Archive for November 2010
“Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”
We are all more capable than we believe. Mostly because we believe what others say, while at the same time we don’t believe in what we ourselves do.
— MFT
Fatties: inner trails
Posted on: Wednesday November 24, 2010
Good fun to be back out on the old trails. On the way there I worked out that I haven’t ridden with the Fatties group since Jim lived in North Melbourne. And it’s changed. When Neil and I first rolled up to this ride there were good sized A and B groups. They tell me that six isn’t a bad turn-out now.
We saw similarly emaciated fields at the National round on the weekend. A National round, not 30 minutes drive from the city. Ballarat and Bendigo used to see swollen fields XCO fields for State rounds, and when you compare it to the cast of thousands that turn up at 24 hour events it’s enough to provoke some concern over the state of cross country racing. Anyway…
I was DOMS-y and bereft of the skills and knowledge to hang with the quick guys (Neil and Ritch) but it wasn’t a suffer-fest or a death march and I didn’t fear for my spine or skin like I would have had to on this ride once upon a time. Alex took it easy the whole night.
One more thing this week. It’s been a fucked up week for road safety for cycling. Maybe it is every week, but this week I’ve felt it. Marty, a work-mate of mine and Jim’s and a Tour de Afrique veteran, was hit by a car at speed on Monday. A lady racing to catch the tail end of an amber light instead ran the red and put him under the knife for eight straight hours of spinal surgery. Last I heard we’re still waiting for him to be brought out of the induced coma. He has two little girls.
Rolling to work yesterday morning I followed a small group of sub-roadies (fuzzy socks, cheap helmets) down Sommerville Road. They jumped every red and generally rode like unpredictable dicks, carving big arcs into the parking bays and across the bike lane into traffic to avoid man-hole covers. It’s a fun way to ride, but in peak hour it stresses drivers out and makes us look like a bunch of dicks.
On the way to Fatties last night I was almost collected by a car driving the wrong way through the Lloyd St underpass. It’s effectively a single-lane tunnel that terminates in a blind T intersection. On the other side of the tunnel I saw the reason: traffic banked up around the bend. He was too important to wait.
So, to summarise: Bikes are awesome. I’m stoked to be riding. Be safe our there: your time isn’t worth more than someone else’s wellbeing.
3:05:49
54.29 km
346 m
19.8 km/h avg.
All details
Wakey wakey!
Posted on: Sunday November 21, 2010
- In: Cycling
- 3 Comments
Race: National Series XCC Round 1
Sport class: 15 minutes + 3 laps
With no goals other than to hurt like a bastard and not not get pulled I guess I can be 50% happy.
11:30 into the race (lap 10) with the lead bunch about to gobble me up, I got pulled. Big gobs of great, lung-sucking, painful FUn.
Came home and ordered Friel’s Bible and Charmichael’s companion-for-the-real-world (dorky cover aside) to scratch an itch that has been getting progressively worse: the desire to understand bike programming. Step #1 as a guy who puts in a broken 40 minutes a week on the bike right now is to actually spend some time on a fucking bike, but being so vulnerable to program doubts I’m hoping that understanding what I’m doing will help with two complimentary facets – getting the most out of whatever time I can log, and being confident enough that it’s going to work that I’ll actually get out there.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention: Neil won and picked up a cool hundred, a pretty sweet medal, an official series jersey and an ‘Series Leader’ race plate that comes with a certain weight of obligation to show up in Tassie and defend.
00:11:31
4.62 km
24.1 km/h avg.
42.8 km/h max.
OK GO! 