Change of Plan

Well men after laying eyes on Mt Hotham I knew I had to change the plan and climb it. It is a sight to behold, and it was calling out to me 'come on no neck, have a crack', and have a crack I will. By the time some of you read this I may still be climbing it! I depart from bright at 3:30 your time to travel the 25 k's to the start of the climb, it is highly recommended as a good warm up.

I'd say wish me well but I know none of you would ;)

The Big Bopper

What is Fear? As I struggled up the steeper slopes of today’s ride I was having a good hard think about it. Whereas shagged muscles just hurt fear can manifest in many ways. I guess there are many fears but my biggest one climbing isn't the fear of a rock slide or being cleaned up by a car (that does enter my mind at times I will say), but rather the fear of failing. For me on the steeper sections when my heart rate goes nuts I find my mind saying ‘stop you’re about to pop’ over and over, I guess it's a survival mechanism of the primitive part of the brain. Now I’m no guru at keeping these thoughts from appearing, but I have found that repeated use of the F word out loud does go in some way to keeping them at bay.
I have found that if I can control my heart rate via my pace enough to keep it below 200 it makes the climb a little better. This does have a downside of course that being you are on the climb longer, which of course means different demons come in to play. Climbing is a whole new ball game I’m finding.
Anyway I didn’t come down here to climb mountains, but they are everywhere we seem to go so why not I thought.
Mt Buffalo is about 1300 meters up I think and about 21 k’s long, so roughly double most of the rides I have ridden so far. Today I climbed for more than an hour in preparation for Buffalo and while I had moments of doubt when looking at a road that just kept going up and up, it has gone someway to making me think I’m in with a chance if I ride it the right way.
In about 30 hours from now I guess I’ll know :)

Mt Donna Buang

Up early once again after the storms down here last night, on the positive side the wind has gone for now. The wind down here yesterday was cyclonic, it was mad. The climb started about 150 meters from where we are staying so that was my warm up....I think it was about 640 meters in the end and about 7 and a bit K's up. I only got out of my easiest gear once on the way up....Towards the top I was making some grumbling noises and a few choice words popped out as well, it made me feel better. The clouds were thick and the road was that wet it looked to have slime on it. Bigger ones to climb in the next few days though :(

I'm on strava now so check out my rides if you want (not sure if you can as I haven't looked at it and how it works but I'm assuming you can). Strava is awesome, look into it if you haven't already.

Victorian roads suck overall though, no shoulder (except near where Cadel lives) and they are very narrow. I hate to say it but NSW have the best roads by far - that we have driven on so far.

Oh yeah and near Melbourne the rider awareness signs are massive.

Apollo Bay Ride - GOR

Well what a ride, up and into it by 5:30 (southerner time) and about an hour before the first vehicle went past me; this is riding some of the coast line on the Great Ocean Road I might add!

I went from Apollo Bay to Kennet Point i think it was before heading back and up Skenes creek road for a nice climb (if there is such a thing). The scenery is something else. The trip back down the mountain was awesome even though I was stuck behind a cement truck with a f$%^wit driving it who wouldn't let me pass. Of course I went straight to the coffee shop for a recovery drink.

The Ship Wreck Coast Ride

A sleep in after a failed attempt at a ride early this morning, I got up and opened the door to see if the wind had stopped, I went back to bed...I managed to sneak in my ride late this afternoon and let’s just say it was probably the most impressive ride I have ever experienced. Incredible scenery combined with massive headwinds and inclines where I was in the smallest gear I had just grinding it out. Being attacked by a dog while in that gear into the wind up a hill was a bit underhanded I thought, bloody thing bit my shoe too; he got a spray of my water bottle for his trouble. On the positive side when I got to the Great Ocean Road I had the wind behind me and I was in my top gear and feeling like a pro! I am very impressed by the attitude of drivers down here as i have already stated, but when half the farmers I passed today waved I thought this is great. The scenery is magic and the lack of traffic on the little back lanes is such a welcome change. We ran into some friends from Tannum today, go figure! and they said to watch out the closer you get to Geelong because there are bikes everywhere...I'm excited :)

Couple of shots from my ride which was about 50 k's. The shots with water in the background is actually the tops of the 12 apostles!

Greetings from the far south

Folks bloody cold and windy down here at the bottom of OZ! Of course I didn't bring any cold weather gear so I have had to man up and brave the conditions. First ride on the great Ocean Road tomorrow morning and while I'm excited by the prospect the cold wind isn't getting me too excited, maybe it will be calm...They certainly respect riders a lot more down this way without any doubt, sure there is the odd idiot so the lads that I have ridden with say but I'm happy to say I haven't come across any just yet. I've managed a ride in Dubbo, Ballarat and Warrnambool so far with more rides planned as I try to tackle Mt Buller in the high country next week some time! Standby for some more pics :)

Busso IRONMAN

This weekend Luke, Arpit and Clem will start the 2011 WA Ironman, will they all finish?

Wishing you all the best and hoping you all end up with a finisher medal around your necks. Just put the recent shark attacks and hot weather out of your minds as you prepare and you'll be fine ;)