Training Log Archive: Yak

First ride in Japan was glorious saunter along quiet backroads past wheat, barley and ricefields and next to a few cemeteries. From our hotel on the outskirts of town named Usa.
With Peter for first 30k then by self taking photos

Flight over was tiring. 7 hrs to singapore then eat in the SA lounge and spent 6 hrs in transit hotel. Left at 1am this morning and arrived at Fuk..at 8am. Taxi then 1.5 hrs train. Taxi to hotel amidst a sports park. Bike had derailleur prob ...sorted then rode. I managed to avoid going naked in the onsen today (had shower) and wearing a kimona to tea but will have to do so tomo. Did use chopsticks semiwell for first time in 40 yrs....need get better if will get more hungry

Short ride to check bike ok after being at shop. Then stuffed it in a bike bag! Many hassles today.
Firstly my road bike wouldn't fit in my friends mt bike bag!
Borrowed another, so there went my morning.
Then the 30 TT controls I left on Gerry Velaitis 's porch (not visible from road) on Sunday night seem to have got nicked! Go figure!
Off to Japan at 9am tomorrow - best go and pack.

Abbreviated Bal group ride as running late due to phone call.
Also tired from having a frenzied tidy up of the house until 1.30am, as have guests next week while I'm away. Even polished all things wooden.

Parked at Woodside aiming to catch MC along the way but she passed by whilst I was getting bike out of sight. So a lonely ride into a stiff headwind to morning tea. _ Charlston - Birdwood - Gum - Cudlee Creek café.
Then caught the group and rode up Fox Creek climb and onto Lenswood before I took an exit back to Woodside down Tiers rd. 29 degrees today!

Caught up with Jack at BikeAbout and then headed to TTG library, bank, pathology place; deposited some stuff at Salvation Army; dropped bike in at Int Cycle as gears troublesome (and bought a bell for Japan) and went to Physio. He was less than impressed with its size and soreness and reckoned it was the least stable ankle he had seen. I then confessed that I had injured it multiple times in a past life.

Thought I'd best get some kms in my legs in prep for next week's japan excursion. Just as well I did as my roadie is making some creaky noises.

Home - Norton Summit - Ashton - Basket Range - Lenswood - Lobethal - Cudlee Creek - down Gorge, plus 2km diversion to shops.
Hills felt ok though they keep on coming going to Lobethal - 7 hills.
Bit of traffic on way home but I survived.
Thought climb total might have been higher than it was.
Solid ride for only 60+kms.
Ankle very black and swells more after riding.

At opening of Murray Bridge mtb and walking trails.
These are out near the prison, thus one trail is called "jailbreak."
An Aussie mtb champ resided there for awhile a few years back.
Half nice and half shitty rock and sand.

C • Near the jail 2

Riding around Murray Bridge along the river etc after the mtb trails.

Riding around Blackwood streets and parks course setting.

Lovely ride with Vanessa.
From home up the River Torrens to its end up Gorge Rd, and return.
Then meandered over to the bikepath that goes near the OBahn towards Modbury. This was blocked off so then we went over to the creek to the north and took that all the way up to the stormwater dam at Golden Gove.
Rode back home and then over for breakfast at V's at Montacute and then return home.

Was worried about the ankle but it was fairly gd - 5/10.
Hurt around the Achilles too. Iced afterwards.

after ankle feeling 90% last night I went to work this morning and within the hour it was hugely sore
Went to sports doc and he reckons torn ankle ligament and that warfarin is creating more swelling, but hopefully will be ok but not pain free for upcoming Japan trip.
Just need a fairy to tidy the house etc beforehand.

Riding to work and around.

Ankle bloody sore - iced all day. Couldn't work.
Left ankle.

C • Injury 3

Long distance rvent near Stanley.
Amazingly i won despite many hassles.
Firstly my map had half the color missing so got a new one fairly quickly but missed my mapreading time. So slow to one.
Then going to 2 my handlebars came loose. Walked single tk and cruised fireroad for 2 km or so before thinking to see if my equipment bag might have still had a small allen key set in it...it did. This all cost 5 mins.

Several dubious route choices ..one too wide and one too hilly.
Then going to 2nd last i missed a tk and went on 500m as speeding..
Then came in the back door on more single tk and still didntxsee the tk i had missed from the other end. Got control and continued on songle tk out. Many little wooden bridges and i was on yhe last one before i tealised it was missing half the planks. Front wheel went right thru and i fell into ck. Felt ok so rode last few kms with blood dripping from various nicks. Got patched up by 1st aid.
Only when i took shoe off did i realise that i had "done" my ankle ...dont know how bad at this stage..

Stopped at Milawa cheese factory and got plentiful ice for trip to airport.
Glad i have monica dickson as driver.

W50 middle distance mtbo champs at indigo winery near beechworth.
Quite a unique event using 2 very different maps and terrains.
Map 1 was along the rail trail and on singletrack beside it. The latter had arrows indicating travel direction as was one way.
Map 2 was back on winery with vineyards but also lots of open paddocks in which we were able to ride anywhere. Like foot o on bikes contouring around hills and charging down rock strewn paddocks. The only negative was that many people disregarded the no cross fence rule and got dnfed. Fences were hard to see on the map as they used a light grey but that is no excuse for cheating. There were gates to be used. Some climbed 4 fences!

I rode strongly but lost main time retracing my steps from a fence back up a hill. Won.quite easily over Heather Leslie and Monica.

Sprint champs at 4.30pm at Maylands and surrounding tracks and roads...a former insane asylum. Rode really well until near end whete i made 3 small errors when put off by others around.
Won by 4 mins or so.
Good map and course.

Riding to and fro the sprint and some warmups.

Busy day ...drive to leeannes who dropped me at airport for flight to melbourne. Monica Dickson picked me up and we drove to Beechworth.
Staying with 4 Kiwi friends at Annies holiday apartment.
Rode to tea at pub in centre of town.

Supermarket was burnt down in jan by 15 yr old girl who not only videoed but posted on you tube! Temporary one is in old plumbing warehouse a fair walk away.

With MC up Norton Summit to Mt Lofty - back down Montacute.
Spinning easily as tired from late nights and have races this weekend.

Funny thing happened towards end.
Near junction of Maryvale & Gorge rds I saw a koala running fast down Maryvale. I caught him and corralled him on the corner while traffic was stopped by M and saw him/her safely across Gorge rd where he clambered up the nearest tree. National Parks vehicle had stopped on the other side and I left them considering whether to relocate him further.
yesterday in Belair there were 2 carloads of koala rescue people all outfitted and with poles.

Riding in Belair NP setting for next mtbo event.
Really good how many tracks are now approved to ride.
Organised for start/finish at Belair golf club.
Lovely day.

First Bal group ride for yonks.
So much fun to be fit!
Even led the fast group several times before waiting to drag MC home.
Bal - swamp rd - Lenswood - Fox Creek - Cudlee Creek - via reservoir to Kersbrook - up Hill Rd - Forreston - Gumeracha.
Then Birdwood - Mt Torrens and along Gillett bikepath to Charlston, Woodside - Balhannah.
Legs still a little sore just inside the knees from Sunday's xc effort

AMBC 4 hr race at Fox Creek.
Thought I should do this, as it was close and I wont be here for most events this year.
After NZ, Otway 300 and yesterday's mtbo event where I felt great this was a complete contrast... felt energyless and legless from minute 1.
I put it down to not getting "lunch" after yesterday's race at 2pm (as ordered at Allendale Pub) but at 4.15pm. Not ideal recovery.

Big crowd of riders and after powering (sort of) up the initial climb I was inept in the tight pine forest singletk and stopped to let the remainder of the field to go past as risk adverse. Was raining initially so that made pine roots slippery.
Still felt bad and had to talk strongly to myself to not pull out after lap 1 or lap 2 and to complete my intended 4 laps. Came thru the finish early enough to do lap 5 but decided against it as would have held up the officials and I had aimed for 4 anyway, knowing I would be a little tired after mtbo.

Surprised that I got 2nd in Women 40+, especially as Aurelia (the winner) has just moved up to this class, and also there were a lot of women out today. Julia was 3rd. Won Paris Creek goodies, which is better than the Hammer gels etc that the winners get!

Afternoon got better as Rose & Andrew Campbell (from Cairns) and Dee & Kevin came up for a ride and walk and we migrated to Anderson's winery for pizza (prawns & garlic).

Velogaine at Kapunda. Ideal conditions.
Bigger course than last year with 3 controls in NW area (including 1 of 3 90 pointers) that one had to take all of those 3 controls or none.
Risky as meant one mightn't have enough time to collect the other 2 x 90 pointers in other map corners.
I opted to take this risk hoping to get all but 1 control but it didn't work out.

Was with Louise George and she was marginally slower (and I was feeling excellent throughout) - she had duty of punching controls as I was sole navigator. This cost us some time - I should have taken over this duty before the last hour. Ended up leaving out 91 & 42 in NE, and 21 and 31.
We were docked 10 points for being 10 seconds late back after doing less than 13 mins from way out at 70. One slight nav mistake probably cost 4 mins!

I think we were 10th overall (first women), with first 3 all male teams cleaning up the course as expected.

Ride after O work at Lobehal.
Mostly on Gillett bikepath.
Charlston - Mt Torrens - back on Springhead rd - Woodside - around back streets - Charlston - Mt Torrens - Springhead - Charlston.

Picking up controls at St John Bushland Park.
100 kids from Mercedes all had fun, saw many kangas, koalas and even some snakes.

Short Torrens route in evening.

Putting out 24 controls at St John Bushland Pk for 3 days of school O with BikeAbout.

Stayed over in Forrest overnight with Chris Crocker & Richard Bates.
Unfortunately Chris had left his alarm set for 4.30am instead of 7am!
Pleasant drive home.

Day 2 and a 6.15am start.
From Forrest out towards Lorne.
Had 3 x 10km climbs early on with much walking.
2nd climb, Garvie track was 15-22%.
3rd climb was the most rideable but my legs weren't great.
95% of climb in first 70km.
Then nice descent to farmland east of Forrest where I team time trialled with a couple of young guys for a few kms. Eventually into Forrest singletk, including Caspars.
I was pleased to see that Norm had cut out about 5km of the planned singletk - we finished again on the rail trail.
Riding time was almost an hour less - 5 feed stations plus some walking probably didn't register. av 12.8kph
Finished 4th in grand masters behind all male teams, just 13 mins behind 3rd.
Very happy with fitness.

Day 1 Otway 300 at Forrest.
Paired up on a blind date with Bob Dempster.
Course went up and down the surrounding hills and then did a great descent to Apollo Bay = 55km. Initially it was raining and first half was muddy.

Then rode Great Ocean rd for 6 kms before going left into national park doing some indistinct tracks and some of GORd walk. Ended at Cape Otway ... and then climbed up to near top of Lavers Hill via some private land and Aire valley & river. Almost 30km climb with first bit
Took Beechy railtrail from ferguson to Beech Forest then down to Gelibrand. Shortly afterwards went right on rds to Forrest single tk and then rail trail home.
Time was total time - there were 6 feedstops en route plus I took a few photos... so riding time a bit less. Av 16.1kph