Jasper and I

After a bit of light exercise, I decieded to take my four legged nephew out on a walk aroung the bay. After a hesitent start (Jasper decided to just stop for no reason) he decided to behave himself especially after he was able to go for a dip in the bay. As the walk went on, I got more comfortable with my ability to call Jasper back if required, I tried walking him off his leash, having some doggie snacks in my pocket also helped. :-) I was surprised that he kept up a pretty quick pace.

Urban Polaris - Canberra

This was to be my first "Urban Polaris" and the excitement was mounting. Mark (my team mate), Alastair and Nick were also joining in the day, it all started at 5:30AM at the Canberra Youth Hostel. By 6:15AM we had registered to find out that our starting group was at 9:20AM, we were a bit miffed with 3 hour wait. Well what does one do for 3hrs. Funnily enough 3 hour's was just the right amount of time for us to work out where the control points were on the map, get our bike ready to go and sneak in some breakfast.

At 9:20AM we finally start, and with much confidence we head out through the gates and made a left hand turn too wards our first control point. About 8km's into our ride our plans seemed a bit shakey at 15km's it was time to be concerned, considering we had initally calculated the control to be only 12km's away (max). We did eventually reach a control point (the furtherest one for the entire event), but we had no idea where it was on the map. We eventually why we couldn't see it, because it wasn't actually on the map we had. It was on one of the additional handouts. Not a good start, considering all the hills we had to ride to get there. But after a good laugh about our mistake (which we had no idea how we made) we headed back. That cost us an hour of riding time, but did collect 40 points. We did eventually make the right turn and headed of to our planned route. The rest of the day went more to plan, we rode along bikepaths, motorways and fire trials. We seemed to do a lot of hill climbs, the maps we were given didn't have any contour lines marked so we had no real idea what the terrian was like. We stayed north of the city centre, I have a feeling that the south was a little flatter, I'll have to remember that for next year.

So 6hr43min, 96km, 13 controls and 210 points later, the day was done.


"The Battlefield"

Making our battle plans. Note to self, read all the documentation before you start.

The view from the top of "Black Mountain Tower"

Finally back home.

Urban Polaris - Canberra (ACT)

Well the Canberra "Urban Polaris" was run yesterday, 7 hours and a possible 37 check points were on offer, covering the Canberra and the surrounding suburbs. All types of road terrains were covered, country and urban roads, parkways and even some single track. It was a long hot day, but a great way to see a different side of Canberra. Keep an eye out for some of the pics of the day, coming soon. P

CBD Social Ride - Helensburgh (The Burg)

CBD held another social ride yesterday, the original plan was to head to Mount York in the Blue Mountains, but due to the large bushfires raging in the west, it was decided to head south to Helensburg (an hour south of Sydney near Stanwell Tops). There were plenty of hills to make you sweat (whether it was riding up them, or pushing the bike up the really steep single track). This was the first time I had ridden in this area and you could get lost quite easily, so you could have a very long day in the saddle if you don't pay attention on which direction your going, or more importantly on which direction you came from. The ride took around 4 hours and is somewhere I'd like to go back to. Note to self, pack the GPS.

Davidson & Garigal National Park

Today I decided to have a look around Davidson and Garigal. The last time I was here was part ot the 2005 OxFam Trailwalk and that was about 2AM. The fire trial was made up of sandy patches, loose rocks with few smooth sections. There were plenty of acents to keep you honest. I started in St Ives and transversed across the national park up to Frenches Forest, then followed the track down the hill, quite technical in parts which i had to walk. Once back on the firetrail, it was across to the Cascades and then back "up" to the car.

Highland Fling Result

Well the day (12/11/06) came and to the dulcide tones of bag pipes at 5:30am, the day began at Bundernoon. It was an overcast sky, threatening to rain that a mate (Mark) and I prepared for the day ahead. We had arrived the previous evening around 17:50 and registered for the ride. After a quick "up & go" drink, a banana it was time to make our way to the start/finish line. In hindsight I certainly didn't have enough to eat and that was going to impact on me later that morning.

Kick off was at 07:30 and as I pedalled off, the day looked full of promise and a strong ride was expected of myself and for the first 30km all was well, then the hills started, and they all seemed to go up. Up and up and up.... about 40km in I found myself completely spent of energy. I trugged on, consuming GU's (energy gels) like they were going out of fashion and slowly making some progress. It was on this stage of the ride that I took and hour more than I should have. I finally made it back to the transition area and a rest and more importantly something to eat.

Refeulled and with the knowledge that the finish line was only another 25kms "down the road" I hit the road. By this time i had been 7hrs since I started. The last stage was relativley easy, compared to the torture like middle stage, by the time seemed to tick along so slowly. But I did finally finished, crossing the finish line 110kms later and 9hr17mins after I started. At the start of the day I was hoping to complete the ride in 6 to 7hrs, but in the end I was happy to just finish the event. For the record Mark came in an hour before me, and the first place getter finished in 4hr18min.

Despite the anguish suffered over the day, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to have another crack next year, now that I know what to expect I'm hoping to do much better.

Lessons learnt:
More training before the event (especially hills).
Eat plenty for breakfast.
Eat regularly on the ride (20-30mins) even if you really don't feel hungry, by then it's too late.
Drink regularly (20-30 mins).
Carry much more food (different types) on the ride.

Car 1/ Bike 0

I got T boned on a roundabout this morning on my way to work. My dismount was quite spectacular by all accounts, which had me getting more air time than Mike Jordan and ended up with me bouncing on the bonnet the car and rolling along the road. I was fortunate enough to be able to walk away with only bruises and scratches. And walk i did all the way back home with my bike now out of commission.

My AROC challenge

Today was my first AROC event (www.arocsport.com.au). It's basically orienteering using different forms of transport, kayaking, riding, running. This particular event was run in the Northern Beaches area around Narrabeen Lake.

A bushfire that had gone through the area a week or so before the event so that ensured that we would be suitably covered in soot. The course started with a quick dip across a channel, then straight into a Kayaking leg, a run, then back across the lake, but in tyre tube this time. This was followed by a quick run adn then onto the bikes for a ride up the hill to the foot orientation section. An hour or so after that we were orienteering on our bikes, another kayak section followed and then our final run leg. A bit over 5 hrs after we started we were done.

That's me with the red pack on. It was fun and I look forward to the next one.

Till my next post,

P

Click here for the full results.

My New Ride - What a "RUSH"

I just couldn't help myself, and while my GT "Avalanche 1.0" has been a faithful ride, it was time to upgrade. What a "RUSH".



Frame: Rush, 110 mm
Fork: Lefty Speed Bonded DLR2, 110 mm
Rear Shock: FOX Float RP3
Rims: Mavic CrossLand UST
Hubs: Mavic CrossLand UST
Spokes: N/A
Tires: Maxxis CROSSMARK XC UST, 26 x 2.1"
Pedals: CrankBrothers Egg Beater
Crank: FSA Afterburner MegaExo, 22/32/44
Chain: Shimano 9-speed
Rear Cogs: SRAM PG-970, 11-34
Bottom Bracket: FSA Afterburner MegaExo
Front Derailleur: Shimano LX
Rear Derailleur: SRAM X-9
Shifters: SRAM X-7 Trigger
Handlebars: FSA XC-281AOS, 25 mm rise
Stem: Cannondale XC3 HeadShok, 31.8 mm
Headset: Cannondale HeadShok Si
Brakeset: Avid Juicy7
Brakelevers: Avid Juicy7
Saddle: Fi'zi:k Nisene II Sport
Seat Post: FSA FR-270
Colors: Charcoal Grey (gloss) w/ glow decals (GRY), Siemens Team Replica (gloss) (REP).
Sizes: P, S, M, L, X

Are you ready for a fling?

Watch this space the 2006 Highland Fling is heading this way.

MTBO in the Southern Highlands

It was a great weekend, at 9:30 on Saturday morning I head for the sothern highlands and a two day "Tour de Forests" MTBO event run by the Mountain Devils MTB club. The first event held on Saturday was at the now infamous "Belanglo State Forest" and the Sunday event was held at the "Penrose State Forest". The weather was perfect adn i was even happy with my times for the two events.