Training Log Archive: Yak

Arrived Innamincka today.
Petrol here is $2.06 if you want to come for a drive!
I can't get hotmail / facebook / google but I can get AP - go figure!

If anyone out there has Bruce Greenhalgh's contact can you let him know that Tom Goddard would welcome a mtbo ride on Mondays / Thursdays or weekends over next 2 weeks (prep for Worlds) if Bruce feels so inclined to take him to a map. Tom is at St Ann's College (No number on me).

medium session on trainer

Packing for another outback bike trip ... always a harowing experience
Doing the Tiboburra - Innamincka return trip under my own steam.
From Innamincka I join some others doing a RFD fundraising ride for 18 days thru outback stations and dropping in on Birdsville.

Doing a winter trip is a bit harder gear wise.
Have cut the toothbrush in half again, put spare spokes in a cork and stuffed up the inside of my toothbrush, found my booties, packed thermals, cut up another piece of foam for my hip to rest upon at night, revitalised the ol blue Trek with some new bits, packed plenty of "rat poison."
On the food side it's the normal vitawheats, tuna and peanut paste staple which may not be that appealing in winter as summer, but my minimalist approach leaves no room for a stove and pans.
In fact I have reduced trailer weight somewhat with a new tent - a 2 person Nemo which weighs 1.5kg and packs into nothing. However it has some strange hitching which will see me take longer to put up, initially at least.

Driving new campervan to Tiboburra.

C • Tiboburra? 4

Suburban ride just to get away from the computer.
City - Glenelg - Hallet Cove - Kingston Pk - West Lakes - grange rd back to city. I started at 10am when the cold had disapated somewhat. Lovely blue skies and glassy water at Hallet Cove. Coming back along the coast from henley - west lakes it was eerie as all covered in sea fog!

Met the footy park traffic as I headed around WLakes and to city - many, many cars. The North Adelaide residents wont be happy having them parking in their streets once Adelaide Oval refurbishment is complete.

Evening was spent at Fern & Tyson's house warming and the later hours saw a select group (incl Uppils & Jenn Cas) unsocially "hijack" the TV and laptop for WOC relay watching.
Other non orienteers didnt see the TV coverage as captivating / illuminating!
Didn't help my mood when they asked randomly "where are the Australians?"

C • The Non-Orienteers 2

How come I stopped teaching 12 months ago and still havent had a shed clean-up? Been hunting down little outback riding necessities like spare spokes, der hanger, chain link, folding tyre ... of course the spokes i found were for my older rims so no longer fit!

Gym class with Mary as part of my free week's trial. Lots of aerobic type of exercises initially and then some stretching and core work. I was pretty hopeless, esp with anything requiring flexibility / core. I might be able to ride a bike for 24 hrs but I certainly wouldnt win fitness / style wise here. Need more of this variety.

Spent most of the day becoming intimate with the workings and mechanics of my campervan. Spare tyre is on so hard that I cant unnut it atm.

After another early morning trying to gather WOC results I was late heading to Bal for ride. Luckily the route went via Carey Gully from Bal so I parked there and was soon met by Phil, who had departed ahead of the fast gp. We decided to continue on ahead - UP Deviation rd then across to Lenswood, Fox Creek, Cudlee Creek, Chain of Ponds, UP towards Gumeracha (took 5mins 10 for climb) and then to rocking horse in Gum for coffee. Amazingly we kept ahead of the chasing peleton.

Left ahead of gp and went towards Lobethal, UP Burfords Rd hills to Mt Torrens - Charlston - Woodside - Bal. Last part on bike path and it had been recently swept, so was perfect! Beat chasers by 1 minute! Then I had to continue on solo UP the long 8km haul to Carey Gully.

Lovely winter's day with blazing blue sky, though a little cold at the start.

Decided I needed to do something different - so investigated the small gym across the road from Dernancourt shopping centre and got a week free try-out. Very basic but it has the standard weight machines, and also a whixx bang massage chair. Arms were pretty useless as I suspected. Quads still sore from hike a bike.

Then going back across Dern. shopping centre what do i see but big "Goodlife" gym signs going up on the former Haggle store. Went there and enquired - starting in Nov. Will be very upmarket but only 12 month memberships, which i dont like.

Picked up the sponsorship gear for MTBO today - great Maxxis tyres, Limar, Clean Bottle and Birzman products. Nice.

Adv Race based at Wirrina, with Louise George.
Nothing gd about getting up at 5.45am in torrential rain to do a bike drop into the Second Valley Forest. Map was, as normal, very shoddy. Tracks dodgy, whole gullies missing, and a decided lack of detail. This meant I started in a lousy frame of mind, esp as initial foot o legs looked stupidly easy. The fact that I mucked up no 2 bigtime was thus upsetting.. This first bit was on the old Mt Hayfield O map.

Got to bike changeover in 2nd last position so was determined to concentrate on the bike leg. This was a score event that you could take in any order and my RC was firstclass and even included 2 "cuts" thru the forest (allowed in advracing) which were advantageous. We were in the Mt Hayfield forest section which is exceedingly steep, and also now exceptionally muddy, so much hike a bike. On one steep section (according to map 'twas flat) I slipped while pushing bike uphill and slid 10m down the slope...

We escaped the forest via a long nice downhill dirt tk down towards Normanville and about 8kms of road to and thru the Lady Bay links area. This should have been super fast but Lousie didnt have quite the same speed, so missed on gaining some time there. Then along a beachside tk Had to collect 2 controls by foot further along the escarpment. One was "a minor reentrant" which was hidden in the middle of a random bush.
A guy asked me "what type of bush is a re-entrant?"

Then rode bikes UP to top of hills overlooking sea and rode a grassy tk back to Wirrina. Then started off on a 3 control foot o " adventure course" and at one control we had to wear a harness and be tied to partner and a rope that went over and under obstacles, climbed trees, thru tyres etc. My flexibility (lack thereof) was occasionally a problem here. At one point I got the team coming behind us to give me a push over a high section - in the interests of them getting finished quicker too!

We had been briefed that we MUST return by 3pm or else penalties applied, but despite asking no-one could tell me what the penalties were! So we got back by 3pm but most teams finished afterwards. The section we missed was tubing for 2 controls in the big dam, so I wasnt too disappointed.

The first 3 hours were in heavy rain but then the weather got better and we even got a bit of sun at the finish! Finished still with 90% of the mandatory 2 litres of water! Had a hot shower and played pool and table tennis at the resort until the presentation dinner. Had a guest speaker from "Soldier On" who was quite gd. We "won" the hardcore women's section - having passed the only other women's team in the MTBO section. Got a nice Mt designs voucher for prize plus won an icebreaker in random draw at dinner!

C • Well done! 6

Went to physio because my back "cracks" frequently when I'm on the computer!!

Home - up Norton Summit (31) - Marble Hill (49) - Montacute - then rode halfway down and back up Corkscrew - home.

Linear park - after ride - L knee quite sore.

Lawn mowing the weeds.

walk in suburbs listening to last of my "murder mystery" - all 72 chapters andabout the same body count.

Spent lots of time today talking to various people in Emirates until I got what I wanted .... a change from a freebie ticket (and return) to Dubai, to Colombo, Sri Lanka, at no extra cost - yah. Off cycling there in September.
Had planned initially to ride from Lhasa (Tibet) to Katmandu but Tibetan permit can only be got atm if you are a group of at least 5 from the same country! Changed in last few weeks!

With Stu and Martin who were faster than me but waited on several hiitops.
Up Norton Summit - my time was 2 mins slower than 2011, so not a gd sign. Almost had to take a ticket to get in line, as many heading up, even at the "late" hour of 9am. Then over to Lobethal via the direct, hilly way - 7 climbs, 2 of which were big. Granny got a work out. This used to be a regular ride about 5 years ago with Anitra's gp but they now go to Hanndorf instead. Havent done it for several years.
Then up and down to Cudlee Ck and then down Gorge and back to Rostrevor start. We did a timetrial on the flat Gorge section and were sitting on 45kph which got me hot for the first time in the day.

1) Ride around a Kersbrook forest loop GPSing, taking photos of hazards, places for signage etc for Walks SA, for planned shared trails
2) Riding some single tk along the creeks. Much new small tree growth.
3) Williamstown. About 2 km out exploring a section of pineI hadnt ridden in, for future mtbo events. Has a lot of gd singletk built (by Anton, Steve, Greg) and is really nice. Closeness to water catchment is a potential problem.
With Stu, Geof and Adian.
Time is an educated guess but we were out and about most of the day.

wind trainer ride

Bit further than I had intended!
Had morning teaching bike skills at Davoren Park - was good.
Had got a lift out with Leanne so could ride from there, as there are nice backroads and bikepaths out north.
Went through back streets to Gawler and then onto Stuart O"grady bikepath that adjoins the Northern Expressway. 25km towards Adelaide into a headwind. Then went back 8km and exited so I could ride the bikepath next to Edinburgh Defence Base -Salisbury - thru Carisbrook park - across to bikepath leading to Mawson lakes - back streets to velodrome - across to River Torrens - Marden.
Saw a fox near end of Expressway!
Got tired about 60km again.

Finally another decent ride with Bal gp. Av 24 on a not so hilly route.
Met at Gumeracha - then Chain of Ponds - Williamstown - Birdwood - Mt Torrens - Lobethal - Gumeracha.
I felt quite gd early and pushed the uphills because I was bloody cold, as I was underdressed, having been sucked in by blue ski. One degree when we started. So we did the downhills slowly to not get frozen footsies and fingers. Had hot choc at Williamstown and people re-started haphazardly - I gave Dave Barratt and Phil about a km start and solo time-trialed in pursuit until I caught them near Birdwood!
So no big suprise when I ran out of energy and legs at 60km.

It was the coldest - wettest combination of temp for 56 years in June in Adelaide evidently!

Afternoon ride along biketracks and dirt rds from home out along Golden Grove creeks. Very cold when started but got ok after awhile.

Had a few days utilising my private health cover in hospital after another torrential nose bleed and abnormally high INR level...

Saw an ad in paper for full fingered gloves that have tops cut off just 2 fingers (out of 10) for Iphone use.

C • Gloves 1