came on in his head. He loves riding, maybe he needs that more than the sleep he misses to get up early and go ride his bike. I just listened. He knew the answer was there but just couldn't see the forest for the trees. When we talk to someone about things though the path often opens up before us.
As I read back over this post I see it's rambling on a little. It comes from the fact that my race and fundraising goals are approaching rapidly and after that a large part of why I write this blog will have been and gone. I love writing my blog and I can see by some of the responses that there are a few people out there who read it and enjoy it too. I've decided to keep writing it and talking about my adventures both on and off a bike, keep sharing my experiences about depression and most of all keep the connection with the people who have read and taken something away from my ramblings. Who knows, maybe along the way I might even learn to type fast!
Peace out.

Waddaya know! Training works....

2010-02-13T20:10:00.000+10:00

Another 80 K's today on the road bike including some really nice roads out the back of Dayboro. It was great to catch up with Gary as well after my aborted attempt to do the Springbrook ride last weekend. We took in Kobble Creek Road, Armstrong Road and then continued up Mt Mee. We didn't make it all the way up as a fairly major mechanical had Annick sidelined and having to go to just 2 gears. Unfortuneately neither gear was low enough to make the climb up the rest of the way bearable so we turned around and headed home. Even with the broken deraileur we made a very respectable average of 27K per hour. It barely slowed Annick down and she even did the climb back over the Samford Range to finish up!
The upshot of today for me was how I felt following yesterdays ride. It took a while for my body to get used to the idea of riding again today but when it did I felt great. Of course I still hurt in a few places and some of the steep climbs were murder on my legs, but that is expected when the gradient hits 18% and you've ridden about 250k's in the week. All good though. With Nick along again today I didn't feel I held him up. I know he took it easy up Mt Mee but I still had plenty left too. Not that we were racing but you do just know when you are evenly matched on a ride. Maybe evenly matched is not the right way of putting it. It's more that your goals for the ride are the same.
Tomorrow is a ride with Spencer up Camp Mountain and Mt Nebo. I have been looking forward to this for a while as our schedules haven't matched up to fit in a ride for ages. I expect it will hurt quite a bit. Camp Mt is a real heartbreaker and it really only improves marginally up Scrub Road and South Boundary Road. These rides are the guts of my training though. No point training only when you do feel like it because in just a few short weeks it will be a tough ride every day for 7 days. You learn a lot more about yourself when you are tired then when you are fresh. Your mind will tell you it hurts too much, legs will ache and you will want to pack it all in. Thats when you listen to your inner voice and monitor that pain in the legs to make sure you aren't straining something but once you are sure it's not, put it aside. It won't stop you pedalling and you can move through it. Turn the pedals, bike goes forward. Nothing simpler.

Big rides and big news.

2010-02-12T16:21:00.000+10:00

This morning I rode what has become a bit of a regular Friday loop. I was joined by the "usual suspects" for about a 55k rip around Winn Road and Bunya Road. I say "about" because this morning I got to ride a different bike from my Klein and didn't get time last night to fit my Garmin to it. Some may think this is my big news, a new bike! Well it was exciting and really fast but that is not it. At the end of the ride Nick (he who usually rips my legs off and beats me with the soggy stump) admitted that today even he had to work a bit to keep up with me, even though along Bunya Road he spat me out the back and left me gasping for air. Now thats pretty big news. Still not big enough though.
So what could possibly be bigger than the new road bike or keeping up with Nick? Well Spencer has absolutely pulled the goods for our team. Giant Australia has offered us the use of not only their brand new van to drive down to Victoria for the race but the use of two bikes to compete on! Unreal.
This all came about when the reps for Giant in Queensland showed up at Cyc'd for Bikes where Spencer works displaying the brand new van to the boys in the shop. They very kindly offered that if the shop needed to borrow the van that it would be cool to do so. Spencer added half tongue in cheek, "Well actually we are driving to Victoria for this race. Don't suppose we could use it for that?" After quizzing him on the details they agreed it would be fine to do so and that if we were down there driving around in a Giant branded van we better be on Giant bikes! Cool!
This awesome news comes at the end of a week where we had decided to drive to Victoria due to the expense and logistics issues. We were either going to be in a Nissan ute or a Renault Clio. Hard work to transport bikes and gear. So nows the bit where I say a MASSIVE thank you to Matt and Brent from Giant and a HUGE well done to Spencer. That act of generosity has certainly made the whole process of getting to the race and doing well immeasurably more simple.
The only remaining question is, well, can I now say I am a sponsored rider? Just kidding. In my mind I am though........

Guilty Pleasures.

2010-02-08T17:55:00.000+10:00

This morning I managed a very sneaky, very guilty ride. It has been bucketing down here since Saturday with some local flooding and the road ride looked doomed. Fortunately Nick had a great idea. We took out the single speeds and did a little mud larking around Bunya. Before the trail fairies jump on me, I must say we stayed off the trails that suffer in the wet and rode lots of fire trails to avoid damaging the good work done in there. The trails were in awesome condition with very little mud around and plenty of running water in the creeks. It was a bit like riding under water though with the humidity one step short of tropical thunderstorm.

The loop took in all the highlights with my favorite this morning being Carnage. It always drains really well and the extra traction of that slightly damp, tacky dirt allowing an extra bit of lean, that extra bit of pace. It goes from fun to magic pretty swiftly. You know you've had fun on a ride when you feel the dirt in your teeth and can see the little spots of mud on your nose. I was soaked to the bone at the end and grinning like an idiot as I peeled the jersey off over my head and wrung the water out of my helmet pads. Today I am glad I own a ute.

So its home for a hot shower and a cup of tea. Nice way to start the day really.

Resting and recuperating.

2010-02-07T16:17:00.000+10:00

The weekend hasn't gone to plan. I think the combination of lots of work and some pretty big days finally caught up to me and during the end of last week I was feeling pretty ordinary. My legs felt like lead, I had no energy and for the first time in ages I really did not feel like riding a bike at all. When I did manage to ride it was under duress and made me feel even worse when I has finished. Usually I have a feeling of goodness and light after a good ride but on Friday I just felt wasted.
Steve and Nick were my nursemaids on a 50k run in pretty flat country. I didn't t take any turns out front, waddled up every hill and really just huffed and puffed a lot to no great avail. The boys set a pretty quick pace to start off with at around 32k's per hour. While I was able to sit at the back and be dragged along there was no way I could get out front and take my turn. Luckily Steve and Nick are cool about that and had seen me almost faint at the start of the ride after just riding over from home. It's about 3 K's. Basically they encouraged and gently prodded until I said I would ride further and then made sure I never got too far off the back.
So what was this mystery ailment? Who knows. I just felt ordinary. After a couple of days of loping around I decided that it was time to sort it out. My doctor said maybe I needed to take it easy. Why? I had been pretty quiet at work and not had too much going on. I guess apart from planning and executing my sons 7th birthday, that week in Melbourne of 16 hour days, celebrating my birthday, seeing the kids off to school, celebrating my wifes birthday and managing to ride a few hundred kilometers I had been taking it easy! Wow, maybe I did need a rest.
First cab off the rank was to let Gary know that my 160k ride with him on Saturday was a no go. Probably one of the smartest things I have done in a while. Second was to just sleep in. I woke up yesterday at 7:30am, took the kids to swimming with Alison, and then came home for nap. 9:30 am and I was taking a nap! I read a book, pottered downstairs with the bikes and generally lay around and did very little. This morning was supposed to be the day for the charity leg waxing but I think even mother nature knew I was buggered. It was pouring when I woke up. After posting up on MTB Dirt that I was postponing the event I went down to the park in case anyone showed up without reading the forum first. I saw Mike and Nick down there and proceeded to stand around in the rain and chat for an hour. Nick was out for a spin while Mike had just come down to shoot the breeze. Very pleasant thank you gentlemen!
So what have I learnt from this? Listen to your body? Yep. Listen when your friends and family say you look a little tired? Yep. In order to train you have to be fit enough and well enough to train? Hell yeah. Do a recovery ride, take a day off. It won't hurt you.

Train harder , Monkey!

2010-02-02T19:15:00.000+10:00

Another great week of riding has passed. I managed a respectable 240 odd K's between the road and mountain bike with lots of hills and a few coffees too. I even managed a fresh brewed coffee at Daisy Hill on the picnic ground tables thanks to Nick, Annick and Eric. There was even biscotti!
This weekend holds the promise of a 160km slog to Springbrook on the Gold Coast hinterland that includes a long sustained climb of around 7% added to one lane bridges and rainforest humidity. It is now time to test myself out a bit and see whether the training has had any effect on my fitness and start to gauge how I will fare on the long days of climbing to come. I will have Nick to push me along and Gary for company and general smiley demeanor. While I am looking forward to the ride I totally expect to suffer during the later stages of the ride and to have shot legs the next day. My plan is to head out the next day for a cruise to see just how pounded I am following the big ride the day before. There is also the little matter of the leg waxing......
Yep, thats right. I am having my legs waxed. I put out the call to my comrades on MTBDirt.com to raise $1000 in order to see me wax my rather hirsuit legs. If you don't know me, my legs resemble 2 pipe cleaners wrapped in mohair rugs. Pretty darn hairy. The buggers managed to raise the money and now I am all prepped up to have the dastardly deed done on Sunday morning. I hope someone has the good sense to inform the local community that the screams of anguish are not some poor animal being tortured but merely the necessary evil to raise some money for my favourite charity. I apologise now for the expletives that may or may not escape my otherwise chaste mouth during the event. Crikey.
So stay tuned. The next few entries promise to be entertaining to say the least. Is anyone in the market for a mohair rug?

More k's, more hills.

2010-01-26T11:06:00.000+10:00

I've done a couple of cracker rides in the last few days. In fact it was the same ride twice. On Sunday Leanne, Steve, Paul, Annick and myself set off for a trip around Old Mount Samson Road and Cedar Creek Road. An early start was the order of the day and we were off by 5.30am to avoid the heat.
I felt really relaxed and well seated on the bike and it showed when we hit the first of the hills for the day. It wasn't that I showed blistering pace or over powering strength but I felt great at the top of each hill and my heart rate was recovering almost instantly. Old Mount Samson Road has become a bit of a favourite for my training loops. It holds a couple of nasty little pinches and some sustained climbs of around 8%. Depending on the direction you ride it you can reach as high as 17% for a short climb around a corner. That really nails you!
Cedar Creek is a whole different proposition. It is a rolling stroll through farms at the start and then into heavily treed gullies and the sound of the creek tumbling over the rocks. I love to pull up at the end of the road and just sit for a moment and take in the peace. Again the gradient doesn't get much over 8% and while a couple of the climbs are sustained they allow you to get into a nice rythm. Of course there is always the descent down the other side to look forward to as a pay off for your hard work.
As with any good ride there has to be that one heartbreaker that makes the headlines of all the war stories. On this ride it is Bunya Road heading home. It starts with a gentle climb over a little spur and then a fast descent into a creek with a one lane bridge. From there it goes up. You climb for what feels like an age and although the gradient stays pretty low for the first couple of rises you are soon faced with the run from Allen Road. There are three pretty steep, long climbs to test the legs after what has already been about 60k's of riding. I put a brave face on for Sunday and gunned it up the hills. Today though it was much more sedate. I felt fine at the end of the climb but really couldn't be bothered with attacking this climb for the second time in three days. I enjoyed it though while chatting to Leanne along the way and before you know it I was at the top. Cool.
While neither of the rides was remarkable they were both very enjoyable. Good company, a great course and the fact that my worst day on a bike is still better than my best day at work made it special. Maybe it's a measure of how lucky I am to ride with the people I ride with and in the places I ride. I think it is.

Every day you wake up is a good day.

2010-01-24T13:50:00.000+10:00

I was lucky enough during last week to hear Geoff Kennet speak at a conference I was working on. Most people will know him as the former Victorian Premier and as a politician who in his own words "Upset quite a lot of people" while in office. You may not however know that he is also the chairman of Beyond Blue, the initiative set up to assist people battling depressive illnesses. I'd like to just briefly share a couple of the thoughts that really hit home from his speech.
Spare five minutes to listen. It may seem like a chore at the time, you're busy, involved in some task or just wanting some peace and quiet. It may also be the most important five minutes in THAT persons life. The simple act of listening may be all the reassurance that someone in the world cares, and to allay the feeling of loneliness or hopelessness. Five minutes well spent.
Be thankful for every day you wake up. No matter what else happens, if you wake up you have one more day to DO something. It could be mowing the lawn, it could be reading a book, it could be saving the world. That part is your choice. No day you spend on Earth is a wasted day.
So these are pretty simple statements. I figure if someone who has achieved as much as Geoff Kennet can find value in them, so can I. try them and let me know how you go.

So why didn't I train today......

2010-01-16T20:09:00.001+10:00

A picture tells a thousand words.

I have burnt the bottom of my feet pushing a broken down car out of a busy intersection. Hell yeah it hurts....

Reflections of life.

2010-01-14T21:47:00.001+10:00

Tomorrow is a big day in our house. Jack turns 7! So at a time when I am personally reflecting on my children and how happy they make me I thought I would share some of the stories and images we've collected as a family along the way. You may have read some of the story of Jack's illness and treatment but these are the funny, happy stories that Jack and his little brother Rohan have brought into our lives.

Jack has always been a fussy eater. The one exception to this came when he was about 10 months old. I got this panicked phone call from my wife after work. It was lucky that I was at the bottom of our street as I answered the phone and so ran up our driveway in record time to be faced with my distraught wife looking down at my son on the floor. She wasn't kneeling down, she hadn't picked him up, it seemed strange. And the cat was there. It turned out the cat had caught a mouse and brought it into the house and dropped it front of Jack. He did what any good 10 month old should and picked it up to have a chew on the dead mouse. Gross. The cat, Slightly, was sitting there looking up at me as if to say "Hey, this kids all right." I cleaned him up, called the doctor to make sure there were no nasty diseases floating around transmitted by mice and generally calmed my wife down for the next few hours. He still doesn't believe me that he did it....

Quite a few people said they thought Alison and I may not want any more kids after the trial by fire of Jacks first year of life. It was quite the opposite really. We started to talk about another child and how we thought that around the middle of the following year would be good timing to introduce number 2 into the world. Rohan decided that was way too long to wait and proceeded to write his own schedule for when his birthday should be. Not much has changed in terms of Rohan and his impatience. At just 2 he decided that his mum was taking far to long to take him downstairs to play and so he managed to open the gate on the back deck (which was locked) and ride his little foot bike down the back stairs. He barely cried. He just got up, dusted himself off and let his mum take him to the doctor for his first stitches. I was so proud.

Nowadays Jack and Rohan are either best mates or worst enemies. They can play for hours on some awesome adventure that could involve dragons and pirates or high tech robots with flying skate boards and laser eyes. The next moment I am pulling them apart and sending them to opposite ends of the house to prevent world war three. The dichotomy will pull your head off. As a family though we all love spending time together with family favourites being camping and hanging out in the outdoors. I love it when we see them discovering bugs and lizards in the trees or pretending to make their own camp site near ours. A couple of highlights have been the bike races we have traveled to and they have the added bonus of new kids to play with and being my support crew. There is nothing like the excitement your children show when exploring a new place. Pure joy.

So now I am 7 years into this journey of parenthood. Would I change a thing even with all the ups and downs and stress? No way. I am so proud of my kids and the little humans they are becoming. This is the best adventure I have ever been on and I am just loving it. I also have the best companions I could hope for to share it with. My wonderful family.

Tuesday

2010-01-12T18:25:00.000+10:00

It is quite amazing the difference a positive mental outlook can have on an otherwise dull week. I have tried to lower the pressure on myself and enjoy life as a way of bringing back into focus how lucky I am to be alive. I'm fit (relatively!), strong and healthy. I have a loving and understanding wife, two amazing kids and some pretty darn cool friends. After that pretty much anything else is a bonus.

I am looking forward to a good ride in the morning and hoping to clock up 60k with a good few hills thrown in. The weekend holds the promise of a good mountain bike ride up Mount Nebo and another effort on Mount Mee on the roadie. I relish the thought. That with another ride on Friday morning should see me knock out close to 300km for the week. I know there is much more effort to come but I feel good about fitting in this much riding around work and family commitments.
My only area of concern is my fundraising effort. It is a little slow. There is still heaps of time and I know there will be more donations to come but I really want to meet my goal of $10,000. I have even agreed to have my legs waxed by some mountain bike mates provided they raise $1000 for me. Guess what, they did it. My legs will be bare for the first time in 15 years. Anyone want to buy a mohair rug made of leg hair?

The weekend wash up.

2010-01-11T18:22:00.000+10:00

Well it's been a huge weekend in Camp Menzies. It all started out well with a twilight ride to Tinchi Tamba wetlands on Friday night after work. Leanne, Steve and Becca joined me for 60 odd K's at a reasonable 24K per hour average in the cool of the evening. The journey home was punctuated by the suicidal runs of many a toad and the clouds of mosquitoes as we followed the creek back to town.

On Saturday I was planning on meeting up with Spence for a climb up Camp Mountain but due to some fuss with work I had to miss out. Instead some quality time with Rohan was planned and we decided that a fishing trip would be good training for Daddy. Training for what I am not quite sure... Rohan recently turned 5. He used to be quite strong willed and insistent but now he is just bull headed! He wanted to do everything himself including baiting the razor sharp hooks and casting his own line out. Fortunately we had some very understanding people fishing next to us as there was the occasional misdirected cast that often ended up tangling across their lines and creating a knot a Mexican macramé expert would be proud of! But we did catch a fish.

Sunday was a day in the hills for me with Steve and Leanne showing me another of their awesome training loops. We were also joined by Paul who is a very strong rider and a nice bloke even if he is a kiwi! It started with a run down Winn Road out to Mount Samson Road and then up Kobble Creek Road to sneak in the back way to Dayboro. The Kobble Creek run is really picturesque with farm land interspersed with bushland saved by the Land for Wildlife fund. You cross Kobble Creek itself a couple of times and the beautiful little swimming holes where pretty inviting after 30 odd K's in the already building heat.

Dayboro is the last flat road you will see for a while as the bottom of Mt Mee signals 6.5km of climbing. The gradient is a reasonable 6% for most of the way and I really found a zone and powered up the hill. The views as you climb are spectacular. Unlike if you're driving up the hill you actually get a chance to see the vistas and appreciate them. There is a small hiccup in this expression of all that is wonder and light in the cycling world and it is called Townsend Road. Holy crap! It's about 300m of 20% gradient climbing. You just have to pull up on the bars and push down on the pedals as hard as you can and hope your legs can cope. Quite the challenge....

After Townsend Road the climbing is pretty much over though. I was really enjoying the zip down Mount Mee and the cruise back along Mount Samson Road. The last time I had done this road I was dropped like a hot potato by the group and left gasping for air. This time I got to help out the front a little and drop the pace to let everyone hold on when needed. I felt strong. It really is amazing what a good mental outlook can do for a ride. I even cranked out a lazy forty K today just because I felt I could.

Not bad for an old bloke...

The comeback.

2010-01-07T13:49:00.000+10:00

I finally feel like I have shaken the virus that nailed me just before Christmas. I managed to get up and go for two short rides in two days and I feel pumped about cranking a couple of big ones over the weekend. While the rides were only 30k's each it loosened up the legs and lungs and now the body is saying "Oh yeah, thats right. I quite enjoy this bike stuff!"
Hopefully now my state of mind will obey the rules and get with the programme too. I guess everyone feels a bit low when they are sick though. I suppose I am just really aware of when I feel a bit flat or unmotivated. I have had some awesome chats to different people over the last week all expressing that maybe I am being a little hard on myself and that I should reevaluate my goals for life in general. I reckon they are right. My qattempt at the Terra is supposed to be exciting and challenging and most of all fun. It may be fun in that "Oh my goodness I can't sit down coz my butt has turned into part of my bike saddle and if I sit I may never get back up again!" kind of fun, but it should still be fun. I'm not a pro cyclist, I don't do this to support my family and pretty much anyone who knows me will know that I will give it the best shake I can possibly manage.
I am a little bummed about the fund raising thing as I don't think I will meet my goal. It was pretty lofty to begin with but I guess whatever I raise is better than nothing.
On the positive side though a big thanks must go out to all the MTB Dirt lot who have donated or pledged along the way. You all rock. I am not surprised at the generosity from you all in one little bit as I ride with a lot of you regularly and it is the same spirit that sees a spare tube handed to someone in need, or a gel, or even a few words of encouragement along the way.
Time for a cuppa. Peace!

Of secret trails and fever tales.

2010-01-03T20:34:00.000+10:00

The last couple of weeks didn't go as planned. It started well with a couple of decent rides on the Yarra trails and even a bit of asphalt time to stretch the legs. It was pretty hot on a few days getting well over 35 degrees but I still managed to plug away and get some K's in. The fever tales bit? Well I caught a cold that seemed inane enough but soon turned into a throat infection and general phlegm fest. I missed some really cool rides with some really cool people and have only got back on the bike in the last few days. Oh well, enough of the downer stuff.

The highlight of my trip has definitely been the ride with two local guys, Hayden and John, out at a secret spot that not even many locals know about. This place was technical! The loop is only 12 k's and at first we talked about doing two laps for the day and seeing how we went. After two hours and only one lap the decision was made to head back to the cafe and have a coffee. There aren't any massive climbs out there, but everywhere you go the trail is tight and twisty requiring some serious concentration to make sure you track OK and don't bin it on one of the many off camber corners or log rollovers. John was smashing it on his rigid single speed and Hayden was very gracious in waiting for me as I wheezed up to them with apologies for holding them up.

The trails ran through lush forests with an underbrush of ferns. The dirt was that tacky, brown loam you dream about that made railing corners second nature. Bliss. You had better practice your bunny hopping skills though as the number of log rollovers was astounding. That and the number of real bunnies that darted across the trail kept me on my toes even if the trail did have a rare moment of ease. Just like magic as I crested a little climb Hayden and John are stopped mid trail smiling at me. I looked out towards where they were pointing and was rewarded with a view accross vinyards and farming land. It was hard to remember I was in a fairly settled area as I climbed up from the gully we had just dropped into but there it was. Smoke rising from the chimneys and all.

The final run down to the cars followed a fence line and was fast and open. I got that special stoke of making it through the ride even though I was feeling pretty average and being rewarded with the bug in teeth smile of bolting down a new trail and letting it all hang out. And the topper was yet to come!

Coffee at the Cog. What a cool place. Awesome banana muffins, great coffee and bike bling for days. I was in heaven. Hayden, John and I sat there for ages shooting the breeze and talking about bikes. We were joined by a couple of locals at various times and all in all I was reminded of just how relaxed and giving most of the people I have met while mountain biking are. hayden and John took some time out from their day to take a complete stranger out to some sweet trails. I only hope I get the chance to repay the favour if the boys get up here at some stage. Cheers fellas!

2009-12-25T17:54:00.000+10:00

I guess if there is a time to be thankful and a little sentimental it is Christmas. I feel incredibly lucky to have my family around me happy, healthy and vibrant and such good friends to share the journey through life with me. How much more do you need in life?
It's important to me to say this. I thank you all. My family, friends, the people who hardly know me that have supported me and offered encouragement along the way. Thank you all for reading my blog and understanding my words and feelings and for the words of encouragement you all leave here. It makes a difference.
I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season. Peace.

Mount Beauty.

2009-12-19T20:16:00.000+10:00

I have just returned from a 2 day trip to Mt Beauty in Victoria. We planned the trip as part of our Christmas visit to Melbourne as a little getaway to a place neither my wife or I had been. The added bonus of having the adventure kids along made for a potentially riotous time.
We booked a Yurt at the Mount Beauty Holiday Cark in Tawonga South as our accommodation for the 2 days. Whats a yurt you say? Well it is a 6 sided cabin with all of homes comforts. There is a small kitchen, a selection of beds depending on the size of the yurt you book and a FANTASTIC deck out the front. Our yurt overlooked the Kiewa River and the sound of the babbling stream was a constant and soothing companion. That topped with the views of Mt Feathertop and the rest of the ranges set a very relaxed and beautiful background. Pretty darn special. As a small aside I would also like to give the Mount Beauty Holiday Centre a big shout out for the clean and comfortable amenities. I have camped in a lot of places and I can honestly say that MBHC takes the cake. Unreal.
I did plan to ride a few times while I was in Mt Beauty. Unfortunately my youngest son had an earache that made his night pretty bad and I stayed up to comfort him well into the early morning. The morning was spent relaxing and having cuddles with him and taking in the amazing surroundings from the deck. Around the 5th cup of tea I decided that it was time to explore the area. I headed down to the bike shop (incidentally it is located at the front of the MBHC) and purchased a map. 3 bucks. Can't go wrong.
The only other problem for the trip became apparent as I peddled back to the yurt. I had freighted my bike down to avoid the hassle of taking it on the plane. Good plan in theory, not so great in practice. Somewhere along the line the front and rear wheel had been buckled badly and the front disc rotor resembled a taco. There I am in Mt Beauty, no tools and desperate for a ride. I managed to straighten the wheels out enough to pass muster but was then faced with the heartbreak of a toasted rotor. I couldn't for the life of me think how I could straighten it out without a shifter or similar. I rolled the dice and opened the boot of the car. There was a wheel brace, a spanner and a jack. Poo. No shifter. Oh well maybe I could try the wheel brace. Nup. Too big. Wait on, the jack handle looks OK. Yes! It fits in the rotor and allows me to lever the thing back to some sort of straight. Not the perfect, well aligned straight I had achieved on the service I gave the bike before packing it for shipment but still it turned without rubbing and I could ride it without being too embarrassed about the noise it made as I went along. It'll do.
The Big Hill staging area. An innocuous looking spot on the side of the highway to Falls Creek. Once you head in though it opens up to a maze of trails with options from a simple XC loop to an ass clenching descent that had me nearly looping out one minute and flipping over the bars the next. I mistakenly tried to climb a section of the state round XC course that was obviously meant as a descent. My lungs were burning and my legs screamed for mercy. Not only was it loose and technical but steep to boot. I loved it! The view from the top was worth it though.
I had allowed myself 2 hours for the afternoon and that was already quickly approaching. A combination of my lethargy and having to stop every few minutes to read the map had robbed me of precious time on the bike. I pointed it down and pinned it. I think there were a few near death experiences along the way but the adrenaline from the fast swooping single track kept all fear at bay until well after the first Coopers had numbed whatever residual common sense may have existed in my body. I rode a massive 12 K's.
Day 2. More tea, some bacon and pancakes and a couple of nectarines and I was off for an adventure. I had heard of a track that was "easy" that went up to the top of the hill. The track is called the "Survey Track" and it winds for around 6 K's up. The track was built in 1930 as a means of surveying the road that exists now as the Bogong High Plains Road. It is maintained by local volunteers for walkers and mountain bikers to enjoy and enjoy it I did. This is six kilometers of amazing single track climbing. It is not the most technical of trails but at every turn there is an amazing view. You can look at the vista or focus on the minutiae of the flora and fauna. There are beautiful alpine daisies growing along the trail and I spotted the biggest goanna I have ever seen. That sucker must have been 6 feet long.
I reached the top of the survey track and had a muesli bar in celebration. Across to "Cranky Bernie" to link up to the "The Cattle Track" for a small zip down the fire road to hit up the top of the national round XC loop. At the top of the trail I stalled. There was a chute between a tree and a large rock that made me take pause. I was on my own, on unfamiliar trails at a reasonably sketchy drop in. Oh well. Hit it and hope. I rolled it smooth and then railed the rest of the link to the bottom. Here it splits about 200 different ways so I just pointed it down and kept on riding. My time was running out and I found a familiar bit of trail from the day before. I knew this would take me back to the staging area and the road back to Tawonga. My smile was tattooed on. There are much more epic rides I have done, much longer and even more technical but not many in surroundings as beautiful as this.
I want to go back. This time I want to hook up a local guide and wring the best out of the Mount Beauty area. In all I rode for 4 hours and only achieved about 25 kilometers.

Generosity from afar.

2009-12-13T12:49:00.000+10:00

When I first decided to attempt the Terra I approached Finish Line Events to ask permission to use the race as a fund raiser for Working Wonders. The organisers were more than helpful and open to the idea and even put me in touch with a couple from the States who had won an entry into the race for 2010. Due to circumstances not allowing them to make it back for the race they offered to sell the entry to Spencer and I for half price! That made a huge diference to Spencer and I as it has allowed us to spend a little more on the logistics of the race and keep a few comforts along the way.
So firstly thanks to Clayton from Finish Line Events. I'm looking forward to buying you a beer for your help. Secondly thanks to Dean and Jaclynn. Your generosity is very much appreciated by Spence and me. Needless to say, if you're ever in Brisbane there will be an extra shrimp on the barbie, plenty of ice cold beverages and a guide to show you around.
THANK YOU!

Short and Sweat. (Yep that's sweat)

2009-12-06T20:07:00.000+10:00

Wow! It was hot today. I rode Mount Nebo for a total of 50 odd K's and suffered all the way. It reached 32 Celsius by 11am and I still had the whole return trip down the mountain to do. Tough love.
The goals for the weekend have been met. I have done two cranking rides in the heat and survived. I guess the only downer is that those two rides equal about the two shortest days of the Terra. How dismal. Oh well, at least I have a goal and I know I will get stronger as the training progresses.
I think it's time I went and had a cuppa and a lie down......

Perseverance

2009-12-05T17:22:00.000+10:00

I got my long road ride in today. All didn't go as planned admittedly but in the end it was a success. I left a little later than usual with the intension of building up my tolerance to heat as the reports from last years race stated some pretty high temperatures. I took plenty of water and planned the ride to have a stop at the midway point to refill water and maybe grab a snack.Sounded great in theory.
I would never say I felt good this morning as I set out. My sleep was broken and I didn't feel rested when the alarm went off. I ate some breakfast, had my traditional cup of tea and cruised downstairs to put the last of my gear on. Helmet buckled, shoes strapped, gloves on. Go time. I headed over the Samford Range straight up. The base of the climb (its not that big but really sucks first thing in the morning!) is only about 2 k's from home so I don't really get in the groove before I hit it. Even at that early stage I felt dead in the legs and quite unmotivated. By Samford Village I had no form on the bike and was wobbling around like Santa's beer gut! Things looked a bit grim. At 16k's they were more than grim, they were downright terminal. My stomach was cramping so I rolled off the road in a shady spot. I got off the bike. I took off my helmet. I threw up. I felt better. Not much, but better just the same. Rolled oats and orange juice never taste as good the second time around.
I sat there for nearly 20 minutes and contemplated calling my wife to pick me up several times. Then out of the blue I thought, "In March I won't be pulling out just because I feel a bit off. Harden up buttercup." And there it was. It felt like 2 people having an argument inside my head and the guy saying "stop being such a wimp" was beating the snot out of the other one with logic! So I got on and rode a bit more. I made it to Dayboro feeling pretty shattered but none the less pleased I hadn't pulled the pin.
A can of the black doctor, a couple of peaches and a big bottle of water later I was ready to go again and feeling heaps more like riding the 40 odd k's home I had ahead of me. My average speed climbed slowly and I found that nice easy stance on the bike that takes so much less energy than the rolling fat man shuffle that was my morning so far. I even smiled. So, 75 k's all up. Not too bad, not too bad at all.
Link to the ride stats and course http://connect.garmin.com/activities

Time to get serious.

2009-12-04T20:55:00.000+10:00

The last few weeks have been busy at work to say the least. I can only say that my energy reserves have been put to the test just keeping going and as a result my riding has been non existent. Tomorrow that all changes. I am putting together a plan to ensure I get enough K's in my legs as I move toward the Terra Australis in March. I need to ride every day to condition myself to recovering after a long ride and backing it up over the 7 days of racing.
I've missed the training badly. I get moody and grumpy when I don't ride. I think tomorrow a nice 60-80k road ride to ease the legs in should set me on the right path. If I go out to Laceys Creek and back through Strathpine I will get that easy. Its a really pretty place to ride too. Good for the soul. Sunday needs to be a mountain bike ride and I think that Gap Creek and Mount Nebo would provide the ideal setting for that. Up to the top, maybe a quick coffee and then back down to finish with some singletrack and a little fun.

Each day will bring an opportunity to ride. A commute to work, an afternoon spin in the forest or a morning road ride to clock up the K's. I want to keep it fresh and interesting because this type of training can wear you down pretty quick. I know my riding friends will be there to help push me along and the messages from supporters and friends will keep my mind focused on the goal. For now I am just happy to ride this weekend.. It won't be as intense as it will get but for now, it will do.

Dirty philosophy

2009-11-22T20:49:00.000+10:00

Singletrack. The word brings goosebumps to the skin of any mountainbiker. The thin strip of dirt that weaves through trees or rocks with barely space for the handlebars and your shoulders. You can rail it fast or it can be sketchy and scary enough to make you go home and write your will. Near misses, perfect lines and that one moment of bliss as all the elements and the stars line up to give you the feeling of flying. But its just dirt.
Like alchemy though when the parts are added together, logs, rocks, ruts and roots, it is transformed into so much more than the separate parts. You see the vistas flash by and you may meet the local fauna. It turns to gold. Just like alchemy.

Even if it doesn't all fall into place and you bin it on the first corner you still have that moment of wonder. Potential. That strip of dirt holds all the potential to be great, or to make you feel great, or scared, or exhausted. To simply feel.

Slogging through the weeks.

2009-11-21T17:20:00.000+10:00

Each year the company I work for seems to be overrun with work from November to January. It means long days, heaps of overnight shifts and a generally very unhealthy lifestyle. It's hard to get a reasonable meal at 3am so the fast food joints get a hammering as does my digestive tract. By the end of the 3 weeks of madness I feel pretty average. This last couple of days I have had a stomach virus and if thats not bad enough so have the kids.
I still have one more week of the really bad stuff to go but at least that means I am more than half way through it. I'm looking forward to Christmas in Melbourne with family and a side trip to Mount Beauty for a couple of days riding and relaxing. Whoa, I can hardly wait! Watching my kids and their cousins open presents is always a blast too. It resembles that cartoon character the Tassie devil and what happens as he enters a room. A cross between a tornado and a typhoon with a pinch of nuclear explosion thrown in for the carnage factor. Fun.
All this hassle will make the holiday feel even better. I'm looking forward to spending time with Alison and the boys and I haven't been to visit my inlaws in Melbourne for years. I just can't wait.

Just an update, nothing dramatic.

2009-11-10T20:19:00.001+10:00

I finally got to ride on Sunday. Just a short run out to Cedar Creek near Samford. But what a beautiful run it turned out to be. Perfect weather, my MP3 player and my old faithful road bike.

Its only about 46km round trip to Cedar Creek with a few small but steep climbs along the way. You pass over "the range" between Ferny Grove and Samford first up, descend down to Samford and turn onto Dayboro Road for a few K's of relatively flat but quite busy road. Once you manage that you hit Cedar Creek Road itself. Just beautiful. Open farm lands to start with a nice quiet road and a few friendly dogs (yep, they really are friendly!) to see you along. Theres horses and cattle and even a few sheep to break up the monotony until you hit the lush sub tropical forest in the foothills of Mount Nebo and Mount Glorious. You get up to the top of the road before turning around and are rewarded with the sound of running water, huge boulders and masses of birdsong. I sat there for half an hour.

The cool water on my feet was unreal and really refreshed me before I set off for the return trip home. A chocolate muesli bar, a couple of swigs on the water bottle and I was off again. Wow. I pumped it back home. Theres a really nasty little pinch climb back over the range to finish off the ride. Normally I would ease back into a rythm and grin and bear it till I made the top but this time, I nailed it. I sat at a high cadence and flew up past a guy half way up the hill. I still had heaps in the tank. I felt positive and strong, tired but refreshed and basically grounded.

It aint all lemonade and skittles....

2009-11-07T20:08:00.001+10:00

As some of you may know, I have had a bit of a battle with depression for the last couple of years. Well with a build up of work stress, little time to spend with my family and a heap of commitments weighing me down the black dog has reared its ugly head again.
By no means is this the kind of deep seated sadness that slapped me down and made me beg for mercy 18 months ago. It's more the lethargic, couldn't give a rats kind of feeling that makes getting off the couch hard and for me, reduces my tolerance levels to the negatives. I feel guilty for being grumpy, the guilt takes so much energy that I feel tired and the lack of energy stops me feeling as though I can work through it to feel good again. I am pretty lucky though.

With the help of family, good friends and a good psychologist I can see that the feelings are only temporary and I can get through them and regain my balance. I write about the good stuff here. The stuff like the riding, my son getting better and the good times we have as a family because well, thats the stuff I want to talk about. But I don't want anyone to think I don't have bad days. Life isn't all lemonade and skittles. It can get you down and make a day seem like a year but the trick is to grab those skittles when they are there and gobble them up. Take a swig of the lemonade to wash it down. Repeat.

Hills, hills, hills.

2009-10-25T19:50:00.001+10:00

After yesterdays tumultuous hiding at the hands of the roadie set, I returned to more familiar grounds today with a spin through the Brisbane Forest Park on the aptly named "Super V". You really can't complain about a ride that starts in the temperate Eucalypt forest and winds it's way down to a creek cutting through a deep valley full of granite boulders. After you descend for about 10 k's the holiday is over though. It's all up. It's all steep.
At around 30% some of the climbs can chew you up and spit you out. When you add in the loose surface and occasional heads sized boulder it makes for a tough day in the saddle. What you need to do is open your eyes. Look out to your left any time the trees leave a break and you will be rewarded with views to Wivenhoe Dam and the Lockyear Valley. Quite spectacular. Throw in a couple of king parrots, a goanna and even a wallaby or two and the ride couldn't be more Australian or satisfying. Did I mention the good company?
Leanne, Anike and bloody Steve (again) were the ridning parnters for today. Heaps of laughs and conversation to make the ride rock along and keep your mind off the pain of grinding up the hills. Heaps of innappropriate comments to crack you up and totally ruin any rythm or groove you may have developed along the way. (Thanks Steve)
The pay off comes at the end of the ride. A 6.5km climb up through the forest slowly transforms into lush rainforest and cool shaded trails for the last push of 3.5km to the top. Amazingly large trees tower over you and the whole canopy is swathed in vines and staghorns hang from the huge boughs. Gorgeous.
I was a little concerned that the efforts of yesterday may take their toll as I hit the hills in earnest today but was pleasantly surprised. I kept my heart rate low and concentrated on keeping a steady, sustainable rythm. My legs were a little sore but they warmed up. In fact I felt better for the hard push of yesterday and when I reached the first hill I cruised up and had heaps left in the tank. My confidence that I can train myself to a point that I can survive and even thrive in the Terra took a giant step forward. I am refreshed and ready to pound out some big rides and smile all the way. Theres the secret, keep smiling.
Link to the ride stats

They tore my legs off.....

2009-10-24T16:46:00.000+10:00

Well, what more do I need to say? I left home to ride out to samford for the start of the ride at 5.30am this morning. My Garmin wouldn't initialise and so I had to leave it off for the trek out. Having said that when I got home I had 83km on the clock with an average speed of 28km/hour. Thats bloody quick!
I managed to hold on to the group for the journey out to Dayboro where the group split in two with some deciding to take an alternate route. I even managed to hang in there as the group was reaching the turnaround point at the 38km mark. I wasn't last as we got back to Dayboro and I was feeling pretty good. Hmmm, this road riding thing aint so bad. That my friends is where the whole thing came crashing down and I began my descent into the pits of hell.
About 4km out of Dayboro I was losing contact with the group. In road riding terms thats a bad thing. You can get dragged along when you are in a big group and avoid some of the head winds as well as have the moral support of the other riders around you. One of the guys dropped back and helped me regain the group but no sooner had I got back than I started to slide back again. Man these guys were flying! After that its a slow painful death as you watch the peloton cruise out of sight not having the legs to catch them and realise you need to battle the head wind and drag your sorry butt up the hills. Alone.
Oh well. What are you gonna do? I'm not racing for sheep stations, or for a living, I'm not even racing. So I stuck the head phones on and got down to business of making it back to Samford where a strong coffe and a bakery treat would revitalise me for the short climb back to home. The coffee was great as was the chocolate milk and cream donut. After that its just harden up buttercup and get on with it.
When I got home I sat in a garden chair and turned the hose on myself. That is how to end a ride on a hot day! I should mention that thr group this morning was the Samford Velos. A really nice bunch of people. In the group I was in I was probably the youngest person and they still tore me apart. It gives me a good feeling to know that I can keep riding at a really good level for quite a few years yet and iam not the least bit embarrassed about watching them pull off into the distance.......

Pinch of concrete! Aisle 7 please!

2009-10-23T21:08:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow I am going on my first group road ride in 20 years. Yep, thats a long time between drinks. I am really excited about the prospect of a social ride with a big group and all the banter and chatter that goes along with it. I've reserected my 1994 vintage Klien Quantum and been out training on it with a mate. I have been really lucky that Steve, a riding buddy on the mountain bikes, has been very patient with me and coaxed me through the first few tentative steps back onto the road. So now tomorrow I will give it a whirl in the group.
I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the road bike. There are some fantastic back road loops out around my area that take in farmlands and a few hills as well as some really nice quiet roads with some really good hills. I'm not talking the Col du Tormalet here but for a guy who hasn't ridden a road bike in a few years they are serious enough to get the blood up. Going up hills on the roadie is way different to the mountain bike too. I don't have the granny gear to fall back on when it gets vertical and that means my little chicken legs need to man up and actually push a bigger gear to get me over the top. Not a comfortable experience for a mountain biker used to spinning along at high cadence with low resistance. Ah well, time to dry my eyes, add that extra pinch of concrete to the cuppa and get busy.
Stay tuned for tomorrows report on the triumphant return to the road scene by yous truly. Otherwise known as " Oh my goodness my legs are killing me!"