Nerves before the storm

Preparation S part 3. Well, I suppose I'm ready as I'll ever be. Have enjoyed a slower last few weeks - I could get used to this taper business!

At Craig's suggestion (Craig is also riding the worlds) headed down to the ACT to ride the course on Saturday. Ben and Felix came along for the ride. [Thanks Craig for putting us all up the night!] Being a local Craig generously escorted me round the circuit for 3 laps, and gave me some tips along the way, and cruelly revealed my bike handling inadequacies. Even riding a hardtail 29er he was shredding me on both the rocky down hills and those riddled with tight berms. In short, the course is a good deal harder than the one I qualified on last year, and is maybe a fraction longer (approx 20 km a lap). Well, it is the worlds after all! Methinks I'm going to have to revise my expectations a little. The main climb presents no problem – switchback "Red" track to the top of Stromlo to Echidna gap where the brutality starts.

The first part of the descent (Wedgetail) loops round to the top of Skyline, although we don't go down Skyline….yet. A hard left has one entering "Pork Barrel", which was part of the day lap last year, but for some reason I find more difficult now. Very rocky, choppy and narrow in places, where running off the track is almost certainly going to hurt. I'm thinking that perhaps the extra travel and more relaxed geometry of the Stump made this sector more manageable last year. In any case, the sector is about 0.5 km long and it is the one part of the course I'm really dreading, especially during the wee hours where I'm going to do well just to stay upright! Craig just thumps this section and probably pulls close to a minute on me. Technique, technique technique!
The course then swings round the back of the mountain and although easy (disused fire trail), climbs the top half of the mountain for the second time (ggrrrr). Not much rest here but at least one can switch the brain off and feed on this sector. Very steep in places. At Echidna gap we cross the top of the mountain for the second time (the middle of the figure 8 circuit) and take a very tight alternate descent to the top of Skyline, which really is the magic carpet ride of Stromlo. Flowing, a bit of exposure, not too technical, occasional air, before crossing the bridge and dropping into the long and exhausting Luge sector; heavily bermed by tight and sometimes heavily rutted corners for a long time. Arms and hands really hammered by the bottom, where Homeview Junction is gained, and one can relax a little on the fast run back to the Event Centre and the pits….before heading out and doing it all again. Exhausted just thinking about it. Realistically I'm probably looking at more like 1'15' a lap, which probably equates to 16 to 18 laps in toto. We will see. I just hope I; (1) stay upright, (2) finish, even if it is bottomless stone last, and (3), it doesn't piss down with rain and hail like it did just as we gained the cars. Fingers crossed!


Here we go!

Rolling this lump (above) is the entre to the chute below, and to the sustained difficulties of Pork Barrel.

The tyre that kept on giving...

...has finally come to an end. I bought a Sepcialized "Armadillo" (wire bead) earlier in the year out of desperation in the absence of being able to find my favoured Conti Gatorskins at a shop in the blue mtns (approx $50). The side walls are so thick the guy at the shop recommended I only run at 90 psi. Lots of time (and no punctures) passed. When the thin red line started to show a few weeks back the lads cheekily suggested i'd get another 1000 out of them. Well, they were right, although it is now a fat red line and large sections of casing revealed themselves on the weekend. Still managed to get round 3 valleys on the last hurrah. > 7000 km old - a rear tyre record for me (I usually get ~4K out of the Gators). Hardly high performance, but perhaps the go if the powers that be decide to re-seal any more of the 3peaks or Bobbo circuits.

More Preparation S

Managed to ride myself through the cold and even get some mtb riding in. A few weeks back had a good afternoon with Aaron at Appin, where I clocked a 34 min lap – a few min quicker than my previous best efforts on the ~10 km XC circuit. Also went to the mighty Ourimbah track for the first time with the Salmon collective. Wow, what a circuit! Sort of like a mix of Stromlo and Sparrow Hill – flowing single track with assorted brutal bits thrown in, and more undulating and varied than the Appin circuit, although with fewer pure roll-offs. Whilst Appin is almost exclusively flattish sandstone base, Ourimbah has a good mix of jungle (Jurassic Park sector), as well as lots of more open forest with a bit more climbing. We also had a play on the more serious downhill course (don't think I'll be repeating too much of that on the Anthem), and discovered a secluded pump track near the "Graveyard" sector which is loads of fun. Be warned, some of the A-lines on the XC course – well, one in particular – should be carefully considered/inspected first. Finally managed to commit but it shakes your nerve in a Mulga-Bill's Bicycle kind of way! Not sure I'll be lining up to do that one too frequently (head angle on the Anthem a little steep and..…..and of course I'm a bit too wussy for this sort of caper). But don't be deterred. Ourimbah is great!

Only three weeks to kill now. Started my taper last week with only a 300 km week (first less than 400 in some time), and even managed to have the whole weekend off the rig – although failed to complement this with a weekend off the turps thanks to a friend's wedding up at Ballina. Just counting them down now and anxious to get the whole shebang under way.


Mike and Ben hamming it up

The monster roll-off in question (above...older image before the duckboard was installed...about a 20 foot drop), with a random rider for scale (below). I ended up "aiming" for the duckboard but managed to miss it all together. Body armour probably a good idea.

Preparation S

Since taking a bit of break climbing, birding and insulator hunting I have started my 3 month training regime which will hopefully deliver me in good form for the solo24 in early October. I decided to concentrate on road miles initially (first month), then throw in some intensity training whilst keeping the miles up, then in the last month mix it up with the mtb, tapering and tuning skills towards making the trail flow. I’m almost ½ way and have managed to stick (mostly) to script.

In the first 5 weeks I have racked up distances of 400, 400, 400, 500 and 500 km; a pleasing accomplishment given the number of wet days I’ve had to contend with. It has been a road of rediscovery in some sense, navigating routes I used to do in preparation for racing all those years ago. Longer weekend rides have included West Head/Acuna Bay (West Head road brilliantly resurfaced!), Mangrove mountain via the old highway (still crap surface) and the more recently discovered M2/M7 combination and the 6 valley circuit (Bobbin Head, Galston, Berowra, Mt White, Brooklyn, Bobbin). The arrival of Kev from the UK has also spiced things up considerably, and just at the right time. Never seen him so fit and lean. He has provided the tonic with regards intensity and speed work that was thus far lacking; in the sense that it is fine to be able to ride for a long time at snail’s pace, but it is obviously desirable to do so a bit quicker.

Last Saturday I joined Kev and one of his workmates, Chris, a fairly accomplished triathelete, to do the M7. Kev assured me that Chris, at 6ft++ and 85 kg was very strong. He wasn’t kidding. I struggled to sit on his wheel, let alone do convincing turns on the front on the 80 km out and back course. Where alone I’d be struggling to hold mid 30’s (as noted a few weeks earlier), Chris would just pound away at around 40 km/hr, seemingly with no effort. With the ride completed, Chris then donned shoes and disappeared for a run. I knew such a hammer session was good for me, but it was a little demoralising all the same – knowing that I had all those km’s under my belt but was struggling at times to even hold wheels. It was sobering to consider that such an engine might be equally impressive on the hills as it was on the flat (I’m thinking van de Broek, Indurain etc); we’d tee’d up 3 valleys for the following day. Yikes! As Chris motored out along Galston Rd at 40 km/hr, with Kev and I sucking wheel, I was already resigned to getting shelled on the climbs that were to follow. Hence, I was somewhat relieved to discover that gravity was still my friend as Chris popped off my wheel somewhere on the middle ramp of the Galston climb. With the first climb dispensed with Kev and I then tucked in again as Chris, now recovered, ripped across the tops at 45 km/hr, again making it seem effortless. I think I finally have an inkling of how the pro peloton manages to do these incredible average speeds. On top of fancy wheels and kit, the combination of top notch engines and long pins eats kms in quick time. Of course i knew this all along, it's just a while since I've ridden at such tempos.

What has not been my friend of recent weeks has been the weather, nor a cold I’ve been trying to kick for the last 3 weeks. Aided no doubt by the weekend exertions, the cold has finally won for the time being – I’m a coughing spluttering mess, and its just as well this blog requires no oral communication skills. So an easy week it will have to be. But I am still upbeat as at least psychologically I feel I am close to breaking the back of the miles I wanted to get into my legs before the event, and am starting to look forward to the fine tuning that will ensue over the weeks ahead.

Sticks and Marbles

Above: another one or two for the insulator/splinter collection.

Below: the fantastic Bald Rock, near Tenterfield.

and above, Frog Buttress, Mt French

Satans Smokestack

One of the Frog Buttress classics; "Satan's Smokestack" (16). A 30 meter 4-sided chimney with a very desperate squeeze entry. Karel would love it!

Anita emerging from said chimney.

Self portrait of me firmly wedged into the base of the overhanging bottomless chimney that guards the exit moves to "Smoked Banana" (17), another Froggy classic.

Exit moves on Smoked Banana (above)

Starting to love those Froggy cracks!

Tape gloves essential though.

Last climb of the trip, my first Frog Grade 20, "Termination". Considerably easier than some of the 17s and 18s I've done there as it is one of the few wall routes and doesn't require use of the J word.

Sydney Pelagic

Had a great day off Sydney on my first Pelagic. Even managed not to throw up, in spite of heavy seas. Loads of albatross and petrels etc - about 12 new species for me. Here a black-browed albatross (and his/her beady eye indicative of the"Campbell" race) checks us out whilst crusing by. Sydney skyline in the distance.