Interesting times

So I get back from Perth and find that I still have tummy trouble. It's worrying enough now for me for visit my Dr, who duly diagnoses Giardiasis. Terrific, take this medication and it should be fine. Medication is awful and a couple of weeks later the now familiar signs have returned.

Hmm says Dr, better run some tests. Turns out I have been enjoying the company of a range of critters, with the last remaining Blastocystis hominis causing the trouble. Not sure where I've encountered these devils and likely will never know, but I am now definitely on the mend after another course of awful antibiotics. The tests also indicate that I'm in fabulous health other than said bugs camping in my gut and HDL cholesterol measuring 6.1. Oops.

So much better in fact that I have recently ridden a lovely 300km brevet known as the Highlands Ride (i'd post the bikley link but its not loading) in what for me was a pretty good time of 15 hrs 30 mins.

The weather this last week has been very wet but I count myself lucky that I got to ride about 150kms in relative dryness though there were some pretty good downpours. By the end of the ride I was down to emergency rear light only as the rain had killed the superflashes and I was really thankful for my reflective vest. Descending Keira in the rain was fraught with terror as I rode the brakes and tried to stay upright.

What was really enjoyable about the ride was the number of birds that were frolicking about. I saw lots of vivid parrots, Rosellas on the way to Bundanoon, and around Wingello I spotted two Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos, as well as the usual Lyre Bird on Macquarie Pass, countless ducks and a raft of Kookaburras.

I managed to get myself into a really useful headspace during the ride. I was enjoying the riding and maintaining a pretty good pace, felt I was climbing well and was generally comfortable both in body and mind as I rode along. This was also my first long ride for sometime without using Perpetuem and I found that so long as I ate at the controles and snacked on lollies along the route I felt pretty good.

So that's the 300 and the 200 down for the PBP qualifiers. There's a local 400 in early February though I have the Tallowa Dam 200 and Alpine Classic to look forward to in January. Will need to get a few more hills in in the meantime.

Mileage in Kilometers = 8682