Training Discussion

[Pandymoose]

yea, that vehicles a gun

[The Duckmeister]

Hit up the tracks of Lysterfield again, 3rd time in as many weeks, with a mate for a bit of a "Black Dog" (depression)-kicking session. Nothing really intense; the more exposed tracks were ok, 'cos they've had a couple of days to dry out, but the more sheltered bits were pretty mucky, so we took it carefully - even getting off to walk the worst bits - so as not to rip 'em to bits. As for kicking "The Dog", well it's going well. I lost a bit of fitness after Rd. 2, 'cos I had no drive to get out & do anything, but in the last month or so the head has got back to where it should be so I'm actually getting the enthusiasm to get out back.

[The Duckmeister]

Rather a full-on weekend for me. Spent yesterday (Saturday) afternoon out sailing; sailing committee at the yacht club decided to schedule 4 races, and the sea breeze had well & truly kicked in by the start of the third one. So the ol' body got a fair bit of a workout. Then clever me decided to arrange a few weeks ago to go MTBing with a mate that I haven't caught up with for a while this morning. At 7:00!!! So we did a couple of hours in the dirt around Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula. I had a few hours to rest after that before scooting out to Casey for a HPV run. Did about 45 mins there, a little off normal pace, but I expected that. But that wasn't all.

To finish off with, I did an indoor rock climbing session. Needless to say, after the toasting from yesterday's races, the forearms & hands were rather lacking in strength, so I struggled on the bigger walls. Still had enough to do some tricky stuff up an easy grade climb on a short wall; it was so easy my mate laid down the challenge to not only use only one colour of holds (rather than all, to make it just a tad harder), but also to not use my left arm. I made it!

So now I'm pretty well stuffed.

[The Duckmeister]

Went out to the You Yangs (isolated rocky, hilly outcrop near Geelong, SW of Melbourne, for those playing elsewhere) with some guys off the Bike Vic forum on Sunday. Covered most of the tracks. Had a camera strapped to my helmet to collect the evidence.

Lactic Acid

Lower half of Trav's Diamond

Descent of Cressy Climb

[The Duckmeister]

Ripper of a day today. Just for a change, I dusted the cobwebs off the roadie - quite literally! - and went for a spin down the Peninsula. Light headwind, which is always how I like to start a ride, down the Highway to the back of Dromana, turning off & taking Dunns Creek Rd & Red Hill Rd up to Red Hill, then along the top of the ridge to Arthurs Seat. Very hazy, so not a great view off the top so didn't hang around long.

Had one of my best ever descents down the twisties; no cars in the way so I could pick my line, my braking points & my speed through all 18 corners. And took them bloody well! Should have had the watch on it! (PB is 3:48)

Took the coastal route around Mt Martha to Mornington, then picked up the highway again for the run home. Coming down Olivers I had one nuffy pull out of the lookout in front of me, so I calmly ducked into the right hand lane & went around him at 75km/h!

93km in 3:13:36 for an average of 28.7. Not bad seeing as I haven't done a proper road ride for bloody ages.

[The Duckmeister]

Fun in the dirt at Lysterfield:

Good day, generally. Luke & I arrived on schedule at HNR, & as we were unloading saw Sette doing laps of the carpark, although neither of us actually knew each other until a few minutes later when the rest of the group arrived & introductions were made!

Started off with the Games course, with sbad & Sette providing some lessons on log-overs & small rock drop-offs. On the way towards the rock garden, sidewaysandfallover took an odd line through a corner, and....er.... went sideways and fell over. No physical damage done though, so all was good. Had a couple of shots through the first hairpin - AK nailed it first time, never having seen that corner before. I still haven't quite got it, but I'm getting there.

A little further on, we got to the couple of hairpins in the rock garden. I had to unclip to get around the first one, and as I was getting going through the second one, I touched a rock with just not quite enough momentum to roll over it. Before I could get a foot out of the pedal, I was on my arse. Smacked the back of my shoulder on the end of a fallen tree branch; only a few scrapes, but now have a massive bruise. Picked the bike up & tried to get moving, thinking that at such low speed I would not have damaged anything. WRONG! I had whacked the rear brake rotor on a rock, & the wheel was locked. Managed to get it kinda straight enough to at least get through the caliper, but it was pushing the pistons back in, so rear brakes were sketchy at best, as I had to keep pumping them up.

Having survived the first section of the Games course (just), we looped back to the top section of Redgum, then onto the main loop. All good through there; hit the fire trail along the fence at the top end, then down the little feeder to Upper Buckle. Here my dodgy brake nearly got the better of me; off a small log drop-off, into a left curve in sand. Needed bit of rear brake to control the approach to the curve - nothing. Needing to do something to avoid using the "timber brake" at the side of the track, I grabbed some front brake. And hit the sand! The front started drifting, but I managed to get some pressure in the rear just in time. It grabbed, and flicked the tail out just enough to get me back on a good line & not hit the tree, but it was a pretty hairy moment.

Continued along Buckle, all going nicely. We had a small regroup just before the final section; just as we took off, AK had a bizarre stack. None of us really know what happened; one second he's riding along, the next he's on the ground in a cloud of dust, leaving some skin there as a mark of his attendance.

We trundled back to Trailmix for a much needed coffee, feed & damage assessment. AK, Luke & I had been planning to do a couple of laps of a CTS course, however, I was not happy with the state of my rear brake, and a further attempt at straightening the rotor proved futile, and AK thought it better to just head home and nurse his wounds, which we agreed was a sensible idea. Luke & I headed back up Blair Witch/Hug to get back to our start point, while the others were already back at base, so we parted ways.

Luke & I had also been tentatively toying with the idea of joining Snuffy's Westerfolds ride afterwards, but the sick brake killed that idea too. Ah well.

[The Duckmeister]

1st session in a trike since the Casey gathering last October. Out in HRTC's "new" toy, formerly known as "S-Chair", which I'll be riding a bit this year. Seeing as it was built to fit Bigg Matt, we need to do some packing to make it rideable for me. Didn't get it 100% today, but not too far off, so we'll be right for Casey in a couple of weeks. Legs felt it though, which I did expect, being the first run back. And there was some wind. And Kojaks still suck.

[tsco]

Slow-jaks. Doh!

2nd Booster seat due for completion mid this week

And the S-Chair may, in fact, still be faster than the newbi...