ok

More blogs for now. :)

slack

With 250 days to go, and no postings here, it's quite obvious I've been slack.

I have excuses - yes-sir-ee Bob!

The first was a kitchen accident. I managed to slice off the side of my thumb. It was right where it contacts the gear lever on my bike for the rear derailer. It was a very painful injury and I've had to be quite careful with it. No swimming - but I could have still done walking in the gym... Slack.

Then I cold the mother of all colds - head aches, neck aches, sore ears, sore throat, coughing up one or both lungs on a nightly basis.

But now I'm taking a good hard look at myself, and now the cold is on it's last legs, I promise to myself - I WILL START AGAIN MONDAY.

In fact, I have started again already in a way. Part of the challenge for me is getting up early. I'm simply not a morning person. So this week, I'm working on getting that early start thing happening, then I'll start back at the gym.

Wish me luck. :)

Good ride today

The cheese and kisses is overseas at the moment, so I'm baching for a couple of weeks. Went for a ride this morning from North Road, Brighton to just past Station pier in Port Melbourne - which is about 10km one way. There was no wind to speak of, and no real hills, so I pushed on a little as I wanted to know what sort of time I could make for the tri next year. Without going beserk, I managed to do the 10km in slightly over 30 mins, with an average speed of 19.97km/h, HRmax was 176 (when I was pushing hard and doing 30km/h) average was 153 - which is about 77% for me.

I took it fairly easy on the way back, and just had a wander around. My weight is coming down slowly, which is good. I need to get back in the pool and get back on the treadmill, or take the dog for a walk. In fact, I felt pretty good after todays ride, so if I'm not knackered after doing the laws etc today, I might take her tonight.

BRW 2007

Got some new bits for the bike last week. A new computer - Sigma 1606l DTS with wireless cadence, rack + panniers and some clear lenses specs for cycling in the dark.

Today was the first day I got to play with two of the three. I rode to Elwood this morning to check out the BRW triathlon that I plan to compete in next year. Went Blackburn -> FTG Road -> Princes Hwy -> Neerim Rd -> Bambra Rd -> North Rd -> bike track along beach to Elwood. About 15kms and a nice ride early in the morning.

Met up with L and A there and had a look around, had breaky and headed home - total trip a tad over 30km.
Avg Cadence was 76
Avg Speed was 17.8
Top speed was 55.07

We did a bit of slow riding around the event which will have dropped the averages slightly.

Also when I was setting up the new computer I noticed the old one had the wheel circumference set up wrong! so everything was out by about 10%. I took that into account when plugging in the new odometer reading in the new computer, so the total reading is about right now. (236km)

Still it was a fun ride, and I can't wait to get the bike racks so I can get the Mrs down to the beach for rides along the bike tracks there - it was magic riding along the tracks towards the city this morning.

This morning's swim

The 25m lengths are getting easier - gone is the struggling to get from one end to the other. Over the next week or two I'll be trying to extend to 50m non-stop from 25m. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I'm way out of practice and shape.

L has a megaswim on this weekend - a fundraiser for MS. I think I'll go and cheer the company team on a bit.

The 2007 BRW triathlon (this years competition that I want to compete in next year) is on this weekend. I checked out where it is, and it's a 15km ride from home - which would make for a 30km-ish round ride - I think I could do that ok.

back in the saddle

After having a slack week I'm back on the bike and will be back in the pool tomorrow. Wedding anniversary, valentines day, work pressures and any number of other excuses. :)

The odometer says 180km on the bike - I want it to say 300 before I take it for it's first service in March. I think I need to be careful of how hard I try - my legs were very sore at the end of last week - perhaps some more (some) stretching is required.

The steed

With a pool available to me via my gym, and I can walk (no running until I'm near 90kg) where I like, the only thing left was to get a bike. I'd tried the exercise bike before, and whilst I had some success, in the end it was just plain boring.

So having done some research my wife and I visited a couple of bike shops in our area. One place was really good, the guy who ran the place was very helpful, and the prices seemed reasonable. The second place wasn't as good, the guy who spoke to us didn't seem to know his stuff, and on returning home to check prices, we found he was overpriced. So the next day we went back to the first shop - Open Road Cycles (the web page will be working some day) and ordered a bike for myself and my wife. Due to my weight the LBS recommended a mountain bike for me, and a hybrid for my wife.

We ordered some odds and ends for the bikes - mine got a bike computer, pump, underseat bag with spare tube and tools. Both got lights, bidons (french for water bottle that goes on bike) and cages, locks and we got a helmet each. My bike also got a slightly longer headstem and a change of tyres to something a little more useful on biketracks than nobblies. As a result of the changes, and the cheese and kisses bike having to be ordered in, we had to wait for a week.

Whilst waiting, I went looking for some forums for advice. I found bicycles.net.au and made a few posts on there. The people there were amazingly helpful, and tremendously encouraging. I must admit, I had a preconceived notion that cycling was a bit cliquey and that I would be stonewalled. I couldn't have been further from the truth. Thanks guys.

On the day the bikes arrived I convinced the wife that it would be good for us to catch a bus to the LBS and ride home (a paltry 6km). She was unsure, but I was persuasive. So we caught the bus in, got some good tips from the LBS and set out.

I should point out at this point that neither of us had ridden since we were at school, and now are both in our 30s. The 6km happened, but quite slowly, and both backsides were sore and sorry at the end.

6km down, how many more to come?