Well entrenched in holiday mode, I missed the Saturday lap (family commitments) but mustered the stamina to sit in on the post ride coffee with conversation on culinary temptations, electric bikes, Egyptian politics and Cat rotations with the die hard crew of Dion, Rocket, Shorty, Nath, HBK, RidleyTrev, GG, BigMat (due for his monthly ride), Temple & Nick.
It's been many moons since i've had a 3 day break from the bike (poor neglected machine was covered in cobwebs), quite a difficult task to overcome early onset vacation lethargy and swing a leg over. Into volume three of the book of excuses before motivation took over to set off on a short 35k for Sunday morning. 4 degrees, tons of fog and a very light NNE wasn't inspirational, the damp atmostphere causing a light shower off the front edge of the helmet, a dampened kit and a bike quickly grubby. Pleased the speed wasn't too dissapointing, bit rusty in the joints though. Heart rate was well up (cardiac conditioning needed?) for the Old Dookie - Boundary - Mitchell - Raftery circuit, 20k's in zone 4 and 13k in zone 5 was a wake up for the arteries. Finally into Conrod with legs limp, posterior pummelled, skin soaked and lungs lax it was strangely satisfying to have overcome the sloth and sedentary state to acomplish something resembling excercise, the equivalent of a cheeseburger, medium fries and a diet coke, or running a standard light globe for 2 hours.
Monday morning a real pea-souper had rolled in, slimy roads from Sunday nights rain (and a clean bike) made a 4k walk a much more appealing proposition (though a few tough ones were spied en-route to a Cat lap.)
Blue skies finally appeared early afternoon, fuelling the ride addiction at 5 to turn the wheels. An anti-clockwise toaster tour started with 8 degrees but halved by journeys' end, a good decision to kit up accordingly. Patches of fog were obvious on the first leg in daylight out Conrod straight, the bike rolling quite well without breeze, a lubed chain (TLC for the KMC) being a psychological positive. Tuned into Daft Punk for the 11k monotony of Mitchell's stretch east, a great dusk to view for the north leg up Boundary Rd with an orange sky above the white blanket of fog. Trying to keep the h.r. below 155 was almost impossible unless speed was sacrificed, felt a little easier in Old Dookie Rd with sanity ratified sighting two bikes bearing west near the piggery. Beyond the toaster the fog thickened, sitting up got the head above the blanket line for a better view. Turned west at the Emu and found my second wind (no, not flatulence), into a good steady rhythm for the home straight (another bike seen eastward justified the journey) The odd oncoming car dished out some wind resistance, overcame the temptation of a soft option Verney Rd retreat to push on for a Wanganui-Rudd-Boulevard finish, speed slowly subsiding with an odd twinge of calf cramp, tight in the rectus femoris too. A chilly end to 54k (most at zone 4) to prepare for an antarctic Tuesday.
A southern navigation past frosted cars, iced lawns, fur seals and emporer penguins to Channel Rd on Tuesday morning, using the 19 sprocket to warm up (80 rpm) in the minus 1.3. Cougar was a tad rusty after several days off the Oppy, opted the shorter lap to climatise. Lots of excavation of channels in Channel has left lots of lumpy mud on the track, cleaning the bike almost as regular as teeth lately. Through the patchy fog and up to Boundary Rd gradually picking up the pace, less than a dozen tough enough to tap along with Cats in this temperature, goats (presumably) a k behind. It was up tempo for Old Dookie, raising a sweat to have it quickly frozen. Fingertips and toes almost numb arriving back in town, a squirt up to 50 homeward helped to ice the lungs. Quite musing to hear all the sooks about the cold from those who drove to work.
Not quite dark rolling to the hospital boom gate on Tuesday night, only 50 seconds of daylight gained each day but there's hope of longer days ahead. Only Nath, Dion, Dalton & bigBen at the ready, a glimmer of hope for a steady paced lap with just a handful of lads. Alas, all those thoughts erased with a flood of late entries in the first few k's, Oz, Steigy, Bomber, Sticks, OlympicSteve, Tony, Walshy, Sean and a couple of others swelling the pack to 15 by Lemnos, with a proportional measure of tempo added to the blend. 8 degrees had dropped to 6 to wreck the respiratories, some fluctuation was wrecking Walshy (hard to recognise minus the signature Giant, now on a new Merida) but bigBen & Oz had no trouble despite a long lay-off. Dion and Nath paired well for a strong drive down Boundary, my turn after the pub not so even with Nath now knighted HTK, half a trucklength king ahead, and not letting up. I shot past to roll over at the bridges but he was keen to own the front again, bigBen to the rescue managed to even the wheels till the turn west. Bomber and the boys gradually applied the gas down River to take us to the roaring 40's, HTK launched an attack in the final k to gap the pack. Dalton won the contract to catch him with Bomber about to resign homeward, a stretched pack finally caught when HTK eased off the turbocharger. Our Olympic saviour set the agenda with a fine tow to begin the Mitchell leg, only a few stepping up to swap turns when all went indian file. Oz was hung out to dry after Archer, but was finally saved by HTK's alter-ego Nath for the Mt Nicolaci to highway leg. OlympicSteve took to the tenacious towtruck task out of Roubaix and drove like a lad posessed in the mid 40's all the way till the dying moments of Conrod, Nath hitting the boost with 100metres to go. 42k in 1:10:15 earned us all a big feed, but big cheers to our olympic machine.
Wednesday morning felt decidedly milder, must be hardening up 'cause the thermometer said -0.7. The Michelin Pro4's (fitted May 8) have now clocked 3000, and rate them multiple thumbs up with barely a nick showing (it's the best time of year to chop up tyres with fine stones sticking to damp rubber). Must rotate soon with a worn rear from a rear aboard. Speaking of worn rears, a gentle roll on a ginger gluteus down to a Kialla Couldabeens circuit, just two toughies (Tim & Cougar) today to tour south on Archer, but PistolPete climbed aboard to make up a quadrella from Mitchell Rd onward. A whisper of a south south east blew a bit more chill but there was no intent on breaking records in these conditions, although PistolPete assumed the WBK (whole bike king) position for a good proportion. Little sign of P&W's or Cats today (may have missed 'em, blasting down River perhaps?) It took till Channel Rd for the sting to subside in the tail (maybe frozen numb?) but a few long steady turns in big cogs seemed to help. A great effort by our compact crew (whilst others cowered under doonas?)
Just one solitary northbound rider in the main drag on Thursday morning, where have all the keen Cats and Area lads gone? The Couldabeens roll call counted GG, Nick, Cougar, Rocket, Tim, PistolPete and Kenworth (arrivved breathless after his usual anaerobic prologue). A few minutes of humour (at BigMat's expense) before the flag fell for a chilly (-0.3) chase out Channel, cheers for a charitable gap left by JeffThomsons big rig for our left-right past Orrvale Rd. A distant light behind had us intrigued and with no gain made by the kinder, Rocket turned tail to tenaciously tow the tailender to the team, trust teamwork to triumph through the tired tick-tock tardiness Trav! A k at Adams pace allowed the bunch to re-unite and welcome a wrung-out Trav aboard. Into Boundary Rd PistolPete fired the velocity with Rocket but it's good to hear all were looking out for each other. Skirted around the mud mountains left in Mitchell for a steady push to Central Kialla. GG and Nick toasted Tim up Mt Nicolaci but it was brakes on for a long break in traffic at the highway (where the pistol was holstered) Rocket & Kenworth had a close battle for the chocolates at the end of Conrod, all others within arms reach just a few metres behind.
A brief comeback for Jamie at Thursday nights' Library lap, Tony, Nath, Dalton, Oz, AvantiTrev (yep, a new team Corsa steed) and FujiTrev made the start and a cast of thousands joined in thereafter. Smooth and steady turns tonight, Nath (taking care of the boss?) was well behaved and paired with Oz to set the standard. Additions over the next 10k included Kev, Dion, Bomber, Sticks, Steigy, Hamish, Robbo, OlympicSteve, Trent, and Trudy, all the way to Boundary Rd to finally add Sprinter, Gools, LegalSteve and the Smuggler as the temperature dropped from 10 down to 5. Very little speed variation kept us in the groove and kept the h.r. managable, the dim weather outlook was the big topic in tonights discussion, spied Paul and Craig on a northbound training mission at the bridges. I was suprised nobody pulled the pin on the speed grenade in River Rd, but the temperature went yo-yo to test us all. Bomber turned off in Mitchell and still the speed stayed stable (hooray). Ever so slowly the heat was applied after Roubaix carving our way through quite thick patches of fog to mess with the navigation. (if the leaders left the road all would have followed!) Luck plays a big part in a mass finish, it turned single file with 500 to go then reverted to 4 wide with 200m left, a handful of capable candidates and the 80k sign in sight. Through the thick fog, expiring hopefuls, oncoming headlights, hesitations and overtaking manoevres, i'd scored 2nd behind Oz but it was the luck of the draw. Hats off to Robbo and others who'd finished 2 toaster laps in succession. Interesting to note the hr zones after; 29k in zone 2, 14k in zone 3, 5k in 4 and just 720 metres for zone 5. Ahh, the benefits of a bunch (compare that with Sunday's solo lap).
A forecast shower didn't eventuate, so a quiet early lap was on the wish list (and Cougars) for Friday morning, suprised to have HBK sneak up from behind in Archer Rd bringing BigMat and Temple into the fold. BigMat's Fruitloop training has started with avengance! (there's plenty of rides to be found Mat, there's just the motivation to find) A hint of southerly worked against us for the leg south, but we dissapointed the lads by exiting right when they ventured left in Mitchell. (I guess they had lots of k's to make up on ours) Good to cruise along without an agenda on average, a chance to go easy on the legs and keep the sting out of the tail. Vunerability came to the fore with a van storming in from Arcadia Downs, no doubt the driver half asleep / texting / visually challenged / couldn't give a rats / all of the above. Just as well we weren't full steam ahead, may have been a Toyota bonnet mascot.
Week 28 366 km (Bororen to Mt Christian) YTD 9634
"To these ideals which were instilled in me when I was a youth, I attribute in a large degree the success that was mine on the bicycle tracks of the world" Marshall "Major" Taylor 1878-1932 US World track champion
(1 mile @ 73km/h in 1899)
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