A weekend in Forrest

This was the first weekend I’d planned to start training properly since my Yarra tumble, even maybe try to go off road on Sunday! After an afternoon of watching the F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne, we headed down to Forrest near Apollo bay on Friday night. Locals Jess and Norm Douglas had planned a weekend of training – a 140k road ride on Saturday and 75k mountain bike ride on Sunday. Considering my lack of riding, it was going to be a shock!

Niki and I only took our mountain bikes so I pumped my tyres up to 60psi and headed out on in the bit-too-crisp Saturday morning air for the Saturday morning road ride. I got plenty of “You’re going to ride on that are you…?” when I met the others but I shrugged it off and assumed I’d be fine to go the distance. At the 100k point at Apollo Bay I was blown – my head hurt and my legs ached…and I still had 40k to go with a 10k climb. Energised by some Coke and a sandwich, I went alright for the next 10k until we hit the climb but then it really was all over. The last 30k was character building as I got dropped from the group and crept home by myself praying the every approaching hill would be the last.

That night was great fun at the local restaurant where wine and stories flowed…

Then the alarm went off and it was Sunday morning. Back to reality. Sunday’s ride was a lot more fun and less strenuous. We took some back trails down to the seaside town of Lorne where we had lunch and then tackled the 10k climb back up the range. It was great training with some awesome bush scenery to keep it interesting.

Thanks heaps to Jess and Norm Douglas of MTB Skills for the awesome weekend and thanks to everyone else who came along for the ride. Thanks too to Emma Colson and Dave Olle from Topbike for generously offering a bed for us and entertaining company over the weekend.

Hiking, working (and riding)…

It’s been a few weeks off the bike now, I’ve never walked so much! Been walking everywhere instead of driving, it’s actually pretty fun at the moment but I’m sure the novelty will wear off.  We went to the Grampians National Park on the weekend and went for an awesome hike – it was 10k, 5k pretty much up and then 5k down, good to get my lungs pumping again!

Also, from the start of this week I started riding again. I’ve just been going really easy on the mountain bike on the road because the road bike is still too harsh. I’m mega tentative and have to just rest my hand on the bars.  As  long as I avoid hectic traffic it’s all ok.

BUT…the big news off the bike is the latest issue of Enduro is on the shelves next Wednesday. It’s the best yet I reckon so grab a copy before they’re all gone!

And hopefully I’ll be able to take my tyres off-road by the Mont 24hr on April 4th.