Training Log Archive: Yak

Parked at Laura and rode with Steve (another blazeaid helper) on a marked cycle trail all on minor rds, road reserves and rail trail.
Figure of 8 if start in midle and probably about 35 km.
From Laura went west into hils where fire had been and included some single tk, then down to halfway between Laura and Stone hut, then back west into lynch rd and down mawson trail to stone hut and 8 km back to laura. This took roughly 2 hrs, excluding a stop to talk to a farmer. Was quite warm. Then did 20 mins riding all the strets of laura.
Todays work was at another property of an 80÷ year old couple - John and Helen Emery dam rd Wongyarra. Two more fences finished around their house block. Theirs was a very tidy property and they had cleaned up a fair bit already.

Ride on 29 er in evening. Wirrabara - stone hut, up mawson trail to Forest - around and back to Wirrabara.
Contrary to what i had been told not all of the forest has been destroyed.
Old cemetery and all that busha area is untouched, as is the entire forest block between there and the forest hq and yha.
Old nursery is prety decimated with just a few trees spared.
Worked from 7.30 to 4.30 rebuilding fences on Lindsey &Christine Hobbs property, learning many new skills.
They lost 1 of their houses and a whole collection of antique furniture, 3 vintage cars,many sheds, and almost al their farm equipment.
After the initial fire they rebuilt the front fence but then ha it washed away when they had 180m in a short time.
Their main very modest house survived because it had about 20 metres of lawn around it. The 4 horses and about 30 sheep also survived by standing tere and werent too panicked evintly.

C • Great work 3

Bal group ride.
Very hilly with most of climb in first half
Bal - Woodside - Up Tiers - Up Collins - Up Basket Range Rd - Up thru Uraidla, Summertown to Mt Lofty then down to Stirling.
I actually did really well on the steep climbs ...probably better than ever.

After having about 12 doing the first half only 4 of us did the second half of the long course..
Stirling - Heathfield - Bradbury - Mylor - Echunga - Hahndorf - Balhannah.
Quads started to feel the effects of last night on the small climbs on the return.

went to doc afterwards re pain in chest at night for last few days ... ECG all gd, he was surprised that heart rate was only 55, blood tests tomorrow.
Also off to Wirrabara tomorrow for 5 days of fence repair ...perhaps not so much riding.

Another lovely 25 degree day.
Did 2 fringe shows - Bitch Boxer (7.5 out of 10 from me) Was 1 young girl who did well with a limited storyline.
All Guns Blazing - Jeff Green Great comedy act. 9.5 out of 10.

Distance and time a guess but Nicole told me the climb from last weeks ride.
Rode with kev Pullen (SA's best 24 hr rider) and Nicole & Michael Chaffey and 4 others.
Waterfall Gully - PWT - Bullocks - Beluah Tk (rutty and all up) - Crafers - Eagle Pk - back up past former Eagle Pub - Bullocks - PWT.
I was pleasantly surprised as several were slower than me on hills, incl Nicole. Had to do last half by self, as I didn't have lights and they were fixing a puncture and time was getting short, after 6pm start.
Thus very slow in Eagle which is horribly rutted and slippery.
Did ok seeing I had little sleep last night.

Saw a deer, koala on track and trillions of kangaroos reluctant to get out of the way in Eagle. Then about 20 deer in 2 different places coming down Bullocks - just next to the unofficial new "venison track."
Sunset was brilliant, with blue below the red.
Very dark descending into waterfall Gully.

Luckily i had arranged a 1pm ride tod#y with others or else i wouldnt have got out.
Struggled to get out of bed, and felt like s....
Met at Nicole M,s at wattle pk and led Stu, Nev and Louise over to Waterfall gully, up Chambers, up to Cleland and across towards Crafers and along Adventure way / Chinamans tk, down Bullocks, pWT
Same as Thursday.
I climbed pretty well but got killed on gravelly descents and finished feeling a bit fluey again.

mt bike ride with Phil & Anna Hazell from Cromer.
Followed Mawson trail up to High Eden and a bit beyond and then I led them down a PAR rd which Heysen Trail uses to Williamstown rd
Then into Mt Crawford to cemetery, forest HQ, Chalks rd and back to Cromer.
Lovely day out.

Proud that I forced myself out after: a) meeting went an hour over time, b) I got sick, literally (v & d) for no apparent reason.

Did one of my favourite loops - Waterfall Gully - Chambers Gully - Cleland - Adventure track - almost Crafers - Bullock tk - PWT.

Was lovely as bush has been brightened up by the recent rain and trees were very green ...riding up a narrow channel between the blackberries was like doing a TDF climb... Views again on way down were fantastic
Only saw a couple of other people.
On "Dougie" - 26 inch bike which felt like a midget at first. Lovely handling.

Bal gp ride
Started 5 mins ahead so as to do the bike path - Oakbank - Woodside - Charlston. (the next section to Mt Torrens seems to be coming along well and looks great)
Then popped out just ahead of fast group but they dropped me on one of the bigger climbs (on alternate route) to Mt Torrens. Inexplicably they stopped and waited for me there, so I stuck like glue to the front half (rest got dropped) thru to Birdwood, Gumeracha and Cudlee Creek.

After break headed off for the dreaded Fox Ck - I came 10cms from riding over a black snake on the way. Climb never gets any easier and this time the 6 ahead of me hadn't waited so it was a solitary ride from there, though with someone in sight the whole way.
Lenswood - up past Forest Range - L onto the 3-4 min deviation Rd climb and then the lovely 4 km gentle ride down to Carey Gully, with brilliant views. L back to Balhannah.

River Torrens walk.

Struggling with L shoulder, which is worse after physio yesterday.
Evidently a lot of my muscles at the back have moved! And my shoulder feels incredibly loose (and sore) when walking..

Been watching Winter (extreme) Games.
How do Aussie aerialists do so well when they only land in water in Australia..?

Short ride as watched winter Olympics most of night.
Up Norton Summit and over to Marble Hill and down Montacute, again stopping for a blackberry munch.
Successfully chased down Bicycle Express female owner on Marble Hill ascent.
Went to see Sally Pearson run 100 & 200m athletics - In pretty horrible conditions and with no opposition she ran well. Her warm up was impressive ... about 7 x 50/75 metres flat out.

Spent a lot of time digging a drain ans bailing water from my backyard which was covered in 18 inches of water.
Shed got swamped so more cleaning the to be done.
Had a brief kayak!
Wettest day in adelaide for 45 years just after a 42 degree day.
Also cleaned out my wardrobe and gave about 10 kg of clothes to salvos..
Have about 10 spare jerseys if anyone needs one
Also found that i had 50 bidons!!

C • Did you kayak in the back yard? 2

Walk along Riv Torrens smelling the wet gum trees.
Came across a koala on the walking path!
L Shoulder very sore - saw physio.

Worked until 4pm at home on computer and phone without aircon on and went outside to find it was 41 degrees plus.
So decided my first real swim of the year was in order. Only had 2 people to share my lane with at Payneham which was amazing.
My troublesome L shoulder hurt a lot - it has been feeling loose over the last few months. So couldn't swim hard and had to mix in some breastroke and 200m of drills.

Took most of my Dad's x-rays to Red Cross today - they recycle them for their silver content.

Some Tues riders had decided to ride today instead of tomorrow because of the weather forecast.
I drove up from Goolwa but only Susie was doing the longer course. Went from Bal - Oakbank - Oakwood rd - Swamp rd to Lenswood then up Lobethal - adel rd to Basket Range rd (steep up for over a km @ 12-15%) and onto Uraidla - Summertown - Mt Lofty summit
Then a quick return via Crafers - Bridgewater - Verdun.
Bit shorter than I would have liked but hilly in first half.

Ate some blackberries (my first for the season) en route and then picked some more on way home.
will be nice to sleep in my own bed instead of the floor ..
Gave most garage sale excess to Wildlife carers down at Goolwa but still came home with a carload of stuff.
Anyone want:
- a 1940's 8 mill Keystone movie projector & camera?
- various records;
- 1920 Manual of the Holy Catholic Church signed by the Archbishop of Chicago;
- quality teak side table ...

Thinking of my friends up Melrose, Wirrabara and Laura way as they are again threatened by bushfire ...been going on now for almost a month.
Hope Wirrabara YHA survives too.
Taralee Orchards is under threat again today.

Hardish short ride from Goolwa along the bike track to Pt eliot and return, just beating darkness.
Lovely colours and ideal light with sea and coasts.

Cruise around Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island in late evening after doing garage sale all day.

Travel to Goolwa and sort out 30 years of junk of parents for a garage sale ver the weekend.

Just a short ride up ride up the Gorge to Cudlee Creek cafe and return , starting just before 10am' so it wasnt cool.

No stopping at cafe as vets gp were just about to return so i rode with them home, though had to chase after each descent as they go faster down than me.
Had 3 double trucks pass me in the gorge, with the last one actualy being polite and waiting until i indicated to pass.
Forgot to time myself for the main climb which was annoying but i felt like i was climbing easier and in a bigger gear.
Was in top third of the guys on the return climbs which dented a few egos.
Heard that Marty Nieunhoven had his top of thwe line bike stolen at the vic park races last night - devastated for him as he has been training hard and doing well.

Mornung walk from my friends super apartment mid town thru several parks.
Saw the same homeless man i had seen over a week of visits in Victoria Park.
So i took hime my left over food and $5 for a coffee or whatever and he was mightily pleased.
Had a chat, his name is Eddie. Most pele treat him as invisible.
Upgraded on flight to Melbourne but then got home, to a hot house to discover that last night,s big win had caused a power outage, and 24 hours later my area is still in the dark.
Luckily the weather is quite mild.

C • Welcome back to Adelaide 5

Half an hour walk to Post office to send 2 kg of stuff home, as im overweight in the luggage department.

Recovery ride along the beaches, past Mision beach and around some streets and an old volcano and return.
Quads hurt whenever i pointed the bike upwards!
Cath had told me to be sure to look at the views from a certain headland.
There was a nudist beach below with about 20 nude guys and 3 women all dressed.

Timber trail point to point race - first edition.
I was well pleased. After being a little slow in the technical first uphill 15km I got stronger as the race went on.
Felt really great from 40 - 60kms but then hit a low patch to 67 when i began flying again.
Everyone seemed to find 60 - 70 as hard though it was pretty flat.
No time to extract a gel from bacpocket may have been the problem as beforehand was a scarily fast but techie descent.
70 - 80 was mostly fast downhill and last 2.5km was on bitumen.
Had a gear problem at about 81 km and lost a minute fixing it.
Weather was brilliant, at about max of 25 degres and trail was almost completely dry, with the trail having beenfixed upwhere it was wet the week before.
Trail was heaps enjoyable and i was rapt to have gone about
90 mins faster in riding time than when i scoped it out last week.
Riding the suspension bridges with 4 or 5 others was certainly bouncy.
Max speed was 42 kph which was scary in dark forest where you couldn't see ditches and branches on the ground.

Also the completely black tunnel was a little scary ...some riders took a torch for this. Thought organisers could have put a glow stick or two in there.

Roadie type ride from Marquita,s so as to not trash the legs.
However, as in most things Kiwi, itwasnt flat.
Towards Shelly Beach and explored some side roads.
Hot enough afterwards to paddle aroung in their salt water pool.