2008/09 & an Anniversary worth mentioning!!

2008

A strange year it was. Lots of ups and lots of downs, different type of training and some hard racing until the incident... I just hope to remember it as a positive experience, a learning experience. It ended like this:

...

"I couldn't finish the year without one last ride on my bike and on the road, the invitation for a Xmas Eve Ride was just too good to refuse.

...

Came the morning of the 24th and I was already awake when the alarm went off at 04:10. With Sandra, I was on the road at 04:50. Yes, I was a little nervous and had to have two goes to get my right foot clipped in as we left the house and made our way up the hill.

...

Looking back at my Polar files, my last logged ride on the road was on the 15th October. Shit... there were 10 weeks apart. Ten weeks off the bike. Ten weeks, or 51h and 45min, of pedalling nowhere. Not the worst thing that can happen to someone but a little sad if riding your bike somewhere is one of the things you like doing the most.
...
But it didn't matter anymore. On the first descent, we got to 45 km/h in a windless and cool morning. It felt so good! Next, it was heading to town, meeting the bunch, doing a little loop around Mt Coo-tah and heading back to town for a coffee, or two. With the thought of that ride been the last one for a while, all I wanted was to have a good ride, and for everyone else to have the same. And we did!

..
..

Then, there was Xmas itself. I am not very big on those sort of celebrations and I am not convinced that shopping until you die has anything to do with John Lennon's birth day... Yeah, I did go to a catholic school.
...
Hence, it was just a matter of a few calls to family members, a couple of e-mails and SMSs and something on the here. Apart from that, quality time with Sandra, who was on holidays, and crossing a few things off on the list of things to do were the priorities.
...
We headed to Sydney for NewYear's Eve and to spend time with old friends, who kindly put us up for a couple of nights in their beautiful city apartment. I was very excited with the opportunity of finishing the old year and starting the new one somewhere else then home.
...
Once in Sydney, a visit to a couple of bike shops was inevitable and turned out to be very pleasant experiences. There was a lot of stuff we don't get up here and we witnessed how the "Fixie Thing" is developing in Australia. Much bigger in Sydney and bigger again in Melbourne we heard..."
...
...

At the LBS/coffee shop in Bondi

Sandra and the SOMA cap she had to have

Old friend, old habits...

Our view of the Sydney fire works can be seeing here.
...
...
2009
...
Waking up in Sydney and going for a walk at Coogee Beach with another thousand people was actually a good thing to do on the first day of the year. It was a beautiful and warm day, everything and everyone looking so colourful.
...
Back in Brisbane, with a few more days off work, it was time for relaxation and a bit of planning for the year ahead. One thing that came up was the desire to get back in doing some photography and as I have been looking into getting a compact digital camera for a while, it was also time to go shopping. Not Xmas shopping!
...

And here is the new toy, small and light for the pockets on my jersey, all the features I wanted and a quarter of the price I have previously budgeted for:

That brings me to this blog's first anniversary, as the camera was a gift to the blog. To make things more interesting for 2009, I am about to start a new blog. In view of keeping AMRcycling for the training and racing part of cycling, the new blog will be for everything else. Of course, it will have a heavy connection to bicycles but it will also have other things... and lots of photographs.

For 2009, there will be more training and racing here, and more graphs, and a little less of everything else.

Cheers!!