Riding around

[Alistar]

Sorry Mr C

Hey Cheers Bob! Unfortunately I had a shocker. My 3rd worst time in 8 attempts! Considering my 1st 2 were with bascally no training and on a shitty heavy bike thats bad! Weather was shit though. Cold wet rainy with a strong headwind and very slippery. Was strong up Dyers and along the tops but just had no stamina whatsoever. Kept in touch with my rather fast bunch down the wet treacherous Bastard. On one of the cattlestops on a corner this guy crashed slithered over the road and into a bank. Had mud caked all over his face and half his body. I did every thing right. I Braked before nice and slow, straigtened up and went sideways myself due to the camber So any tiny mistakes and it'd be all over. But he powered past me later on in the race still covered in shit with lots of scrapes. Tough bastard! Got in a good fast bunch of 20guys with some aging ex local hero's so I was going oh shit this could be tough! No hiding and we all had to do our bit. Then this bastard from Team mico plumming steamed past me just after I'd done a turn into the wind and put 4bikelengths on me, then everyone blasted past except for about 4of us. Later on they must have done the same and dropped more strugglers including Tim Mulliner( Mr C will know who that is). I looked behind me and there was no sign of following bunches so made a call just to work with 3 of them instead of waiting around (even though one just sat in for 10minutes) into the wind. We picked up a couple of more and then 5, then 7 of us started working well doing about 37 to 42kph into the 26kph Av headwind. Good turns with no one blasting off the front and fucking everything up. But by time I got to Hilltop was pretty well stuffed so just set my own slow tempo. Got to the top in around 25/26 minutes but just had to save myself and hope for a 2nd wind that never arrived. Just before the top the first woman was pulling along a bunch of guys all riding quite strongly but I couldn't stay with them so started riding by myself( Tim M stayed and finished with this bunch 10mins faster than me). Passed by another couple of bunches but they were forcing the pace and I was too slow. Absolutely crawling! Going 8kph up the hills! Just had a constant dribble of people passing me. Up the steepest section of the course this local Team guy( he's usually up the front somewhere) who should have been waay ahead was bonking worse than me if thats possible. I said some friendly words as I went past trying to make him feel better, but being a typical team guy wanker of course didn't respond. What a f#$king dick! Everyone else was nice and friendly as they went past. I was suffering too but gave the same back. Really pisses me as lots of these young guys think they're "hot shit" and are above talking to average plebs. You're only quite a good cyclist. Not the damn World champ Just typical though.

Riding through the cloud and rain and suddenly got really cold so put my gloves back on. Next hill was where I'd buried my coke and I jumped off my bike and it was still there. As I grabbed it and dusted it off a few riders emerged from the cloud but were gone by the time I jumped back on. Sculled it back over the next 10k's but nothing noticeable happened. Was just too far gone. One of my glutes and the top of my left hamstring was feeling really strained. Got passed by a few more people just before the last nasty hills before Long bay Rd. One guy was on my arse just at the top but passed me before the 1st 2 wrong cambered corners and brakes you had to keep pumping so they'd work when youuneeded them. I mean the extremely steep road surface was saturated and I was going pretty quick(max of 75.8kph!!), so this guy was really riding on the edge. But then I saw about 7 riders up ahead that had passed me over the last few k's freaking out on the descent and I blasted past them. Its a challenging descent in the dry, but it was so satisfying to pass a few people at last! Guy only put 11secs on me in the end though so I didn't do too bad.

Think from Hilltop to top of Long Bay rd it took me 1hr13 as I was just too wrecked to ride with any bunches. Best time for this section on race day is around 54minutes!

Oh well got in the top 100, and came 98th out of 484 finishes. And in the top 20 in my AG coming 19th which were my revised goals. Just a pity about the terrible time! 3hr10 was my revised goal time. Next Le race is in end of March so will make sure I'm prepared for that one! I've got the speed and strength up the hills just need to really work on my flat riding, and stamina.

94km (bit shorter as couldn't start in the ChCh Square and Cathedral as the CBD is fenced off and still all in ruins including the Cathedral)
3hr19:51 28.22kph Av 75.8kph Max(Long Bay rd)

Young Livestrong pro took it out in 2hr39 in that weather!

[bob_summers]

Hey Al, good going man, don't get down about it as I think you put in a great time considering the year you've had. The course looks pretty lumpy so it's gonna find any weak spots in your prep, so you did well just to dig in and do it. I'm sure you beat a lot of folk who put in a lot more training.
It's good that you don't have to wait 12mths for the next one, you can get training for it while the fire's still in your belly!

BTW you weren't wrong about the conditions, the weather looks disgusting in the photos....

[Mr. Cleetus]

Sounds like a tough day!!! Well done for sticking it out, it doesnt sound like it was much fun... I am amazed that the coke did nothing for you - must have been pushing yourself pretty hard! So there is nothing between now and Le Race?

[Alistar]

Thanks fella's!

...It's good that you don't have to wait 12mths for the next one, you can get training for it while the fire's still in your belly!
....

Yeah pretty pleased about that. I'm a better cyclist than I showed yesterday so have a chance to prove it in the not too distant future.
Be good drawing up a proper training plan too, with enough time to build up and prepare properly. I suppose no intervals and only one hilly ride for the last month, means in a hilly race at speed, the legs will be toast pretty quickly. As they just won't be able to recover from all the little(and sometimes large) surges that one constantly uses in race conditions.

Sounds like a tough day!!! Well done for sticking it out, it doesnt sound like it was much fun... I am amazed that the coke did nothing for you - must have been pushing yourself pretty hard! So there is nothing between now and Le Race?

Yeah 600mls and no expected surge of energy! Think probably cause the lactate levels in the legs were so high, and constant hills meaning no chance to recover and gain much benefit at that stage. Didn't do anything too stupid up Dyers and the Summit Rd either. Let the really fast guys go and kept in peoples drafts. Got to the top in 21mins from the start so was in the main quite big chasing bunch. Had to just do a few surges here and there to keep the wheel in front. But because I'm quite a good descender kept up with the more experienced guys that were once guns themselves down the Bastard, creating a split by probably a good minute by the bottom. This was my 1st major mistake but I thought I might get a good tow to bottom of Hilltop. I could read the names on their numbers so knew I probably should bale as these guys always beat me by quite a bit. This was my 2nd mistake. My 3rd was working with a few stragglers instead of sitting up and waiting, but I'm sure my fellow stragglers appreciated my work in the end, even if it killed me!
The truth was that I was probably only good for 90mins to 2hrs no matter how I rode before the tanks were empty. And 2hrs puts one exactly at the top of hilltop with 35 oddkm of tough hills to go. Instead because I burst the boiler on the flat I lasted for 90minutes. But at least I had a 4min buffer to the next bunch allowing me to take it easy up to the top so probably not much the worse for it? I was just underdone

Have got a 6hr teams race in 2 weeks. Then have the FoC in December in Waipara, but not sure whether to do it on the mtb or roadie yet.
Also have the Round the Mountain race in Taranaki on the 12th?January which should keep me motivated

[Alistar]

That was interesting yesterday. Had our biggest rain since last yr. Coincidentally exactly the same amount, or 57.5mm. The difference was in the way it flooded. Have never seen water over half the Teddington straight or the Wheatsheaf pub and surrounds under so much water. We've had more rain than that before too. Akaroa highway was closed due to floods too.
Coming back from Town via Gebbies from the other direction was worried the Van wouldn't make it through the water as it was that high.
Not sure if the EQ's have stuffed the drainage or if the land has moved slightly or a bit of both? A tiny bit higher here and a tiny bit lower there, although invisible to the naked eye, could make quite a difference in the way the water drains and where it floods...

Oh well went for a bit of a ride up the Bastard into town to quickly drop into work and back up Dyers. Good I didn't thrash myself after bonking in Le Race, as that just ends in cooked, damaged legs you can't use for weeks for just being a few minutes faster overall. So now I feel I've got benefit from it which is a bonus So felt stronger today than I have for awhile.

17:28 up the Bastard
25min from Bottom
17:03(7min53 SOT split) up Dyers so no wonder I wasn't up to speed in Le Race
1hr06 town
55min54 home (fastest for awhile)

57.13km 2hr10:11 26.3kph Av 72.2kph Max

[Alistar]

Just went mtbing with my team mates to get our cornering right for next week's team race. Had to borrow my mates FS epic tank(12.5kgs) with terribly slow mud tyres(on hardpack) pumped up with what felt like about 15psi. Oh well at least it was good resistance training . Had a terrible 1st lap getting used to mtbing again and his steering. My cornering was pretty bad so wasn't too efficient at keeping up my momentum. Steering anything but snappy so had to really lean into the corners much more than usual. Then to top it off I was also pretty slow in a straight line. So couldn't keep up with my mate on his 29er with his fast tyres. However he's technically pretty good around the corners, and I'm still a bit loose. Lap 2 was quite a bit better and I wasn't touching the brakes so much, so using less energy getting back up to speed. But still not quite there.

Team member 3 is a big strapping muscular guy of about 6ft3 but his power isn't what you'd expect for his size, and has terrible endurance! He was trying really hard when it was his turn on the front, able to go a good speed, but obviously into the red straight away, so it wasn't long before he was cooked. Needs to go for some long rides( which for him is over 40minutes I think ). So unfortunately could only do 2laps instead of 3 or only 30k's. And I was only just getting warmed up...

Oh well my bike is all built up with new fork etc except for the right shifter and front brake which is still to arrive. Really hope I get the parts before Saturday as really don't want to use my mates bike. My bike weighs 10.3kgs as is, which is better than I thought it would be, so at least it will be under 11kgs all built up. However brake cables etc are a bit long so will have to get a bikeshop to sort it out after the day.

mtb 30k's

[Mr. Cleetus]

Make sure to post some pics of the bike when its ready! Sounds like you and I would make an impressive vegan mtb team with our skills. Maybe we should get bob down here to teach us some things.

[Alistar]

Ha! yeah sounds like a great idea. You in Bob? You can be our go 2 guy when things get tough!

My old "suicide bike" as my mate disparaglingly likes to calls it( due to roadbike like position, too low BB, rabbit warren handlebars, and v–brakes which are fine once you realise you just have to squeeze them harder ) was actually heaps faster at 10kgs flat than his epic tank with mud tyres. Steering was snappy and I had no problem keeping up with him on his 29er especially with LTT's pumped up to 40psi last time I rode that course with him. But then I suppose it depends what you're used to. On his old epic it feels like you have to start leaning five m's before the corner!

Oh well nailbiting night last night watching the All Blacks play the final of the RWC against the French in a game I can't say I enjoyed one bit! I've seen us fold in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 didn't look much different. NZers mostly fueled by a cocky media just don't seem to learn going on and on how we'd waste the French. NZers are generally not too sophisticated, and basically "hard grafters." We always try our best and so have to win every game we play. We don't go "well we can take it a bit easy in this game, and this one, and save our energy to take out the title" No we graft it out each game which is probably why we were the only team to not lose any matches. France couldn't really be too bothered losing to us in pool play as it wasn't a knock out game, and again took it a bit easy against Tonga so lost against them as well. Wales in the semi finals were down a man due to a red card so the French basically turned off and were quite lucky to get the win in the end.
Its always a grudge match against Australia and in the semi finals both teams played out of their skins but the AB's due to a bit more firepower and x factor in the backs took it out. So the AB's were always going to find it tough to have another fantastic game in the final just because both sides were really beaten up and I don't think I've ever seen so much blood in a Rugby match.
So it was a total slug fest in the end against the French. We seemed to be quite dominant in the 1st half but could only put five points on the board which was never going to be enough. The French just came at us in the 2nd half and seemed to be getting the better and slightly outmuscling us and then it was 7–5 to them. We were down to our 5th choice #10(Johhny Wilkinson's position) and had no one else in the whole country after our 4th choice got injured. This guy has copped heaps of flack in his career and held responsible for losing key matches in the past so was great that he was the guy who scored the winning points as an "up you" to his critics. So good to somehow win by just one point in the end as otherwise would have had to listen to a gloating World sports media go on and on about us been the Worlds biggest chokers etc etc. Which is pretty bad considering NZers are hard enough on themselves as a general rule. Phew!

Sorry for my boring Rugby speel...onto more important things
Felt like a longer ride today but not too difficult after my resistance training yesterday so just headed up to Akaroa Hilltop. Was a tailwind to Birldlings flat(30k's away) then a headwind hanging a 90degree left to Little River and Hilltop and vice versa on way home. ITB like yesterday tightened up (heading out to Birdlings) so have some work to do there. I really need to get my strength up as have been doing too much spinning up the hills instead of grinding it out in a bigger gear on occasion as well as all the other strength work. Le Race meant going too far into the red on legs not strong enough so legs struggling a bit to heal up after the sudden effort. Just one of those courses where any weakness gets shown up. Was reassurring to see even much better, stronger faster climbers than me(up Dyers a minute faster than me when at my best) getting dropped and riding by themselves along the Summit Rd in the photo's too.

Got attacked 5 times by magpies again but had a stick to frantically wave around my head which was great as it meant the magpies would just fly 10m away and not bother dive– bombing me until I was out of their territory so a win win I thought.

Gebbies 6mins4
Little River 1hr17
bottom Hilltop 1hr25:21
Top 1hr50:07(headwind)
Gebbies 7min10
Last Hill 4min12

98.24km 3hr32:10 27.8kph Av 72.6kph Max

[Mr. Cleetus]

... I can't say I enjoyed one bit! I've seen us fold in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 didn't look much different...

you ain't kidding.

[Alistar]

Oh well had our 6hr teams race yesterday. Parts didn't arrive so had to borrow the mates old "epic". Actually quite amazing the difference different tyres make. Got it down to 12.2kgs in the end and it was rolling so much better and faster with the hardpack tyres

Day dawned quite foggy and as we drove past the airport we were wondering if it would still be open? But just before the start are 10am you could see it lifting and the Sun nearly shining through. I was up first and this year had a 300m "Le Mans" start. With 1260 odd riders and 300+ teams and solo competitors it was only going to be mayhem. I'd hurt my ankle somehow on Tuesday so it was very stiff on Wed and Thursday making it difficult to walk but although still sore had started to come right by Saturday but still not 100percent. Quite uneven ground with lots of large stones around so wasn't going to push it.
Was cool to exchange a few words with the World's 2nd best Junior mtber (beat the European champ by a minute one week then the next week came 2nd at the World champs after crashing on the 1st lap). Of course I knew who he was but didn't let on( he must get sick of that). Really nice down to earth kid too who had no hint of arrogance or a big head. My God he is fast though!

So we all spread out on the startline thinking it'd be a straight sprint to our bikes leaned up against the far fenceline. But of course we all had to be hearded into this narrow little lane and after reaching the corner then run parrallel to fence before trying to find our bikes. Anyway after the start had 300+ people thundering down and bottlenecking into this few metre strip so was quite hard to not trip over the guys heals in front considering I was in the middle and getting squeezed. Took awhile to find my friend holding my bike and by this stage was at least halfway back and could already see people taking off on their 1st lap 300m away while I and the people around were walking our bikes waiting for the space to be able to jump on our bikes and ride off, instead of only being able to walk. On the 4WD tracks it was trying to pass as many as possible before the singletrack. Got stuck behind a few people on old bikes who just couldn't corner(at all) and were anthing but smooth! And although an easy slow pace due to the shear volume of people a gap would open up in front of them and you just couldn't pass on the windy singletrack which was quite frustrating. But luckily there were a few long 4WD tracks where you could pass so good interval training trying to get past as many as possible! But still a relatively easy lap.

After a few laps started to spread out so a lot less holdups. Heard from a team mate that this old guy was down with paramedics etc all around and he didn't look good. Then on next lap went flying out of these trees and suddenly was met with this cordened off area across the track with no marshall around so had to haul on the anchors to avoid going into them. Wasn't long on the altered track before coming across this big burly slightly overweight bloke lying flat on his back with lots of people around. He didn't look good either.

After finishing my lap wasn't long before the helicopter arrived and landed behind a block of trees to I assume pick up the 1st guy my teammate had biked past. So thought that was a good sign he was still alive. Wasn't until I got home I read this

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/5 ... clist-dies

And apparently another cyclist(3) from the day was admitted to hospital with a heart attack too so a crazy day.

Anyway I was fine to halfway through my last fifth lap when the legs died so lost a few minutes to my previous times. So out of 40odd teams in our category we were sitting in 4th place by a minute after about 8laps and by 12 had moved up to 3rd place by about the same so thought we'd have 3rd place in the bag. But there seemed to be a few teams complaining about missed laps after the event so perhaps because of this, or us fading worse than them didn't make the podium Poohs! Will be interesting studying the results when they put them up anyway.

50km 1hr50:53 27kph Av

[Mr. Cleetus]

Well done Al! Did you have fun? Where did you end up in the end?

[bob_summers]

Sad to hear about the heart attacks, must be just bad luck and sheer coincidence that all happened at one event, but you'll get the armchair doctors proclaiming that sport is lethal after 40,....
Sounds like a great race though, wish we had that format here. Keep us posted on your placing!

[Alistar]

Yeah its a cool fun event Bob, and really well run. Seems to be getting just a bit too popular though so a lot of traffic to get through if you don't get a good start. Re HA's never happened in all the other times they've run it so does seem a little strange. But then if you've got any underlying conditions (or are just plain unfit and unhealthy), an event like this where you're going as hard as you can for the team, is going to bring them out unfortunately.

Thanks Mr C! As can be seen from my edited post I wasn't anywhere near as fast as I initially stated. Must have missed a lap Official lap results

Lap 1 22:17
2 21:37
3 21:54
4 22:30
5 22:35

Oh well we came 5th in our vets Category(1st open mens team came 40th overall) and 16th overall in the 6hr out of 223 teams and 53 solo riders.
The initial updates must have been waay out. Seems they missed a lap with the team in the front and it looks we were always in the 5th place that we ended up in, and never at any stage were we in 4th or 3rd position as the "race updates" led us to believe. No wonder I was surprised at the time!
We missed 3rd place by 6min01 btw

My 2nd and 3rd teammate were 5mins and 13mins slower than me respectively. Too much meat and dairy :wink

Spotted a couple of sub 18min laps in the 12hr results But generally the fast guys were in the 19/20min range so I was quite a bit off the pace. But still good for an average pleb
That last lap surprised me as my legs died halfway, but I s'pose the fact I had a clear track without riders afterwards meant I could keep my momentum up so didn't lose as much time as I thought. I did knock a slow rider off in my 4th lap after I touched his handlebars poor guy , and stopped to see if he was ok. And afterwards felt a bit bad so didn't pass again until next 4WD track so that would have wiped a few secs off that lap.

Yeah I had a lot of fun. Mates bike wasn't too bad but felt it definitely slowed me down a little. Old technology I suppose? There were a lot of 29ers there. Seem to be taking over! Hmmm... But I am lacking a bit of power and hence speed at the moment so I did feel the heaviness of the bike as a lot of accelerations were needed in constantly slowing for, then passing slower riders. But all depends what you're used to. My rigid was 10kgs flat I found, and probably better suited to the course as suspension wasn't really needed. There were a lot of people faster than me but I only got passed by a few bigger riders on the day, so I spose I didn't do too badly.

[Alistar]

No riding this week except for following my daughter and youngest son around their training routes for athletics day that is coming up.

Oh well built up my mtb bike. Have been too busy this weekend to attach the rear gears and attach outers so its nearly in working condition. Just need another decent "ust" tyre to go with my Larsen TT as the 1.9 I've got on it at the moment looks like a cyclocross tyre. Crossmark rear?Ignitor?Advantage? ...hmmm
Anyway its 10.9kgs with the bar ends. 10.8kgs without. Need a bike shop to shorten the brake cables as I'm worried me and my legs will get tangled up in them

Today had to pick up the partners car from town so just did a loop da loop past the SOK a couple of times before dropping into town. Went Govs SOK Town Mot Gebbies Bastard SOK.
Felt pretty good like I had a little more power on the flat from the good race interval training last Sat, although my left thigh is a bit blown. Tried to keep climbing in the saddle up the hills a bit more. Left Glute a bit sore initially from an old strain but probably is also weaker than it should be. But think it will do my strength some good in the end.

29:49 Govs
43:33 SOK
1hr53:02 Gebbies
2hrs00:07 Top
2hrs18:24 Top Bastard
2hrs37 something SOK

2hrs49:49 75.63 26.7kph Av 71.4kph max

[Alistar]

Haven't felt any EQ's for a week. We're so used to them it now not feeling them seems a bit strange

Took the bike to work for a change Not used to backing up 2 days after my last ride so legs a bit heavy. Gear cable about to snap and was meant to check it out after Sundays ride but forgot. Anyway couldn't get into my 25 and impossible to adjust gears so just keep in the one I had. Yep legs definitely weak and struggled a bit up the hills in a bigger gear than was comfortable while sitting. Speed was OK though but I really need to have more regular rides if I want to get off this plateau.
Anyway when I confirmed the cable was about to snap anytime at work went home via the LBS. Changed gears as little as possible so often I was at quite a slow cadence, which was good as it worked my weak muscles well. Totally smashed when I got home and took me a couple of hrs to get my energy back. But I think I was a bit dehydrated all day which prob didn't help.

Govs 29:49
Dyers 14:57
Work 59:02
Dyers 18:45
Last hill 4:20
Home 1hr01:47

2hrs01:49 53.1km 26.15kph Av 68.8kph Max