Every Journey Begins with a Cup of Coffee.

Never let two mountain bikers go for a ride and then sit down to a nice cup of coffee. You just never know where it will end up! It all starts innocently enough, a joke about my recent efforts at a 24 hour race, my comment about maybe him hardening up and having a crack at one himself and finally the fateful step past the point of no return. I open my big mouth. “We should do something really hard. I reckon that Terra Australis race would be the go. I know it would be tough but you’ll still be telling your grand kids about it.” Spencer and I have been mates for years. We met via mountain biking. We love riding together. In Spencer’s words, “This is the challenge of a lifetime and I need a challenge.” Not in my wildest dreams did I think he would say yes. Now what?

Well we start training, we start to prepare and we start to beg the forgiveness of our partners and kids. A race like this is a big commitment not only financially but on your family time. If you don’t prepare properly things can go pear shaped before you know what hit you. That’s a scary thought. In the middle of the Victorian Alps somewhere with a serious problem and the possibility of a long wait before assistance you really want to be sure it’s not the first time you’ve considered this outcome. Then there’s trust. I have a family, Spencer has a wife. Is it really responsible for us to undertake an event like this without preparing properly? Our partners have to trust us to be prepared, we have to trust each other to be there throughout the training and the race, we have to trust in our abilities to finish each day and back up for the next day for seven grueling days.

Am I scared? Hell yeah. Is my wife scared? No. She thinks I’m nuts, but she's not scared. I hope that as the preparation progresses that she will see my efforts in the training and planning for this event as an indication of how serious I am to finish this thing. Hopefully she won’t get scared.

Old mates and old trails.

Today was fathers day here. I got to stay in bed late, eat home made pancakes with bacon and maple syrup and drink cups of tea all day. I even got to go for a social relaxed ride around some favourite trails in the afternoon to top off the day. Bliss.
The topper had to be getting the call from my mate Adam as I sat at the start of the ride telling me he was parked next to me and was joining the ride. I haven't ridden with Adam for nearly 2 years. We tried once a few months ago but he crashed and injured his shoulder so we cut the ride short. He puffed and huffed up the hills, looked like he might chuck the cookies at any minute but still laughed and joked at the rest stops. Onya Adam!
Bloody tops ride. Heres hoping for many more.

Get on your bikes people.

Breakfast in the Trees

It seems that the Brisbane Forest Park is my playground. As I climbed out of bed and put my obligatory cup of tea on I was a little concerned that the morning was already warm enough to not need warmers or a vest. That soon fell by the wayside as I hit the road on the way over to meet my friends at the base of Mount Coot-tha.
My course takes me on a 12km warm up ride across a steep climb on the bitumen with a full tilt run down the other side and finishing with a little singletrack in Gap Creek Reserve to the carpark. The gang of intrepid explorers planned to scoot straight up South Boundary Road to the recently re-opened Boombana Cafe for a bite to eat (read an enormous breakfast and 2 lattes in my case!) a nice chat and then a run back down the hill and off home. The day was perfect.
There were 9 of us at the start with a varied skill and fitness range from the whippet like racer boys to the slow and steady "more mature riders" and me probably somewhere right in the middle. I am always amazed at the breadth of conversation that occurs on a ride. We start talking about mountain bikes but soon that dissolves into talk of holidays, books, movies and basically anything else that you feel like chatting about. Needless to say there are some small breaks as a little pinch climb takes all your breath or the next descent thins out the rockets from the more cautious riders but miraculously the little groups reform and the conversation continues seamlessly. I must point out we always regroup along the way, noone gets left behind. We're like the marines, never leave a man behind.
At the top the cafe was run off its feet as 9 hungry mountain bikers descended along with a couple of surprise guests. The coffees flowed, the talk was of seeing our mate Eric up there and on his feet after a horrific incident on the road and the feeling of cameraderie could have powered a small town. Erics crash was an awful shock to a lot of us. He tirelessly organises adventure rides and weekend trips and gives so much of his time to the mountain bike community. Seeing him upright and talking about when he can get back on a bike was awesome.
Well, what goes up must come down. The down bit is actually slightly misleading. While there is definitely more down than up heading back to Gap Creek there are still some tough little climbs to face and man had it got hot! 32 degres, in August! I did suffer a little on the way back but I found my salvation at the Mobil service station half way home. I had run out of water so I stopped, bought some water and Gatorade and scoffed a Chocolate Billabong. Aussies know, that would be heaven. The Choccy Billabong is the king of ice creams. Refreshed? Hell yeah.
The final slog home. Up over the same nasty little bitumen climb, this time on the steep side and then down to home in a flurry of big ring and bravado. The road is really narrow in parts and I don't like riding it at all. In fact I avoid it normally but I really wanted to ride over to the start of this one to rack up some more K's for the day. Some motorists are very stupid though. Wait a second maybe 2 until it is clear and safe to go around. No, lets fly past and see how many coats of paint we can remove on the cyclists jersey as we do it. One lucky motorist learnt that you shouldn't do it at the top of the hill though where the cyclist has a more than fair chance of thumping it down the other side and catching you at the lights. The extra little burst of adrenaline only made for a more imaginative stream of expletives as I pulled in front of the clown and made my displeasure known. He felt me.....
Home and exhausted. I sat on the yard serat, turned the hose on and dowsed myself to cool off. I downed a big drink of water and checked my stats. 70km, average speed of 16.4 km, 1700m of climbing and 3 goannas. Not a bad day for a social ride.

Just when you thought it was safe to visit the blog site......

Oh my poor neglected blog! It's been pretty busy since my last post. Not busy in the fun exciting way but the dull, nagging and dragging way. I hadn't ridden for 6 weeks until last Sunday when I took a day off from my commitments and sat on the bike for a nice 50km spin through the hills.

First the commitments. We have a rental house, the tenants moved out and left it in a mess and ever since I have been there every weekend fixing it up and trying to get it ready for new tenants. So far the tally is 3 dead rats, 7 bags of rubbish from under the house, countless cockroaches and other bugs and LOTS of money to get the place to a livable state. Soul crushing probably describes it best.

So how bad did I need a ride? Until I managed to get out on the bike I was seriously considering upping my medication. My stress levels were through the roof and I had started feeling pretty low again. Along came my mountain bike buddies to snap me out of it. Its funny how suffering up some steep climbs and cracking a few jokes about it makes most things come rushing back into perspective. The day was perfect and the conversation oscillated between the riding and the usual collection of blue references to butts and the coffee and food waiting at the bakery after the ride. I was exhausted when I got home but SO happy. So far this week has been tolerable and with the prospect of another monster ride on Sunday things can only get better. I tell ya, get some exercises people. You won't regret it.

The wash up. (How ironic)

I ticked the box on one of my life goals this past weekend. I competed in a 24 hour mountain bike race as a solo participant. I survived.

My weekend started with a trip out to the race venue on Friday afternoon to set up camp. The rain was falling lightly at this stage and already there was a small amount of water lying around. Rohan had come out to help me and was busily laying out the pegs for my tent and then pulling the poles out for me from the bag. I put him in charge of setting up my bed and he relished the chance to unroll the swag and the sleeping bag. What followed was a very excited 4 year old playing in the tent until I was ready to leave and then a very disappointed 4 year old when he realised we weren't staying there for the night. He recovered when I said we could have McDonalds for dinner. Phew!

The rain fell all night. It was very heavy at times and as I woke in the morning knowing that the course would have got a hiding my race plan was steadily sliding away like the mud and grit that was sure to be present on the course. I headed out to the race venue and my fears were confirmed,. There was water running across the road on the entrance to the camping area and I saw people coming in from practice laps coated in mud. I had ridden at this venue last year in the wet and was painfully aware of how thoroughly awful the course could get with a little rain. My hopes were shattered!

I put my shoes on and grabbbed my helmet to head down to the race briefing. The course was shortened from 16.1km down to 6.5km due to water on the course. One person who came back from checking out the full race course stated that the best swimmer would win this race, not the best riders!

Everyone was lined up at the start with the fast kids at the front and people like me way out the back. It was a funny vibe at the back of the pack. There were a couple of us cracking jokes about how we would feel in a few hours let alone 24 hours and a few new riders looking slightly freaked out at the possibility of doing multiple laps around a wet slippery course. I had an evil chuckle to myself when one guy calmly stated this was his first ever mountain bike race and he had never ridden at night before. Should be good for some entertainment in a few hours, eh? And we were off, more with a whimper than a bang.....

The first lap is always the worst. People are cheering you to go faster and there is no way you should, the traffic is hell and basically everyone is bunched together and you walk more obstacles than you ride. I often wonder if it would be best to wear hiking boots rather than cycling shoes on that first lap. I came around through the transition area and the looks of horror from my mates told me how much mud I had picked up. This was going to be tough on man and machine. I cleaned my bike every second lap just to keep it working. An old fire extinguisher was my saviour as I could clean the bike quickly and then refill it and re pressurise it with my track pump. Gold. Well that was it, lap after lap, until dark.

Riding in the bush at night is one of lifes unexpected pleasures. You focus on just the things you need to and its like putting the world under a microscope. You see every little thing as long as it is in the beam of your lights. The emerald green reflections off the spiders eyes on the ground make it look like you are riding through Aladdins cave! I am always surprised at how many of the little beasts there are on the trails especially on the open fire trails up on the ridge lines. It became very quiet after about 9pm as many riders decided the muck was too hard and had a rest. The piece and serenity were magnificent. My mate Chris came out to offer support at about that time and arrived with a hot coffee and a few words of abuse/encouragement which really bolstered me for the next 3 hours. I managed to pump out laps until 12.30am but the cold and wet conditionds were conspiring against me and I was suffering pretty badly by that stage. I decided to have a rest and get warm for a couple of hours. That sleeping bag was the best thing, ever.

When I woke up I felt pretty awful. I hadn't slept much and I needed to eat badly. To the rescue came Gaz, hot coffee and pancakes in hand. I devoured both the life giving substances with barely a chew and was ready to rock. Clothes went on in a flash, shoes were buckled on and before you could blink I was on the bike and pinging out laps. As I came around on my first lap Marcel arrived to be my morning motivation. In much thesame way as Chris had done the previous night he made sure I ate and got fluids, cleaned the bike down and just generally laughed at me for being such a goose in the first place.

Just a little aside on Marcel and Chris. Both these guys kept saying to me, "We aren't doing enough for you!" I guess sitting for 40 minutes until I come around for a 2 minute stop meant they were feeling relaxed and maybe a bit bored. What they did was all the things I SHOULD do but would have been too tired or unmotivated to do. They took away my excuse to get off the bike and fill a bottle or wash the bike down again, or even stop for too long and get cold which makes it really hard to get going again. That stuff is priceless.

I had to start my last lap before 11:30am. The group of people I was camped with were all geeing me up as I came around at 10:45am on my second last lap. I could get another lap in if I pushed pretty hard. No mean feat after about 18 hours of riding. A friend I ride with came to my rescue. He was about to set off on his last lap after his team had secured the win in the 4 person mixed category. Nick is a top bloke and was happy to trundle around with me at a very leisurely pace cracking jokes and generally taking my mind off the hurt. He got me around to transition and as I passed my camp I threw down an energy gel, dropped off all the bottles and took off for a "hot" lap. I went under 40 minutes, way under. My last lap was 36 minutes according to my timer. Not bad.

So the wash up? I got 23 laps, good enough for 8th place, a shade under 150km in the muck, slop and cold including 6 night laps. I had sore knees, a sore butt and sore wrists. Obviously I was tired as it has taken much longer than I hoped to update this blog. Th real win was still that I raised nearly twice as much money for "Working Wonders" as I had hoped. A big thanks to all those who have donated. Will I do it agian. Oh yes. In fact stay tuned for Octobers hijinx.....