Last post before flying out

Well this will probably be my last post till I get back from NZ. I'm not figuring on getting an internet connection over there (dark ages you know dial-up!)
Just under a week till this monster...


Mt Peel on a bad day!

I'm really hoping they have cut out the The 20 min portage it sucked 16 years ago and I have no desire to relive it. I will try and take a couple of photo's while over there of the old stomping grounds.

Gremlins in the System

And not the cute furry type either. Yesterday was supposed to be another epic with Big Jase but it all went wrong. I woke up with a headache which went away with the morning coffee, but I had to choke breakfast down as I just couldn't stomach it. Met Jase, rode in and hit up Mt Anislie, about 2/3 of the way up the lights almost went out...all the dashboard lights lit up, you get the idea? At the top I was just standing there waiting on Jase helmet off pissing sweat even though it was all of about 12° and I sank 2/3 of a bottle of nuun. Jase was gracious enough to give me a few minutes to recover and we set off for Black Mountain.

By this stage I was having to draft Jase I was feeling that shit, we hit the bottom and I just set it at tempo and rode to the top. Felt slightly better, but something was definitely wrong. I told Jas at this stage that I wasn't feeling good and was just going to play it by ear as to how far I made it (we had 180k planned).

Suffered around most of the Uriara loop and just blew coming up 3 sisters. I stopped and tell Jase know I was pulling the pin and heading home as I was creeping in a bad wasy and would see him later. Pulled in to Stromlo to top the bottles up, downed another full bottle of fluid, and just sat in the sun for ages I didn't want to move. If I have of sat there any longer I think I would have fallen asleep. Crawled home showered, drank a bit and had the first of about 5 naps for the day. Mid afternoon I woke up with the sweats and checked my temperature ....40°! At least I knew it would burn itself off by the next day.

Woke the next morning and then it was on to stage two(s) literally. I won't go into the gruesome details but until about 10am on Sunday I couldn't go further than about 5 metres from the toilet without risk of destroying my carefully crafted public persona (ie not having sh!t my pants since 3 years old)

By about lunchtime I was feeling somewhat better and drove out to Sparrow hill for a small roll around on the MTB. Couldn't even manage an hour, but still felt good to get out. So now am in full recovery mode, before I fly out on Tuesday. I think given the symptoms I should be OK and it won't turn into anything more major.

3 weeks in Threadbo

It's been confirmed, I'm off to Threadbo for 3 weeks for work....it's flat there right?


Dead Horse Gap

It's on it's way!

I have lusted after one of these for a while and finally scored a good deal on one...guess what it is?

Stuff for sale

OK I have a whole bunch of stuff for sale, if anyone wants to email me at d_rae@iinet.net.au with offers etc otherwise its going on fleabay

-Giant anthem frame size mall (17") with DT swiss high volume shock, thompson seatpost, token headset. Used but not abused, cable rub marks and chainsuck on the chainstay. $600
-Cannondale 6-13 frame & fork size 52. Black used for 6 months. Currently my back-up. $600
-Custom Zipp 303. Am classic and frm hubs, dt swiss spokes, zipp pave rims, for campy. $1100 ono
-Fox AVA shock $100
-Polar CS600 including ir cable $350
-Cateye triple shot pro $250

Is this Australia's Stupidest Animal?

Is this Australia's stupidest animal?



I think I can safely say YES!
Had my first driving encounter with a kangaroo on the way to the Jetblack 101 race early Sunday morning. One decided to headbutt my car?!? Now most people know these animals are thick but this one was just plain mental. Travelling the Braidwood to Nowra road (gravel road, 5.30 a.m, 90kph) and I see the kangaroo in time. Slow let the thing get off the road, nose the front of the car past, and thing turns around and runs head first into the rear driver's side door. I mean how stupid are these things? I get out check the car, no obvious damage, but I can't see sh!t cause it's still dark. Get back in and start driving again.
Now this wasn't the first animal I got to test out the ABS on, later I got to do a panic stop for another kangaroo, which then wouldn't get off the road and decided it was going to race me for 2k's before getting bored and diving off into the trees.
Now these are a road smart animals...




wombats! Everytime I have come across these in the road or about to cross the road they act like people. They look both ways before crossing, they stop when they see a vehicle so you can drive around them. I really don't know why you see so many dead ones around and about. Enough of the david attenborough commentary on the wild life, to the race!

The Race
This is going to be a short report because I DNF'ed with a mechanical...4 broken spokes in the rear powertap wheel. I took it back to the shop and they admitted they stuffed the lacing pattern up and are going to have to re-lace the wheel after ordering more spokes.
Reading the forums, there are some very unhappy people after the race on Sunday. The course was changed from 4 x 25k laps to 7x 13.6k laps. The course wasn't overly hard with some real fun sections in it but no let up. I mean you couldn't take your hands off the bars to eat or drink except for the start finish area. The attrition rate was 75%, that is almost unheard of for an enduro. A couple of people actually asked for there money back before the start because of the changes. The entry wasn't cheap for the race and I can say for $100 it wasn't value for money. I know I won't be heading back next year if they hold it again.

The week ahead

Just a week now and I'm off to the "Land of the Long Soggy Cloud", so big week of training ahead. Also I am not doing the Wagga 6hr now. Am really over the whole driving thing at the moment. So Sunday is a 4hr MTB ride scouting the Solo 24hr course with Big Jase

Podium

Yes that's right folks moving up in the world, and by world I mean MTB'ing, and by MTB'ing I mean Sport B men.
Had a really good ride on Sunday on a course that I'm still not sure that I like that much, Sutton Road. A little bit of history for you, about 9 months ago I rocked up to my first XC race after getting the hardtail. And thought "Right A Grade road = Sport A MTB", ah no it doesn't. Needless to say I got an absolute pasteing that day, by both the course and other riders. Sutton Road is a very tight twisty single track course link by 4-5 fire roads and 2 major fire road climbs included in the loop for a total of 7km. Now the downhills are fun and with good flow but there is just something about the flats and uphills/ pinch climbs that just kicks the sh!t out of you. Also as per last time it rained the night before leaving water all over the course specifically through the corners!
Sunday dawned to be a nice fresh day, the over night rain had cleared but a nip in the air....winter is on it's way and it's going to be early. Get to the course early, register, change and debate about going for a lap. "Hmmm cold, still a bit wet. I know lets just go sit in the car for another 15mins then do it" Nothing like putting the warm up lap off cause your too soft. So 15 minutes later out of the car and rolling, looking for the twists and tweaks the "Trail Fairy" has added for this race. Sure enough there are 4 or so changes from the previous circuit including a couple of new lines. One in particular was going to catch people out, more on that later.....
Get back to the car, warm-up jacket is covered in mud, glasses are filthy yeah this is going to be fun.

Lap 1
Marshaling is staged at the bottom of the fire road before the right hand flick and onto the single track. Sport B men line up, depleted field from the previous field at Sparrow but still 10 or 12 starters. Count down and we're off. I didn't get a front row start this time so no hole shot, but I know that this course requires a bit of pacing because of the amount of climbing and flat. Into the first section of single track, turn around woops second last! going to need to move up when we hit the next fire road section. Out and on the road and hot the jets! in 150m of fire road I go from second last to fourth into the next second of track. The next second is about 4k with of flowing tight single track no real passing opportunities. I'm just full on concentrating following wheel and lines in front. The we come to new section of track that I mentioned early, an optical illusion. Looks like the track goes left but it's not, it's a short right then left then continues. If you screw it like the first couple of guys do you end up in off track and have to try and turn around and double back. So I'm now in second place and we are out on the fire trail at the bottom end of the course, time to start the climbing! I get jumped by a couple of guys here but I'm OK it's a long haul back up to the top. Off the fire trail and on single track running parallel cross over half way up more single track then back at the finish.

Second Lap

Starting to hit traffic now, so having to be patient and remember my manners and not yell too loud. This can be a blessing and a curse on a tight circuit, this time round it wasn't an issue with all the riders I came up behind pulling off the track ASAP. This lap was about trying to keep in contact with the two in front which I didn't....it really was kinda painful just watching them ever so slowly ride off.

Third Lap

Threw down a gel at the start of this lap to keep the energy up. I also knew I had a rider chasing me and they were every so slowly getting closer. This was actually good as it forced me to focus and just keep pushing. By now the two in front were gone so I had no rabbits to chase. By the end of this lap I was feeling hammer, I said at the start that there is just something really draining about this course.

Last Lap

The rider behind was still there. Yo-yoing a bit he would get a little closer on some the downhills then I would open it up again whenever the road turned up. I hit some more traffic early in the lap and he closed the gap right down. It was nose to tail until a break out onto the fire road about halfway through the first single track section. Then he went around me, because of the speed that he caught me I knew I could hang with him till the finish. He kept pushing trying to get away through the single track but I was hanging like glue....I had a plan in mind. Cross over the main fire road to the second section, through there and back out for the haul up the fire road. Now being a roadie, there was no way I was coming round him, up-hill and head wind, I don't think so! So I'm just sitting, waiting. Then just before the single track I jump him, hit 'em with everything left. It's still uphill but there are no passing opportunities through this section and I'm gone! Back out onto the fire road and I pass the rider who gave it full gas right from the get go, he's gone in la la land. Into the last second of single track then across the line.

I wasn't sure how good my counting was but at that stage I guesses I finished 3rd or 4th. It wasn't till the results went up later in the day that I confirmed 3rd.

Power File

This was always going to be interesting to have a look at compared to the enduro from the week before. Because of the nature of the course the power was down almost constantly.

Normalised Power:260
VI:1.15
Avg HR:168

So almost 50w more power for XC then the enduro. What I was surprised at was the HR, I haven't raced with an average that high in ages. The pace for me was very quick on this course. I might have been able to have kept it up for another lap but would have started to fade. All up a good comparsion.

Fidget

Hi my name is David and I am a compulsive bike fidget.
Kinda sounds like the start of an AA meeting doesn't it? But it's my confession, I just can't help myself I just love fiddling/ tinkering with bikes. Any spare moment I have I'm in the garage doing something to one of the bikes, measuring, checking, tightning, cleaning....you get the point.
Tonite I spent 1/4hr with a bottle of turps, rubber gloves, and a paint brush cleaning the chain of the Giant, I think I might have a sickness?!?!
The flip side of this is I know alot about bikes, more than most people who work in your "average" bikeshop, I can tell you exactly what tools you need to pull something apart, and if you haven't got them I can probably tell you who imports them and where you can find 'em on the web cheaper....this isn't bad for someone who hasn't worked in a bike shop since being a teenager!
There is a point to this post though other then my rambling, it's this. You do need to spend quality time with your bikes. By that I mean, you need to know how they work and have at least a basic understanding of how to fix 'em. It's also by spending this time you pick up things before they go wrong and turn into something more major.
For example tonite I finally worked out how to stop the clicking on the Giant. Now this is something that has been sh!tting me for months now and I finally figured it out tonite after 15 mins of poking, pressing, and prodding.
Also from the weekend I could have sworn the forks bottomed out a couple of times on the downhills... checked the sag and sure enough it's 40mm not the 25mm I had it set at a couple of weeks ago. So it looks as though I have to check the air pressure every couple of rides.
Remember the P's. Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Chasing numbers

8hr Working Week Enduro Yellowmundi

I was looking forward to this race as it was somewhere I hadn't ridden before and it was going to be chance to test out the powertap. The night before (Saturday) I was still flicking through the manual figuring out how to drive the head unit to get the numbers I wanted showing (avg power, avg speed, time) I also thought it would be a good time to test the HR strap out....woops doesn't want to go! So pull the back off the strap to check the battery type and start scratching through the draws to see if we have a spare, no joy so no heart rate for the race.

Race Day

Arrive at the regional park with about an hour to get my shit together (register, toilet, kit-up, bike check, bottles etc). Everything went smooth no hitches with rego (Always a credit to Bright Orange!), then it was time to try and find somewhere to set up. I bought the minimum with me this time, no chair or table so as discourage me from sitting down at any point ;) I worked out how the transition area worked and set-up at the far end (exit). The setup was one of these with 8 bottles (great kit!)


Taxc Universal Bottle Carrier

and a bag of powergels and a couple of powerbars. After talking to Big Jase the day before I decided one of my big problems is I don't eat enough and I really need to start forcing myself to eat more, and more frequently as well. So with this in mind, the strategy was one gel a lap which worked out to be one every 40 minutes. I was also aiming to drink about 1/2 700ml bottle of Nuun a lap for hydration. The temps weren't predicted to be that high so it worked well.

The Course
Fantasic is the word I would use. The club managed to mix the correct amount of short power climbs, tech sections and downhill and fire roads to keep everyone happy. I would rate this course as a 4/5, and probably the best I have ridden for the 8hr series. That includes Sparrow Hill, Stromlo, Lithgow x2, and Darkes Forest (in the wet sucked!).

The Race Itself
Get the go at 8.30am and it's a nice steady start and settle into the race rythem for the forseeable future. I had crunched some numbers before the race trying to workout what sort of power to aim for and came up with between 200-225w. The first couple of laps I was riding above that at about 235w and feeling good, not pushing too hard and just really rolling round the course. The average started coming down slowly, trickling at the rate of 2-4w lap. The great thing about having the powertap now is having something to focus my mind on. Before because of chaotic nature of an 8hr with solo's/ and teams it was just really hard to workout where the hell you were and how you were doing in an overall context, you're just never sure who is who.

All was going well up until about the 5.5hr mark when I could feel blister starting to form on the pads of my hands. I haven't had this problem before with these gloves, and I think the technical nature of the course was causing me to hold the bars a bit tighter and just having to move my hands around more than normal. I stopped peeled the gloves off and had a look...not good! A couple of the blisters had already burst adding to the fun. I decided to keep going with no gloves and see how things went. One problem always leads to another, because of the blisters I had started locking my wrists on the rutted downhills to try and overcome the pain...not good!
After another couple of laps it hhad gotten to the stage where I couldn't brake properly with my weak wrist on the downhills so I decided to call it a day at the 7hr mark. I was really disappointed with having to do this because otherwise the body was fearing fine. I just figure the chance to having an accident had gotten too high to risk another couple of laps, I was also worried about doing more serious damage to my wrists.

The Data

Well in the post race review I managed to average the following,

Average Watts: 169
Normalised Watts: 209
Distance: 103Km
Time: 7.03hrs
Cals: 4050
Average Speed: 15.6kph
VI: 1.28

So what did I learn? It basically confirms that I really need to get better bike handling skills, at the moment this is my biggest limiter not my fitness.

The Week Ahead
A couple of threshold sessions, death march saturday solo, and a XC race on Sunday should be all good!

Not a happy ending!

The Carnage MTB Ride from Clayton Peck on Vimeo.

Been here done something like this before, it aint nice!

Thunderbirds are Go!

mmmmm shiny!


Overbuilt, but well thought out



So stupidly easy to set up, no cables, no pissing around

Getting with the times!

These are going on every bike I own when they're released!


Chris King Inset Headset- You can't stop progress

It's gettin' dark

I think this morning was the first time I noticed how dark the AM has gotten. Summer is over, well almost. Daylight savings is coming to an end, and it's time to dust off the lights for the morning ride to work again.
Speaking of lights, I really can't emphasise enough the importance of having a good set. The number of people I see, on the odd day I drive to work without a decent set of lights is staggering. It's in the same boat as not wearing a helmet correctly or at all! I know that if I got hit out riding without lights, my wife would never let me ride again...ever!

Change of Plans
I was going to compete in the Mt Beauty 6hr enduro but have changed my mind. The driving would have been a killer so I decided to do this instead. Looks like a bit of fun and not too much driving involved. Just checked the calander and it's just over a month till I'm off to NZ to catch up with the relatives....should be fun!

Shout out to Chops who's competing in the BMC Mountains to Beach, currently in 20th place

Death March.....Well not quite

Saturday was the first long road ride I have done in about 6 weeks since the 12hr race at Penrith in January. So the plan was to meet up with Big Jase and cruise to join the Belconnen Bunch, a lap of Uriara, then home via Corin Dam. All up the plan was for about 5.5hrs and a fair old bit of climbing. The loop with the bunch was a bit up and down, the normal surging fast riding you get for a bunch out for a 2hr hit-out. Bascially smashing it up Mt McDonald and out of the 'crossing.
The group turned off for Belconnen and we pulled into Stromlo Park to top the fluids up, as there is no water stop between there and home. "How about a tester up Mt Stromlo" says Big Jase "Sure why not!" replies I...yeah this was going to bite me in the arse later.
So we do our little TT up the Stromlo, 9.30min (not bad for a first attempt) and roll down again and start heading for Pierce's Creek and the grovel out of there.
By this stage I'm starting to feel it in the legs, a bit heavier, a bit slower and there is that nagging in the back of my head...I still have 40min of climbing up to the top of Corin. The road to Corin isn't flat and rolls or drags the entire way with a couple of steep pinch climbs and a nasty false flat past the space tracking station.
When we got close I could see jase was chompin' to go hard up the climb so I let him go and really just went into tempo mode right from the bottom, 400w up the small rises and coasting down the flats (well you really have no choice but to go hard up the rises....or fall off!) I could see Jase the entire 12k up the climb but do you think I could close the gap? Not today, I really had nothing! I wasn't blown and could have kept climbing like that at a steady tempo for alot longer but I just couldn't lift it to save myself.
Well we crest the top and are greated by this,



Corinbank Festival- Hippie Get together in the middle of no where

Now at this stage all I wanted was a drink, a nice cold can of coke. There's a store at the top and I bought the money. And what do I get? A camp ground full of Hippies! Now I'm normally a tolerate semi-non-violent person but at this stage, I was real low on sugar and if one person said "Hey Man, wanta buy some incense?" I was going to loose it and punch 'em in the mouth.
So the camp ground is a mass of tents and the shop is looking shut so we clamber over a gate and go looking for someone selling drinks. I manage to find a tent where everyones lined up 5 deep ordering breakfast "Can I have a B&E roll and a coffee please?" So I line up patiently waiting my turn...you know that feeling where the brain just starts shutting down after you get off the bike? Well thats what I started getting, so here I am waiting in line trying not to scream at the top of my lungs "Will you just hurry the f^&k up! How hard is it to order a B&E Roll?"
When I spy the caravan next door, now this is staffed by a couple of asians (No I am not being racial here) but here ever one is lined up at the tent next door not giving this place a second look. If I had of been there in civvies that would have been the place I would have gone for food, but there's not a single person queued. I'm thinking what are the chances they have something cold??? Someone cracks before I do and wanders over "You got any cold softdrinks?" "Yes, we do what would you like?". Thats it and I'm off, head kinda spinning and next one in line.
So we get the drinks and relax back on the grass just taking it all in, it's not far to go but still a 20k from home so I'm taking my time. Anyway short story... long, I make it home in one piece and a new adventure in the books.

Summary for the day

Km's: 155
Time: 5:40hrs
Energy: 4400cals
Avg power: That would be telling ;), but no messing around
Fun factor: 3.5/5