It's the Queen's Birthday long weekend here in Australia ... a three-day weekend!


So Rowan and I have driven to a little town west of where we live to participate in a weekend of cycling with the Victoria crowd of Audax Australia. We completed a 100 km populaire today. We were intending to do a 200 km brevet, but I'm just not fit enough for that these days. Very chilly ride!! The top temp was 10C.


How was your weekend of cycling?

Is no one riding this weekend??


Rowan and I completed another 100 km populaire, but not within the required time limit. We were about 10 minutes too late. I was struggling out there today ... it was another chilly day and my legs were tired and sore from yesterday's adventure. Let me just say this as well, Australia may be the flattest continent, but this part of Australia is NOT flat!!

sat: planned on 200k but ended up raining at mile 50 which ended up causing a front tire flat due to a water filled pothole i didn't see. which THEN ended up with me flipping over the bars a bit when i tried to pull onto some grass luckily only some scrapes and a sore upper traps for it. cut it off at the 103mi version since we were soaked and cold. 200k will go down on a nicer day.

sun: hot tub and watching Dauphine and Tour de suisse

its raining and I have stuff to do!!!! GRrrr ...!

Did my first 50 mile ride yesterday...barely LOL. Weather and chores will determine if i can get out and show the MTB some love this afternoon...

Yean, the first one is the hardest. Good job getting it done.

Yesterday was a really nice ride. 40 miles with my ATF club at a nice 19.0. That's on the fast side of things for me, but I had no problems.
Hmmm, am I ready to try a 20MPH pace line again? Maybe.

Got in 51 miles yesterday and about to head out again this morning. Not sure how long I'll ride as I am flying to Bahrain later this evening and I still have a lot of crap to do before leaving.

I did the No. VA chapter's MS Bike Ride yesterday. 98.5 miles and 5,000+ ft climbing. Temperature started to hit the mid 80s by 10:30 AM with high humidity. By 4:00 PM I was 6 miles away from the finish but I was running away from a heavy thunderstorm with 16 mph wind. I made it and put my bike into my car without getting wet. But I got wet while walking up to the spot where the beer and food were.

after a ton of chores got in my 30 mile loop before dark.

28.5 miles (musta cut some corners ... hahaha)
30.8 max
15.1 avrg
1 hr 52 min saddle time

training wise ~ I'm fond of the 30 miler on a bike and the 2 mile run. they are both quick and easy.

33 with the club yesterday and 38 todays, moderate hills in both, what a great break in the heat this weekend here in phoenix area

0.0 miles.
Rain rain rain.
I ran 8 miles instead.

Worked and other stuff yesterday, no riding.
Rode the Worksman cruiser 12 miles this afternoon. Probably the same again tomorrow. Get my Raleigh Sojourn back next week.

You must have been about 8 minutes in front of me. The skies opened up right when my little group hit the gravel driveway of Meadowkirk.

Sunday, they only had the 34 mile route open. They canceled the 54 miler (with input from Loudoun County Sheriff's Department) due to forecast for more thunderstorms (which did role through around 2:00 pm). Although the temps today were a bit lower than Saturday, the humidity was higher making it more oppressive for riding.

5000 ft climbing? I was wondering how much there was. I was happy with myself that I never went into my 28 tooth cog until the final climb on Sunday, which was at about mile 132 for the weekend.

I didn't do the Sunday ride. I haven't been doing the second day part ever since my girl was born. So you rode in the thunderstorm, that was impressive. One of my teammate was sagged because of the storm. They were debating whether to sag me in the last rest stop. I didn't give them the option.

Elevation profile:

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/36637133

60 miles yesterday at the Collin Classic - nice ride, better than I expected. I'd heard horror stories about endless chipseal and unstocked rest stops but the redesigned route had no more/no less chipseal than anywhere else around here and the rest stops were, if anything, over stocked. I had bad cramps in my left leg caused by poor bike fit (new saddle+cleat realignment+seat too high = ouch in my leg) but was riding with a friend who gets a lot of HTFU from me so I HTFU'ed myself and finished (fairly) strong.

Still no time for a proper fitting but the LBS eyeballed it for me, dropped my saddle and moved it further back then made a few other tweaks. All for free, all on a busy Saturday afternoon. A friendly LBS is a good thing.

This morning was my cycle club ride and for some reason one of the guys (the same guy who rode with me on Saturday) decided to take us on an alternate route. One with a few extra, larger hills. Goody gumdrops. Our group splits midway and the last half of the ride was just me and my so-called friend, who kept saying he was hurting from yesterday and needed to dial it back but then never did. Every now and then I'd chime in with a comment about my legs being made of cement and fire but then I'd get going in a good groove and spinning with no cramps felt nice. So much for slowing things down.

Afterward I told him we should try setting a pace and then working together to help one another along instead of taking the lead and punishing each other until we have to fall off to the back. He said, "Where's the fun in that?" Damn.

Have been having crappy weather all June here for the most part, but I got in 2 20-milers on Friday and Saturday, and a 36-miler today. I got a new saddle and what a difference it made, put in over 100 miles this week (a lot for me) and look forward to finally being able to put in some more serious miles over the rest of the summer!

the entire weekend was on the bike... no running. i did the usual post work short but steep hill climbing on friday then on saturday i went out to the austin veloway just to see it. so i did 2 laps then went on to buda texas and back to austin for 73mi. total:

https://www.veloway.com/

today i went out to the austin tuesday nighter course and found another connecting road that takes me near the airport, so maybe an easy pace social group ride tomorrow after work.

there are hills in Dallas?

To round out the cycling weekend we did a 57 km bicycle ride this morning. There were only 6 of us who hung on till the end. Most of the other riders went home yesterday. It was a good ride ... probably the best of bunch. Despite the fact that my legs feel like rather painful jello!!

Friday evening (11/06/10) Rowan and I packed up and drove to Creswick, just north of Ballarat and about 3 hours drive west of where we live. Our accommodation was a very inexpensive "standard cabin" that was very small and smelled quite strongly of cigarette smoke. Oh well, at least it was very inexpensive.

Saturday morning (12/06/10) at 7:30 am we were at the start/finish area ... a girl guides camp ... signing in and getting ready to ride. Our intention was to ride 200 km, but I haven't done much riding since our 400K attempt about a month ago, so I wasn't 100% sure about that. We've been involved in moving since then, and I'm still struggling with DVT issues.

The ride started very well ... a beautiful route, fairly flat, and a tailwind. The temperature started around 3C, but seemed to warm up nicely although I found out later it only got to 10C. With the exception of a few minutes after the 45 km control where I felt chilly, I was quite comfortable out there.

We flew into the 45 km control feeling great with a reasonable amount of time to spare. But immediately after that control, we were into a headwind, and the hills started. I struggled. My speed dropped dramatically, and my right knee started to hurt. We decided to cut the ride at 100 km rather than doing the 200 km.

It was a fight right till the end, but we made it with about 5 minutes to spare. Pre-DVT, I used to be able to do 100K rides with no problems at all. Now they're a struggle.

Despite the fact that I was exhausted, we ate, changed, and took a little shopping trip in Ballarat where I got new earrings and towels. We napped, and then returned to the girl guides lodge where the group of cyclists we were with were preparing for dinner. It was really nice to sit down and socialise with the other randonneurs in the area. Most of the time we arrive at the finish really late and everyone has gone home.

And I must say that the route instructions for this ride were the most accurate I've come across on the rides I've done here in Australia so far.

Sunday morning (13/06/10) at 7:30 am we were at the start/finish area, and signing in again. This time we were going to attempt the 100K ... we knew 200K would be too much for us. But on this day, I struggled all the way around. My legs had no energy at all, and my right knee was quite sore. The route was also fairly hilly ... or seemed that way.

We just made it into the 45 km control, grabbed a quick bite to eat and set off again. I hoped I would have more energy, but it just didn't happen. I also felt cold on this ride. The temperature was about the same as Saturday, and I was dressed the same ... but I was cold.

We had a great 10 km downhill run into the control at the end, but even so we arrived at the finish about 10 minutes late.

Lunch, a short shopping trip where I got new boots and a radio, a nap ... and we were back at the girl guides hall for dinner. We were fed extremely well on this tour!!

It was agreed that Monday's ride would start at 9 am.

Monday morning (14/06/10) at 8:30 am we were at the start/finish area and signing in again. Monday's ride was a 57 km loop (a 50 km populaire) and there were 6 of us in total riding it.

My legs felt like painful jello to start the ride, but they started to settle in after about 10 km, and I began to enjoy the ride. It helped that the sun came out, and that I felt warm.

The area around Creswick is interesting ... there are old volcano mounds all over the place ... so many of them!! Fascinating. The area also reminds me a bit of the Canadian prairies with fields and pine forests. The pine forests are pine plantations, but nevertheless they are pines which don't grow natively here.

We stopped for coffee at Clune. Clune is an old historic town and also appears in the move Mad Max! The 6 of us had coffee together and then Rowan and I set off a bit ahead of the rest because we knew we'd need the extra time.

With 20 km to go, we were passed by two of them, and a short time later we were joined by the other two, Martin and Libby. Rowan rode with Martin and I rode with Libby for a while, then we rode in a paceline together to the finish. Some of that time was a bit of a struggle for me, but the last 10 km or so was great. We were cruising right along!!

We rolled into the finish with about 10 minutes to spare. And then we were fed again. The food on this weekend was wonderful!!

A relaxed drive back through Bacchus Marsh and Melton and we were home ... in our nice comfy house.

All up, we rode 268 km over the weekend.

The last 16 photos in this set are of the Queens Royal Tour:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...detail/?page=8

One of the many volcanos ...

Thanks for your garmin link. I should add one of those to my Christmas gift list. Your time looks similar to mine in both mph and total, except that I had another half hour of total time added due to two flats in our group.

Yeah, we blew straight through the last stop when told a bus was coming if we wanted...we didn't want it. But, luckily, there was no riding in the rain except for the gravel driveway at Meadowkirk.

so jealous of those miles!

It is a really nifty device. It was very useful at some points where the signs were confusing/or taken down by pranksters. Turning point directions are great.

Welcome back! These days, I think running 8 miles would be more of a killer for me than riding the 268 km I did this weekend!!