GREAT OCEAN WALK

We decided to spend a few days doing something in our holidays other than riding bikes. A hike was what we came up with a few months back and had every intention on doing some "walking training" for the 100k hike form Apollo Bay to the 12 Apostles however the only training I managed was a 2hr hike with 5kg in my pack, a 30min and a 2hr no pack walk  two days prior. Here's how it went!!

All ready for the walk with plenty of fuel!

Day One

Al, Nina and I left Apollo Bay at lunchtime and walked past he first campsite and arrived into the second 22km later. 6 ½ hours on our feet. Al told me not to put orthotics in as I hadn’t worn them yet. He wore his dad’s orthotics and ended up with very sore feet! We saw 2 tiger snakes and loads of wallabies. Only took a smaller backpack as Phil was meeting us at Blanket Bay with ciders and our gear!! Phil couldn’t join us as he took a tumble on our training walk 2 days prior and tore his rotator cuff. Shattered. Set-up our tents and the ground was so hard we couldn’t get pegs in so instead had to tie down the tent using our packs. Al said “I know at some stage you will probably run into these bags but please try your hardest not to as the tent will fall down.” About 2 hours later I tripped on a bag and brought the tent down, with Al asleep inside! All I can say is he knows me too well!!

Day Two

Walked to Aire River, again crammed 2 sections into 1 day. About 26k.  7 ½ hours on our feet. Feet hurt. This walking business is hard!! Calves were aching, feet were aching, hips and shoulders were aching!! Clearly don’t use these muscles riding a bike!! Nina “mountain goat” Zepnick was in her element and left us all in her dust. Al took out his dad’s orthotics and walked in shoes with zero insoles = massive blisters.

Long beach section left me feeling stuffed and unimpressed about the whole situation but did experience a good sense of accomplishment. 

 

 Day Three
Only 4 ½ hours of walking today. Scenery getting much more impressive. Some big climbs, loads of sandy sections. Phil joined us from today onwards, a mighty effort given his injury. Today was much hotter and we were left craving salt, luckily we had phone reception and got the message to Phil to bring chips and pringles!! Legend!! Cliff top views sleeping under the stars. Gorgeous!! My sleeping matt suffered a hernia making it useless to sleep on and Al the good lad gave me his. 

Day Four
Another smaller day, about 5 ½ hours of walking. Starting to regret letting the boys do the grocery shopping as getting sick of tuna, 2 min noodles, chocolate, pasta with sauce, sardines and scroggin. Highlight of my day involved me not thinking for a moment and putting my walking pole out to the side. Unfortunately for Nina who was walking beside me I managed to accidentally time it perfectly so the pole went through her legs and catapulted her forward. She somehow managed to stay on her feet  but she looked at me with complete rage and screamed “YOU $*(#^$# ANIMAL” it was almost like she had blacked out into a fury of rage that came deep from the core! I thought she was going to punch me in the face,  but luckily we both started laughing hysterically and had to take a 5 minute break before we could continue on!

Day Five
Up early as a beach section involved getting across before the tide rose and this is the day of Snake Valley. Walked through a 5k section and saw 7 tiger snakes. Al and Nina were the brave ones up the front as me and Phil cowered in the middle. Not sure if Al didn’t see it or it snuck onto the track after him the moment I looked down and saw a snake a mere 5cm from my foot I froze with intense fear. The only other time in my life I have experienced this was the second I launched myself off of a bungee. Got through the snake zone and Phil had a turn up the front, apparently not through the snake zone as one slithered out in Phil’s path he levitated backwards and mid-flight suffered a cramp in his calf, resulting in a domino effect whereby we all fell into one another.

Got to a point in the track where we decided to take a different route to the one on the sign. Walked about 2k in the wrong direction then had to bum-skid down a steep embankment not knowing if we were going in the right direction and knowing there was no way to get back up if we were indeed going the wrong way. Feeling hangry, tired and upset that I’d indicated the right way to go, I thought Al and Phil had walked off and proceeded to deliver a massive spray behind their backs (so wrong I know) I was so fuming I hadn’t realised Nina was “sshhh”ing me as the boys were standing right behind me. Dam. Apparently the look on my face when I realised was quite hilarious. All so tired, hungry and over it we all burst out laughing.

This hiking business was much harder than I anticipated and I was using muscles I didn’t even know existed!! Day 2 I woke up so sore and stiff, my calves, shoulders, back, feet, hips were all aching. By Day 3 these pains had subsided and I really got into the swing of it. Loads of fun and great to do something a bit different. Had to park the car 6k from the 12 apostles and as we had already walked 30k and had to drive 300k back to Ballarat we missed out on seeing them!! Into the car, smashed some salt and vinegar chips and dimmies and drove home. 

having fun with the shutter setting on the camera

are we there yet?

NYE - fair old view

MARLO TRI 2013

First Tri since early 2008 who knows what was going to happen! Twilight 5pm start meant the weather had cooled to ideal temperatures. Chucked some tri bars on the Giant TCR and went into "aero" mode! Open water swim in the lovely Snowy River Estuary of about 600m. Run to transition was cruel, straight up a ridiculously steep set of stairs. 

 

First transition stuff up- go to put sunnies on and not only poke myself in the eyeball but manage to poke out my contact lens which is now sitting on the end of my sunnies arm. Not ideal. Spend a few minutes putting contact lens back into eyeball and jump on the bike. 4 laps of the Tri Loop which we frequently ride.


Knowing I had to attempt to run 5.5k after riding I was constantly having a mental battle on how hard to go in the ride. 

Timothy "Crowie" Bourke the Marlo Male
Local Hero for the third year in a row!!

4 laps down and back into transition for stuff up #2, missed the shoot by a few metres and had to back track with people yelling at me that I was going the wrong way. Given there were loads of students from OSC I teach laughing at me it was embarrassing enough donning my tri suit onesy, let alone running the wrong way obviously that wasn’t enough and I must have subconsciously thought a face plant with bike in hand going into transition was necessary. At least it provided some entertainment for those watching and more importantly the students. 

Run went much better than expected and crossed the line to collect 1^st place overall female and local hero! (the past local hero who had won it about 10 times in a row was unfortunately on the sidelines with illness.) Great to have a local event, big thanks to Giant and also to local company HSR Seeds! Awesome event, awesome fun and a big thanks to the volunteers and those  

who helped set-up. Better start training for next year! 

Household of local heroes!!

2012 LIGHTS

Quick little blogski about 2012.

HIGHLIGHTS
Alice Springs Ingerekke Enduro- first race back in months!!

Alice Springs Central Australia Rough Riders 6 hour Enduro- way too much fun!!!

Not being injured! STOKED

Cycle-touring Cambodia

Getting through my first year teaching Yr12 HHD

Having adventures in Marlo

 

Riding sections of the Hume and Hovell Track
Albury-Canberra

Racing enduros, adventure races and stage races

Racing Forrest Festival

Riding for Liv/Giant

Riding with loads of cool people eg Liz, Sandy, T-Bourke, R-Bourke, H, D-Whyte 
 
Finding single track on Mt Raymond

Completing the Great Ocean Walk 100K in 5 days

 1 Year Wedding Anniversary

 

 

not so HIGH LIGHTS
Not being able to race Italy WEMBO Worlds
Not being able to race 24hr Adrenaline Worlds Canada
Not being able to finish Hume and Hovell or race the Scott due to prawn belly 
Lara, Stella, Hazel & Rob moving to Canada
(and if missing out on 3 races was the worst that happened, there is nothing to complain about and it indicates a stella year!) 

All in all a top year, hoping 2013 just as good if not better!!!

FORREST FESTIVAL!!

This weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to make it down to the lovely town of Forrest for the ‘Forrest Festival.’ True to our blog sub-heading “The unprepared adventurers” I followed this down to a tee. I hadn’t entered the race yet as entries had closed when I realised I was able to pop down and race. I was hoping to see a supermarket on the way from Melbourne but soon found myself in Forrest set to camp for 3 days armed solely with gels, muesli bars, a loaf of bread and nutella. I was keen to hit the trails as I had had limited time on the mountain bike, nearly didn’t get there as I almost locked the car keys in the boot and managed to bend the key in the process. Took off down the trail like Usian Bolt down the sprint track, so excited to be riding in Forrest, the place I learnt to MTB and where I fell in love with the sport. It had been over 2 years since I had been on these gorgeous trails. 50m down the trail it was clear my bike was having other issues, had a go at fixing it but as I’m not the most mechanically minded I decided to leave it in the one gear and all would be sweet. This worked until the first hill and the hills that followed, single speeding up the climbs was not ideal prep for a race that was starting in about 14 hours.

Arrived at the caravan park and set up my housemates tent, snapped the pole rendering the tent useless. Luckily my new mate Sandy had a spare tent and kindly lent it to me and also set it up for me!! The rest of the crew arrived, most I had met once before and I broke it to them that I had not brought any food. Once again, luckily they were seasoned experienced professional campers and had a wicked set up with a heap of food. Sandy and Liz save the day again! Headed to the Brewery and watched the concerned looks on people’s faces when the lightning, thunder and rain came hammering down. In 4 years I have raced at Forrest 3 times, all in Summer, and each time I have been greeted with a thunderous storm and mudbath so I was kind of expecting it!! Or maybe I was the jinx?

So far Sandy (who I met that day) had given me his tent, set up my tent, shouted me some delicious fries at the brewery, cooked everyone a bbq, and I was yet to ask him if he could fix my bike!!! Perhaps he should have pretended not to see me when I was walking around the caravan park a little lost that day!!! Finally off to bed to discover a massive spider hanging out in there, “SANDY!!” (Tony was closest so came to the rescue!)

A quick run-down on the race:

SATURDAY:

AM- Race my bike to the Corner Store for Sandy to fix, turns out my derailleur had come loose (100% my fault as I had to do a major unpacking to fit it in the car but didn’t put it back together properly!!)  Phew.

 Stage 1: 15k XC Sprint Race. Loads of fun, my mind and body had no idea how to react to the fast paced race. I had to keep reminding myself to go hard!!

Stage 2: 5k Hill Climb TT. Hurtfest. (Nearly missed the start as I miscalculated my warm up and arrived with 1 minute to spare)

Stage 3: 5k Descent. Funfest. Stoked to have stayed on my bike and arrived at the bottom in 1 piece. Yehaaa. So tired from all this racing at full pelt that I fell asleep after this stage.

Stage 4: 5k Pairs TT. Got smashed by the super speedy and smooth Jaclyn Shapel. I was still holding on to the start pole with my jaw dropped at how quick she took off before my brain kicked in and told me to PEDAL. Feeling like Steve Monaghetti trying to beat Usain Bolt in the 100m sprint.

SUNDAY:

Stage 5: 50k Race- loads of singletrack, loads of fun. Finally got my cornering a bit smoother. Loved it. Managed 2 over the bars but somehow landed on my feet. Had enough left in the tank to hammer it home and finish strong in the last 5k which was a good feeling.

This festival was a blast, you get to ride awesome singletrack and hang out with your mates camping all weekend. Get down to Forrest to ride the tracks, drink some beers and eat the best chips ever at the brewery, grab a coffee and muesli slice as well as a heap of bike gear from the ‘Corner Store.’ It’s awesome. So a few thanks, obviously to Liz and Sandy for feeding me, fixing my bike, providing me with the bare necessities to survive a camping weekend! Thanks to Norm and Jess for putting on such a great event. Thanks to Adz, Kylie, Bec, Bec, Tony, Dave, Corinna and Tracey for being such rad people to hang out with! Next time I promise to be a little bit more prepared, or at least try to!! Thanks Liv/Giant, bike and gear ran a treat and great to see the other Liv/Giant riders in action – Well done Jess on 3^rd place! Thanks HSR seeds for helping me get to the race which was an 8 hour drive, and to Ay-Ups lights for all your support!! I'll post some photos when I get some!!

Summers nearly here-time for some night riding!!

Now that summer is nearly upon us and the weather is getting better, dust off that bike, chuck some lights on and get out night riding!
If your looking to get some lights, or wanting to upgrade your current set you neednt look any further than Ay-Up lights. By far the most popular of lighting systems, I see loads of people using Ay-Ups at our club night rides and at races all around the country.

I'll try to keep it short and sweet, this is why you should get Ay-Ups:
- They are AUSSIE MADE. Support your country!!
- They are much cheaper than other lighting systems yet they do not compromise quality and work just as well, if not better than there more expensive competitors.
- You can use the lights for other adventures such as running, hiking, kayaking. We use them as a torch when we go camping or lose power at home.
-  There's loads of different options and kits and ordering extras such as batteries, mounts and custom Ay-Up Jerseys is simple and quick!

The half epic battery lasts 3 hours on high and 6 hours on low whilst the epic battery lasts 6 hours on high and an incredible 12 hours on low. The low setting is by no means low and lights up the track well enough to use confidently in training and racing. Included in this kit are 2 lights, a handlebar and helmet light which you get to choose from 12 funky different colours for both. I use a narrow beam for my helmet and an intermediate beam for my handlebar.

Sweet range of colours to choose, and now you can choose a black or white lightbar

Also included in the kit are red saxon caps to put over your lights to put on the back of your helmet to use as a rear red light. The Adventure Kit comes complete with all the bits and pieces you need as well as doubles and spares so you can mount lights on more than 1 bike. The extras include mounts, velcro straps, mounting bounds, cable ties and battery pouches.  It also includes head band kit and an awesome feature called the Gecko helmet mounting kit which allows you to easily and quickly put your helmet light on and off. A charger which charges 2 batteries at a time and an in car charger ensures you can always charge your batteries, and they do not take long to charge.

What I really love about the Ay-Up lighting system, apart from the excellent quality, ease of use and reasonable pricing, is the weight. Each bulletproof, waterproof light weighs a measly 50 grams. Unbelievable!! During my Enduro races I use the Epic battery, with an extension lead to the battery which sits nicely in my middle pocket of my jersey and it’s no wonder I can’t notice it as in weighs in at 250 grams for the whole getup. The battery on my handle bar light straps conveniently on to the handle bar stem or at the front of the top tube with no dramas at all. I do most of my training in the early morning before work, in pitch black on the road and Ay-Up provide such an impressive light that approaching cars slow down as they are not sure what is heading their way! So if you’re looking for a quality set of lights, to enhance you mountain biking experience and provide safety whilst out training, Ay-Up is the only way to go. 
 www.ayup-lights.com

There’s something magical and mysterious about riding at night, and night rides are by my favourite ride of the week. Likewise, the night stage of a 24 hour solo race is when the race really cranks up and makes you feel invigorated and alive! You can ride the same track you’ve ridden loads of times and it feels completely new and different when you ride it at night. Everything is more exciting, each berm, switchback and drop off more challenging yet the stillness of the night provides a calmness and pure bliss.  I can be out on the track, in pitch black with no one else around and have complete faith that my Ay-Up lights will get me home, not once have I experienced any issues with them.  

Al modelling the very bright, very cool Ay Up jerseys which can be seen a mile away, not only do they look totally radical, they make sure you are seen when out on the road or tracks

Time to rest..... BOO.

I made a few not so great decisions in the past couple of weeks that lead to me not being fully fit for the Scott. Racing your bike for 24hours requires your mind and body to be fit and healthy and unfortunately mine is currently not in the required state. The first mistake I made was ordering prawns for dinner in Albury the night before our 440km mtb ride back to Canberra. (see previous blog for more gnarly details on what went on there), my stomach has still not recovered and I am awaiting test results from the doctor regarding parasites in my stomach from our visit to Cambodia earlier this year, let’s just say things haven’t been real peachy in the stomach department since then.

The other mistake I made was letting a mate have a spin on my anthem the day before the epic ride and not remembering my seat post height, getting it wrong and riding for 10 ½ hours with it, waking up with a very sore knee which is also still hanging round. And the third mistake was to ignore the niggle in my lower back in the weeks leading up to the epic ride, although the only reason I ignored it and didn’t see anyone was due to living in a pretty remote area it takes about a month to see anyone or a lengthy drive which with school being so busy I wasn’t able to get it looked at.

The epic hike a bike section on the ride turned that niggle into a more substantial injury that is giving me some grief. When deciding whether I  would race the Scott lots of things were going through my head, but I haven’t got to race a 24 this year, you’re just making excuses, your back and knee and stomach will be fine come race day...... in the past I probably would have listened to these voices! But the older and wiser..? me realised my body is yelling at me for a break, it wants rest, I really don’t want to give it rest but I know if I am to be healthy and fit again my mind will have to give in. I was ready and rearing to go to Canada for the Worlds and then to try to fit in another 4 weeks of hard training to maintain that fitness for the Scott ended up not working, and that again was through my own mistake of being told to have 3 days rest but riding with the boys into a massive headwind doing efforts on those days, what was I saying about me being ‘older and wiser....?’

So I’m bummed not to be at the Scott and wish all competitors the best of luck, I’ll be heading to Melbourne to do a cruisy road ride with the Liv/Giant crew which I’m most excited about, heading to AusBike Expo to see all the latest toys and gizmos and then watch some mates run the Melbourne Marathon! On the upside I’ll be able to do a heap of races in November/December like Highland Fling and, SS Nationals and Rosewhite 12hour, which I am normally too stuffed from the Scott to do.

I'll try to enjoy resting as much as this fella is

HUME AND HOVELL ADVENTURE

Our good friends Beth and Seb and their Canberra friends (Alex, Steve, Aaron, Lee, Nathan) organised a bunch of keen adventuring cyclists to go to Albury and ride back to Canberra via the Hume and Hovell Track. (The route taken by early explorers William Hume and Hamilton Hovell back in the 1800's)  It turned out to be quite the adventure and I learnt a lot of valuable lessons!!

At the monument tree ready for departure

Lesson 1- Don’t eat seafood when you cannot see the ocean. I soon regretted not listening to the older, much wiser adventurer Lee who heeded me that warning when I ordered the Prawn Risotto.

At 11pm the prawn belly hit and I proceeded to spend the next 3 hours being up close and personal with the toilet bowl and the bin with some rest breaks lying on the cold tiles of the bathroom floor. It was not pretty and made worse by the fact we were sharing rooms so I did a good job in keeping everyone else awake until 2am.

Up at 5, I was feeling surprisingly better, I think I was just stoked to have survived the ordeal! Feeling dehydrated but not too bad, I decided I would join the others on the journey to Tumburumba.

An epic day, I clocked 10.5 hours riding time, which included a fair bit of hike a bike up a couple of ridiculously  steep mountains, up and over and under fences, it was a real off road and even off trail adventure that brought us 4 seasons in one day including sunshine, rain and sleet. With 40km to go we were stoked and thought it would be a cruise into town, how wrong we were, epic climbs all the way. Thankfully Jess was tracking us via Seb’s SPOT and found us with 40km to go with water and salad rolls, legend!! Soon we were watching the sunset and luckily ALL of us had our AY-UP LIGHTS on either our handlebars or helmets or both. We would have been in alot of trouble without them. Al had had a couple of mouthfuls of my dinner the night before and the dreaded prawn belly hit him in the last 20km, stopping for a quick spew here and there we were both surprised and elated we had both made it through the day.

Cruisin into Tumburumba at sunset
Photo:Steve Hanley

Day Two saw us leave Tumbarumba and make our way to Tumut, a pleasant 90km trip proved abit harder than initially thought as pine logs had crashed and blocked the track. Initially we ventured up and over the logs, taking about an hour to get to what we thought was the cleared track. A congo line of people passing their bikes up and over huge logs, scrambling losing balance in their cleats sure was a sight! We then had to turn back and congo line the bikes back as it became apparent there was no clear track. A few big climbs in today’s ride, I found if I rode my own pace I felt ok, it was when my heart rate would go up that I would feel as if I was going to be sick. I also had nothing in my legs and I think this was because I had not eaten much the day before and started the journey fairly dehydrated from the Prawn Belly episode. 6.5 hours riding time with an upper body workout meant for some tired adventurers rolling into Tumut. A few of the adventurers partners had been enjoying a lovely day out and had everything unpacked for us in our cute B & B we were staying in, out for dinner where we were all trying not to fall asleep!! Thankfully I had my appetite back and did a great job in refuelling!!



racing through the water.
Photo: Steve Hanley



having a blast
photo:Steve Hanley

I decided not to ride from Tumut to Canberra as I am preparing to race the Scott next weekend. The other guys rode 120km home over a massive amount of climbing and finished off with a hot lap of Stromlo. I had such a great time riding with the 8 other people I had met and it was a real adventure. The navigators did a wonderful job, and I honestly believe the sections where we had to ride fast from the bull, got chased by the farmer, lifted bikes up and down and over logs, climbed fences, rode back the way we came and pushed bikes up the steepest mountains; all those bits that were considered a stuff up; THEY WERE THE BEST BITS!!! They made it an adventure and they are the parts that make me laugh when I think about the trip.

SS Al Cruisin
photo:Steve Hanley



improvizing and creating a bridge
photo:Steve Hanley



pre-ride coffee at the coolest cafe with loads of teddies and it even had drop bears!
photo:Steve Hanley

photo:Steve Hanley

A massive thanks to everyone who organised it the trip, it was a great weekend.

For more photos check out: http://svana.org/photos/humehovell2012/