Training Log Archive: Yak

Watching the river break its bank on my side and move to halfway across the grass by 2am. Thought I might have to evacuate the car by 6am but it had steadied. Though the roar of a wide, wild rushing river was sort of nice.

Strength for Life class plus 10 mins rowing.
So many vain women and aggro male weight trainers frequent the gym - no wonder my visits are infrequent.

More wild weather.

SA schools O team has done its best result in yonks - 3 winners in individual long, 4 in honours team.
Actually best result ever = 1990 in which Sus Cas was a team member.
Won 3 relays + 2nd in other; won 2 individual titles plus 2nd in other 2.
Had home terrain advantage then - Jupiter Creek

C • and Rock Oyster! 1

Could have got out this morning but needed to make house typhoon proof! Mowed front lawn, took bottles to recycler, moved stuff from front porch. Took bikes to be repaired.
Went and saw film Wilderpeople with a friend whilst storm hit. Only 4 of us in cinema. Drove home across eastern suburbs in poring rain
with all traffic lights down ...people were patient!

My.new drain out the back isnt working and some water coming into dining room. No power from 3.48 until sometime tomorrow. ....
Bike Sa annual tour got worst of storm at Melrose with tents squashed ...evacuated to halls etc. Several big power towers bent up that way.

Time a guess. Went to ride with Bal group on my old roadie but had no spare tube etc and forgot my jacket and leg warmers. Just because there is a blue sky doesn't mean it is warm, esp at Balhannah. So rode with Pam & Peter to Birdwood and return via Burford Hill rd. Not so fast but ok.
Caught up to Lee Merchant who had been trespassing ...

Drove to Kuitpo and did 2 separate rides checking out the map for mtbo.
First at Christmas Hill and then near forest HQ.
On a tricky single track descent I found that I had no back brake!!
Some of the tracks were flooded still - will be more so after tomorrow's storm.
Hope not too many more trees get uprooted.

Bday celebration ride down the Torrens and to Henley Beach for brunch with a friend.
50 mins to city & 1.30 to beach on north side on way down.....a little longer via south side on rsturn as more diversions and rd crossings. Did some of dirt single tracks but somw were still wet.
Amazing amount of debris in trees etc, mostly plastic bags. We should have a community cleanup.
Radar seemed to indicate i would get wet but didnt, bonus.

Had trouble getting up / out today.
Rode from home over to Anstey Hill to explore. Up the nursery ruins track that is 11% generally & 13% for awhile. Then 20% to top of quarry. Rode the new mtb descent (though not opened) and then climbed up on what was probably a walking track. Then across Range rd sth and back down. Rode several other single tks though not the one immediately below the rangers house.

Walking to pick up 8 controls in Craigburn & Shepherds Hill after bike o event. Would have ridden but had too much stuff in car to extract it.
Friends picked up others. Had to wait for archers to finish shooting at 5pm before retriving one from archery butt no 8. (They shot from 1.30pm)
Rainy during event but sunny in afternoon!

Drove back from Flinders in lovely sunny weather.
From 3pm to 6pm i was putting out controls for bike event tomorrow. Many thanks to Amber who put out the Sheps ones running around in morning and the Craigburn ones walking after work.

Bike riding day today.Yeh. Meant to have 2 decent rides but lost one due to rainy day.
Rejigged plans about 4 times as all dirt rds are closed to cars atm. Could have done planned all day ride as bikes allowed on tracks we wanted to go but our back up vehicle wasnt.
In end did well Morning sessions incl a skills session and ride around the campground and then a mostly bitumen ride to airstrip (and saw plane land) and to old Wilpena homestead.
Afternoon was an all dirt ride to homestead and then out on a flooded Wilco 4 wd track. Then did final 5 km of Mawson single trail back to base with teaching of drops thrown in.
Kids did really well and loved it.

Lawenre & I did the afternoon session at pace to check it out at lunchtime. In evening L & I did a ride into the Pound entrance.
Time an estimate. Camp has been more difficult due to weather but worked out achieving all aims.

St Marys loop walk to saddle and back via the longer way thru the Pound. Accompanied by 27 kids. Half went to the summit but i was with the sddle only group. Was challenging with water streaming down the rocks on the track going up and the Pound track was more like a river for big stretches. Crossed numerous creeks, some over knee height. Kids were happy just going straight thru today ...no shoes and socks off caper.

My knees survived ....just. Didnt get any major blisters thanks to Injini toe socks plus normal socks on top.
Was quite cool but only a slight drizzle today for a few mins.
Think Wilpena had 50 mlls yesterday and during the night.
Kids back in tents tonight as Jack cleaned them all up while we walked. All extremely happy with themselves.

Frustrating day fue to wet weather.
Meant to climb St Marys but 2 severe thunderstorms put paid to that. Tried to do Olssen-Bagge but turned back after 1.15 due to lightning.
Then looked at a nice Flinders art display in Woolshed and walked around the Wilpena Homestead area. Drove to Akroo rock area to look at aboriginal rock art. Quoted on same sign as either a 1 or 2 hr walk. We did it just over 1 hr but Ian who was leading the faster group got lost taking the same loop back towards rock art. Funny as. Sun came out for last half hour.
After dinner had more torrential rain happened and new big tents leaked as not seam sealed i reckon. Put up another 5 smaller tents in rain, put 8 kids in the truck and 2 in the Tarago.

Drove to Wilpena with 27 Walford girls.
Rode part of Mawson trail with them

Evening walk to Wilpena homestead where we told spooky stories and did star gazing.

Shepherds Hill xc "race."
For some reason I thought after yesterday's fine weather that the tracks would be ok today ....mistake!
So it wasn't really a race for me just a survival plod in the slippery conditions.
Rock drops, mud and running water are not a gd combo.
Did half a lap warm-up which did get me warm.
The lap had 2 big climbs to top and 2 descents.
I had 3 laps but just after the 2nd lap my chain got stuck over my back cluster and when I realigned it I noticed that half a link was hanging off....not gd.
I pushed it to the side and walked both climbs and rode quietly on the descents hoping that the chain would hold together. It did, to my amazement.
Luckily I had put in a spare sheet in the car for the muddy bike to lie on.
Off to Flinders for an outdoor ed camp with 30 girls tomo!! Zero tonight up there..

Frustrating day. Big rain forecast but little dropped, and a ride went begging.
Had to have an INR test this morning, as readings have been haphazard of late .... then decided I should mow the lawn while sun was out
then also decided to climb a precarious ladder and remove tree branches and other shit off my shed roof ...

Long day at Springhead, Mt Torrens way doing schools O.
Road closures incl Gorge rd; Montacute rd, between Chain of Ponds and Gumeracha, so I had an interesting route choice getting there.

Kids kept saying it was "awesome."
2nd year at this school, so I have done some different things, which is great.
Had 12 Reception kids ...funny as. Lesson 1 is punching practice and extending their vocab to include control, code, punch.

Got home and got mtb out for a perusal of local creeks and then went to visit the Round household on Montacute rd. Then rode thru the road closure signs to top of Montacute. 3/4 of the road is in the creek at one place and seriously cut away at 3 other places plus many earth slips and trees about to fall down. On return my front light went into low battery mode, so it was very hazardous descending dodging .5 metre sized rocks all the way down in the dark. It is going to take a lot of money and time to get this road right.

Walking around Shepherds Hill & Craigburn O planning.
L knee is quite problematic.

Walk around the flooded River Torrens - Mt Lofty etc had 100mlls rain.
I was surprised that the river didn't get over the bank on my side - as 20 yrs ago etc it had come halfway up my front garden.

Walking around various control spots in Sleeps Hill etc. between rain showers.

Oldies gym session plus 10 mins on rowing machine.

Lofty 105km gravel event. 3rd edition.
Time includes stops at 4 feed stations + toilet & chucking stops.
Last year - was mediumly windy - 5.59 time outright ... 5.36 riding time.
So at least 15 mins slower.

Little sleep last night and awoke with a big headache and slight fever.
With wet weather forecast for next week I decided I would go and trundle slowly. Started with friends Louise & Nev hoping I might catch a ride with them. Most of field were on faster CX bikes.
Dry retching to start with and after 10km felt need to vomit, so moved off track and became tail end Charlie .. Legs felt heavy, like riding in cement.

Caught 3 slower CX girls at 24km feed station and rode around them until 40km when they slowed up a big hill and I kept on a little faster. Rode solo from then on and saw no-one from 54km mark. Stopped again, luckily at only toilet on course, for more V & D. The farmland section up past Pymton towards top of Mt Beevor was really lovely ...ruins & thick lush green crops. Managed to keep down some coke at 70km feed station and felt gd until about 85km, prob as mostly downhill. Got 50kph max.
Next 15 km was laborious with annoying hills and they had put in some more grassy track in this section plus we re-rode the initial 2.5km of nice single track. Last 5km with tailwind was lovely - was very glad to see the finish.

Couldn't eat my free lunch...

Today super star endurance rider Sarah Hammond finished the 2,300km Race to the Rock (Adelaide - Uluru via Mawson, Oodnadatta, Finke etc) in 8.5 days. No other rider is past Oodnadatta as yet!

C • I hope you are feeling better 1

C • I hope you are feeling better 1

sick

Putting out controls etc.
Used electronic punching which AU assisted with all day.
Little rain - all 7 classes got out and about today.

Putting out controls etc.
Very wet weather day - managed to get 5 of 7 classes out doing the score team event. Big thunderstorm at evening.

Putting out & collecting controls.
7 x 45 min lessons is really tiring - had intended to ride afterwards but it was really windy, so went home directly.

Had O at Black Forest from 8am - 4pm today ...busy.
Day 1 of 4 this week.
Wanted to get in a ride so pumped up tyres of old roadie & stopped in at Vic Park on way home. Rode around the 2 crit tracks avoiding loose kids & dogs. Did some "efforts" over 500m or so.
Had tremendous pain in my L bunion ...perhaps from shoes I was wearing all day today. And minimalist seat isn't pleasant either.

Putting out & collecting controls.

Walk in Anstey Hill looking at the new development there.
They are putting in 4 small car parks, one almost in the quarry + a toilet even.
Got a hard packed beginner mtb trail there and some lovely ones from near the silver mine down to the quarry.

MTBO event on new map at Onkaparinga Rec Park.
Lovely area so I was really looking forward to this - however rain was forecast and a thunderstorm hit at 9.30am and lasted until 9.50am. With a 10 am start this was timely but the weather and other events (Melrose + Dirty Dozen) obviously put off people.
The start at Pt Noarlunga Footy ground was packed with cars on arrival - there for the local netball finals, complete with playing of national anthem at every medal presentation.

I had got a lift down with Louise George and she decided to tag along with me as a map board wouldn't fit on her bars with Garmin mount. Course well set with 28 points and hard to make a decision where to go - but I correctly predicted that most could collect all points.

Probably could have done slightly better in route choice but it was ok. Got stuffed around by one mapping problem prob costing 5 mins. Actual bush area tracks were mostly mud free, as hard packed gravel tracks, incl a long boardwalk on which a control was located.
Time above is total race time, not riding time.

Nice walk to collect 4 controls in bush area.
Had a late invite to Bogan Bingo TTG way .. a fundraiser for a Nepal school & village. Found a flannel shirt in my wardrobe but many had gone much further with their boganness ...some priceless photos ....incl a girl with a centrals holden sponsor jumper, baby, smokes, tattoo ...

Dropped 29er off at Avanti Salisbury at 9am and they fixed it easily!
Great bike shop - annoying that it is not nearer home.
Taught for Ride-a-bike-right at Salisbury North PS - mostly new arrivals, incl some who speak little English. Fun.
Rode bike for 5 mins to check it works.

Homeward bound.
After a 6.50am ABC radio interview on orienteering in Alice. Went well although I had only 4-5 hours sleep.
Left van at Arid Research station at Cathy Smith's place (St P's teacher).
Got taxi home but the engine blew up at Payneham / Magill Rd junction...
Took 29er to LBS Euride for fixing front tyre problem - they said was fixed at 6.30pm and it wasn't!!