I’ve had plenty of dh mtb crashes over the years. I’m yet to have a downhill road one… long may it continue, I like my skin 
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The Athens Twilight Gambler Ride!
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Okay it’s probably about time I contributed more to this edition I started of this thread. 
Yesterday (I got home late & needed to crash out 
) was the Downs & Back audax ride. I picked the shortest course: 316km, doing the BA & not the BRM because I favored the earlier 4am start. It was over a year since I’d completed a ride over 300km & because of summer heat here I hadn’t done a ride over 200km since early December, so naturally I was exercising caution. Set a power target of 150w & a ceiling of 180w for climbs. Wanted to get back before sunset but naturally that was secondary to actually getting back.
Weather was pretty awesome. There had been rain the night before but none of the sort during the day with scattered clouds.
Headed out from the southwest suburb of Westlake, within 20km my right shifter was playing up, & my square taper threaded bottom bracket was creaking. I thought okay I can compensate for the gearing, severly rationing rear shifting & using chainring shifts instead. I have three, babying this system for 300km is going to suck, but I can make it work.
Sunrise at Rosewood, 50km in.
At 56km I got a mystery flat, only to then find that the pump was leaking. The flat & the pump problem on top of the gear problem & the creak made me want to ride the 5km back to the train station at Rosewood & call it quits. I pushed on. As it turned out I’d managed to get 70PSI out of the pump (acceptable but not ideal for 25s). Luckily no gravel on this course. It was obvious by now that I wouldn’t make it back by sunset. 
A stop at the bakery at Laidley 75km in for the first control, not for baked goods, but rather for water & a timestamp on my card. Parked in the alleyway…
The super-flat section from Laidley to the second control at Ma Ma Creek at 106km that passes through farmlands, was the only stretch that I did quicker than I thought I would.
Climbed the frankly pain-in-the-arse lumpy ascent to the “Top of the Range” “secret control” rendezvous with the Ride Organiser at the top of the range at 134km, refilled bottles, chinwagged for a while, then followed the range towards Toowoomba. One of the lookouts:
Third listed control at Toowoomba (178km) was a petrol station stop for me, where I bought four* more hours of carbohydrate.
Sugar is available everywhere. Get on it.
I consumed 1.3 kilograms of the stuff on this ride.( * I decided to slow down on the carbohydrate after this point so that I’d have an interest in eating thereafter, & also because the intensity was so low & with minimal power spikes I wasn’t sure how much of it was actually getting burnt.)
Dropped down the range, cautious of the tyres, & the possibility of the bumps ejecting my carbs bottle out of its cage. At least the bumps helped dissolve the carbs.
Passed by more farmlands at the bottom of the range. Gradually bleeding altitude at a consistent -0.4% is probably my favorite sort of riding. 
Fourth control was at Gatton, 222 km. Quick refill of water at another petrol station & on I continued.
Post-sunset colors in the sky just inbound from Rosewood.
I still had 11 km to ride to get to the rail depot at Wulkuraka where the city lights start. It’s one of those places where I feel like, okay I’ve made it home, & the riding remaining is a mere formality. Thankfully there was still some light in the sky when I arrived there & I didn’t have to rely upon my headlight alone. The headlight would’ve done the job for a couple of hours but the city lights were more assuring.
Final control at Bundamba at 295 km. Bought some water, had a chat with & got a scribble on my card from the staff member of a Subway outlet.
With about 14 km to go, crossing the rail overpass at Redbank I felt like I was finally on the home stretch & wanted to see where my legs were at, having governed them all day, so I had some fun for a few minutes & opened the throttle a bit more. Threshold & above were doable but for more than half a minute was definitely an effort! Rolled into Westlake at 19:46.
As expected, I was 3.4 miles short of the double imperial, so I went for a pootle around the few flat roads of the suburb to get the numbers up.
Felt great to break the drought on the long rides, having generally struggled more on the bike over summer.
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I’ve not posted for a while but true to form (and probably Bad form) I’ve been riding a bit:
I was feeling strong before my ‘A’ event (a group ride) and smashed it a bit the Thursday before last (17 Apr) and blew up the two I was riding with.
So much so they were too worn out for the Good Friday (18 Apr) recovery ride. Whilst it was a recovery ride it annoyingly meant there wasn’t really a group and I had to drag home the weaker rider whilst keeping an eye on the other rider who randomly floats off (for a ex professional rugby player he’s not really got a sense of team playing).
Anyway I was off to Calpe on the Saturday (19Apr) and started strong, despite my lack of descending ability.
The next day (Sunday 20th) started OK too and I was 4th up the Bernia without going too deep. Then my hands started playing up on the longish descent and I let that put me off and ended up dropped. I caught the last two riders just as they were going wrong directionally and whilst I was going right directionally stopping for then somehow switched our Garmins onto the first part of the route which took us up the Bernia again.
Easter Monday (21st Apr) started OK but we stopped too long before the main climb and I got too cold below the ankles. The net result I was 7mins behind my Val de Ebo PB of 2 years ago (29.44). Frustratingly, after having problems with my hands the day before I let that play on my mind descending and had to chase back a little too much. That was the day before the recovery ride, so it shouldn’t have been a problem.
Except although Tuesday (22nd Apr) was a recovery pace I wouldn’t exactly call it a recovery route.
Wednesday (23rd) wasn’t too bad despite the lack of recovery until we stopped at a cafe for a drink before the main Port du Tudons climb and in the shade I got a bit cold below the knees again, the net result I was again down on my PB of 2 years ago (57mins) by a massive 11mins. I wore thin arm warmers for the descent which stopped my hands going completely numb though 
Thursday (24th) started not too bad until someone decided we’d have a seeded time trial up the Col de Rates and setting us off according to previous times. I was 4th fastest on Handicap with a 23:36 which meant I was hanging around for ages and again below the knees got to cold for proper blood flow. Lol, and there was no way I was getting my 2009 KOM back 
Some folk on the Friday (25th) went off to smash themselves on a big ride but I was convinced to take a more relaxed ride along the coast. After recovering on the way out I gave it a wee bit of a blast up the hills on the way back and keep a reasonable pace for me on the descents.
Saturday (26th Apr) was an enforced recovery day due to travelling.
Back to Todays (Sunday 27th April) workout (well not really a workout, just a ride). I think I’d have managed the slightly faster group ride giving the local terrain, but I forced my self out with the slower group. It started overcast but, it was forecasted soon to burn off to 20+ degrees so I wore a very thin windproof. Within 45mins it did indeed burn off and was as bright it had been in Calpe last week, but I took the jacket off prematurely and into a bit of a chilly (well chilly for me these days post chemo) the hand numbed up again until we eventually turned out of it an hour later. Lol, a numb hand is easier to deal with though on the local terrain
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Sounds like a fantastic trip! Got some great pics too.
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Looks awesome! How many red days?
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Last night I went for a jog to complete the image that popped into my head a week ago when I was out for a short run. 4½km to do this:
I thought initially it looked like a horse but maybe it’s a dog.
Couldn’t draw the ears because at that point Rainbow St is a separated grade divided road.
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None, but practically every day was a yellow email day!
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I did a 100 km z2 on tiny lanes… with a z3 bit of a blip in the middle to climb a hill and eat party rings with a view. Plus a quick stop on the way home for some sunshine pics.
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Not quite the workout I had planned but a workout none-the-less. I arrived back from work put my contact lenses in and passed a local chaingang start about 7 minutes after they would have left with the intention of doing a solo workout. About 5 minutes later one of the faster groups was stopped for a p’ture. About 2-3 minutes into my cool down interval after the warm up they came by and beckoned me to join. I thought about it for a bit (the spicy wrap I had at lunchtime disagreed with my stomach and I’d only really eaten flap jacks), I should have been sensible but I sprinted on. It was probably more of an under/over threshold effort than the planned SS workout but hey ho. One annoying thing we lost the group and had to soft pedal for 2-3minutes to let it regroup during which time I got too cold. I carried on for 30 minutes before my hand got too numb and I had to sit on the back for 3 minutes before coming through again. I didn’t last long before my hand numbed up again and this time I dropped back too much and was dropped.
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I was too late home tonight to catch the local chain gang so it was a solo workout, my programmed SS one (Tray Mountain -2, 3x(12min SS Intervals/ 4min off)). I actually caught one of the groups mending a p’ture in the middle of an interval but I’m no good to anyone if I get cold and there was too many cooks as it was, so I said hello and sped by. Perhaps Karma came back to haunt me as I got a bit lost in the Fens and I had to keep up the pace for another 55mins to stay warm. I thought I was going to get cold at the ECML level crossing thats always down but it actually rose when I was a few hundred metres from it. Great motivation to keep the speed up as if it came down again I’d been standing there for another hour. I caught the slow group again and a rider followed me and thats when my pace finally dropped so I wouldn’t drop him
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For this morning I was precribed Monte Cuar. Some short sections at very low endurance, some sprints, but over two thirds of the remaining time in Z1. So the sprints happened on the cycleway then I took it out on road where AT would not penalise me for failing to hold the target in the easier sections. 
It’s a beautiful day for a ride by the bay. Heading north towards Redcliffe:
Turned inland towards the cycleway constructed ajacent to the train line.
My first thought when I saw the concrete walls topped with razor wire was a wondering if there was a new prison built that I didn’t know about, but no, it’s just the stabling yard for the trains near the Kippa-Ring terminus.
A little further along the path:
Up past the rich people’s houses & boats nestled in the bay:
Then this one out on the seacoast. Whoops.
Took the footpath/cyclepath/leisurepath instead of the road since the numbers didn’t matter so much.
I still had to go back on road to get around the headland.
Took the most direct route home & got there just under two hours.
I’ve been given the workout next week too. Wondering if it’s outside the spirit of the workout to stop for a gelato at the 1h30’ mark.
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The Endurance ride (Black) was in my calendar tonight which for outdoors is just one long Z2 block, bookended by Z1 intervals.
Knowing it was low tempo I wore winter socks, longs, jersey and gloves. I could have done with thicker gloves and a jacket though; it was 
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Yes, there is a relative chill in the air again here too. I was just looking at the forecast for my ride out tomorrow. Last Thursday it touched 26C whilst I was out, tomorrow it shows 13C as the expected high!
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Had a family birthday party in DC this weekend so we were getting a hotel (but I had to come home to watch dog). Around wed it him me that I could ride my bike since it would be a rare opportunity there would be a car and shower on the other end.
Later in the season I would have started from home and ridden to the C&O but I really haven’t been training this season so adding in another 15-20 miles would have been a bad idea. So I drove to Brunswick, MD and parked right near marker 55. Before I headed out my daughter requested I bring one of her dolls with me, she regularly sends me to work with some sort of doll or stuffy. This one creeps me out for some reason, literally any other one would have been better, but I knew she’d love the photos of the doll on the ride so I took it.
Apparently sending this photo was not evidence to a 3 year old that I was actually riding my bike so proof of “life” was requested.
Towards the end there was construction on the towpath and it was closed. I got off to go up some stairs and I got the worst cramp I have ever had in my life. I stood there for a minute while my right hamstring was locked up and I was on the verge of tears while people looked confused at the muddy guy trying to pretend that everything was ok. Detour signs were confusing quick check of nav wanted me to walk on water and what was probably the correct path was packed with people and not rideable. Finally found some signs that said marker 0 .1 miles away and ended up at this boat ramp. Could not find a way to marker 0 so had to ask, they had a storage shed door open blocking the path. Nice view at least while I tried to be the cool guy who didn’t need to ask for directions to something couple hundred feet away.
The last 3ish miles took an hour between paths being closed and having some gps issues. I switched to my phone nav to get to the hotel from marker 0 and for some reason they were not coming through my headphones, even though music was. So once I got detoured on the path to the hotel being closed and tried to make my way in the general direction I switched to the garmin. It was both being too slow and the auto pause would cover the map at stop lights so had to keep breaking phone out. Finally got to a point where I was like ok go left left there, but the do you need to be rescued texts were starting to come through.
I’ve now done everything between marker 100ish and 0. Need to plan some trips to knock out the rest. I still want to do a straight through ride in one day, maybe in a few years when the tot is a better sag van helper.
Now to drive back to DC to pick up the family and hit up the zoo.
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There’s no shame in asking for directions to MM 0. That thing is hidden and not really on the towpath anyway, at least not the dirt part. Anyway, awesome ride. Love the doll pic and proof of life (er … riding) to your daughter.
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Yeah I think if the shed door was closed I might have found it but even pulling into the boat ramp seemed wrong.
Once I was there a bunch of other people came over so definitely wasn’t the only one confused.
So had my first proper race of the season on Saturday. The Berner Rundfahrt which is a really well organized event that has Elite Men and women in the morning and then the fin races from Noon. Decided to do the 3 lap race which is 100k with 1200m of elevation, previous years I always did the 2 lap version. Tried to stay with the field as long as I could on the uphill drag put of town but probably invested a bit much there and paid a bit on the steep part towards the top. Found a decent group of 8 or so but 2 riders just would not pull through… Stayed with the group until the steep part in lap 2 managed to get back to it over the top and downhill… In lap 3 I had barely anything left uphill and was just happy to find a group after the climb and made it to the finish. Hit season best for 8 to 20 min power and 2nd highest 20min ever so pretty good.
On Sunday I did ride to my parents for mothers day and back… Had bloating on the way there and back it got real bad so couldn’t really get much in and was pretty empty…
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