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

Berrima 200

I returned to the world of brevet riding today with the Berrima 200. The route looked a beauty and at this time of year riding in the NSW Southern Highlands is very pleasant, mild weather, light winds with only the hills to spoil the fun.

2 others had committed to the ride, while another couple came as far as the Pie Shop in Robertson before turning back, and we set off from Dapto at 7am looking forward to the day ahead. I hadn't completed a brevet for about 12 months and in the interim the longest ride I had completed was about 100km. Despite feeling a bit ague-y during the week I really wanted to ride, partially because I just wanted to do a long one, but I also needed to prove to myself that I could, bung foot and all.

Climbing Macquarie Pass was challenging and slow, but I was pleased to be coping with it, once at the top it was a short hop across and down to Fitzroy Falls for the first controle. A quick coffee and water top up, we headed off as a group, but somewhere along the Nowra road I began to feel a sharp stabbing pain in my achilles tendon. Crap, bung foot now buggered ankle. I spent the next few kilometers wrestling with myself and the pain, doubts looming large about being able to complete the ride.

At last I reached down to massage the tendon and realised that the zip on my leg warmers was digging itself into my ankle, a quick flip and behold the crippling achilles tendon pain was gone. A mixture of relief and embarrassment ensued, but it did give me more confidence to continue.

We stopped for an early lunch and Bundanoon and then headed off towards Wingello. Mark and Kevin were making good time into the slight headwind at this stage, and I was able to hold their wheels but soon realised that I didn't have the kays for it and would need to ride my own ride. I dropped off the back and happily pootled along, enjoying the birds (Black cockatoos and two yellow tailed cockatoos and lots of rosellas) until I caught up with them at the Wingello General store, our second controle and welcomed stop.

A couple of kids, brother and sister, were pretty impressed that we had ridden up from Dapto, asked lots of questions and showed us their bikes, even perform some daredevil tricks, as we left they rode their bikes around furious demonstrating power slides and wheelies. They were great.

After a short ride through pleasant bushland/farmland we joined the Hume Hwy for the next 30kms on to Berrima, I settled into my rhythm and let the others roll away, content to adopt a slow down and enjoy the ride approach. Soon I was exiting the Hume and aiming for Berrima where I stopped for a berry muffin and caffeine sugar hit. 20 minutes later I was back on the bike and cycling up out of town. The first hill was persistent, then the next - Bendooley Hill - was a real tester after 130kms. Eventually I road over the KOM 500m marker and knew I would make it to the top. From there, the view was just fine.

In my mind I began to break the ride down into doable sections. With 70kms to go, and the last of the checkpoints behind me I needed small goals, nothing too far, so I could keep my head and manage my increasing fatigue. Mittagong was next, 14km - easy peasy I kept repeating to myself.

And within 45mins, I was tracking through Mittagong, next stop Bowral, 7kms. Laughably easy. Good thing too, as there is a slow climb between the two and I was glad when I crested and coasted up and along the main street.

Veering out of Bowral onto Kangaloon road my next Target was the turn off to Tourist Road. This section was relatively flat and I realised that I was really, really enjoying myself. Longest ride for a long time and was confident, for the first time that I would make the distance.

After the initial first steep uphill on Tourist Road, the descent down to the valley in the late afternoon light was a pleasure. Riding along the valley, I switched on my headlights as I noticed that cars were coming at me with their lights on, then commenced the slow climb up to the Pass. This was tough and my foot began to complain but I promised myself a break at the top and kept the wheels rolling until I crossed the railway bridge that marked the practical end of the days climbing, only the descent to Albion Park and the short stretch to Dapto left.

Checking the time, I realised that I was well ahead of my 12 hour target, so I stopped and feasted on energy bars, took off my shoes and stretched out my aching foot before suiting up in wind stopper, long gloves and reflective vest (it was now almost dark and getting cold) before I took to the long decent of the Pass.

As always it was exhilarating, and apart from a few passing cars, I had the Pass to myself. At the bottom, I felt strong and refreshed, my foot was fine and my resolve was firm. Dapto here I come. Curiously, the closer I came to finishing the ride the stronger I began to feel, picking up pace and enjoying the blooming night sky until the lights of the conurbation began to wash them out. Before too long I was coasting back into the station with a tremendous sense of achievement and a time of 11.40.

The station Master told me that Kevin and Mark had arrived about an hour earlier, which was great news and I retreated to the car to pack and head home for a well earned beer. It wasn't until I uploaded the data from my Garmin later that I discovered the vertical gain on the ride was over 2400m. That was about 800m more than I had thought it would be, and I must confess that I'm glad I didn't know that at the time, it probably would have put me off, ignorance is underrated. And so ended my first BRM in 12 months.

A great day out on the bike.

Mileage in kilometers = 1697

A week in Melbourne

League of Honest Coffee

Degraves Espresso

I spent some time in Melbourne attending a conference last week and had a fairly jolly time, trying out various beers and coffee and catching up with some far flung colleagues. The conference was pretty interesting with some really provocative presentations. Though I wonder whether the concept of conferences as a source of new ideas is on the decline, given the nature of the interwebs. See people in the flesh though is great and cannot be overestimated.

Naked Espresso

On my agenda was to try out some of the better espresso places in the CBD and my research revealed a number of gems that aren't immediately obvious to the casual wanderer. The most impressive of which have got themselves a photograph.

My favourites included the league of honest coffee and naked espresso. As an aside, I found it pretty cool the way the busier places had a couple of people out front of the counter, co-ordinating orders and directing the traffic and having chats.

I also spent a bit of time researching beers and had a couple of not yet tasted before examples at various establishments. I was in a hoppy frame of mind and found myself gavitating to the beers with the biggest hop flavours I could find. One notable was True South's Clocktower IPA which has to be one of the best examples of the style being brewed in Australia at the moment. Couple of other beery highlights came from Sierra Nevada in the form of their wet hop IPA and Epic's Armageddon IPA .

Movida Next Door

One of my other objectives was dinner at Movida Next Door. It was typically awesome. So many flavours and textures. I was also impressed by the way the team of people worked together. It was not immediately obvious who was in charge, yet everyone was busy and appeared to be having fun. I'm thinking that as well as the great Movida cook books, they could do something on teamwork and management as we.

My cycling objectives for this year is to ride 6000km, which means getting about 500kms each month. January went pretty well but the week in Melbourne was going to set me back a bit. That is until I saw the share bikes.

Share Bike dock

There was a sharebike rack just around the corner from my hotel, so I soon located a subsidized helmet at a 7 Eleven ($5) and took out a weeks subscription ($8). I downloaded the spotcycle app which mapped the bike stations and gave real time updates of number of bikes available and number of free docks.

Trips under 30 minutes are free, but seemed to get pretty expensive the longer you ride (up to $10/hr), but the idea is you cycle from one bay to the next and keep your rides under 30 minutes. Casual users need to have a credit card.

Heavy, but serviceable

The bikes themselves are heavy, but that is the nature of bikes left outside that can be used by anyone. They're equipped with Shimano drum brakes front and rear, nexus 3 speed hub gears, fenders, bell, bulky saddle and front rack with strap. Despite their bulk, they get along Ok and I didn't see any damaged or broken ones lying about. My cyclemeter reckoned that I managed 50kph at one point (which I don't really believe) but pedaling along at 20kph was no problem.

There's a nice network of shared paths along the Yarra River and various marked lanes around town. Riding in the traffic wasn't too bad, especially as there are so many other people cycling around in the city and most drivers seemed conditioned to it. Perhaps not Taxis, but are they ever.

During the week I clocked up just over 60kms on the blue beasts and thoroughly enjoyed the freedom they offered. The program is apparently on a 5 year trial, and while use is growing, there's been a lower than expected uptake. A lot of that has to be related to the helmet issue, and that the bike racks are not more widely dispersed than the CBD and immediately adjoining area.

That aside, I found them really useful and got to see parts of the city that I wouldn't usually have managed to see by tram.

Mileage in Kilometers = 667









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Getting a couple of rides in

Last week the 2011 Paris Brest Paris was run and with thanks to the miracle of technology I was able to vicariously enjoy the efforts of friends as they worked towards their goal of finishing the ride. Particularly to Greg, who was the lone "Dog" on the ride and came home in slightly over 80 hours.

Sitting back in my armchair as I was, the ride has also motivated me to get back out on the bike and I have enjoyed a couple of rides over the last few days after not spinning a pedal for 2 months. I have found that apart from some stiffness and predictable contact point soreness, I still remember how to do it. Not so sure about going for a really long ride just yet, but there's a 100km ride in a couple of weeks that I will have a crack at, then I might think about working towards riding Fitz's Classic at the end of October.

Curiously, I remember back in in 2007 thinking about getting to PBP in 2011 and embarking upon my audax adventure, and find myself in much the same position today, thinking about PBP in 2015. It's really not that far off.

Mileage in Kilometers = 3636

Could be worse I suppose

I've been spending time off the bike of late in the hope that my foot will recover. In order to cheer myself up about missing PBP this time and to spend my airfare on something more interesting than whitegoods, while taking some of the weight off my foot - I am going to learn to paraglide in Manilla next week. Should be great.

As far as the foot goes I wish it were better, but it seems not. It's getting worse.

Initially I was treated for metatarsalgia, I got some orthotics fitted in my cycling shoes and moved to a roomier fit with a Look style cleat replacing my SPDs in order to spread the load. As noted, this didn't really work, though the Sidi Lazars are great in every other way.

The primary cause of the pain as it turns out is neuroma, or more specifically Mortons Neuroma, which is basically a benign tumor on the nerve sheaf in my foot between my metatarsals. It is exacerbated by applying pressure to the ball of the foot and apparently one of the causes is wearing high heeled shoes.

I don't wear stilettos so much, but I spent a great deal of time during my twenties and early thirties wearing really tight fitting rock climbing shoes such as these Boreal Aces -



The style for rock shoes was the tighter the better so a good fitting rock climbing shoe was 2 sizes smaller than a walking shoe. In hindsight I can see that something was bound to give eventually.

So the "foot" is now bad enough to cause problems when I'm just walking around, so I am beginning to think that getting a cortisone injection will be the next stage of therapy.

Anyway as its all pretty stuffed, and is getting painful to walk, I may as well ride.

So tomorrow, I'm reduxing yet again!

New shoes, old feet.

Quite depressing really, my feet failed again on the Border 600 this weekend. Could only manage 160km before it became too painful to continue. I think that's the end of my Paris Brest Paris aspiration.

New Gadget

The plan is to use it to power the Garmin and potentially other gadgets on long rides. It has turned up just in time for the Coal Valley 400 this weekend.