OK, Today I clocked up 9000 km for the year with 100 km of elevation gain but there is still two weeks until the end of the year. what next..............

Rapha Festive 500

Ride 500 km between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve

12/24/2012 — 12/31/2012

Give your legs the greatest gift this holiday season by riding 500 km with Rapha.

Once more Rapha challenge riders around the world to avoid the festive flab and clock those kilometres. Ride 500km between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve posting evidence of your endeavours along the way. Use photos, videos, prose, poetry, drawings, or any other creative application you see fit, through these Rapha channels using hashtag #festive500 where applicable:

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Everyone who successfully completes the 500km within the Challenge period (12/24 - 12/31) will receive a commemorative Festive 500 woven roundel for their efforts.

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I added a few extra rules just for me.
I still had to go to work if it was a work day.
I had to ride as many of the bikes as possible.
Don't ride the same road twice in the same direction. (Except at the start and finish)

Oh! this is going to hurt.

Hmmmmmm! What next. Road Racing?

Well. First attempt at a road criterium. Southern Masters - E Grade @ Casey Fields.

A bit of wind and a lot of rain means a small field. A delayed start and all grades start together for a mystery race. Hmmmmmm! What next.

We have been told not to try and beat the regulars on your first race. But the regular E grade are no where in sight so all the first/second timers stay with the bunch of D graders.

The rain is pouring down and after 1hr there is the bell. Get set, Go the sprint is on. I thought I had it. Then a shadow comes from behind, Mark Pountley . First place on the line.

Garmin Connect

Oxfam Trailwalker by Bicycle

 Just For something different Why not ride the Melbourne Oxfam Trailwalker trail.

Dave Kate and I set off from Jells park at 7.am on another epic journey.  Lots of hills, some more hills  and big flat bit then some more hills.
6 hr  on the bike.
2 hr off the bike.
5 minutes carrying the bike.
A hard slog but well worth it.

I have never walked the trail in it's current form and was stunned by the size of the hill the walkers have to endure in the last 2 km of the trail. Painful!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/250380872

100 Donations

Yeah! I finally made it on to the board at the Blood Bank. 100 donations.

Excuse the poor quality picture.
  It's a photo of a printout on the message board.

Here is challenge to you all. In 2013 how about you try for 11 Plasma Donations. That's once a month and you get Christmas off. The Blood Bank get to keep your 10 litres of Plasma and maybe you will save someones life.

Have a look on the web

"Left over pasta" - Scott Australian 24 hour MTB Championships

Wow! 'That's the hardest thing I have ever done.'

Haych - 11th place. Solo Male 40+.
Kate - 3rd place. Solo Woman.

 It turned out to be a 5 day weekend but the extra days helped in the preparation and recovery.

Thursday.
Kate, Mark & I set off towards Canberra late in the morning.
Here starts the carbo loading. Baked potatoes for lunch, pizza for dinner.
We settle into our backpackers' accommodation for the evening, our home for the next 2 days.  As Glenn put it.  "I little bit above our standard."

Friday.
Nice to relax for the day and not have to travel. We have an easy morning inside, it's raining and has been all night. - 55 mm of rain in fact. We are starting to worry about the track and are thinking back to the Garmin last year and the two previous years @ Forrest. All in the rain.

By late morning the rain had cleared, Glenn & James have arrived and we head off to lunch.  You guessed it, gnocchi.
Canberra sucks. After quite a few wrong turns we finally arrive at Stromlo Forest Park, the site for the 2012 Scott Australian 24 hr MTB Championships. What a fantastic venue. We set up the marques & tent on Solo Pit Straight.
Kate & I set out for a practice on the Red Lap with 9 year old James in tow.  We find out soon enough there is no tow involved. He rides like a machine, like no other 9 year old in the world.
Off to Chris' place in Canberra for dinner.  Guess what. Pasta.

End of the Red Lap.

Saturday - Race Day.
No pressure to get up early. Eat that last 1/2 dozen slices of toast & head out to the track.
Shannon is with us now so the pit crew is complete. The 3 boys, Mark, Glenn and Shannon have got their instruction written down and the wraith of Kate awaits should they stuff it up.
The nerves are setting in, 4 trips to the bathroom in the last hour.

12.00 noon. A rolling start for the 130 Solo riders and we are on our way. The Red Lap first. A 7 km climb up to the top of Mt Stromlo. Tight & technical with lots of switchbacks, but mostly dry. Then the amazing descent across Skyline & the tight section back down to camp on The Luge to complete the 12 km lap.
Garmin Connect The Red Lap




12.45 pm. We go back through transition and head immediately out on the Blue Lap.  Not as steep and not to the same altitude but there is still the same amount of climb over 14 kms.
Garmin Connect The Red & Blue Lap

Start of the blue lap, some time before it got dark.

A light drizzle in the early afternoon sees the track start to deteriorate.

6.00 pm. Time to stop racing a 6 hr Enduro and start racing for 24.  It starts to get dark and stage 2 begins.  Can we ride through the night?  9 hours in the dark.  I know I can, I've done it before.  But Solo? What was I thinking?  A bit more rain in the early evening and now some sections are becoming unrideable.




Sunday - The race continues.
12.00 midnight. It's dark. The mud gets stickier, but still going, have not had any spills yet and still........... happy?

1/2 way checkpoint on the Blue Lap about midnight.

6.00 am. Have gone way past the cramp stage. The mind is still good, the body is reaching its limit.

7.30 am. The body is shot.
Slow up the climb and now slow coming down. Legs, arms and back feeling the pressure.

10.50 am. The last lap Red & Blue has taken me me 2 1/2 hours and I'm officially cooked.

23 hrs.Why was I smiling?

11.05 Back on the bike and cross the finish line and straight back to the deck chair.  NO MORE

3.30 pm. All packed up and on the way home.  We spend the night in Albury and I have a massive steak with fresh vegies.  Lovely! And a couple of ciders and a red wine.... or two.  Off to bed at last.

Altogether a pleasant experience. The body will recover but the sense of accomplishment far out ways the pain.
Will I do it again. YES! Bring on WEMBO 2013.

I haven't said much about our support crew in all this.  What a bunch of inconsiderate bastards. All they could say was "Drink that water bottle Haych," & "You haven't eaten enough."  I just wanted to have a quiet rest and go for a leisurely ride.
Without them,  Mark, Shannon & Glenn we could not have done it. Thanks guys. You Rock!




Monday.
We finish the trip home on Monday morning and I go into the usual clean up routine until dinner time.
What's for dinner Jac?
"Left over pasta"

TdH 2012 - Bright

This year TdH (Tour de Heartland) was a base camp in Bright. 4 days with a bit more of a challenge for anyone willing to step up.  375 km over 4 days with 5768m of vertical climbing.

TdH - Day 1 - Mt Hotham
Early Thursday morning,  Dave, Kate, Paul & I set off from Vision Drive heading for Harrietville. After a quick stop in sunny Bright for lunch we were on the bike just before 1.  Nice and sunny at the start but as the altitude increased the temperature started to decrease and a little bit of rain as I rode above the snow line. As I rode into the village 2h 5min (PB) later the temperature had dropped to 7 degrees.  A quick rest, put on some warmer cloths and into downhill madness.


TdH - Day 2 - Mudegonga Mt Buffalo
Days 2 sees us as a bigger group of 16 rides We set off from Bright heading for Ovens. There is a nasty wind blowing up the valley but the group still manages a good pace.  When we start on the Mudgegonga loop the wind picks up even more and we are almost pushed up the hills backwards.
Now the fun starts The A+ team branches off at Porepunkah and head for Mt Buffalo. The first 15 km are good but we ride in rain for the last 10 km. The temperature drop to 4 degrees as we come back down. Wet & very cold but another great ride and a PB on the climb.


TdH - Day 3 - Happy Valley Loop
Again as a bigger bunch we set off up Tawonga Gap.  Another PB on the climb for me and an amazing challenge for some of the others. The sky is getting a bit dark.  We are told that 15 min after we leave the top there is a blanket of snow across the rest area. The trip down the valley turns bad as the rain starts falling.  Then the hail and then more snow.  If that's not bad enough, add in the head wind and a few magpies.

TdH - Day - 3 Bright MTB
Just for something different Dave and I head out for a little MTB.  Those Bright trails are something else.

TdH -Day 4 - Harrietville Return.
An easy day to finish off. We all ride up to Harrietville for a hot chocolate/coffee.  A little bit of drizzle but not a show stopper.  The trip up 49 min.  The trip back. Awesome 32 min

Taller that the rest. But still looking up.

Just finished the 6 hr Ride for Epilepsy and drive straight to the Ruccis Circus 2013 Spectacular.
I get out of the car at Circus my legs are so cramped I can't walk and nearly fall to the ground.  Oh! in about 60 minutes time I'm going to be dancing the Charleston......  On stilts.

A full on 1 hr stretching session and I think I'm OK. At least I can walk in a pair of Bluntstones.

Act 1. The 1950's

I made it. Legs are good now.

Cody - A Red Blood Cell doing
it's work on the Body

Act 2. The 1970's

There are times when I should just
stay at home. NOT

1970's Afro on Roller Skates

Ride 4 Epilepsy 6 hr

6hr Road Enduro on a closed circuit. 42 laps, 175.61 km around the Calder Park Raceway and Thunderdome.

It was only a small field of 150 but I managed to
finish in 6th place overall.

TdH puts in a good show with 9 riders.  7 of who finish in the top 20. A total 1,320 km ridden in the TdH colours.



The official results And of course Garmin Connect

You Yangs 6hr Training Ride

Just for something different I went for a ride at the You Yangs last night. Kate a I hit the trail at 5:26pm from the Stockyards car park to do the full loop including the flat track.  The lights came on just past the 1/2  way mark.  At that point we could see the full moon coming up over the park.

We finished the lap in 1:40 had a quick break then rode off to do it again .............. and again.............
Those tracks are awesome, day or night.   With a couple of extra short loops on the flat track we lifted it to 100km.

Late night I didn't get home until 1:30 but what a night.  Heaps better way to spend a night out than coming home drunk and having a hangover the next day. Not that I have a hangover very often.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/217269523

2012 Castlemaine 6hr Enduro

I did not know what to expect about this race on the way up there. It had been raining for 3 day straight but the forecast said cloudy for the day. The car park was a bit soggy but it was only a 20m walk from the car to the edge of pit straight.

Race under way @ 10am and off we went. The trails where fantastic, NO mud except for a couple of creek crossing. It was a very tough course with short technical uphill followed by short technical downhill. No time to recover and as you expect for Castlemaine, lots of ROCKS!


On to the new drug now. I got a tip to try Hammer Electrolyte Fizz. Seems to work. No major cramping and I'm now feeling more confident heading into the 24 hr. 60 days to go.


I'm also a bit happier with the result. 9th place of 20 1 lap behind. Top 10 finish in top 50% http://connect.garmin.com/dashboard?cid=6178828