Tallowa Dam Ride

I took part in the Tallowa Dam ride last weekend in preparation for the Alpine Classic later in the month and as a general all round source of pain and suffering.

There was a fairly large group again for the ride, it's really becoming something of a "draw" for Sydney Audax riders and locals too. A few familiar faces and a few new ones. Even had a guy on a recumbent.

The weather was very humid and sticky and got hot later in the day but was otherwise not too extreme. A head wind moderated the temperatures for most of the ride, with only the steep climb up from the dam and most of Barrengary Mountain being hot.

I found myself in pedal with Greg for most of the day and it was good to catch up with him. He has just started his preparation for PBP so reckons he was a bit slower and unfit, which gave me half a chance.

From Rider redux

For mine, I enjoyed the riding, coped with the hills and heat reasonably well and managed my fastest time yet for this ride.

From Rider redux

Nothing really significant to report from the ride itself, saw a Lyrebird on the Pass and some beautiful parrots along the route. Traffic was fairly light and patient and it didn't rain!

Mileage in Kilometers = 376

The Annual Round up

The 2010 goals were

Finish a Super series.
Complete at least one BRM event every month
Clock up the required 2400km of BRM rides (November - November) to qualify for early entry into PBP (only 2200 to go!)
Complete a 1000km ride
Hopefully complete Perth Albany Perth (am on the waiting list)
Aim for a total mileage of 8000km.

Happy to say that I accomplished most of them with the exception of "completing" Perth Albany Perth - but I had a pretty good shot at it while my knee injury meant that I did not ride any BRMs in February and March.

I did however complete my Super Series, clock up the required distance for PBP while I exceeded my cycling target by 1230km to reach 9230km.

October (1055km) was the best month for distance but only slightly as May saw me ride 1021km. I rode 137 times or once every 2.6 days and my longest ride was 612km. Generally I was much more consistent on the bike, riding over 800km in more than 8 months. This is especially so since getting my knee properly fixed and developing more effective technique. My average speed on my training routes is now quite a lot faster than at the beginning of the year (3kph on average) and the riding consistently is pay big dividends in terms of my general cycling capacity, fitness and psychology.

This year the cycling goals are;

Aim for am annual distance of 10,000km
Ride 150 times
Complete 1 BRM event every month
Complete a Super Series
Complete Paris Brest Paris
Qualify for the Percy Armstrong Award (rides of 50, 100, 150, 200 - it's the only award I haven't got yet).

So all in all a pretty positive year with some important lessons learnt. I'm quite looking forward to the challenges ahead!

In other news, I have been learning the Violin, got a new guitar (Taylor 210cc) brewed 23 batches of delicious beer, made a Mead and won 4 first places for my beer at the Albion Park Show (and missed out on best beer by 1 point!), and still manage to lose a couple of kilos!