Uh oh... I think we've lost him...

Steven's new bike is prepped and ready to go. In fact, it's gone. It's a Litespeed Siena, and he has just finished putting it together himself... and now he's off riding. I hope he comes back someday. I think I'm not needed anymore ;) but then, I understand...

Jumping high and landing hard... Race Report: Murarrie Crits, 24 February 2007

Shannon told me once that "You've gotta squat low to jump high," but today I did the opposite. Despite having a dizzy spell on Thursday night, and feeling a big unwell over the last week (I blame Steven, as he's had the same symptoms, only worse), I not only raced this weekend - I also went up a grade.

Steven suggested C grade, Helen agreed... and so I went and asked the Commissaire and he said the same thing. I imagine that next time I race, I will be relegated to D grade. Still - I held on valiantly for as long as I could!

Why the shift to C grade? Well I want to race C grade this season, and it can be difficult to change between grades. While I appreciate that it's a good thing to get promoted by the Commissaires after podium finishes, I worry about that being the only way to go up a grade. Why? Because if they keep putting only the sprinters up a grade, the race becomes less interesting and tactical. If they're all sprinters - are you going to bother with a breakaway? You know they'll blow up and the bunch can catch them. You know they're just all going to sit in, do no work and then emerge for the sprint. The workers who do many laps on the front and push the speed the whole way through won't go up a grade. Team tactics only work at the expense of the advancement of the team mates - only the sprinter goes through.

Finally, I pose the question, "What makes some of us non-sprinters?" Quite often, strong riders don't sprint, because they do so much work before the sprint. Sprinters will tell you that these cyclists should just sit in and wait for the sprint and, if they want to just move up a grade, they're right. But the thing is, if you put these strong cyclists up a grade, you force them to sit in the bunch. They quickly get used to the speed - and then can actually contest a sprint... instead of being bored witless in the lower grade and repeating ill-fated breaks just to ease the boredom.

Anyway, at around 10 minutes into the ride to the crit circuit, I was worried about my fitness - my heart rate seemed a little high. Then some bogan chick reversed out of her driveway at about 40km/h and nearly hit me - when I swore at her to pay attention, she put the window down and screamed at me to "Get back (there)!" Sorry, I don't take orders from bogans.

So I started C grade, and my second or third lap was on the front (I'm still not quite sure how that one came about) and then I was recovering okay... then around fifteen minutes I started to get very nervous about my fitness, and then I pushed on and did some more work up the front... and then at 25 minutes I was fading fast, and then the black spots came into my vision so I just rolled back a bit. I was intending to jump the wheel of one of the guys at the back and let him tow me back up, but I just couldn't - I had a very real fear of passing out on the bike. So I eased up, and rolled out the back, just before the prime started. The average speed was only about 38km/h but it was the surges that were killing me - I clocked a maximum speed of 49km/h. I put my inability to cope with this down to not enough road commuting and too much bike path use. Easy to fix!

After I pulled out, I went and lay down on the grass until the dizziness passed. One of the girls from my race, who was from Rockhampton, came up to chat. Her name is Katie and she's a lovely girl, so friendly and animated. She is studying at Griffith Uni and was wondering if I rode with Fresh, as she'd seen them out on the south side. We had a bit of a chat and I'm looking forward to seeing her at future races. After about half an hour of rest, I actually felt well enough to ride home, and Steven and I took the long way via Wellington Point with no further dizzy spells (so that I did a total of 85km today).

Abby, watch out b!tch, I'm gonna chase you down...

Here comes my rest week!

I finally picked a job, after lots of advice, lots of indecision and a very fun trail run after which I still didn't have the answer. I have to say, it was hard work turning down the superannuation job, but throughout the ten interviews or testing sessions with the investment firm (or recruiters) I felt progressively more comfortable with them. I think they played hardball first to see if I was serious about the work and as I met them again, they opened up.

I'm really looking forward to starting work (in just over a week) as I think it'll be a great challenge . My manager is a lovely woman and very intelligent! (She also rides a bike to work, which gets her a few extra points.) A huge "thank you" goes out to Abby, LotteBum, Monsterman, my parents, Sarah and Dan, and of course Steven, for suffering through my job confusion and helping me come to a conclusion.

I celebrated by having drinks with Mark and some of his work friends in the city. I got to see Judy for the first time in ages, and I'm hoping she'll start doing more cycling again. Then I went out to Tomato Brothers with Steven plus three good friends (Adam, Jen and Mark) and a new friend (Mel) who is a lovely girl and at the opposite end of the spectrum from Adam, Mark and I - firstly because she trains a lot, and secondly because 400m is a long race for her!

It's been a great week for dining - on Thursday night I visited Checkers. Roast pork was on the menu, and this man does one hell of a crackling, mmmm yummy! I ate so much roast pork, crackling, roast potato and pumpkin, steamed carrots and broccoli, etc., that I didn't even have enough room for dessert! I had been feeling very ill that afternoon, with a big dizzy spell after car sickness, but the meal well and truly revived me and I went home feeling a million bucks. Checkers went to France (and England... and Scotland... oh yeah - and Dubai) last year, following le Tour de France while clad in lycra, and it's the first chance I've had to look at the photos.

I've got a race to report on as well... but I'll give that its own post.

A proud little boy...

Charlie is pretty impressed that his daddy beat me in a running race last night, though he was a bit worried that daddy might have run all night. He was also certain that he could've beaten his daddy and won the race outright. Go Charlie!

I need a rest week...

I am feeling absolutely run off my feet (no pun intended). When I read that looking for a employment is a full-time job, I took it at face value, but I had no idea. I am absolutely exhausted. The highlight of my week (aside from the job offers) was dragging myself out of bed on Friday for Karen's birthday ride (which Adam joined in so he could also get birthday recognition) and then backing up for Pat Carroll's 3km "race" and doing a not-so-bad time of around 13:10.

In stark contrast was today's work.

Anyway, I turned down the urban development job because despite sounding interesting, it was much lower pay than the other jobs. We're talking $9k less than its nearest competitor and $20k less than the other chief competitor. I got an offer from a superannuation administration company as well. I liked the people and the job prospects look good with room to get into other (higher level) roles on a short timescale. They're choosing me despite the fact that I have no superannuation experience (whereas the job description demanded five years of experience).

But then there's this other company, a private investment firm, that seems to like me a lot (in that they're fast-tracking the interview process) and yet seems to attack me at interviews (though I'm sure that's just to ensure I can take criticism and use it constructively). They are offering a very high salary plus a lot of extras like private health cover and gym membership. They are looking long term but there's not much of a career path, just increasing benefits. It's more maths and there's no chance to move into finance. Is it what I want or not? Ahhh... choices.

My next interview with them is scheduled for Friday after which they would make a firm offer. I would be due to start with the superannuation firm on the Monday. The two timings are not really compatible. I also received a phone call offering an interview for a government job I applied for, as a quality assurance analyst. I spoke to my boss about all this, and he spoke to a mate who is high up in a finance company and now he wants to talk to me about jobs.

It's so confusing. I might just have to toss a coin. Or write a Matlab function that'll do the same.

Recovery is going well...

I iced my knee and ankle on Sunday night and last night and it's all looking well. I am keen to get back into running, which is a little surprising, and I should probably rest for a while and make a bigger comeback, but I'm really tempted to hit the road already (preferably a dirt/gravel road).

In other news, the job hunt is going well. I met a couple of recruitment consultants last week, and had a few interviews last week and this week. Maybe by the end of next week I will have a job!

Soggy performance, solid training... Race Report: Caboolture Historical Village Dusk 2 Dawn 12hr

Well I headed in with an official goal of finishing 12 hour training session. I was planning on doing 80-90km but I think in the back of my mind I wanted more - you can be sensible all you want about your goals but the fact is you're always going to want a PB, even when you know you're not up to it. I came out with 76-ish km (well short of last year) but with my ankle holding up well (it only got very painful in the last 90 minutes or so) so I should be back in training this week.

The first hour I felt great and was working at such a low rate that I was taking 8 steps for every breathing cycle. I alternated walking and running nice and early and kept my downhill low-impact to save the muscles for later. But I think I suffered more in the rain than I would've expected. I was saturated in the quarter lap it took me to get to Steven, and my brand new shoes suddenly felt heavy and flat, and the course felt like concrete, and the muddy corners were just horrible because I was slipping and worried about my ankle. When the rain stopped I changed shoes but they caused me some grief, I ended up with shin pain and knee pain and I think I left it a bit long to change back and did a bit of damage in the process.

One of my friends, Alicia, was in for the 50km as part of her Six Foot Track training. I don't think she was expecting to practice river crossings!

I held a decent pace until 6 hours and then decided that I was not interested in jeopardising my Western States trip, so I was going to walk, except walking was more painful than shuffling, so I took to shuffling a few laps and then sitting for a few minutes.

It was great to see Nic looking so strong all night and Thierry was amazing. Kelvin got a huge PB and had more second winds than I thought was possible - I think he was up to about his 123rd wind at the finish! Tina is always inspirational at these things, and Hannah's one of my heroes - well done on being brave enough to listen to your body, girl! Hermie, thanks for the company when it got really painful (for us both).

Aside from the niggling injury which finally appears to be cleaning up (I think that 12 hours on an ankle I couldn't walk on two weeks ago is alright!) I got most things right, the food was great (especially the single-bite sangers) and I organised myself enough for Steven to get some sleep. I had gone off caffeine for two weeks prior and the coke and V certainly did their work last night. I was tired at 11pm but when I started taking them at midnight I felt great. (Oh and thanks to AB for the Succeed! caps that I forgot to pack.)

Davo, thanks for the lap counting and thanks for the signs. Thanks to Cirque and all the others who cheered as well, and a special thanks to Vegie Girl and Mrs Boonarga I feel like I have such an unfair advantage when I go to events as a coolrunner - I get so much more support than non-crs do.

Congratulations to everyone who achieved their goals (be it solo or relay, 6hr or 12hr) and to everyone who didn't achieve their goals but dared to try anyway! Congratulations to Geoff and Betty for another great event. I look forward to seeing you all again next time (preferably from the comfort of the bar...)

A decision I shouldn't have to make...

Last night, I rode my bicycle away from Tamsin's place at about 2130h. She had hosted the Trail Running Association of Queensland (TRAQ) committee meeting. I was faced with my first dilemma - should I attempt to find my way through the back streets and over to Elizabeth St, or should I go the way I knew, which was longer and hillier? I took the latter option as I didn't want to get lost in the rain, nor did I want to stop and pull my map out in the rain.

At the end of Stanley Tce, I found my good old friend Miskin St. I considered rolling out onto Moggill Rd and taking it from there but decided to suck it in and try my luck riding up Miskin St. The hill is phenomenal and I've never tried to ride it before. My scooter struggles up it. I gave it a shot and about 2/3 of the way up I started to seriously worry that I wouldn't make it. I considered pulling into a side street near the top, for a breather. I was out of the saddle, grinding as hard as I could, and struggling to turn the pedals over at the top of the stroke... scared that I would just start rolling backwards. I poked my tongue out and this gave me the extra forward momentum I needed to crest. Thankfully, the next part of my journey was all downhill.

I turned up the back street behind Toowong Village to get to Sylvan Rd and then headed up Land St towards the Wesley Hospital. Around this time I had to make a decision that I didn't like making: should I ride along the bikeway, or should I ride along Coronation Dr itself? It was a very real safety question.

Now if I was in a bunch, or if it was very early in the day, I would definitely ride along Coro Dr; in peak hour or on my own, I would definitely use the bikeway where I am less likely to be harrassed by angry motorists. But lately there have been many attacks on women who have been alone on the bikepaths. I'm not really worried about my safety, but I did have to ask myself where the greater risk lay - along the minimally-lit, deserted bikeway, or along the well-lit but highly populated road? In the end I chose to go along the road, and through Southbank, where there would be witnesses if I did get harrassed by an angry motorist. No one hassled me at all, which was great, and I bet that I would've been fine along the bikeway as well - but it's not a nice decision to have to make.

This morning's commute...

So, riding down Lytton Rd, approaching the lights halfway
down the hill, a truck roars past in the RH lane so I
started braking as I could see the red light, and I put up
my left hand in stop signal instead of right, because I
figured with everyone seeming to not notice the red, I
should probably try to indicate it. Truck slams on brakes
then changes to LH lane - plenty of clearance. Little blue
car follows him. No clearance. I screamed at the top of my
lungs and squeezed both brakes as hard as I could from the
hoods, thankful for bare hands this morning, thankful that I
stopped to adjust my brakes yesterday so they were nice and
tight, and my rear wheel skidded all over the place and I
just went with it and cleared this guy by about an inch as
he swerved back to the right finally noticing me. He looked
horrified and he gave the big apologetic wave, which was
good for him, otherwise I'd hunt him down and slash his
tyres or something. Actually I'd ask him, "Excuse me, Sir,
why do you want to kill me? Don't you like me? Don't you
think I'm pretty?"