Back to the grind

I went back to work on Tuesday. I was initially looking forward to getting back into a good routine, going to bed at a normal time (for me), waking up at a normal time (for me) and eating properly again... however it hasn't gone to plan that well. Next week should be better though, as I figure it's just my body getting used to the 6:45am wake up call - a 45 minute sleep in as I would normally get up at 6am for work.
I haven't been able to go for my walks before work as my foot is causing me some issues. Last week my Dr froze some stuff on my foot, which happens to be on each of the four sides of my foot, which is now making walking interesting... not a lot of pain, but there is discomfort.

Tonight I finally did the dishes and swept and mopped the kitchen floor - all these things I should have done before going back to work, but I didn't. It feels great to know that they have now been done! All I need to do now is clean up my wardrobe, clean up the bike room and vacuum - all the other things I should have done whilst on leave.

After Monday's MTB ride, my shoulders were really sore - so sore that my left shoulder hurt when I was changing gears in the car on Tuesday on the way to work. They are ok now, but there is still some general slight tightness in my upper back - which isn't the problem part of my back which is great!! If I can do all that and my back isn't sore then it really is fantastic news! during the ride I held back a bit as I could feel pressure/tightness on my lower back when going up some of the sandy inclines, but that's ok - if I feel that then I can ease up and know that my back will still be ok. One of the biggest problems with my back injury is that I haven't known until at least 12 hours after the ride that I have done too much.

There is a chix only beginners MTB ride on Saturday morning, but my uphill fitness is so lacking that I don't want to do it... I also don't know how sore my foot will be and I am getting a massage Friday arvo - so I think I will pass on the ride this time, I don't want to make a 1 hour massage rendered useless less that 24hrs after having it done! ;)

Since I started making my own coffee at home, I have now noticed a lot more about coffee that I buy. The difference in flavour etc - I much prefer the coffee I make at home compared to the coffee that I buy whilst at work... pitty I can't make it my own way whilst at work!

I also got my MTB fixed yesterday. I went in there to drop it off to be looked at today and they fixed it on the spot. I also got a removable link put in the chain so I can clean it easily myself instead of breaking it whenever it needs cleaning.

My lungs were ok after Monday's ride, but I haven't commuted yet this week as I have had stuff to do after work... I will start again from next Wednesday... Tuesday is out as I will be donating blood providing my iron level's are high enough!

First MTB ride

I wrote this on the BV forum... can't be bothered re-doing it for here as I am just too bloody tired! I think I will be going to bed very very soon as I go back to work tomorrow...

Oh gawd im tired!!

As mentioned, H and Kaz took me out to the You Yangs today to pop my MTB cherry! It was awesome! I am extremely unfit and slow, but hey you lose a lot of fitness in 10-11 months off the bike so it's just something I need to deal with and push through! I had to be careful when the ground went upwards with my back as I've discovered you use your core/back/bum/leg muscles quite differently with MTB'ing

I thought my bars were crooked after I went down one of those ditch things that go straight back up again and I didn't manage to turn left and slammed into a tree :oops: I didn't fall off though! I managed to unclip the correct foot and plant it down in time :D I think I jarred my shoulder a bit though.

I then had some issues with some of the jumps in that the ones that were high/steep my front hydraulic break cable would pop out of its holder and become friendly with the spokes - H decided on a patch job... she even took a photo, but it didn't really work as it happened again after that.... very annoying as it stopped me going up some of the dirt mounds.

I also did a horizontal track stand :oops: I wanted to stop quickly due to some stuff on the path I didn't want to go over and then instead of leaning left to the foot unclipped I went right towards the leg still clipped in :oops: That seemed to do something to my RD which I will need to get fixed.... I also found out half way through the ride that the FD wont shift to the little chain ring :( I also want to get the bars cut down as they don't need to be so wide for me.

I also tried not to be too tense/stressed on the bike, but being my first time that wasn't as easy done as said, but I did try to remember it from time to time.

I was knackered by the end of the ride - 3 hrs of MTB'ing, you REALLY need to concentrate a lot more than on road riding plus it just takes a lot more out of you riding in the sand and you use a lot of extra muscles with standing up and down going up and over and then down and up etc etc. Also around some new growth I didn't even see the branches that were hitting me in the face as I was concentrating too much on where I was going, although trying not to focus too much right in front but in the distance a bit.

A massive thanks to H and Kaz for taking me out and showing me around and teaching me stuff! Hearing them yell out PEDAL HARD and GET UP and PEDAL HARD for the big dips really helped :D

I didn't get home till 3:50pm which gave me 10 minutes to shower and then be somewhere by 4:15pm which I only got home from 30 minutes ago!

I have slightly sore arms and shoulders from all the vibrations, couldn't imagine doing it on a fully rigid bike! Also sore'ish knees as my seat kept slipping down - gotta fix that!

It was a great way to spend my last day of my holidays and I don't think I will have any problem getting to sleep tonight for my first day back at work tomorrow.

N + 1 = MTB!

I went shopping at the MBC Warehouse sale today for a hydration pack and to see what other odds and ends they had and I came away with this:





It's a 16" Kona Cinder Cone with similar specs as that linky but with different shocks, hydraulic disc brakes and umm stuff! :D I have to get a fit done on it, but I suspect that will pretty much only be a new saddle. I will take more photo's tomorrow in daylight.

This is a prime example of why I try to avoid bike shops... I bought my road bike when I went looking for tyres for my hybrid... Ahh well, another bike at half price - can't complain about that! :D

Oh, and I remembered the hydration pack - it was half price too! :D

Magic spray

Why does your hair always feel great after getting a haircut? I didn't even get my hair washed by them, and yet it feels so much smoother (than normal) and just nicer... my question is why?!? What is it that they actually put in those spray bottles that they use to dampen your hair?

Planted!

I almost forgot... I also, finally, planted my vegies... I put them in a spot that should get more sun than anywhere else, even though it means that I wont be able to see them through the kitchen window. I also think that some might be planted too close to each other, but I will just wait and see how they go.



I am worried about my worms... they don't seem to be eating as much as I had expected. It could just be that they are new and still adapting, I don't know. I have these little bugs in there now and the food scraps in there are going moldy... can anyone provide some tips and help on this? Could they be too cold?

It's finished!

I got stood up today on my hot date due to a very cute little one being sick, so it gave me time to finish off my shopping bike!
It's taken me a while, but I finally got all the bits n pieces I needed for it and it is finally all assembled and ready to be ridden... although I need to fiddle with the seat a bit...

I contemplated getting some chrome paint to paint over the bits that the rust has eaten and destroyed, but I really don't want to make it to attractive to thieves.

This bike, if all things go well, will end up not only being my shopper bike, but when I am fit/strong enough my commuter bike as well... for now I need a few more gears than this one has.







Both the pannier rack and 2x mud guards were extremely rusty, but soaking them in some oxalic acid sorted that out very easily - no elbow grease required and they are now very shiny!

New lungs please!!

My lungs have been gradually getting worse over the past week and a half - since I had to leave my friends place due to the allergic reaction I had to her cat - I had even taken drugs to try to counter-act it.
Yesterday I dragged out my nebuliser and had a couple of doses of that during the day. Today I haven't as yet used it, but the pattern of the past week is that it gets worse as the day progesses, so I will use the nebuliser again tonight and see how I am tomorrow. I also bought another peak flow meter today so I can actually track my breathing capabilities and have some kind of numbers to work on.

Due to my lungs being crap and the days being so cold and wet I haven't been on the bike since Thursday and I WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE!! now that my back is ok with it - I just want to ride!! Gah! I knew that riding at this time of the year isn't good for my lungs, but that doesn't make it less frustrating.

Hopefully the nebuliser and the constant vapouriser will be enough to see me not having to go to the doctor this week.

St Georges Rd bike Path - North bound

So yesterday I rode out to Mill Park via the St Georges Road bike path:

Heading towards St Georges Road


Almost at Bell st


One of the three water reservoirs in umm err Reservoir


Another one of my bars - see pootle pace, 17km/h! (busy bars!)


Path behind the houses on Cheddar Rd


End of the path at Keon Pde


Playing with the cars on Dalton Road


Heading East towards Mill Park


After going to see my niece do her swimming lesson and having lunch with my sister, it was then time to head home
South bound on the path near Cheddar Rd


Some of the path goes along the Epping train line


Oops - missed whatever it was I was trying to photograph


Waiting at yet another road crossing - this one is Murray Rd, Preston


As you can see, it was quite an overcast day and rather cold, but a day on the bike is always a good day! :D

A week already?

My lungs are crap, this is nothing new, but on Saturday night I went to a friends place and had to leave after not even 2 hrs due to an allergic reaction to her cat. Sneezy, running eyes and then trouble breathing and the cough that goes along with it - I had even taken an anti-histamine tablet which normally works providing I don't touch the cat - I didn't even see the bloody cat! By the time I got home and showered the sniffles and running eyes had mostly settled, but it is now Thursday and my lungs are still feeling crap from it. I've been needing ventolin during the days and at night it is even worse. It is difficult to breathe deeply and I consciously need to make myself breathe deeply every few minutes because my normal breath isn't deep enough at the moment. I am also finding that at night I start coughing and it's a cough that hurts my entire chest/throat area. I have been using my vapouriser, and I think it is helping, but this still isn't great. I will continue to monitor it for a few more days and just see how it goes as it seems better in the morning's and then gets worse as the day progresses. I increased my amount of preventative today and if need be tomorrow, I will go on the nebuliser - blergh! I am even thinking of going to bed early because of it and watching tonight's le Tour stage tomorrow.

In other news, I went for another ride today, although it was far from scenic, I still took some photo's and will write it up tomorrow, I even had a 90 min nana nap afterwards! See I can still ride in the mornings, ok mid morning, but at night my lungs are just going bleh!

I have now been on leave for a week - it doesn't feel like it! I don't seem to have done a lot of what I planned to do but I am enjoying it :D Even though I am on leave, I only seem to be getting 6-7 hrs sleep a night, evidently when it gets to about 9 am I just seem to wake up regardless of when I went to sleep.

Yellow!!!!

How on Earth have I not managed to comment on this - Cadel Evans is wearing the Yellow Jersey in Le Tour de France!! Sure, it might not be ideal this early, but who cares - an Aussie is wearing YELLOW!!!!

GO CADEL!!!

I have worms!

Yes, I have worms - a worm farm!! I also got my hands on some polystyrene boxes and bought some organic potting mix and a bunch of vegetable seedlings to plant. I haven't planted the seedlings yet, I will do that over the next few days.

Here is the worm farm as it comes from the nursery


inside are the legs, instructions and the coir bedding block


This is how it looks with both top boxes in place - most of the time only one box will be there though


The cardboard that was on top of the package I put on the bottom of one of the top boxes and then after soaking the coir bedding block, I then put this over the cardboard. The cardboard stops it from falling through into the bottom collection box


Than I added the worms - you can see one on the left of the photo


Next I needed to soak some newspaper in water and then put that on top of the worms - all the food and stuff that I add to the worm farm go under the newspaper



Tada!!


In the photo above you can see the tap on the bottom box - this is used to drain the liquid worm wee/fertilizer out of the bottom box where it collects to then use, diluted, on the garden - or in my case on the vegies that I am about to plant to grow!

It is quite a different mind set now that I have a worm farm. I was about to throw out some old rice that was in fridge - but that can go in the worm farm, as could the mash spud, left over home made hommus, gravy etc that's in the fridge along with my tea bags, coffee beans and vegie scraps! I have put a little container on the bench to put most of this stuff in, but with the worm farm being right at the back door and that being right near the kitchen - the bigger items I will just put straight out into the farm. I was reading that it's best to make things as small and soft as possible to make it easier for the worms to digest, so even microwaving some of the vegie stalks etc for a few mins will help.

Capital City Trail

The Capital City Trail goes a giant loop around the city of Melbourne and on Monday I decided that I was going to ride it! It took me just over 2 hrs and was just under 40km's of riding and it was an awesome day to be out on the bike! I think I even got slightly sunburnt -oops-

I headed out to the St Georges Rd bike path


This time I also decided to try to take a photo of my actual bike as a sort of proof that I was actually riding


As I said above, an awesome day weather wise


Lots of nice sites - a river down along the Tulla Fwy


The giant Ferris Wheel that is being built - I got lost around here and didn't know where the trail went until I saw another lone cyclist on the other side of the road


I then headed through Docklands and Southbank - the worst time of the day to be there too... lunch time, although this photo doesn't show the vast number of people as I couldn't take a photo - needed to concentrate


Along the Yarra Trail, which makes up part of the Capital City Trail, but this time I was going the other direction


My shadow whilst riding along


The Yarra River again... I forget which bridge this is though


And then it was off home via Gipps St and the roads that I would ride home from work to see if it aggravated my back or not


The good news is that my back is fine from the ride :D I haven't ridden since though as I have had other stuff to do, but I hope to get out for a ride again tomorrow!

Exhausted

I rode the entire Capital City Trail today - all 40 or so km's in just over 2 hours which makes it my longest ride since I hurt my back and it was at true pootling pace and it was nice and sunny. I will blog the photo journey of it tomorrow when I am less tired, because I am exhausted - I remember when 2hrs was a nice amount of time to be riding... Combine babysitting my 3yr old niece last night with 5hrs sleep and a 2hr ride and then only a 20 minute nap this arvo - it makes for a very very tired Lisa. I am currently trying to stay awake for tonight's stage of Le Tour and have already had two coffee's since dinner and I refuse to have anymore or I fear I wont be able to sleep tonight... If it comes down to it, I will watch tonight's stage tomorrow cos I am taping it.

What a bad typo

I just finished watching the 6pm SBS tour highlights package from stage 6 (last nights) and noticed this massive typo....

Holidays!!

Last night I was too tired to watch Le Tour live so I am watching it now as I write this - kind of disappointing that I couldn't stay up, but that's what PVR's are for :D

I got up this morning, pottered around the house for a bit, had some brekky and then jumped on the bike! I decided that I was going to try to take photo's of my ride so I attached my work lanyward to my camera and hung it around my neck under my jacket.
I headed towards Fairfield shops to get my $5 voucher for a local shop - my local council is trying to encourage people to go to their local shops any way other than by car! Living Local they are calling it and I think it's a great idea.

Back streets of Fairfield:


After collecting my voucher and a fold out pocket sized map of the area, sc0re!, I headed towards the Main Yarra Trail


Trying to use my camera while riding and without stopping was an interesting challenge to begin with, but I soon worked out that I could just lift my the bottom of my jacket and use the camera that way - that explains some of the out of focus shots and the angle of some of them... like this one
Yarra River:


Before I left home the clouds outside looked VERY black but the rain radar looked mostly clear apart from a band of rain heading my way... as you can see I decided to go for a ride anyway and risk it... and it really didn't take long before it started to rain, but I found shelter
under the Studley Park Road Bridge:


This duck didn't seem to mind the rain though...


After about 5-10 minutes the rain stopped and I was on my way again. One of the things I love about this part of the Yarra Trail is that it goes through the Collingwood Children's Farm where you can ride past all kinda of animals... like goats


Being Melbourne, it didn't take long for the sun to come out and make everything look great again:


The Yarra trail really is a lovely way to ride to the city, it takes a lot longer, but you don't get views like this (see the blue sky but very wet ground!)


or this:


If you go via the road.

The wind was terrible today too, a really strong westerly, so strong that at one point, on the flat I was spinning at about 60rpm on my 25t sprocket and doing 16km/h. I was suprised how long it took for me to get to the city via the path, but as you can see it is really scenic and quite enjoyable if you don't have any real timelines to meet.
Once I hit the city I crossed over the Yarra (nearly getting blown over in the wind!) and headed back towards home past the MCG:


Despite the sunny skies in that photo I soon got rained on again :( My ride ended up being a 1hr 20 minute (25km) pootle - my longest ride since I hurt my back 10 months ago! My back seems OK with it all, so far, but I did get sore knees at the front during my ride and a bit of a sore bum. The sore bum I know is lack of conditioning and I am going to assume the sore knees are the same, I had a fairly low cadence for the majority of the ride too as I was just pootling along enjoying my surroundings.

After having lunch with a friend and having a nana nap I did a heap of much needed food shopping. The average amount I spend normally at the supermarket is about $40-$50 a fortnight or so and then I do my fruit n veg for about $20 and then spend about $40 on meat. Today my groceries cost me $106 and my fruit n veg cost me $30 and I am yet to do my meat shopping. I bought so much food at the supermarket that I haven't had to buy for a while - mostly things for cycling like muesli bars and also a few different breakfast foods (I normally just eat porridge at work for brekky) and some other bits n pieces for spending two - three weeks at home. It should mean though that in the long run I end up spending less money as I will be eating food I have in the cupboard and fridge.