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• cycling - 43
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Sat, 29 Jan 2005

Planet Cycling dot Org - 16:49
Somehow Planet Cycling dot Org has picked up my RSS feed as a cycling topic. I know I ride a fair bit, but I don't think I'm worthy of a rss subscription, not that I really mind. If I did I would not put it on the blog.
Anyhow, I did manage to ride off road on Australia day, the same day I did a fast crit. On Thursday I did a long road ride and and the some very fast track racing, in the evening. On Friday night Neil, Anthony, Peter and I headed up to race the Goulburn track boys. It ended up being another very fast night; I even managed to win the b grade kieren. Sunday is a road race, Mikey is coming to get me on the way through, we may even see Richard take on the big boys in A grade. So, all in all I'm a pretty diverse bike rider, now just bring on a recumbent or a tandem!

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Fri, 28 Jan 2005

Audax, MTB and Track - 12:39
I went mountain bike riding on Australia day, quite a humbling experience. Majura is much more technical than I remember. I was most impressed by the silky smoothness of Ben Mc Duff on the ST. After riding around Rachel and I went to a BBQ at Michelle's. I had a Barcardi Breezer and Vodka cruiser, which turned out to be pretty good preparation for the crit that night. The coolers knocked me right out and I was forced to nap on the couch.
Neil came over and Rachel, Neil and I headed off to Kingo for the crit. I felt pretty good and rode in the front ten or so for most of the race. I put myself in the right place for the sprint, but my sixth sense kicked on three corners to go. I left a gap of two or three lengths, lucky that as the two guys in front of me clipped pedals and their wheels were jumping about the place. Of course this left me with a gap to close on the last lap and I just could not manage to get back to the three or four sprint contestants. I ended up finishing in the top ten somewhere.
The Audax Alpine Classic went well, but my weight did not move down too much. How can that be after riding 60km one day then 200km the next, Steve, Mike and Richard rode well, getting to the summits before me. It was fun to rip into Bright as a fast bunch. On the way from Bright to the base of Buffalo we picked up a big bunch of about 20, then soon disintegrated as the slope increased.
Neil and I are off to race at Goulburn tonight, hopefully I get my sprint back by next weekend when we visit Dunc Gray again.
Anyhow I'm less than 79 target 74

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Tue, 18 Jan 2005

Health and Fitness - 17:09
I've been grinding away trying to get fit, I think it's working. Although I'm still very slow off the mark. This became quite evident at Dunc Gray.
It's pretty much been track v Audax which equates to speed v endurance.
Anyhow I'm less than 80 target 74

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Weekend in Sydney - 16:52
Rachel and I spent the weekend in Sydney. Friday night was a good start to the weekend, a pleasant dinner at Vania's new house in O'Connor. It was nice to catch up with Travis, Ben, Kirsten and of course Vania. Both Rachel and Travis still hold their strong and opposite views on most movies, they really need to start the new movie show.
An Saturday morning we left for Sydney. I had used Quickbebs.com to book a room. I choose Bankstown Sports Club as the price was good and they also run the Dunc Grey Velodrome. The Travelodge is in the club and it has free parking. The hotel is also a very short walk from Bankstown station, very handy for trains to the city or Newtown.
Anyhow, we arrived about 2pm only to discover that trains were not running, track work was on that weekend. Rachel was not keen to bus it to Newton so we walked around Bankstown. It's a curious mix or Vietnamese and Lebanese shops, culture and people. In the end we decided to have lunch, Vietnamese was on the menu, which we could not read. Luckily there was an English version once we sat down inside. Rachel did some shopping and I did a bit of walking around.
At 5pm or so we headed off to Dunc Gray Velodrome. I had put an entry in for the Southern Highlands Track Open which was sponsored by Phantom Cycles at Tahmoor
I hate to offend most bike riders by saying that riding a very good and very fast wooden velodrome is the most exciting thing I've done on a bike. I have ridden the boards before, but only stuffing around on a lent bike below the line on the apron in Lanceston. On Saturday I was a bit apprehensive at first, I would not leave the pole line. But as the warm up progressed and I joined a bunch I started going up the track as we passed slower riders and other bunches. One of the hardest things to do is to get out of the saddle up the banking to jump on the bends. I only manged that in the final race of the night. I was there for the experience, but my harsh handicap did not help. I was on 120 metres for the handicap and got c grade open and masters a grade. Sluggo, a local a grader got 140 metres and a d grade open ride. We both rode masters a grade. What can I say, the racing was crazily fast. I manged to hang on till the final lap when the pace went from furious to astronomical. I suspect the pace was in excess of 60kph as I was totally spinning out a gear of 50x14 (96 inches sorto like a 53x15) I did not have sore legs at the time and my lungs were OK at the time, I just could not spin any faster. Later that night when I was tyring to sleep my legs were aching quite a bit.
The next morning we woke to a muggy sort of day, the plan was to head off to Cogee to have a surf and swim. When we got there Rachel just had to have coffee (groan) I suppose that was not the major hassle, parking was. I had never driven there before, always choosing either to catch the bus or ride in. Anyway, we had a good time, the waves were quite big at first, so we retreated to the pools on the south side of the beach. Then we hit the waves again, avoiding all the seaweed. It was great fun. On the way home we stopped at Berrima for lunch and to stock up on some chutney. The drive was pretty boring and tedious, now I have to decide whether the fun of that track is worth the drive. This week we head off to Bright with Steve and an assortment of other people for the Audax Alpine Classic. Just one more aspect of the wonderful world of cycling. I can not wait for the descent down Mt. Buffalo.

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Fri, 14 Jan 2005

Camping down the Coast (Part Two) - 09:39
The highlight of the next day was seeing lots of dolphins playing and surfing the waves. Travis, Rachel, Leiliane and myself decided to take a walk through the quite pleasant National Park towards the surf beach and lagoon. When walking with Rachel I always try to create a loop, so we never have to walk on the same track home. So, we started walking along the beach, playing in the waves. It was quite an isolated beach with no surfers, no swimmers and quite rough sea, the waves were dumping in on a quite steep beach. Then we saw the dolphins, Leiliane was very excited and she ran and ran trying to keep up with their progress along the beach. We left the beach on went back onto the shores of Wallogoot lake, then back to our campground, Vania and Ben had came back from town and the decision was made to have lunch and then head off to the surf beach in Merimbula
The surf was fun, but cold. Rachel managed to get smashed by every wave. Travis was giving lessons and body boarding, he was quite good. It was later revealed that he has spent quite a bit of time at the beach is his home town of Adelaide. We left the beach in late afternoon and no coffee had been consumed all day, so we stopped at the pizza place in town and had a few cups.
The highlight of the night was a huge rainstorm, I feared the worst after that rain and hail on the way down. Rachel and I did get some minor waterworks in the tent, but nothing major.

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Health and Fitness Progress - 09:25
OK, I've decided to make a concerted effort to get back to full health and fitness after the debacle of the damn hay fever season which seemed to last forever this season (most of Oct, Nov and Dec) I am really quite pissed as I was in really good form in early October only to be struggling and feeling quite flat.
On big thing is to get back to my race weight, around 72-74kg. I'm, on my way now just less that 80 after a high of 84. I told Crash a few weeks back I was all biked up, no need for any more bikes. Well, that nice steel Scaping hanging in Bike Culture, well that sorta looks about my size - doesn't it? I suppose I better get lots of steel bikes before they stop making them and the nice people in the shop keep on marking the price down. I wonder if it is exactly the same size as my Scapin?
Anyhow, > 80 target 74

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Thu, 13 Jan 2005

Been Slack - 10:32
I've been a bit slack with the blog. My PC has started to make a horrible noise - the source is the fan. I was going to build a linux OS up on this box, but I can't decide now. Rachel is making noises about buying a new computer, she wants the whole Adobe Design stuff on her computer to make the Lig Magazine process lots easier. I'll probably get back my old laptop, even though the TFT does not work anymore. Better than all the noise coming out from under the desk right now.
In the meantime I've ridden the Goulburn Track Power and Rachel and I are off to Sydney on the weekend, I'm riding Dunc Gray Velodrome for the first time in the Southern Highlands Track Open.
We shall stay in Sydney for the extra day on Sunday. The Audax Alpine Classic is looming, I've not really got enough miles in my legs, but I don't seem to most years, except the year of the fires when it was called off anyhow.

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Sat, 01 Jan 2005

Camping down the Coast (Part One) - 10:49
Vania, Ben, Travis, Leiliane, Rachel and I camped down the coast over Christmas. We stayed at Hobart Beach on Wallagoot Lake in Bournda National Park. The park is sorta half way between Merimbula and Tathra on the Sapphire Coast. Quite a wonderful place.
For more info see NPSW Merimbula Office or call them on (02) 6495 5001
Rachel left with Travis, Ben and Vania on Wednesday. I had to work through till Friday lunchtime. I picked up Leiliane at noon on drove off towards Cooma. It was very sunny and bright as we arrived, then a huge thunderstorm came through as I munched my kebab. There was little to indicate a huge storm would hit us as we drove down towards Brown Mountain, first there was rain, then really heavy rain, lightning and thunder. Then the hail started, little stones. I decided to take refuge under some trees at a roadside rest area and as I was parking under a huge gum huge hailstones started to fall, some the size of baseballs. When the 10 or so minutes of hail had finished I had been joined by four-five other cars in the rest area. Most people were sensible enough to pull over, as visibility was virtually non-existent. When it was all done, the card was damaged, two circles on my windscreen where hail had hit and numerous other little dents on the roof. So, we dove on, taking it easy as the rain was still coming down very hard. A few more hailstones and another quick stop under some trees left us a bit behind schedule.
We got into Tathra about five, I rang Rachel on her mobile, no answer, I did not expect to get any coverage. So, we followed the directions set out for us, only to end up on the wrong side of the lake. But Leiliane go to see hundreds of roos, she was very excited. I was happy to see to occasional smaller wallaby. We got to the campsite a bit late; the campers had already set up the tents from the night before. The big debate was over the weather and if they should stay in or go out on the town to get Thai food. Travis insisted on having a shower before he went out, but by the time he got back food was already on the BBQ. In the end it did not rain that night.

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