Looks like a scooter but not...

Yesterday morning while out doing family stuff I saw one of these on top of a car. Big chunky MTB wheels, covered in mud. I caught my eye and I thought "That's just dumb... go get a MTB if you want to play in the mud, not a kids toy"

A kids scooter....?

It wasn't till I was riding along one of the fire roads on my way to Stromlo later in the day, I worked out what it really was. I heard them before I saw them, then screaming round the corner, came one of these scooters.... being towed my four huskys/ malamutes at full noise, these guys were flying. I pulled over to let them past, something pretty special and made it made my day.

tale of the Lost GPS

Last Sunday I was out round Stromlo thrashing the new cranks (yes I know I need to do the follow up...) and somewhere around the back my Garmin 705 flew out of it's mount and either onto the track or into the bushes at the side of the trail.

By the time I realised it was missing I had no idea where over the last 7k or so it would have detached itself. So I had a real problem, I had to be back home by 11AM for a kids birthday party on pain of death and I knew I couldn't ride the trails backwards without causing and accident. So going at Mach 5 around to the last place I had looked at it before slowing to a crawl to try and scan the track for the GPS.

When I had covered about 1/2 of the 7k's I mentally had written the unit off as lost and was thinking whether I wanted to shell out another $500 for a replacement. I got back to the trail without sighting the GPS and it was off home for fun and games with a bunch of kids for the afternoon.

During the week I mentioned to Big Jase I had lost the GPS and I got the normal commiserations and the rest, but two days later I get a text from him saying a mate of his Garry had found my GPS and I could get it back this weekend.

So I met up with Jase before the race and he told me the story, "Apparently a couple of riders had found the GPS and given it to Garry because he had one and might be able to work out who it belongs to. So Garry scrolled through the history on the Garmin and found that all the files had power data attached to them. At that point he phoned Jase because he knew he trained with a power meter and might know if someone had lost one."

So I got it back today, a couple of extra scratches and I checked the ride file and it looks as though the thing died after about 17.5hrs....longer then what Garmin quotes for battery life. So a big thank you to everyone that passed on the lost unit!

Merry Xmas

Well better late then never I guess.

So I got the family away on xmas eve alright with a 1.30am wake up so they could catch their 7.00am flight from Sydney to Auckland. So before 8.00am I had 6hrs of driving behind me. I then made the mistake I make every year and headed to a mall to pick up a couple of last minute things...I swear every year I'm not going to a go to a shopping centre but somehow always end up in one however briefly. And like normal it was absolutley nuts.

With this over I headed out for a short ride...and this would be the second mistake for the day. By 11am the SRM was reading 40°C(104°F) and I was only halfway through. What was left in the drink bottles was now luke warm and almost undrinkable and I had a headwind for the rest of the ride. By the time I got home and jumped on the scales I had lost 2.5kgs in fluids through dehydration!

So how did I spent Xmas day? Like this?


No 'fraid not, my xmas day was spent with this.... the pain machine



See it decided to rain here xmas eve and didn't stop till sometime on boxing day. So I was left with little choice but to head down to the garage for some 20min threshold intervals...yay for me!

Boxing day was more intervals and I when out for a short 2.5hr MTB ride in the PM.

So now I have a couple more interval sessions planned before Friday and a longish MTB ride set down for tomorrow. At the moment the hardest part is getting out of bed early to beat the heat. You really don't want to be riding past about 10.30am as the temps are really starting to get up at that point.

Anonymous Posting

I have changed the blog settings so that anonymous posting may happen....might generate a bit more discussion from the lurkers out there

The rumors of my demise are.....

Haven't posted up in the last couple of weeks so here is a quick update.
Things since probably the Fling back in early November have been a bit downhill. I had reached my final goal race for the year, but hadn't really programmed in a break so I have kept plugging along and the training just kept getting more sporadic till I finally pulled the pin two weeks ago and had a full week off with no riding.

It's been a long while now since I had a proper break and having a full week of no training was great for the head and the body. I'm now back at it slowly building up for next year. I did the WSMTB 4hr a couple of weeks ago which was my first night race. Great fun, good course, and I have to admit I really like riding at night!

Last weekend I didn't do either the club XC or SCUM's end of year race as my head still wasn't quite back in it yet, but that's it for the year...no more races.

Looking to next year, the first race up will be the next WSMTB 4hr in mid-January, then the gut-busting Alpine Classic down in Victoria.

Roadies Skill Anyone?

From La Ruta de los Conquistadores
Who said roadie skills don't pay?

Time to write something....

Sorry all for the lack of updates, but it's been a bit of a slow period with not much racing and not alot to write about.

A Change of Scenery
First a month back I changed companies, and as most of you know when that happens everything gets turned upside down for a few weeks till you sort yourself out again. For me, this mean't less riding, more work (yes I now do a full 8hrs+ each day), and a new route to work.
My new route to work in the mornings is out the back of Tuggeranong, Tidbinbilla, Pierces Creek, Stromlo, then work in Deakin. This is giving me a solid 2hrs a day...and multiple smacks in the head because it's magpie season!

Sick, then not, then sick....
Well the long weekends been and gone. While most were riding at the Scott 24hr, I had a big weekend planned then the wheels fell off on the Friday night. I caught something, the beginnings of a cold. I was so smashed on the Saturday morning I killed the alarm at 5.00am went back to sleep, woke up again at 11.00am had breakfast, then went back to bed again till 3.30pm before re-surfacing. My head throbbed and had a hacking cough...and just generally unwell. Sunday was a little better, I got out on the MTB for about an hour and the same again on the Monday. So all up a bit of a waste of a good weekend. Then to top things off I started to get conjunctivitis again on the Friday (Filthy diseased kids at daycare!), a course of eye drops and luckily this time it didn't turn into a full blown bout.

Death of the Powertap
My MTB powertap died about a week and half ago so it's now on it's way back to the US to be repaired. The power readings have always been about 30w lower on the MTB then the SRM but it's been livable. Then it finally crapped itself telling me I was only doing 150w up Mt Stromlo....and I know my form may not be fantastic but I know I can still put out more then that. So running the diagnostic on it when I got home and found that something had happened to the torque tube in the hub and it was sending the wrong correction. Now unlike an SRM you can't adjust this and it's only fixable by replacing the torque tube.

So after trying to deal with TBA the importers of Powertap into Australia, I contacted Saris in the US directly and had the return sorted out inside of 2 days. I recommendation to anyone looking to purchase a powertap in Australia is don't. Buy from overseas! TBA charge 2x the price, have no one staff that know anything about Powertap, have no customer service....in general they're are just a bunch of pirates!

So it looks like I'm racing the Fling naked with no data...should be interesting.

Building up for the 100miler
So after all the sickness I have been trying to re-build some form for the 100 mile fling which is now only a week and a half away.
I have been tuning the hard tail, so far I have managed to drop 1.5kg off it by swapping parts out from the spares I have in the garage. I currently have it down to 9.5kg without doing anything silly. I could probably drop another 400gms off if I wanted to run ghetto tubeless, but given I don't know the course for the Fling I'm opting for safety over weight for the tires.

Fitz Epic

So this weekend Big Jase and I have Fitz epic, a 210k ramble through the hills out the back of Canberra as a warm up for the fling. I'm going to try to aim for under 7hrs riding time this year, but it's going to depend on the day.

Highland Fling

Entries opened this morning and didn't crash out. So I'm in...for the 100 miler!
Still not sure what I was thinking.

Pic of the Day

I love a good Cyclocross picture!

Cold Weather Food

mmmm Steak & Cheese pies
Training food for -3 degree days.

Draggin' Arse

Well I put off writing this up as I'm not really that happy with the result for Sunday. I registered a big fat DNF. It seems my body was happy to be pushed hard for one day, but due to cold I have got I just couldn't recover properly for Sundays stage.
All up for the day I rode about 100k (to and from the race, and a bit of the stage) so I did get some quality riding in. This week is about turning the legs over to get the miles in, and shaking off this cold. I'm feeling quite a bit better today so it's on it's way out.
Saturday is a handicap race at Cootamundra. Given my lack of road racing and general poor showing I might actually get put off a reasonable mark and not scratch for once.
Sunday is a bit of MTB riding, after I have given the wife a lie in and breakfast in bed (Mother's Day).
On a side note it looks as though the house is sorted from our end. A price has been agreed and now the lawyers and the bank are away doing their thing. To be honest it's gone really smoothly and painlessly compared to some of the horror stories ypu hear.

I have swine flu...

Or maybe it's bird flu or SARS....
Yes I'm coming down with something, typical!
I'm hoping this stuff works, it helped last time


also knocking these back


If nothing else i'll be floating by Saturday.....I HATE BEING SICK!!!!!

Anzac Day

One day early I know, but.....



While many people will awake in the early hours of the morning to go to dawn services, or the city march, I'll be trying to churn out the k's tomorrow. But my thoughts will be on those who have fought and died in the name of ANZAC.

Anzac day is the rememberance and aniversary of the day, that the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps hit the beaches at Galipolli, Turkey in the wrong spot(I'm sure it was an Aussie naviagting!), many soliders died during the campaign and after a few months they were forced to retreat. It remains one of the bloodiest episodes in our armed forces history.

This proves I am truly a fat B@st@rd!

I saw this and just really wanted one the Angus burger from Mcdonalds.... can't wait ;)

Just in case you were wondering, the third-pound Angus with Bacon and Cheese packs 820 calories, 43g of fat, and 65g of carbohydrates. Combined with a large package of french fries (570 calories) and a large Coke (310 calories)... Your Angus Bacon and Cheese lunch provides you with 1700 delicious calories in one meal. The thing is that's only two hours training to burn that off it's not that bad

Back...again

Yes, it seems I am too good at my job and my sojourn at Threadbo is over. So back to the grind here in Canberra.... I'm only working a half day tomorrow (work owes me some time now) so I should be able to get in a couple of good rides for the rest of the week. Aiming to try to make up for missing the last couple of days.
Nothing new on the racing front. My next race will be the next CORC club race at Stromlo, then the two day Canberra tour. I should get away with riding B-grade these days (I don't race enough road anymore....well that's my story).

Shout out!

Shout out to Big Jase on winning his category (35- 40years, Old B@st@rd!) at the Australian 24hr Solo Championships....Though you did pike on the recovery ride tomorrow so you lose points for that ;)

Not a happy ending!

The Carnage MTB Ride from Clayton Peck on Vimeo.

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

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

Delayed

Well had a message left on my cellphone late yesterday from the bikeshop, "Hi it's Shopmonkey A*,.... blah....blah please call. Haven't ordered your rim, problem understanding your order. Blah blah have a nice day" Now when I went in, I made sure that there would be no problems. I spelt everything out, Stan's Arch Rim, 26" 32h. I can't make it any easier to order than that.After hearing this it's a good thing I don't own a cat, as I probably would have kicked it!

Anyway after calming down over night and eventually getting hold of Shopmonkey A*, I find out that there are no rim's left in the country and it will be a week and half to get some in.It's probably a good thing I didn't rip in them straight off the bat as English isn't the shopmonkey's* third language.

So it's looking like I won't have this in my hot sweaty little hands until the 8hrs at Yellowmundi....if I'm lucky


* = The name of all shopmonkeys have been changed so I don't get sued!


Dropping like flies



Seems over the past week a couple of the contenders for the race this weekend have meet with accidents. John Claxton had an over the handlebars moment at the 6hr enduro in Victoria on Sunday. And James Williamson decided to fall down an embankment and break a collarbone.
Hope the two of them heal up quick.

Lance goes off!

This is probably one of the most controlled display of fury I have ever seen. While I respect Paul Kimmage for his stand against doping, he really crossed the line with his comments regarding Armstrong.