Ballarat 3 Hour

Yippee yeehah I actually 'raced' at the Ballarat 3 Hour last week!  Finally I've got legs rather than legs that fade whenever I point them at a climb.  

The course was a great fun, flowy course.  Nothing hard or technical - just a matter of how much speed can you carry down the descents and through corners.  There was a fair bit of climbing each lap - 270m elevation gain over 12 km, with the start lap having 370m elevation gain - which took it's toll on everyone eventually.  As usual, I knew the climbs were my weakness so I hammered the descents as best I could to make up time.  Some of these were so much fun that I couldn't contain my jubilation and just had to let loose with several vocal 'woohoo'.

The first 1.5 hours was spent pushing a bit but not too much, expecting the usual nothing on the climbs.  But when it came to putting in a bit more on every climb on the 3rd lap, I actually had some legs.  Then the 4th lap came round and I wanted to finish with nothing in my legs, so I pushed every climb HARD.  The final 25 mins my glutes were screaming at me, but I just kept pushing on everything - I never gave up.  

It was so good to feel pain again in my legs - to push into the pain and actually enjoy it - rather than just having nothing on the climbs and just having to tap away while my legs just faded.  It was a HUGE step for me - it's been 2 years since I've had any legs, and I'm determined to not lose them if I can help it.  Of course work will get in the way, as it already has, but I'll do my best to keep on the bike and keep up the fun, because I love it so much.  

Rapid Assessment of the Last 4 Months

I was reminded recently that I haven't updated my blog for some time.  Not much has happened, but then so much has happened.

The 3 hour race at Moama at the end of May ended in 2 broken ribs.  500m from the finish and I crashed - a silly crash that landed me stuck on the side of the track throwing up, then in the St Johns van for an hour, the in the passenger seat of my car for the drive home while Roz drove and put up with me wincing with each breath.  What would I do without friends?  And not only did she get me home safely, the Bradley's also provided me with food for the next few days.  And congrats to Roz on podiuming with a well deserved 2nd!!

The next 6 - 7 weeks passed slowly.  Who'd have thought that brushing your teeth could cause so much rib pain!  I did the occasional indoor session cause I was sick of being in pain and didn't want to deal with the rough surface of road or dirt.  Beep was very patient with her daily walks that were very slow - she's such a good girl and was very careful and gentle with me.  If my beautiful Buzzy Boy had've been here, you could guarantee that if anyone was going to walk over the top of me or jump up on the bed and land on me and cause rib pain, it would have been him....not because he meant to, just because he never felt physical pain so he was unknowing about his actions.  This part of Buzz's character caused many moments of consternation for Beep....'How could you be so careless!!'....and then she'd tell him off, and he'd wonder why.  And I miss him for just being him.  

Anyway, moving on, there was an upside to my injury - driving was too painful for 3 weeks so I spent the most part working in Bendigo for that time, which is a rare occurrence for my role.  

So after losing any form of fitness over June/July, I started out slowly.  Again.  Then July turned into August and I was catching up on field trips and then a fire conference in Adelaide.  And more field trips.  And before I knew it the Bendigo 6 Hour was here.  With no riding in my legs.  Again.  So I entered and rode for 3 hours straight, and had the most wonderful day.  The sun was shining and warm and all I had to do was ride for 3 hours.  Alex Chng even managed to get a couple of shots of me.

Don't laugh at the tongue!

And then the Jubberland Red Bull 12 Hour.  And again I was exhausted and had no riding in my legs, so I just had a great 3 hours riding time rolling round the trails, catching up with friends, and having a great time.  And still managed to be home early afternoon to spend the rest of the weekend with Beep.  It was the perfect weekend.  

I'm on leave for a couple of weeks and timed it beautifully - warm, sunny weather to spend the days in the garden with Beep, riding my bike both by myself and with friends, and relaxing.  So much time to myself is a rarity when you work so much in a demanding role, so I'm taking in the peace a quiet and, excuse the pun, but 'loving the serenity'.

But as I found yesterday there are moments, however brief, when I considered it would be handy to have a hubby around sometimes.  Such a (surprising?) thought was triggered by putting a new, tightly fitting UST (tubeless) tyre to my mtb.  But I got there on my own - fully sealed and seated perfectly, all ready for a ride - so happy.