Skenes Hill - The Aftermath

There's one thing I had forgotten about writing, sometimes you write things that you want to write, other times you write things that want to be written. I think this is one of those times.

The Climb - courtesy of veloviewer.com

 

The climbing diesel engine

Skenes Road is the KOM of Amy's Gran Fondo course. It is a bit over 9 km long and pretty relentless. Last year I had just wanted to make it up the hill without stopping, without injuring myself and with enough left in the tank to finish. This year was different. For some reason I got it into my head that I wanted to beat my previous time, even with my knees being somewhat questionable. Maybe it was the fairly ordinary events that had occurred the week previously or maybe I am just too used to racing now and can't dial it back, either way I wanted to hit the climb hard.

 
 

Passing people - really?

Just to be clear, I am not a climber. Phrases like "Dancing on the pedals" don't apply to me. I suspect the best thing that can be said of my climbing ability is that I get to the top, eventually. Mr Carl tells me my climbing is smooth, though I suspect that's just because I don't have any spare energy to waste on theatrics. I rarely get out of the saddle and tend to slog it up any hill like a poorly constructed diesel engine. But I do like a challenge and I wanted to get up that climb.

 
I hit the bottom of the hill hard and wondered why I was passing people. I concentrated on sensible things like keeping my heart rate under control and my cadence up. Managing the climb, trying not to blow up too soon. I had a feeling that I would eventually blow up, fall apart and collapse in a pool of sweat on the side of the road, it was just a question of whether this would be at the top, or halfway up the hill. And if it was halfway up, would I keep going?

Looks like a nice place to rest!

Climbing is a funny part of cycling, sometimes I think it's more mental than anything else. It hurts and it's hard work, so I'm at a bit of a loss why it captivates so many cyclists. Maybe it's the satisfaction of beating an inanimate object, something that doesn't change, something that makes you change in order to conquer it. A hill doesn't care what the weather's like, what injuries you have, that your boss is giving you a hard time, it's just there. And climbing, really hard climbing, allows you let go of that, until all that matters is the next pedal stroke, the next gulp of air and finally reaching the top.

Beautiful - just painful to get there

About halfway up it happened, I hit the wall. I had been going too hard for too long and my body said no more. Thankfully I can be pretty deaf to my body sometime (I suspect my physio/chiro/masseuse can attest to this). I knew I had made it up the climb last year and I wasn't about to not make it up this time. It became a battle of wills between my body and my mind.

I wish it were all down hill!

It's interesting the things you say to yourself at times like this. I no longer concentrated on the cadence and heart rate, the only number that mattered was distance and how far I had left. At one point in time my mind was so confused that I convinced myself I was a kilometre further ahead than what I was and it was devastating when I worked out my math was faulty. I kept telling my legs it was just over the next rise, just a few more pedal strokes then we would rest. But it wasn't and we didn't.

At one point I got really angry and my power returned. I was angry with my body for falling apart over the last couple of weeks, angry for never being able to keep up with Mr Carl, angry at so many stupid things. And some not so stupid work related things. "Turn a pedal in anger" was a phrase I had heard, but until that hill I'm not sure I understood it. I do now.

Anger can only get you so far, in my case I think it lasted about a kilometre before I was drained. Part of me could have happily stopped there, sated and done. But there were still about 3km to go.

Just what I wanted to see

And so I kept going, there wasn't much else I could do. One pedal stroke at a time and finally the 1 km to go banner appeared. Everything I had in me went into getting me up that finally km, steadfastly ignoring that part of my brain that kept reminding me that the top of this climb was only halfway through this ride. Light headed and completely drained, I made it to the top, grateful as always to see the amazing Mr Carl waiting for me just past the peak. I coasted to a stop, dizzy and drained, knowing everything I had, I left on that hill.

I can stop now!

So the question you're probably asking, did I beat my time? Yes, by 5 minutes, or there about. A very satisfying result, and yet I still wonder if I could do better. It occurred to me later that I had probably been fairly close to bonking, if not actually bonking. Apparently a banana and a Carman bar may not be enough to sustain me for 50km, especially when it includes a fairly substantial climb. Who knew? Even now, two days later, I still feel drained, depleted in energy and happy not to move. But I expect that won't last long, it better not, I'm going to race CX in five days!

Amy's Gran Fondo 2013 - Part 3

The Start!

Thankfully the morning dawned bright and clear, with a gentle tailwind to start. The joy of staying in the same place as the ride can not be underestimated, allowing a reasonable sleep in and a fairly stress free roll out. 7:30 am saw us in our starting block with the Monkees, quite a privilege I thought. The start of this race is amazing, with about 4,000 cyclists lining the main street of Lorne. The atmosphere was charged, for those riders up the front there were opportunities to be won, for those of us further back there was the challenge of staying in front of the time cuts and doing the best we could.

Riding with the Monkees

The front runners were sent off sharply at 8am, with 200 riders being sent off every 90 seconds thereafter. About 20 minutes later we were off, cruising along in the company of Monkees. The great ocean road is a pleasure to ride, even with the undulations and surprisingly steep rises. The road being closed to traffic made it even better. The sun was shining, a cool breeze was at our backs and we were in the company of friends, this day was going to be awesome.

Mr Carl really likes the PACC kit!

Both Mr Carl and I were resplendent in our Port Adelaide cycling kit which drew a few comments from other riders. Mostly along the lines of pats on the back and commiserations, which was really confusing until I realised there had been some sort of important football match that the Port Adelaide team had lost. Obviously they football guys need to take some instruction from the cycling team!
  

Happy times on the start line

Unfortunately, one of the Monkees ran into a bit of trouble in the form of a faulty cleat and we lost track of the Monkees for a while. Mr Carl and I cruised along the road for just short of 40 km, blitzing our previous time along this section by 6 minutes. It was just so beautiful rolling along the road (and I was so excited to have happy knees) that it didn't feel like a huge effort. With that behind us we turned right and up the hill.

Cruising the Great Ocean Road

I'm not going to say much about the hill right now, suffice to say I made it and I blitzed my previous time. However this had taken a serious toll on my body and it was a major struggle to roll from the top of the hill to the next aid station. It probably didn't help that there were some sections of uphill between me and the aid station, and I had nothing left.

Magnificent views

The aid station had nothing in the way of food but thankfully Mr Carl and I were riding fully stocked. A Carman bar and numerous snakes later I was starting to feel like I might be able to keep my legs going round. While I was recovering the Smudge Monkees rode in one by one, having had their own battle with the hill. We left shortly after the last one rolled in and it was a good feeling knowing all our friends had made it this far.

Gorgeous descents

From the aid station it was a beautiful descent most of the way into Forrest, our next stop. By beautiful I mean both that the road was an absolute pleasure to descend on and the scenery that we rode through was more of the stunning temperate rainforest we had driven through. I couldn't help but start to relax when surrounded by the soft green tones of the forest, the gentle trickling of water and the air rushing past as I coasted along. This is probably what made my descending so much better than previously, well that and CX training!

Rolling into Forrest we were treated to smell of delicious food! A kind group of people had put on a sausage sizzle for the riders, in addition to the cake provided. Unfortunately I wasn't all that confident about how I'd get through the next 40km with sausage in my stomach, so I passed on the opportunity. This was probably my only regret of the day.

Happy times on the finish line

I remembered the next section being very enjoyable the previous year, with gentle rolling flats that were easy to cruise on. This year I was not going to have such fond memories, having nothing left to push with every little rise became a struggle and I was dropped by a number of groups. Still, I was riding through stunning farmland with Mr Carl at my side, there were definitely worse places to be.

We made it to the aid station before the final climb with plenty of time to spare, so we hung around to see all the Monkees roll up. After that Mr Carl and I went to tackle the final climb for the day.


I had an agreement with Mr Carl that we would ride the hills at our own pace, so I sent him on his way up the hill. This is actually mostly for my benefit, as I can't help but try and keep up with him when I know he's a much better hill climber than me. I get slightly grumpy after a couple a kilometres of watching him dance on the pedals while I'm slogging away, so in the interest of relationship harmony we tackle the hills on our own.

Chewie at the end of the last climb!

Not that you are really on your own in a ride with 4000 odd riders and I found myself riding with a couple of the Monkees. One in particular had been having a rough day, so with what little spare breathe I had I yelled encouragement. Actually, I was pretty used to yelling at this particular rider as he is also a Bob, and does an amazing amount of work towing weaker riders (ie me) around the course. Chewie and I made it pretty much all the way to the top of the final climb side by side, until he stopped to hug the devil girl 10m from the finish.

I was feeling pretty awesome that I had made it up the final climb of the day and I was even happier to see Mr Carl waiting for me at the top. We decided to wait and see the Monkees roll in, each of them over the moon to have completed the ride after such an amazing effort. The highlight of my day was seeing Reidy cross the line about 5 minutes before the sag wagon. Hugs and cheers from everyone!

The Monkees make it!

We rolled down to the finish of the course (for safety reasons they don't time the last 10km down the hill so the race officially finishes at the top of the last climb) and perused the main street in search of food. Mr Carl and I eventually decided on calzone and managed to just make it back to the cafe in time to get some take away gelati.


The calzone was amazing and I still can't figure out whether the crust or the filling was my favourite. Seriously, going to Lorne is worth it just for the pizza! We then treated ourselves to a combination of blood orange, bacci and white chocolate and macadamia gelato, which actually looked a lot like the old neapolitan ice cream but tasted so much better.

Worth a trip to Lorne!

After a spa to help that settle, we chilled out for a bit before heading out to town for more food (we had just ridden 120 km). We had spotted a smallish Mexican restaurant down a side street and decided to give that a go. A big plate a nachos followed by a burrito filled with chicken and a whole pile of accompaniments rounded out our dinner, replenishing our energy. With that out the way we curled up, exhausted, and slept.


For those that are interested, here's the Strava file for the ride: http://www.strava.com/activities/82803673


Epilogue
Our awesome holiday was rounded out by a quick side trip to Melbourne to visit my sister and brand new niece. My sister and I share a birthday, though there's 5 years difference in our ages and the day of our visit was the day before our birthday. Mum organised a surprise birthday cake for us, complete with candles and I was very touched to spend my (almost) birthday with my family.

Happy Birthday to me (and my sister)!

Amy's Gran Fondo 2013 - Part 2

Lorne, just stunning!

 


Waking up in Lorne on the Saturday was bliss, knowing that we didn't have any pressing obligations and could relax and enjoy the atmosphere. The weather was amazing, with blue sky peaking through the window. Lorne is a beautiful place full of friendly people and good food. One of these days we are going to have to stay longer to try it all!



 

The Locals

 


 
After the awesome noodles the night before (just the right amount of wok charring mixed with an awesome combination of flavours and oh so fresh!) we decided to hit the cafe scene for breakfast. Lorne has numerous cafes, however it's hard to go past what you know is good, so we went to the same cafe we went to last year - the Lick and Sip. Terrible name, awesome food! Fresh juice, bacon, sausage, poached egg, spinach, mushroom and tomato soon ensured we were well fed with plenty of energy to undertake a quick morning spin.

Our morning spin

We put the bikes together and headed off, our quick morning spin taking us out along the great ocean road. Not too shabby! The spin wasn't actually just to gawk like tourists, we needed to check that the bikes were functioning and I needed to check that my knees weren't going to completely fall apart. Also, we were hoping that we might be able to catch the Monkees rolling in, but while we caught the support vehicle, there were no Monkees in sight.

Mr Carl and Pinny admiring the view

 

My knees didn't seem to be complaining too much so a quick spin turned into a 30km, hour and a half cruise along the coast, with photography stops along the way. The only down side of this spin was that my chain fell off twice, indicating that perhaps the bike was a little less prepared than I was. Thankfully I had my trusty mechanic with me and later in the evening he fixed the problem.

Good day to be on the bike!

 
With no Monkees in sight we headed back to Lorne to do our bit to support the local economy by sorting out a few gifts for people. Also, more food was required and so we decided to try the local pizza joint which had been tempting us with delicious smells every time we walked past. The pizza more than lived up to the smell and the crust was possibly one of the best pizza crusts I have ever eaten.

 
Comfortably full, we wandered over to the safety briefing. To our surprise the announcer made a special shout out to the Monkees, and had apparently informed every group of the amazing effort they'd put in. So much so that when we bumped into them after the briefing, they seemed a little bit shocked at the number of people who had stopped and congratulated them! They were wearing bright orange shirts with Monkee symbols so they were easily recognised, which makes it hard to get to a safety briefing when everyone wants to stop and congratulate you!

The view from the road

We organised to join them for tea at the pub, which had a carnival like atmosphere with all the excited cyclists. Actually, the whole town had a carnival atmosphere the entire Saturday, with bikes everywhere you looked. It's part of what makes this such an awesome ride, the atmosphere and support in the town.

Tea with the Monkees was a pleasant affair, and I learnt many things about the Monkees over dinner. I also got the low down on where to eat in all the places they stopped - these guys should write a bike touring guide book! Dinner was the pub standard schnitzel, but like all food in Lorne, this was exceptional. With dinner wrapped up we headed back to do a final bike check and get a good night sleep.

Strava file of the mornings spin for those that are interested:
http://www.strava.com/activities/82803637

Amy's Gran Fondo 2013 - Part 1

This is how much we enjoyed 2012!

In 2012 Mr Carl and myself went over to Lorne to undertake our first Gran Fondo ride. We had such an amazing time that we decided doing it again was a definite must. We actually had all the logistics sorted 6 months in advance, which should give you an indication just how much we were looking forward to it.

The weeks leading up to the Fondo were a roller coaster of ups and downs, the spring grumps hitting me hard as well as some work related frustration making the Fondo vacation come as a welcome relief. Mr Carl and I had wisely given ourselves an extra day to get organised, which led to us getting away early. We had been anxiously watching weather reports, which had been fairly ordinary and the weather as we left Adelaide was less than promising.

Wild weather leaving Adelaide

Our weather watching wasn't all related to our Fondo ride, friends of ours had decided to undertake the herculean task of riding to the Fondo from Adelaide. The Smudge Monkees had started out on the Monday before the Fondo and had managed to avoid most of the wild weather as they rode towards Lorne. Their daily updates were full of humour and pub reviews and Mr Carl and I hoped to bump into them on our drive over.

An eerie drive through the tunnel

Having a bit more time on our hands, we decided on a slightly meandering route, especially as we were well fortified by a breakfast of chicken nuggets at the Keith roadhouse. Had I known how awesome these were going to be I would have ordered my own and not shared with Mr Carl! Tender strips of chicken tenderloin, freshly coated in some sort of flour and spice mix then fried. I know, it's sounds like an add for KFC, but they were really good!

 
Breakfast out the way, we wandered further south, eventually ending up in Penola before heading across to Victoria. The weather continued to look pretty lousy and we were glad that we were safely in Suby and not the excel with the dodgy window wipers. Some kind friends (I'm looking at you nutella bob) suggested that we ought to have brought our fishing rods. I suspect we wouldn't have needed to make it to the ocean to go fishing, I'm pretty sure I saw a pair of swans nesting in what appeared to originally have been a paddock. Now the swans had a safe a secure nesting spot, protected from the foxes and cats by a fairly large body of water. I was beginning to worry that we'd be swimming along the great ocean road, not riding it!

Did someone airbrush the sky?

After some creative navigating on my part we ended at the coast, and given how well we were travelling, decided to meander along the Great Ocean Road. This provided a bit of an opportunity to play tourist and I happily gawked at the scenery as we drove.

 

Strangely enough, with all the wild weather we had driven through, the sea appeared calm, fading into the sky at the horizon. I don't think I've ever seen light quite like that, with the sea fading to almost purple and the sky almost the same colour, photos just didn't do it justice. Didn't stop us trying though.

The Great Ocean Road View

Throughout our trip we had been wondering what the Monkees were up to and whether we would catch them. All we really had to go on was that we knew they were going up Lavers Hill. I managed to spot Lavers Hill on the map and as it seemed to be in the general direction we were going, we decided to investigate.

Laver's Hill is a beast of a hill and as we drove up it I wondered how the Monkees had made it up on their bikes. It seems to go on forever, in fact I actually thought we were on Lavers Hill long before we were simply because I couldn't believe that there would be more hills. Finally we saw a road sign indicating that we were now, actually on Lavers Hill. The scenery was amazing, temperate rainforest interspersed with lush fields. I couldn't imagine how long it would take me to ride up with all the "scenery stops" I'd have to have.

Amazing Scenery

As we reached the top we saw a familiar looking emblem on a slowly moving car and just in front, a familiar looking bloke on a bike. We had caught the Monkees just as they made it to the top! I wound down the window and shouted encouragement to Reidy, then worried a bit that he might have thought I was an abusive motorist. We caught up with the rest of the Monkees a couple of hundred meters up the road and I provided mobile cheering support for the whole group. We pulled over and had a quick chat, but they were understandably keen to get to their accommodation and into the pub!

With the sun setting we meandered our way into Lorne, the darkness making the last 30km seem twice as long. We arrived at our accommodation with ample time to spare (unlike last year) and proceeded to organise ourselves before heading out for noodles. We were glad to have made in one piece with the wild weather and we were even happier to know that the monkees weren't far away and all appeared to be in fine form.

Just call me Bob!

Just a bit of background, I rode most of the last cyclosportif season with an awesome team called “Five Bobs Worth” on account of original team members having some form of “Bob” in their name. They’re an awesome team, relaxed and supportive, with a good sense of humour and I’m looking forward to riding with them again, however today was not going to be that day.

A beautiful day for a race

I entered a new role in my cycling career today - Team Manager! Well, also team soigneur, team chef and general bossy britches. Due to my less than happy knees, I wasn't able to ride as planned with my sportif team, "Five Bobs Worth Plus". In true team spirit (and possibly a smidge of guilt as I was the one who talked the rest into riding) I decided to support the team in anyway I could. Originally this plan involved supplying the team with copious amounts of cookies and coming out to cheer them on, but early on the day, I discovered they needed more.

The Star Rider!

Initially it was providing my excellent sense of direction to ensure that our star rider, Mr Carl (ok, I might be kinda biased in this) and our secret cookie stash actually made it to the start line. We did take a slight detour to Angaston, however with the help of the friendly marshals we eventually made it to the start. Having made it, we now needed to find everybody else!

We found Todd Bob aimlessly wandering around, searching high and low for other Bobs (it probably didn't help that, to a man, the Bob's decided to wear their PACC kit and weren't recognisable as the Bob's, but them's the rules!). Actually, Todd Bob had already spotted the slightly phlegmy Brett Bob, diligently warming up, burning off the breakfast nutella. We knew our Captain, Rob C, was around somewhere as he had signed in, but we couldn't find him anywhere.

Bob's - Front and Centre

In amongst our frantic searching, Rob W rocked up, casually munching on a large box of salad, firm in his avoidance of all things cookie related. Then Brett Bob rode by and indicated that our Captain was just down the road, spinning away on rollers, oblivious to the world. I wandered down to round him up, as the marshals tried to figure out where the Bob's were and who the extra PACC team was. 

Team tactics sorted.

Rob C had lost track of time and was hurriedly dressing as he realised even though he'd been here an hour early, he was running late! Upon spotting me he enlightened me as to another of my key roles for today - Keeper of the keys! Well, car keys, phones, cleat covers and anything not needed for the ride. As I well know, the amount of gels required for a team time trial doesn't leave room for trivial things like car keys and phones.

I also played a key role in ensuring our captain was properly attired. In his panic he'd tried to ride his bike with his cleat covers on and managed to perch his helmet on his head in what is commonly termed "a jaunty angle". Helmet straps fixed, the team gathered together (well minus Rob W who was still diligently eating his salad) and confirmed with the marshals that they were indeed the renowned "Five Bobs Worth Plus" team, and that they were ready to ride!

Rolling out

We discussed team tactics on the start line, actually we'd been discussing them most of the week. The team had agreed that not dying before the 2km mark was definitely preferable, but they were willing to sacrifice nutella covered team members after that (Brett Bob is partial to nutella and has the biggest jar of it I have ever seen). Our Captain offered up the eminently sensible suggestion of 30 second rolling turns, but I, in my role of team manager and general bossy boots, would have none of it. I put my foot down and told the boys to look after each other, especially our Captain and the very phlegmy Brett Bob. Put them in the middle and for goodness sake don't loose them, were my strict instructions. I wanted my whole team back, after all, the Bob's are nothing if not a team!

Good Ride Captain!

So, with that good advice, and a few photos, I let them roll away, a slight tear in the eye at the sight of my team rolling out without me. With nothing much to do until they rolled back in I set up my chair under some trees, poured myself a cuppa and raided the secret cookie stash. I must say I was very flattered that a couple of the support staff came over to enquire as to why I wasn’t out there, apparently I’m known for participation in racing! 

Flying Bobs

A smile before collapsing!

After a nice long rest and a cuppa, the teams started to roll in, with the PACC Chicks on Speed team flying past as they started their second lap. They were the only team of the day to do 2 laps, everybody else figured one was quite enough! And to be honest, seeing the hard working Bobs roll across the line, I knew that they had pushed hard on their one lap, and it was going to take our Captain a while to talk to the rest of us after that!

Whose Garmin is right?

Eventually Rob C stopped coughing and decided to join the rest of the Bobs in a team debrief. This is where I discovered that the team had exceeded expectations and had scorched the course with an average speed above 26 km/hr (the exact value was debatable depending on whose garmin you looked at). A really tough pace for our Captain, who is just coming off of injury.

The magpie was this big!

 

Apparently their race had also had a fair bit of drama, with our Captain attracting some unwanted attention from some local birds and two of our team experiencing lighting issues. Rob W lost his light and decided to go back and get it while Brett Bob experienced fireworks as Todd Bob's light exploded in front of him. Never a boring ride with the Bobs!

Nutella Bob!

I was very proud of my team and suitably rewarded them with cookies. However, in this they let themselves down, the cookies defeated them! Upon seeing that they were unable to consume 60 odd cookies, I proceeded to feed other teams, staff and anybody who wandered by. The Chicks on Speed made a much greater dent in the cookies when they rolled in, with Gemma leading the charge to defeat the cookies!

I must return the number!

  

All in all a good day was had by all and I hope that my stint as Team Manager left my team happy and full of cookies. I hope next time we’re together as the Bobs, I’ll be on a bike!

Spring Grumps

The garden knows it's spring

I love spring. Everything is growing, the air is warming up, I can start to feel my toes again. I don't even get hay fever, so I can breathe deeply of the beautiful perfumed air and enjoy myself outside. Well that's the theory. Unfortunately, what seems to happen is I feel spring a little earlier than it actually occurs and I begin to gear up for a non-winter season of awesome activity. As soon as I can feel that slight warming of the air, my brain decides it's time to kick it up a notch, well more like a whole pile of notches. And I end up paying.

A beautiful spring day

Which is why have the spring grumps. Towards the end of August I started to ramp it up, doing some training rides and races in the hills. As well as track, and CX, hmmm, looking at it like that I can see why my knees started to complain! And of course, as soon as my knees started to complain really loudly, the weather decided to treat us with some of the most beautiful Spring weather ever. Clear blue skies, gentle breezes and I was off the bike. I couldn't even do a decent gym workout, I had no way of getting rid of the frustration. Mr Carl offered his best consolations, as well as ice packs (when I over did it) and tea, but there was little I could do to get rid of the spring cabin fever I was suffering from.

Gardening is much better than shopping!

 








Then to torture myself even more, I went shopping. Not the fun kind where it involves a mouse and a credit card (or at least a book store) but the awful kind that involves clothes and shoes and walking around actual stores! As it turned out it was a blessing in disguise, as I finally purchased the hiking boots Mum kindly offered to get me for my birthday. This gave me the brilliant idea of heading out for a walk. Of course it would still be limited, but I would at least be outside!

Native Orchid

 




So Mr Carl and I booked ourselves a bush walking date. He even came back from a ride early to accompany me on my ramblings. We headed up to Anstey Hill as I was hoping to check out the native orchids that I had seen there before.

The Flowers of Spring!

 






Anstey was just the medicine the doctor ordered. A gentle stroll up an abandoned quarry stopping every 20m or so to take pictures. It was probably the slowest 2km I'd ever walked, but I had lots of photos. The flowers were out in force and Mr Carl endured numerous botanical lectures as we meandered along the path. The weather was fantastic and the new boots were supremely comfortably. The Spring Grumps had been well and truly beaten.

Tiny Little Sundews

More Orchids

Not just flowers

Really tiny ones

 

Beautiful Eucalyptus

 

 

To top it off, dinner that night was held in the company of friends, discussing the Vuelta and generally enjoying life. Sometimes it's good to be reminded, it's not all about the bike!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flower of spring - the Wattle!