Riding around

[Alistar]

Sorry, probably made skate school sound a bit more special than it actually is. On Thursday he has an hrs skateboard tuition after school from his teacher(an Englishman) who's a keen skateboarder. They just call it "skate school". He went from Cape Reinga to the Bluff on his skateboard a few years back to raise money for some charity, before settling down in Lyttelton with a Kiwi las I think, and getting a job in our kids school. Fantastic teacher too!

We have 4terms here. 1st Hols around Easter, then July, then Sept/Oct. Actually they had 2weeks off in July and had their 1st week back at school last week. Summer holidays go for six weeks starting just before Christmas, and the school year starts around late Jan/early Feb.

[Alistar]

Meant to be a "Winter Wonderland" by early afternoon according to the forcasters so was planning to get out early. 11:15am and out the door I go! Did an effort up Gebbies and Bastard admiring the approaching impressive Southerly front. Thought I might have around 30mins to 1hr before I got caught out. Thought it would be smart to head for home after the SOK but wanted a half decent ride so thought stuff it, and headed into town and around through Tai Tapu the long way home via Gebbies. Front was getting closer and closer and more impressive. Around the base of the Port hills couldn't see it. Went over a rise around the Halswell downes and thought "shit! I'm f#$ked!" as I was far from home and this black wall with swirling blankets of what I thought was snow was going to be heralding the start of 2days of snow as promised by the forcasters. Wind got up and it started hailing. Had to cover my face with my hand to stop it stinging. Within five minutes the road was covered in pea sized hail and was worried if it kept up the road would soon be unrideable. Was really glad to see blue sky behind it as I realised it was just a pre cursor to following bad weather. Phew! Really tough ride to Motukarara into the freezing Southerly and was down to 20/21kph mostly. Feet turned into 2 blocks of ice and couldn't feel them. So very glad to turn for home at the "Blue Duck" with a strong tailwind Nice cruising along at 40kph at times, as was getting tired from my previous efforts. Sun came out up Gebbies which was great to finally let the feet finally thaw out with the wind at my back.

Snow has missed us so far. Coldest air seems to still be a bit furthur out to the West of the country but should move over us in the next 12hrs or so.

24:13 up Gebbs and Bastard combined
1hr8 at bottom of Dyers townside
2hr10 Blue Duck?
2hr16:33 bottom of Gebbies
8mins23 Gebbies
4min43 last hill

2hr43:32 70.31km 25.7kphAv 68.8kph Max

[soniczip]

hc rides over there are you planning some m biking once snow is there?

[Mr. Cleetus]

gonna go for a ride today Al? lovely day for it.

[Alistar]

@ SZ Hmmm...my bike is awaiting new chainrings and is pretty much unrideable. Last race had dirt like grinding paste and now chain skips terribly! Have received half of them but the other half are still in transit . But even so I wouldn't make it too far in this weather with fifteen cm of dry powder and 1.9" tyres!

Yeah lovely eh Mr C! You get any snow settling on the ground up there? Bit of hail starting between snow flurries and quite windy. Meant to be another blast of snow mid day or so. Think I'll have to get the snowboard out later and ride down some of the steeper local roads. Be fine now, but still need moar powder! Until then will be hanging out by the fire

[bob_summers]

We have the same idea of an early ride

Only one thing worse than riding in hail... riding in hail with a coldsore. Last time that happened I was gonna get off and walk if one more hailstone hit me on the lip

[Alistar]

Funny you should write that as for the first time in my life after feeling run down with this strange cold thing for a couple of weeks got my 1st ever coldsore on my lip! So now I can empathize. Ouch! But I've probably been infected for ages. Partner gets them occasionally, but this is the 1st time one has ever erupted on my lip ever. Thought I must be immune

Oh well had the biggest snowfall in 19yrs... again on Monday . Which was bigger than the last "biggest snowfall in 19yrs". Weather was horrendous, with a biting cold strong Southerly that lasted all week. Stopped snowing on Tuesday but then just turned to rain and sleet. Cloud after big cloud like a conveyor belt just didn't stop. Weather system didn't move, just got sightly weaker over time. Wellington got lots of snow settling too which doesn't happen too often. Even snowed in New Plymouth where I'm from (never snows there) and in Auckland for the 1st time since 1970 something. But didn't settle there of course. However seems strange they had snow flurries in 8.1degreesC( their lowest ever daytime recorded temp). Although was caught on film. Here it has to be less than 4C for us to get even flurries

Anyway kids had a great time. What pissed me off was that my son had been playing around on my snowboard and had my boots and was playing off somewhere. So by the time I got both S.board and boots back 20mins later and trapsed to the far side of this hilly road with the near 20percent gradient on it... and just before I reached position.... Suddenly this f#$king grader whips up from the main road and grades all the snow away All I got was very hot from all the layers and some blisters on my ankles to show for it(really need some new boots!). Bastard!

Also had 3 EQ's over mag4 the last few days which is good to remind everyone that we can still get the odd reasonable one for awhile yet.

Anyway biked into town today via the Bastard to catch up on a few hours work. Still had 2ft of snow all along the Summit Rd from when it got graded. But still quite a lot around. Most of it lower down has all been rained away. Not sure if it was the booze last night or the backpack but legs were quite heavy up the hills. Anyway 25:42 for the combo.
1hr20 to work.
Went the longway home into the headwind all the way to Motukarara. A real struggle and was having a hard time keeping above 25kph to Tai Tapu on the flat, and was down to about 22/23kph to the Blueduck at Motukarara. This time the wind wasn't a direct tail to Gebbies Pass down the valley like nearly always, and was basically nuetral in helping my speed which was a bit annoying as was starting to struggle with legs lactating up. 8min3 up Gebbies but at least a good tail from the top all the way home even though travelling in exactly the same direction. Stupid wind! Didn't bonk but pretty smashed by the time I got home

18:38 Bastard
25:42 Gebbies and Bastard combo
1hr20 town
8min03 Gebbies
5min07 Last hill

3hr11flat 78.01km 24.4kph Av 71.4kph Max

[Mr. Cleetus]

... trapsed to the far side of this hilly road with the near 20percent gradient on it... and just before I reached position.... Suddenly this f#$king grader whips up from the main road and grades all the snow away All I got was very hot from all the layers and some blisters on my ankles to show for it(really need some new boots!). Bastard!...

haha! that's awesome. sorry

[bob_summers]

No idea what a grader is but top marks for getting out riding in the snow Al!

[Alistar]

@Mr C I've had that fantasy ever since I've lived here too. Might have to wait another decade or so

@ Bob. Heaps of "graders"( heavy machinery things used to flatten rough ground) on Google images if you want to check them out. Actually it wasn't really a proper grader, just a heavy roadworkers truck with an angled blade on the front scooping all the snow off the roads. Noticed they've also graded all the cateye reflector light thingies that used to all be spaced evenly in the middle of the roads( also a bit raised so your car tyres bump over them if you cross the centre line). Not a one left! All broken and smashed on the roadsides now! Will cost the Council 1000's to replace!

Yeah I did get to go down the lame side of the hill once at least( 8percent tops) but was actually quite disapointing.

Oh well went for a midweek ride tonight Crazy! Tested out my newish light, heaps better than my old one. Just went to Lyttelton and back. Quite chilly but not too bad. Very dark with New Moon in a few days so no light from the moon. Not so many people driving out there which was good, but as I haven't biked much over there recently even in the daytime wasn't sure where all the new lumps, bumps, fixed up cracks and potholes etc were so found a few new ones. Impressed with my wheels, good quality spokes at least(touch wood). My old ones would have broken about five spokes by now
But man was I slow. Lucky I couldn't see my speedo as would have been torture Air seemed really cold, dense and heavy and felt like I had the brakepads rubbing again. But it was just me Recently I've had 6days off to recover b/t rides!
Strange riding down whats left of Lytteltons short main street for the first time since Feb. Historic buildings,theatres gone, empty supermarket and new spaces taken over by some of the locals. Looked like temporary bars/cafe's had sprung up housed in big tents or something? Oh well at least the people were getting out and about...

When I got back to Govs noticed to my horror my time was less than 1min faster than my old fast times when I use to do a extra six k's to top of Evans Pass and back . Soon my virtual self had passed me and put another five minutes on me by the time I got home. Not sure if it was the cold, but my CC only read 40k's instead of around 47km so said I'd only averaged 21kph I mean, I was slow... But not that slow!

47km? 1hr50:44 65.7kph Max

[Alistar]

After really struggling on Tuesday felt pretty good today and seem to have recovered a bit of fitness on my commute to work today. Was over 20degrees yesterday( felt scorching!) and 18 today. The daffodils are all out. Yay! Really nice calm day.
Tried to do a good time up both sides of Govs to see where I'm at and it went a lot better than expected.
Few more heavy trucks are using Dyers pass due to Evans being closed forever which really sucks as its a really narrow road. I darted into an offshooting rd to let one go past. Didn't want to risk being squashed. Again hoofed it home as needed to pick up my son. Was a heap faster there and back than last time so really pleased. Seems I still had a bit of residual fitness hiding in there somewhere. Still need to get a hell of a lot faster if I'm going to have any chance of posting a half decent time in Le Race coming up in 7weeks!

Any tips on training? Not sure how I should approach it with so little time? Think I might just hope that I've already got a couple of weeks of residual basetraining in the legs from a couple of months ago and take it easy–ish for a couple of weeks extend the distance, time on bike with the odd effort, and see how the body responds, and if feeling good might then add in more intensity...

31:21 Govs
14:31 Gov to SOK
1hr00:13 there
17:41 Dyers to SOK
4min12 last hill
57:25 Home

[bob_summers]

Just looking at the profile of Le Race, recognised a few place names
I'd push on with building some strength as 100km isn't much further than a lot of the training rides you've been doing, you should have the base for it. Obviously building up so you don't pull something!
What's your goal for it? If you're after a good time, then I guess it boils down to keeping your powder very very dry on the SOK climb, then being in a fast group that you can live with for that big flat section, then shelling them on the climb at 55km
I'd like to have a go at that. Seems like anything much over 100k leaves me either clutching my foot or getting sick, but I'm usually good over the first 3 hrs!

[Mr. Cleetus]

I think it would be about the right time to start adding in some shorter efforts too. Start adding some intensity in - you want to be able to hang with the higher pace and any surging. I would think some shorter 4-5min efforts on the climbs could be good (with decent recovery), and doing some simulated surging over/under kind of stuff might be handy too.

[Alistar]

Hey thanks for the advice guys
Yeah there's a lot of pace changing at times up some of the longer hills and steep inclines. Note to self: I refuse to be dropped on that same hill this year heading to the Okains Bay turnoff 20k's before the finish (Bastards always sprint up there! )!

Yeah think you'd enjoy it Bob! Actually a great intense race and you fit in a lot of action in those 3hrs. Not long, but still surprisingly testing due to the gradients and up and down nature of the race.
Goals as always are to get in the top fifty overall and hopefully make it somewhere around the top 10 in my AG. Don't know how realistic this will be but will give it a good go ayway Level seems to be getting higher every year...

Oh well had a couple of harder sessions the last couple of days. Did a quick loop up to the SOK and home on Saturday and did a big effort up Gebbs and the Bastard and did a surprisingly good time to me (a light but steady Southerly blowing). Much faster than the week before. On the way home did about 4 short 10sec sprints up the last hill and got to the top faster than I have for awhile. Felt much better up the top than when I do a consistant effort the whole way and don't change my pace. Saw 3guys ahead I'd seen going the other way on the Summit Rd(2 roadies and 1 guy on a 29er) Then blasted past them at the top of the last pinch climb and held 40kph over the crest(bit of a tail which helped). Funny thing was when I drove to town with the family I saw them again up the top of Dyers pass. The 2roadies were waiting for there 29er riding mate who had had to get off and rest at the last 13percent section looking totally gone Don't think he'll be taking his 29er out for a 3hr road ride for awhile...

21:45 Gebbs/Bastard combo
5:59 Gebbs
15:39( 4:30 to 1st cattlestop) Bastard plus a few secs for the transition.
58:10 SOK
3:45 last hill

1hr30:34 39.76km 26.3kph Av 72.6kph Max

Today pumped up the tyres on the mtb aand biked off to meet a friend in town for some mtbing around McCleans Island.
Was running late so had to go quite hard. Was surprised at my time up Govs to SOK and wasn't much slower than last time I did it on the roadie. Drove out to the track, and did a couple of laps averaging about 27kph. Then afterwards rode home. Really felt the lactate in the legs from the higher exertions on the mtb so wasn't so fresh on the way home. Bloody good resistance training though.

15:17 Govs to SOK on mtb with 1.9 +2.0 nobblies on
21:50 Dyers
5:07 last hill

78km 3hrs 30? riding time (don't have a CC on my mtb)

[Alistar]

Got out Tuesday. Felt really quite exhausted from a hard few sessions and sudden increase in volume. HR was really low so just went for a 90min flat recovery ride. Saw this bright haze of pollen above the pine plantations at Gebbies. The wind suddenly got up and like a cloud blew all over me. Had to keep my Sunnies on in the fading light to stop it getting in my eyes, and could feel and taste this gritty feeling in my mouth. Luckily I don't get hayfever or asthma or I might have been in trouble! Light enough to see the CC playing up and not reading the right speed due to transmitter running low on batteries so a bit intermittent. So no wonder some of the km readings/av speed seemed quite a bit lower than they should have been recently.

Couldn't get out today damn it! My boy has had a fever of 39 the last few days but thankfully its gone back to normal now, so I had to stay home. Then a Southerly front came through just when I was able to get out so didn't fancy a dark ride in the hail. Soft I know...