Pursuits

Pursuits are painful and really do come down to not just physical strength but a lot, and I mean a LOT of mental strength. Today at the track skills session we did pursuits with the starts from the gate.

We started off doing 6 laps at a pace we thought we could maintain for 12 laps and we were being timed on each lap. These times were then used to work out our schedule to follow for doing an 8 lap (2km) pursuit. Having never done this kind of thing before today I found it difficult trying to maintain a good pace as you just don't know what's going to happen at the end of the laps.
We got to do a trial run of using the gates and I was actually really quite nervous about the held start but once I did the first one I felt a lot better about it. In my trial release, I went a fraction early so when the gates actually let go I wasn't in the right rythm and that caused me to look down is the one thing you really don't want to do as then you lose your line and you go all over the place!

We started our 8 lap pursuit knowing what time our schedule was marked for and we had a coach telling us on each lap if we were too fast, slow or on target. My release from the gate was better than the trial one, but it still wasn't great - but hey it is only my second attempt and having Lawrence yell out 'LOOK UP' really helped me to keep a straight line cos I had dropped my head on the start.
Doing the laps was really tough. I was wanting to push hard and do a high speed but I also wanted to make sure I had legs to maintain the pace for the whole 8 laps. My lungs were burning and it was hard to get the air into them and I was really trying hard to keep a good consistency with my breathing by taking full deep breaths (similar to what I do hill climbing). I am not sure what was hurting more - my legs or my lungs really, neither are used to this kind of intensity in a workout! I did my second lap too fast and had to slow down, which I found a challenge in itself because I didn't want to slow down too much. It really is difficult when you haven't done this kind of thing before, but hey - we all have to start somewhere! I evened my times out for laps 3 through to 7 and it was really hurting. I was working really hard to maintain the pace I was doing and with Joe confirming on each lap that I had the speed right for my schedule it helped me to focus on keeping everything the same. Coming into the last lap Joe yelled at me to 'BRING IT HOME!' so I tried to go even harder - only 1 lap to go! I tried to push past the pain in the legs by upping the cadence and I tried to get even more air into the lungs and it worked because my last lap was 1.27s faster than lap 7 which is a really big increase!

Did I enjoy it - YES! Did I suffer during the pursuit - YES! And doing the improved time on my last lap really helped to bring home just how much is a mental battle - the body hurts the whole bloody time and it is how you can conquer this pain mentally.

My lungs are still feeling the effects of these two pursuits, I am coughing quite regularly and bringing gunk up and I am also quite wheezy. I didn't think I suffered from exercise induced Asthma but now I am starting to wonder. The thing that makes me think I don't though is that while my lungs were burning and it was hard to get enough oxygen, it didn't feel tight as such. I might have to read up a bit on it.

My knee is also sore again. I can feel the tightness in it and my lowerback is also quite tight and uncomfortable/painful so I am really glad I didn't ride yesterday and tomorrow will see me at the Osteo again.

Frustrated

I have just spent the best part of the past hour trying to put a new tyre onto one of the wheels from my track bike. They are 700x20c as opposed to the 700x23c tyres currently on Dacks and are bloody tight and don't my thumbs know it! After 3 tubes biting the dust, 2 pinched flats and 1 valve, I cracked the shits and ended up putting the original tyre back on. If it wasn't for the fact that I am heading to DISC in about an hour I would have just put the bike in the corner and ignored it for a few hours before trying to put the new tyre on again.

Annoyed

If I say I am injured, I am injured. Please don't try to belittle me and treat me like an idiot by saying it isn't an injury - you don't know how my back feels, how I could feel it even just standing their talking to you and you don't realise how much more important it is for me to be able to ride tomorrow as opposed to today's small 30km group ride... Instead of trying to look like a smart arse, you made yourself look like a tool :( I thought better of you... do you really think I like being injured?

White and fluffy

My back still isn't that good :( I knew that when I left the osteo the other day and he asked me if moving in a certain way still hurt, and it did, that it wasn't a good thing.

Today I bought a 15t Dura Ace track sprocket for Dacks! I will put it on Dacks tomorrow or Sunday morning so that I can now flip flop the wheel to change between 81GI and 86GI which will make a fair bit of difference down at DISC. I also plan to finally change over the tyres to the veloflex records that I bought a month ago.

This arvo I also went and got a new saddle put on Dacks. At the time of getting Dacks, they recommended a certain saddle but said it would be 4 weeks, well 4 weeks later it looks like another 4 weeks :( I found a store in Melbourne that had the saddle in the right size so I went and bought it. Unfortunately it meant that I paid full price for it instead of half price but I do now have the previous saddle that I can sell or something if I so choose to AND a comfy saddle! I tired a couple of saddles and the one originally recommended was the best of the ones I tested.

I am feeling rather squidgy and probably wont do the BBC ride tomorrow because of my back, but I will be there for brekky but I will have a few less waffles.

GO GEELONG!!

Cracking good fun

It is a bit of a worry when your osteo looks at you in a shocked way when you show them the stretches you were shown to do by the other osteo and your joints crack as you start the stretch! It's normal though for me that my hips do that -shock-! I had to go back to the osteo today about my back. After going there on Monday for my knee problem which resulted in a lot of work being done on my lower back, glute and hammy for the tightness, yesterday afternoon my back was quite painful and I had to take a few nurofen plus. Today more work was done on my back and glute area to try to losen it up a bit as it was still quite tight. He also managed to crack my back quite a bit more today than what was (not) possible on Monday.

Work is crazy at the moment and combining that with a sore back really isn't a good combination, not only because I can't sit for a long time at my desk but because I can't get on the bike to ride out the tension, stress and frustration!

Required

I think I need to have some spontaneous fun, excitement and laughter. It has been far too long and I have far too many thoughts running around in my head weighing me down.

Stretch!

I went to the osteo this morning and I was right, my lowerback is really tight which is affecting my sciatic nerve along with a really tight glute muscle and my hamstring is also tight which all combined to create the pulling on the back of me knee. It's frustrating because this is the good leg! The other leg I tore something in my hip which took about 6 months to be pain free and have previously strain/torn the hamstring. Oh and my osteo commented that my left leg was also a bit shorter than my right leg today cos of the tighness.

I have been given a few specific stretches to do which should help to losen it all up a bit more and I have to have a few days off the bike but I may go to track tomorrow night to test it out anyway as it is a bit more of a controlled environment

Brief

A ride report from Saturday and a weekend update will come later, when I am in the mood for it, but for now, 110km's - second longest ride ever. I went to the Mt Martha turn off and turned around. I have hurt my knee which stopped me participating in today's track skills session - very frustrating indeed! I did a few laps before realising it just wasn't going to happen. I think it is coming from my lower back tightening my hamstring which is pulling on the back of my knee. Of course I could be very wrong, but having a sore back at the break of the ride is too much of a coincidence for me.

Too much coffee can be a bad thing

There comes a point where I think the consumption of a certain amount of coffee has a negative effect for me and I think I just reached it. I have had 3 proper coffees (none of this instant crap) in the last 3.5 hrs (yes I have been at work that long) and now I am feeling a bit skittish and uneasy. I knew I shouldn't have had the third coffee but I just couldn't resist the temptation!

My sister has realised the error of her ways in regards to my birthday but she is still going to have my nieces birthday on the 27th and not the 28th (her actual birthday). On the phone to her earlier she said she didn't realise that it was a big birthday this year and she also said she is no longer going to be away on my actual birthday but she can't do dinner on the day cos she is booked into doing something else. So on one hand she apologised in her own way, but then also said that she still can't do anything with me on the actual day cos she is busy...
I explained to her what my plans are and how I don't like having big parties or anything like that for my birthday and I am going to do what I want for my birthday regardless of if it clashes with other things...


I was just doing the label's for this post and OMG a non cycling post!! (although I do have a cycling one floating around in my head, I just can't focus enough at the moment to get onto paper... damn coffee ;) )

The view of a cyclist

One Sunday morning down at DISC a certain chicky had ridden down to track for part of her km's she needed to do that day for training. I asked her how far she had ridden and it was about 35km's, which isn't a lot for cycling and I didn't really think a lot about it other than it would have been a good warm up. I then asked her what suburb they came from, Croydon (I think it was), and my first thought was 'sheesh that's a long way to travel to come to track!'. So to me, driving from Croydon is a long way but riding 35km's isn't.

Oops!

I just discovered how much water my new indoor pot plants can't hold. I could hear this almost ticking kind of noise and it turned out to be water dripping onto the carpet - oops!

I didn't leave work until after 5pm today, so that makes a 10hr day, which sometimes happens, but it meant that I didn't get down to DISC to do a few laps before the racing started which is frustrating because I didn't commute by bike today and tomorrow's forecast looks crappy also.

Meh!

Tight arse!

Today I bought some plants! I bought a Dracaena marginata purple form and a Graceful palm for either side of my entertainment unit! They are smaller than I had planned to get but the pricing was good :D I also got some nice red glazed pots for them to go into and they are sitting upon some stools so they are off the ground a bit more and higher.

I also bought a salad mix thingy which had two kinds of lettuce, two kinds of tomatoes, basil, parsley and some capsicum in it and I bought some spring onions! Let's see if these will grow and not die before I get to eat something from them! Does anyone know if you can grow corn in a pot?

This morning at track we did some 4 lap sprints again but this time with some tactics, ie not just going flat out for the last laps and killing ourselves, which was nice. The sprint was a lot of fun and I sat in behind one of the chicks and ended up going past her (she changed her rhythm and lost her mojo) and almost beating Gary across the line - I was about a half metre short damnit!! It was a huge amount of fun though, even with deadish legs. I was speaking to Gary after the first one and he agreed to go out a bit slower in the 4 lap warmup before the 4 lap race and that really helped. Gary is great down at track, he is an older guy, say 50-60 or so? Very encouraging (like everyone else) and just a great guy with lots of experience who isn't wanting to race but just loves his Sunday morning's at track and willing to help people, a real great guy!

After today's track session and also last night after yesterday's ride, I discovered that I have sore glutes and it is a frustrating part of the body to stretch. I need to lie on my back and put my left leg over the right side of my body with my back still being flat on the ground - it is hard to describe but it is the only way I can find to stretch them, but on the positive it means that I am using them for my cycling, which is great as they are very helpful with sprinting and are big strong muscles and that one day I will have a great firm arse! :D

Today's ride - muddy!

Today was one of the first of many Brunswick CC's womens bike rides with our coach Joe and it was from South Morang out to do the Humevale climb and then back again. We all stuck together and worked as a bunch, there were 8 of us (including Joe). It's hard to compare the speeds we were doing along there cos they are like country roads in that they aren't as smooth, so we were avg around 27-28km/h or so in the bunch most of the time but sometimes it was down to 25-26km/h as well. We would spend about 5 or so minutes at the front before rolling off.

Joe gave us some tips for climbing on how to rest your leg muscles every 5 or so minutes and it really helps! It is to change up a few gears and then stand like some people do on beach rd when you come to traffic lights and then use your weight to push the pedals down, so push down...rest push the other leg down...rest etc - very good!

I made it to the top last, which I knew would happen, but I found my own pedalling groove at about 70rpm or so and got there eventually and w/out using my very lowest gear. I have photo's of my bike here after the climb - there was a bit of dirt on the Humevale road and it had rained overnight... urgh! I had to take the rear wheel off once I got to the top to clear the mud out of the rear brake caliper!
Joe made us descend the Humevale road - not happy Jan!! I only climb so I can descend really really fast and because of the mud I was pretty much on the brakes the whole way. Joe suggested being in the drops so my hands wouldn't feel the bumps as much as on the hoods and that made it a fair bit easier, although my fingers still froze and by the time we got to the bottom my fingers and toes were both frozen!

On the way from Humevale back to Whittlesea we did proper rolling turns and that was awesome, we were averaging 34-35km/h! It felt so fast, it was great all of us working together and getting instructions on how to improve what we were doing etc. I have done them a couple of times before with cogs girls so its good to get a refresher.

We had a drink and some food in Whittlesea and then headed back to South Morang and it was again 5 or so minutes at the front taking turns and we must have had a slight tail wind cos the speeds were a few km/h faster. Through the roadworks just before getting back to the cars I was really pushed, Heather was in front of the single file (road was narrowed off because of the road works) and we were doing 35-37km/h!

All up we did just over 62km and it was a lot of fun! It was just awesome being out with a bunch of women all riding at a good comfortable pace. Good conversation and great people!

My legs are a bit sore/tired, most likely because I haven't done any real climbing (Humevale or 1:20 or anything really) for over 6 months and I ended up having a 2hr sleep this afternoon, but I think I might not be 100% well. On the way out from South Morang to Whittlesea I could feel all this heat radiating from my face which was a bit abnormal for a 30 minute ride and when we had a toilet stop I was talking to Heather and she agreed my face was burning up. Everyone else's face was cold from the air and mine was like a furnace - very odd!

It was a great morning and a great ride and we even had a guy sitting off the back of our bunch on the return trip, he was very behaved though and didn't try to join our bunch. It's really was awesome being out with a bunch of women all cycling together, it really was a great morning!

Distance: 61.23km
Time: 2hr49:22
Avg Speed: 21.7km (that included the 7.2km Humevale climb)
Max Sp: 39.1km/h :(
Calories: 2821
Max HR: 180
Avg HR: 149

*** UPDATE - linky to today's ride data

Yikes!

This morning when I got to work 3 of the emails in my inbox were documents to review by COB tomorrow - THREE!! Now I am not the quickest at reviewing documents, but that's because I like to actually read them, understand and question them when I am not sure about something - I am not going to put my approval to something I don't understand. Two of the documents are solution designs so they will take me even longer to read as they are more detailed than a Business of Functional spec.
Tomorrow my department is hosting the monthly work BBQ and I am one of the main people organising it which means that in the morning we have to go shopping for a bunch of stuff like food, plates, cups etc and then decorate the BBQ area and have everything ready and prepared before 4:30pm. This afternoon I am also booked in for a 2hr meeting for a document walk through for a document I reviewed yesterday, So while I have till COB tomorrow to do these reviews, I really have until COB today to read and comment on over 200 pages of documents AND do do other work... methinks there will be much coffee consumed today and I will be taking work home tonight, which means I might not get to DISC to watch some racing tonight like I had planned. BLERGH!

Greenery

I am going to buy a couple of plants for my loungeroom! Something along the lines of an indoor palm or a yucca or something along those lines and some funky glazed pots to put them in. The only plant I currently own is a Chilli plant that I was given for my birthday last year and, so far, its still alive so I think I can be trusted with a few more plants ;) I am going to put the plants in places that furniture has been removed from so they wont just fill the gaps but give the loungeroom and nice feel and some colour. Now I just need to organise myself to go buy the plants, pots and potting mix. I figure I will check out both my local nursery and Bunnings and see who has what stock and for what prices

The mind wont stop thinking

Sometimes work really gets in the way of life! I have so much going through my head about riding, family and trying to be more true to myself that I just don't have time to think about work! I am also having to work out if two projects that I am working on are about to conflict with each other and I need to figure out how to manage it, I also need to learn to not let personal stuff stop me focusing on work stuff.

Thrown into it all I am having second thoughts about something (away from work) and I need to make a decision about it so I know which path to follow so I can accept it and move forwards with the goal in sight. Over the past few months I have started trying to focus more on what I want and not just what sounds like a good thing to do and this is a real test of this, of trying to identify if I want to do it because others are doing it or if I really do want to actually do it. I am getting overwhelmed a bit at the moment so I just need to sit back, relax and take a few deep breaths and if that fails just get on my bike and just bloody ride.

This Sunday there is a ride happening in Rosebud and I am not sure if I want to do that or go to DISC for track training. While I would love to do the ride in Rosebud with other people, like the above I need to work out what I would prefer to be doing and at track on Sunday we will be going through racing tactics...

I think I need a massive venting session where I just talk everything out of my head as it is all just going around and around and I feel like a passenger as I can't make a decision.

The tyre didn't pinch flat or deflate in the middle of the night last night, very happy about that as I was uneasy going to bed with the bike in my room.

All fixed

Tonight I took the rear wheel off Smurfy and it turns out that the air escaped the tyre last night from a hole at the bottom of the valve. I went and purchased some new rim tape today just in case that was the offender and I thoroughly checked the tyre as well and nothing, but from pumping up the tube with the pump it was very clear that there was a hole at the base of the valve so thats good. I have replaced the tube with a new one and so far it hasn't pinch flatted - I am wondering though if I should leave the bike in the loungeroom tonight just in case though, I don't think I could handle it going BANG tonight while I am asleep after last night!

I lost another 700 grams this week, so that's 2.9kg's in 3 weeks - amazing considering the food I consumed this week!

Bad ways to be woken up #183

This morning just after 1am I was woken by this extremely loud hissing noise! As soon as I heard it I had no idea what it was and in my sleep haze managed to flick my bedside lamp on to try to figure out what the hell was going on and even then I couldn't work it out. After a few disoriented seconds I realised that one of the tyres on Smurfy, my road bike was deflating - WTF?!?! The thoughts that went through my head after I realised this were: WTF is it deflating? Is someone in the house and has stabbed the tyre? (even though my bedroom door was shut), What on earth made it decide 1am was a good time to deflate? Shit, I think I just got a new HRM, but wont ever know what it was.

I tell you what, this is one of the worst ways to ever be woken up, it scared the crap out of me and I couldn't get back to sleep for over an hour and then when I did it was a very fitful sleep until I got up this morning, I kept stiring whenever there was a sound.

So tonight after working at WW I need to go home and figure what the hell happened to my rear tyre, I hadn't even ridden that day! I hope that it is the glue on the valve or something that caused this to happen.

Addicted to the speed

Today I decided not to do a ride up the 1:20 and instead go to my usual Sunday morning track session @DISC and I was very glad I did! Despite having issues with the saddle, I had an awesome morning. The saddles issues are new and I think it could be due to my weightloss causing me to sit on the saddle a bit differently. The saddle is the original one that came on the bike but hopefully soon my Specialized Jet saddle in black will be in and I can put that one on Dacks. As a result of the issues I had to stop several times to rest, but that's ok.
The fun bit though was firstly, getting down to the 19 or 18 lap to go in the warm up count down, before saddles issues arose, I would have made it to the end otherwise, but its still further than previously and then came the best bit - a 2 lap sprint! I loved it!! A flying 500m! We followed Joe around for a couple of laps and then as he descended down we had to follow and treat it as if it was the last 2 laps of a race and just GO GO GO, PUSH PUSH PUSH and it was fantastic!! I found that knowing that it was two laps of flat out just going hard with Joe yelling out to keep pushing keep pushing keep pushing it was just awesome - I really LOVED it! i also managed to finish ahead of another female, who is a junior, but has been doing this kind of stuff a lot longer to me and while it didn't matter where we finsihed today, just that we gave it our all, it felt good to pass someone. I have come to the conclusion that I am definately a sprinter as I loved just knowing that it was flat out for x laps and going FAST around the track - so I am very glad that what I thought I woudl love I do!
I can't ride in the drops though while I am sprinting because of my size, i just bounce too much, but I am working on that and its reducing and with that I will get faster and stronger as well. I also tried a 15t sprocket today and I can push that comfortably so I need to go and buy one of them so I can flip flop my wheel between the 15t and 16t to increase my gear inches.

Yesterday I slacked out of the Saturday morning ride so I could go to the Diamond Creek fair with some of my family and most importantly my niece and I was glad I did, she had a ball! She had so much fun, it was great! My brother Aaron took her on the big slide and each time she came down she was squealing her head off and had the biggest grin on her face! She is so cute :D
Instead of my long ride though, I did a 1hr ride to The Boulie and back again and my one way lap that I do on my way to work was about 90-120 seconds faster w/out my backpack and I only had to use my triple chainring twice instead of the number of times I normally do to be able to keep spinning above 65-70+rpm - this is awesome because it shows that I am not far off where I was about 6 months ago!

I have new neighbours

Alright so the two other units on my block are up for rent and it looks like people are already inhabiting the front unit... should I

a) Knock on their front door and say G'day
b) Say G'Day with a beer or 6
c) Just wave hello in the driveway
d) Something else (nominate)

The only person I have seen from the front unit is a youngish guy off his P Plates...

What do you think I should do?

Love

It would be nice to be cared about in this way by someone...

I am almost sure my family think they do, just not in the way I need/want right now....

Shiny!

I spent about 90 minutes last night cleaning my bike and this morning it was so smoooooooooth to ride, although mental note for next time - don't use the Mr Sheen cloth for the seat and brake levers. There was so much crud on the jockey wheels I had to get a toothbrush to scrub them clean because the paintbrush with the metho wasn't enough.

This morning's commute to work ended in another PB for my boulie lap and considering how tired my legs were today I am really happy with it. Yesterday's was about 15-20 seconds slower than my previous PB and my legs yesterday felt more dead than today... weird.

I got a chain whip from Carl (Thanks again!) on Sunday so now I need to organise getting some sprockets and lock ring etc etc for my track bike so I can start to play around with things on that bike too :D

This morning I officially signed up as a rider for this years Great Victorian Bike Ride!! I had already booked in my annual leave and was mentally organising myself of what I need to buy etc but I hadn't paid, but now I have and I am now officially going! One of my friends has agreed to drive me to the start in Phillip Island and to also pick me up from Buchan - very nice!! I might have to buy them a bottle of scotch as a thank you :D Will probably use my car, but still its nice that they have agreed to help me out as I really don't want to box up my bike and put it on the cattle trucks.
I need to weigh my two 3 man tents to see how much they weigh to see if I am better off buying a new and lighter tent or not and I need to buy another self inflating mattress as the one last year got a hole and I cbf finding it to fix it. I have the majority of the rest of the stuff from last year which is good.

Something Good Today

I lost 1.1kg's this week so that makes 2.2kg in 2 weeks! I didn't think that I would lose weight this week, I knew I had a mostly good week but I didn't commute by bike on Thursday and I had a parma for lunch on Friday and then had Thai last night and had a little bit of alcohol this week, but still nothing like I used to, so overall an alright week with quite a bit of exercise still.

It can be very one way...

My legs were so dead yesterday afternoon! After the 85km ride on Saturday and then doing another 80 or so laps down at DISC Sunday morning my legs were very sore and dead, but at least there was a good reason for it :D I also rode up to the fence on the bend for the first time and that was a lot of fun, slightly scary but that's part of what makes it fun. I also did my first rolling turns, which isn't difficult or hard to do at all, far from it, but I just hadn't stayed in the long train of cyclists before and gone to the front.
Carl showed me the best way to work my way up to the fence on the bend to minimise the impact of the angle a bit which was really helpful and he took me around for a couple of laps so I could follow his line as well - the angle, or the line, you take as you go into the bend makes a big difference to speed, power and cadence changes while going up the embankment and yes Carl, the golden rule is to Keep Pedalling!! :P

Yesterday afternoon was the Women's Come N Try Track day and it was also a lot of fun! It was really good to see so many women getting on the track bikes and going around the velodrome. There were lots of smiles and some classic lines that came from some of the women, ranging from "I did it!!" after doing a lap on the blue line and another person going around the bend between the blue line and the fence repeating over and over again 'Oh Shit Oh Shit Oh Shit' but she loved it!

Last night was dinner for Fathers day and it got off to a funny start. My youngest brother lost his footy final yesterday morning so they all hit the pub for the end of season and as a result he didn't make it to dinner. After he threw up several times the decision was made to let him sleep it off in bed while the rest of us went out to dinner. What makes it funny for me is that its the first time that he has been like this at home. I think he is going to be in a little bit of trouble today, but mainly cos he is only 17.

Last night my sister also really dissapointed me and I can't even talk to her about it because she can be very selfish when it comes to things like this. My 30th birthday is the day before (Saturday 20th) the ATB (Sunday 21st). My niece's 3rd birthday is the following Sunday (28th) and I said to my sister last night that I would be doing something for my birthday on the following Saturday the 27th. She told me that she is going to be having my niece's birthday party on the 27th because you can't expect people to come on a Sunday cos they have to work on the Monday - WTF?!? Basically the kids birthday parties all turn into a drink session of rhe adults.
My Dad's wife has a yearly trip away to Albury ever October and this year it is the weekend of my birthday and my sister is going with them. They also said there was room for me to go with them on the trip if I wanted to go but it clashes with the ATB on the Sunday which I really want to do and get out of the way this year.

So basically, for my 30th Birthday, my sister will be away for the day so can't even do dinner before I turn in for an early night and the day I want to celebrate my birthday she wont be there and I assume neither will anyone else from my family because they will be at my niece's 3rd birthday... I am really fed up with my family ignoring my birthday every year because it falls halfway between my Dad's and my niece's birthday.

My decision about what to do on my birthday weekend of either go away or do the bike ride is to do the bike ride because it is what I want to do and if they don't even care enough about me to consider me or change the day of a 3rd Birthday then I don't think I want them to come to anything I organise.

I am so pissed off and hurt about this, I really am. As a side note, I have lived where I am now for 12 months and my sister hasn't even come to visit... it is such a one way street and I am really starting to get sick of it.

On Thursday night I got my hair cut! I got 3 inches cut off it and I can really feel it in the length but then 3 inches is a fair amount. Another thing that really pissed me off yesterday with my family is that no one noticed! I was even at my sisters on Thursday night before going to get it cut and she knew where I was going and she didn't even comment - no one did and no one at work noticed on Friday either...
After a great weekend of cycling related bits and pieces I am feeling rather small and unimportant today.

What a great day for a ride!

I got my hair cut on Thursday night, I cut about 3 inches off it! It feels really short now and I really noticed the difference in the length today when I washed it after my ride! I like it though and it needed a descent cut.

The last two days I got to work around 6:30am which is normally just stupid. Thursday it was because I didn't end up riding due to the gale warning and Friday it was because on Thursday in my testing I managed to break the CC encryption being used. The developers were at work till about 11pm fixing it and so I had to get in early to re-do just about all my testing by midday to make sure it was working properly. Thankfully the majority of things played nicely on Friday and we got it all working and signed off in time!

Today I did my longest ride for about 5 months ~85km's and over 3 hrs of riding time and it was an awesome day to be out on the bike! the sun was out and shining and there was a slight tailbreeze on the way down to Franganastan which meant there was a slight headwind on the way back but thankfully it was nothing like last weeks! At the end of the ride, while I was happy to stop, I could have kept going for quite a bit longer which is a great sign.
Today I also did my first ever ride up Olivers Hill/Hopes Rise! It is a pretty short climb but it is bloody steep! At one point my Garmin was showing 18% gradient and I was in my lowest gear doing an RPM of ~45 and a speed of ~6.5km/h, but that's ok cos I didn't get off and walk - I made it! Then the fun bit - coming back down the hill!! :D :D Unfortunately Richard took off before me and I was behind him and on the brakes so I only got a top speed of about 61km/h Next time Gadget! (next week).
I noticed some improvements today with my riding too, I could hang on better on the inclines after Ricketts Point and I was able to spin a lot more, it is encouraging to see these small improvements! I also haven't had a nap since the ride, which while good that I haven't fallen asleep, I have been busy doing things and I will most likely have an early one tonight.

Tomorrow I will back up today's ride with heading down to DISC for some track work on Dacks. I may also end up hanging around for the Masters training and also for the womens come n try day - not really sure yet, will see how I feel tomorrow.