Not much riding, but a whole lotta busy

Working out of Bendigo for a week was all I'd hoped for, and some.  Great people, great location, and lots of work accomplished.  

Staying with Erica and Paul was a treat - great conversation and 3 loving staffords to come home to each night for hugs and laughs.  Erica was showing Toohey and Dizzy at the end of the week, and commented that Toohey had lost a bit of weight and needed to put a bit more on.  However I don't think she meant 2 rows of chocolate, an entire tube of bees wax lip balm, and a tube of hand cream !!!  Toohey got into my room and pulled everything out of my bag - books, registration papers, Road Worthy Certificate, wallet...everything.  He didn't damage any of it, but consumed all the tasty bits.  The only tasty treat that remains is some hand cream, however I don't need to pop the top off now, I just squeeze tube and it squirts out in 4 directions !!

Erica showing Toohey at Bendigo Dog Show

Erica showing 7 mth old Dizzy at Bendigo Dog Show

Always the laugh at work, Terry didn't fail to entertain.  Spilt the sugar, got caught, and the photo goes viral around the state to CFA and DSE within minutes - you can't get away with anything when so many people know you.  

Terry being resourceful, but he could have chosen a better spot to be resourceful...

Back to uni at the School of Forestry, Creswick.  Shauna and I had decided on taking the mtb for cruisey post-lecture rides.  Lots of exploring, talking and laughing.  

MTB at Creswick in the oak forest with Shauna

Uni field trip was to the Central Highlands of Vic - Healesville, Marysville, Toolangi, Kinglake - looking at different forests and their responses to fire.  Fairly basic stuff in general, but the real gems are in talking to the lecturers and picking up snippets of information that don't form part of the curriculum.  

Good laughs with the lecturers over an evening bbq - Chris, Lubov and Rohan.  Again, lots learnt and stories shared.  The following day didn't exactly go as planned, and resulted in Lubov, Shauna and myself getting a $300 cab ride from Kinglake West to Creswick !!  One of the buses ended up with a 3" branch through the radiator in the middle of a logging coupe, so some quick thinking by the lecturers had us still on track for the remainder of our field trip, with 3 of us getting a comfy trip in the cab instead of the buses.  

Alpine Ash burnt in 2009 Black Saturday regenerating - the 4WD gives some perspective to the height of the trees

Regeneration density of the Ash is incredible - can you believe that there are 6 people in the photo within 3m of me  

How do they grow so quick?...look at those leaves - huge photosynthetic potential (nice leaves, Shauna!!)

4 year old Ash regen with 1939 regrowth now dead - in scale with human height 

Standing among the giants - not really a safe place to be

Bright 12 Hour

I've had to work really hard to let myself back off from putting pressure on myself whenever I enter an event.  As much as I sometimes portray from the outside a casual approach to racing, on the inside I'm always pushing myself to perform even when I enter an event for fun.  But this weekend, I think I mastered it!!!

The week before was its usual hectic routine that has become routine for me for the last 12 months.  The 4 hour drive to Bright was beautiful even though I was tired.  The colours in the hills of Yea through to Bright were amazing as the sun was falling - not a cloud in the sky which was very different to the cloud of Melbourne.  I began thinking of how much of the country (particularly Victoria) I see because of riding and racing (and work) and how, because of the positive experience that riding gives me, each of those places leaves a lasting happy memory in my mind.  So the next time I visit that place memories flood back and I feel good and look forward to the time there.  

Bright brings back a number of good memories - riding the XC trails with Megs, Matt, Munge and Nick over 10 years ago ('....watch out for the....' 'OH SHIT !!!!!!' '...drop off...yeah, you might have wanted to stick to the left side of that one...'); Mystic Hill DH days with the early members of Albury Wodonga MTB Club (Mystic Hill DH was the first time I said 'I really need to get myself some disc brakes!!); Bright Rod Run with Rolf and Nudge (Bright Holiday Park was the beginning of Nudge's fascination with possums, and trying to climb trees to get them!!); and of course fires (how many weeks have I spent in Bright at fires?...though the couple of tours where accommodation was at Bright Chalet weren't so bad - pity I had to go on the fireground for 16 hours a day (or IMT), otherwise it would have been a lovely time!!).  So, Bright as a location for a race and the drive there was just the beginning.  

My race began at 10:30am.  Everyone else started at 8:00am.  Even before I started riding, many friends asked 'Aren't you meant to be on a bike?'.  I guess when you've been racing Elite solo endurance mtb races since 2006, people get used to only ever seeing me at these events on the bike riding non-stop for 4, 6, 8, 12 or 24 hours rather than walking round the event centre during the race.  

My first lap was great - the trails were awesome.  Not technically hard as such, but the course was pretty rugged and it was more a matter of 'how fast can you ride it' rather than 'can you ride it'.  It was nice to be riding in pineys again - a unique experience that other veg types don't offer.  The climbing was hard at times, either long fire trail climbs or singletrack pinches that hurt with tree roots and corners thrown in just to work you harder.  

It was in the singletrack that I met a rookie solo rider, Paul.  We rode at a similar pace for a lap, chatting the whole time.  Paul's wife was supporting him and looking after their 5 children as well.  I reckon Paul had the easier task of riding a bike for 12 hours....  Our 2nd lap together and Paul was starting to struggle - I talked him through it and then we just talked stuff.  Paul was going for a 15 min break before pushing out another lap - his last one.  But I knew that in the fatigued state he was if he sat down, there was no way he would have gotten up again.  So I pretty much shoved some food down his mouth, got his bottle ready, and got him out of transition for the start of his final lap.  I'm not sure what his wife was thinking while standing by watching me bully Paul around, but I knew he had one more lap in him and that he would be disappointed if he stopped now.  So although he was fatigued mentally and physically, he'd had food, he'd had fluid, and he had someone riding the whole lap with him.  Paul talked the entire last lap - you could almost say he was a bit delirious, but he kept pedalling, with his mind off with his mouth rather than thinking about how hard the lap was.  

The final 3km was undulating with a few pinch climbs and a nice gradual descent to the finish line.  Wanting Paul to finish in high spirits, I pushed him for the last 3km - worked him hard on the pinch climbs, drove him to shift to a harder gear to enjoy the flowy descent.  We hit the finish line and Paul had nothing left in the tank, and he was thrilled with the last blast of his race - he finished on the high that I promised him.  

And you know what?  I thoroughly enjoyed the riding, helping someone achieve their goal, and seeing them so happy for it.  My race ended with 4 laps, 4.5hrs riding, and a great slightly fatigued feeling in my body.  And of course my Cannondale 80mm Scalpel rode flawlessly...sweet bike.

Post race I was thinking about maybe one day being fit enough to push myself the race an endurance event again, rather than just ride.  I'm stuffed until June with study and work, but maybe when I'm settled, when winter is over, when life settles down a bit, I might just plan to make a serious hit out at Bright in 2014.  Stranger things have happened....

A beautiful setting for a race at Bright - Morses Creek in the background

Enjoying the surrounds during a lap break

New bike not so new after Bright's dusty trails

Bright 12 Hour ('Juz, aren't you meant to be on a bike?')

The fact that I'm typing this 1 hour before finish time gives you some idea of the social and fun day I've had.  More to come soon.

Back to Bright

Since being back in Victoria I haven't spent a lot of time in the north-east.  Bright 12 Hour was initially entered for 'racing' back in December.  Now, it is a great place to ride some new trails of Bright (since the huge windstorm a few years ago wiped out all the existing trails), a relaxing weekend, and a time to catch up with racing friends.

Of the 4 people that I have randomly bumped into since leaving Melbourne, 3 of them have been old racing chick friends.  Mel and Kel at Glenrowan BP, and Jane Ollerenshaw in the toilets at the caravan park.  I knew it was going to be a good weekend when the following scenes welcomed me to the north-east on the drive up.

Another journey and lots of fun to be had.  Race/ride wind up will follow at the end of the weekend.  In the mean time.....I'm goin' ridin'...