100km

I hit the road for a longish ride yesterday, with hopes of maintaining my average of a 100km or longer ride each month for the calender year. I was running short of days in September so it was now or never. With my Surgeons warning ringing in my ears I decided it would be best to not venture too far away from home so did a few laps up and down the coast traveling as far north as Austinmer and as far south as Hill 60 at Port Kembla. This kept me at most 20kms from home and close to the train if things went bad. Happily the ride went pretty well, the foot felt fine. No pain and no numbness. I'd like to say that the rest of me felt the same way, but I was pretty tired when I finished, mostly because I hadn't fueled up properly. After climbing Hill 60 at 46kms I really wished I'd packed a banana or two, and it wasn't till about 90kms that I finally stopped at North Beach and scoffed a bacon and egg and hashbrown roll and felt much better for it. Once home and off the bike I realised that it was quite windy and the gusty SW wind was especilly awkward on my chosen route - there's nowhere to hide on the coast - so this made the ride more difficult than it would normally be. I even managed to get swooped by a Magpie (12 times - same magpie out and back), and there I was thinking I had missed all the fun. This morning I backed up for a short 18km loop, just to make sure everything was still in working order and to stretch out my tightening legs. Again, early conditions were quite gusty, however I felt good on the bike, some contact point soreness but nothing to complain about. As a plus, I'm finding that I'm climbing much better these days. In fact I managed to beat my best time up Hill 60 on Saturday, which isn't bad for someone who hadn't ridden much in 6 weeks. I plan to ride pretty steadily again from now and start the new audax season ready for some 200s and in the new year tackle a super series or two and aim for the Sydney Melbourne 1200 in October/November. Mileage in Kms = 3775

First ride back

What with this glorious spring weather, I decided I was feeling good enough to ignore the Doctor and go out on the bike. While it was terrific to be out in the sunshine and covering some kilometers the foot was telling me that he's not yet completely fixed so a slow and steady ride was the order of the day. Made about 33km which was just about right for the first ride back after a 6 week break.

Stitches Out

The stitches in my foot came out to day, but it's 4-8 weeks before I can do any serious cycling. My Doctor said it's OK to ride on a trainer though and can start that in a few days once the swelling has gone down a bit more and I can get into my cycling shoes. It's a bit disappointing, but I guess them's the breaks.

It is done!

Gentle reader, as I sit back in my hammock contemplating my heavily bandaged and Darco shoed foot, I can tell you that the offending neuroma has been excised and I am well on the road to recovery.

The stitches come out in a couple of weeks, so I'm off the bike for the duration, and off work and quite bored with it all by now. Nevertheless I'm happy with how things have gone.

Even with the foot, I've been enjoying my cycling over the winter. Feeling quite fit and managing to get some pace back into the legs and lungs, and planning my audax campaign for the next 18 months which will hopefully include a super series, a year round and a dirt series plus a 1200 if all goes well.

Today was something of a red letter day as I became the proud owner of a classic 1980s Frank Paino racing bike. It comes dripping with Campagnolo and Cinnelli though needs a bit of a tidy up and likely new wheels, but I am very pleased with it. The frame is a thing of beauty, so tight and stiff,  and just my size.





I've never owned a "proper" racing bike before, mine have always been sports models, so this thing is quite something else altogether, even if it's 30 years old. Can't wait to ride it! But wait I must.

Mileage in kilometers = 3673

Royal Ride, or how to test your foot

Joined in the fun of the annual Royal ride from Dapto, to Bundeena on the shores of port Hacking. It had been a couple of months since my last 200 and I was keen to check out how the cortisone injection would stand up.

It was a glorious day, as a meagre two (Me and Kevin) set off from Dapto Station for a loop of Lake Illawarra before heading through the Northern Suburbs, up to Bald Hill and then through the Royal National Park to Bundeena before looping back up via the excruciatingly steep Audley Rd Climb, along the Princes Hwy and Back down into the Park to retrace our route south.

As days on the bike go, this was a beauty, only a persistent headwind frustrating our endeavours. The first 100kms passed without incident in about 4 hours (not bad considering the climbing) though the second Hundred was a bit more challenging, coming back up from Bundeena and then traversing the park to the highway, was pretty hard going. It was about then thaat my foot started to give little twinges of pain. Not too bad in comparison to past issues, but there all the same.

By the time we were back down into the park via waterfall, I was beginning to feel it more and more. I dropped back, started riding more conservatively but by the time I was over Bald Hill and beelining to Dapto, it seemed pretty clear that the injection had not resolved the problem.

Luckily I'm going back to the ortho in a couple of weeks and will discuss the "chop".

Despite the foot problems, it was a glorious day for riding and a hard day out. 200kms, 2200m of climbing and my new much lighter body (I've lost 10kgs in the last 3 months) seemed to be working pretty well.

In other news, I'm about to embark on a lugged steel frame build project, which takes me back to the very early days of this blog and my reinterest in riding.

I never said I was fast.

Mileage in Km 3038

It's been ages

My blogging is almost as lame as my cycling of late. I can blame work for much of that. As a Librarian, blogs and twitter and the rest (pinterest, facebook, foursquare, tumblr, google+ etc) are occupying a huge amount of my online time, which is drastically reducing my personal online time (to the relief of many).

Nevertheless, keen readers of my ramblings will recall that last year I encountered problems with my left foot. Morton's neuroma was the likely culprit and after bailing on my PBP aspirations, I took a vaguely depressed hiatus from cycling until I couldn't stand it anymore and got back in the saddle in December. Things have gone fairly well thus far but the foot will at times cause problems and I finally got up the nerve to confront the orthopedic surgeon.

Initially he concurred with the neuroma diagnosis, and said that surgery to excise the nerve was the best solution but have some scans as I need to know what is there. Scans were done and this week I returned for the analysis. Seems while there's a neuroma it's only a little fella and not the major problem, which in turn has been revealed as inter metatarsal bursitis twixt my 3rd and 4th toes. Recommended treatment is for a guided cortisone injection which I'll be enjoying in a couple of weeks, though if that fails to relieve the issue, the neuroma's going to get the chop as well.

Hopefully though, my physical problems will be resolved shortly and I can confidently set my sights on PBP in 2015. Either way, it's going to hurt :-)

Mileage in Kilometers = 2611

800 km Challenge

This month I signed up for the Strava Ride Hard to breathe easy 800 km challenge. The aim was to ride 800 kms during the month to approximate Karen Munro's ride from Adelaide to Melbourne after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

I know a couple of people recovering, or sadly not, from lung cancer and needed a challenge to keep me honest and aim for a goal so this one had it all and the Easter long weekend and some scheduled rides gave me a good shot at achieving it.

I'm happy to say that today, with 1 whole day remaining I completed the distance and will finish April with 803kms under the wheel.

It's been a pretty good month, have ridden a couple of audax 100s and finished my first (and quite tough) BRM 200 for a long while. It's been more difficult to ride regularly during the week, mostly because of early starts and late finishes at work, so I'm doubly pleased to have made the goal.

This weekend I still needed 200 km to finish. The first 100 or so where pretty straightforward. A cafe ride yesterday to Kiama plus a few noodling kays on the way home left me with 70km left to ride with two days to go.

I went out this morning, under darkening skies and after a mostly dry first 10 kms,  experienced driving rain and strong southerly winds that dampened more than my enthusiasm and saw me turn for home with about 37km done. I had another day left but  I was worried that Monday, with an early start for work and commitments in the evening, reality would dash my hopes.

I pottered around the house most of the afternoon while the wind and rain seemed to abate and at 4.30 this evening with the rain mostly gone, the wind definitely dropping and dry road out front, I was reaching for a beer and realised that I should reach for the bike. I togged up, switched on the lights and headed off to finish off the remaining 32kms.

I headed south, through Unanderra and across to Port Kembla for the first half of the ride and then turned for home, following the coastal cycle path to Fairy Meadow (with a tail wind). The bikes earlier hours in the wet were taking its toll on the drive train, gears where skipping at crucial moments and the brakes weren't providing a lot in the way of stopping power but I was nearly done. I arrived home with numb feet (8 degrees for the last 20 minutes) and aching knees but a happy state of mind.

Tea will be late, but the beer tastes doubly good knowing that I pushed that little bit harder.

Mileage in Kilometers = 2038