End of Week 1, nine to go...

I had a good break. Now, it is time to start preparing for the Tour of Bright in December.

In the two weeks I had off, I rode my bike four or five times and didn't even wear my HR monitor once. They were all easy, social/family rides. Just one weak moment when I couldn't resist and entered one short club criterium.

My son Toby, who lives in Gladstone, came down and stayed with us for a few days during that time. To my surprise, he agreed to get on a road bike (he's a cool avid BMX rider) for a couple of rides. I haven't managed to get him into racing any of his bikes but he is a skilled young rider and does have a bit of passion for cycling and that's cool enough for me.

We rode with Sandra one day, manly on bike paths, and did the Nundah/Nudge/Boondal Wetlands course, 55 km of fun.

The second ride was to Sandgate, via the Bundall Wetlands and back (65 km) which had the almost 15 year old BMX rider struggling a little. Still, he managed to show a bit of a talent on the steep, short hills leading to our house. All good fun!!




Training started: week one

Build one started with some easy repeats at the back of Mt Coot-tha, nothing too hard. I used a lower gear on the first one to try to build a bit of strength. After that was easy, spinning up the two-point-something km climb.

Coot-tha Reps: 9'00"; 11'02" and 11'07"

A couple of punctures that morning called for a drastic measure... The next day, I went out with an extra layer of rubber ( a cut off tube) in each wheel. The bike felt a bit heavier on the inclines and an increase on the rolling resistance was also evident. I didn't care, I just didn't want any more punctures.

The ride was a little longer and a little faster. Medium Intensity I call it.

Bunya Rd; Samford Valley; Bunya Rd and a Jinker lap

For Thursday, I had planned repeats on Mt Mee road. I changed my mind after the first one and kept going towards Mt Mee village. The day was too nice to turn around and miss out on all those views (and hills). That resulted on a longer than expected ride for this stage of my training and I felt fairly exhausted when I reached the 4 h mark.

Mt Mee (537 m)

Friday saw me commuting to work as a recovery day. I have decided to ride my bike to work as often as possible. As long as I don't have to start work at 5 am or finish after 10 pm, I will be doing the 26 km round trip as recovery/help the environment/save money rides.

I couldn't race on Saturday because of an early, early shift so the training was to be done in the afternoon. Now, that's hard for me. I get home, I feel tired, Sandra is home... I find it hard to get motivated but I managed to leave at 4 PM for a planned 2.5 hours, High Intensity session on Mt Nebo road.

The ride out was the difficult part. Committed but unmotivated still, I started off against a strong head wind and feeling stupid for having added weight and resistance to my wheels. A couple of Magpie attacks on the way helped. They pissed me off but did make me hit the climb to Mac Affees with a bit of hunger... I did it in 17'04", which is not my best but it gave me the High Intensity work out I needed!!

Mt Nebo Village (563 m)

Another commute to work and the week on the bike ended. Lots more to come!

Week 1: 14h30min/380km (5,200m)