Blake is 2 years old. Whoa that has gone by fast.
He is so into cars at the moment, buying presents was no problem. Although I did get him a couple of books, because books are always good. He is liking fantasy stuff in books right now, dragons, beasts, that kind of stuff, so I found a really good book with Boys Stories, with stuff like Beowolf, Pinnochio, Peter Pan, Huckleberry Finn, and stories like that in it.
The highlight was the cake that jeannette made, a Ferrari F1 car, we took some great photos. Scott got him a pair of Falcon V8 Supercars, in diecast metal, which he loves, and I got him a diecast Mustang, with heaps of shiny bits on it.
His vocab is taking off now, he has moved to the 'Over 2's' at daycare, so Im expecting that to thrive even more. He even started singing the alphabet today too, he has got the tune right, but the letters go all random after he gets to E.
Or not.
Firstly, I am now aware I have been blogging on about my life for at least 12 months now, because I wrote up my effrorts at this event last year, when I also tried 12 hours solo. This year, well I was in better health, but not quite as bike-fit, and carrying about 5kgs more than a year ago.
Secondly, I got beat up so bad last year riding this course on a rigid singlespeed, that this year I went with sanity and chose my lightweight bike complete with 27 gears and front suspension.
Thirdly, well last year I was merely using the event as a training exercise, and this year it was the main event, so to speak. So I was fairly adamant I would just ride around in circles for 12 hours, and made my first goal to do more laps than I did last year (14), and my second goal to try and complete at least 20 in total.
Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.....
What you really need to do in an event like this is pace yourself. From the start. I knew this before, and I know this now. But dammit, when the countdown rings out, and the gun goes, something in me forgets all that and Im racing.
My first 2 laps were, for me, blistering. I was ahead of all the other 5 TEAMS that I was pitting with representing MTB Tauranga, at the end of my 2nd lap. Stoopid really. I actually thought I was going really well at that point, and I started pitting almost every lap, just for a minute or 2, to either swap out a water bottle, and/or grab something important to eat. I knew hydration and food were going to be important after last years effort. But as the hours went on I started to really feel it in the legs. I took Blake out for a (slow) lap for my 9th lap, and my knees were sore from that point on. At the halfway point I had started into my 12th lap, so I was well and truely ahead of my 20-lap goal for pace, but I was hurting pretty bad, and slowing up in a major way. I then put in 3 laps on the trot without a break, because the temperature had dropped, and I knew that each time I stopped it was taking about half an hour to warm up again.
Now it was getting dark, so I stopped to fit the night light set-up, at least 5 minutes stopped. Ate and drank some more of my high energy homemade nut/choc bars, but what I really needed right then was something hot and filling. And a support person to pat me on the back and tell me how well I was going.
I headed off for my first night lap and instantly the pain set in, I was probably under-dressed for the cold, and I didnt warm up for the entire lap. I decided during the lap that I needed to stop when I got back to the pits and eat something hot. I really hoped Heidi would be there (she had gone away to feed the kids and put them to bed). Alas she wasnt back when I pulled in. Never mind, I chucked on some warm clothes and rummaged around to find my wallet so I could go buy a hot punnet of ships or something, cant find it anywhere. A quick phonecall to Heidi revealed that she was still over half an hour away, and oh yeah, she had my wallet. D'oh!
Hang-up, look around, hey look theres some beers I have got waiting for when I finish!
So I guess that was it for me. Some lessons learnt, least of which is just how important a support person is when you tackle this type of thing. I massively under-estimated it. I still put in 15 laps, and in only 8.5 hours, so I did more laps than last year in less time. But on the whole, I sit here tapping away on the keyboard over 1 week later, and Im still a bit disappointed in myself. I still dont know if I want to try that again, maybe its too big a mental challenge for me?
So, I converted my Relaigh 29er over to cyclocross duties about a month ago in readiness for this kooky sounding event that was held on Saturday.
What is cyclocross you ask? Its a little bit like riding a roadbike, offroad. Basically your bike uses fairly upright road-style geometry, which makes the steering quite snappy, you use the bigger diameter wheels like a roadbike, but with narrow knobbly tyres. Drop-type handlebars (like a roadbike), the rest is up to you. Purists wouldn't use disc brakes - only rim brakes, and gears or singlespeed is a matter of perference. And thats just the bike. A cyclocross race is generally run on a short (8kms or so) lap, going around for an hour, before getting the bell for 1 more, and always includes a lot of riding on grass, thick mud, and fences or barriers which necessitate a quick dismount/carry/remount. Therefore my leadup included practicing this strange art a fair bit in a vain attempt to make it appear graceful, and painfree.
You thought singlespeeding was like a quirky, underground niche of mountain-biking, how about cyclocross?. I had no idea how many to expect to this event. Sure, you dont see a lot of cross bikes out there, and it is a rather bizarre thing, even by NZ standards.
I showed up about half an hour before the race start, to a venue in Hamilton I had never seen before. Very casual and relaxed atmosphere, and not many bikes. Turns out only 11 cross bikes entered. But the quality of some of these 2-wheeled artforms was staggering. A number of bikes were packing so much bling, just a rear hub was worth more than my whole bike. And I stood out from the crown by being the only heathen in baggies, all the others were rocking lycra, 1 guy even had a 1-piece skinsuit!
Quickly registered then decided to get in a quick lap so I knew what to expect. I only had 20 minutes before the start, and had no idea just how long a lap would take, so I gunned it. Ended up getting lost somewhere near the end and made it back with 5 minutes to spare. Briefing, they just said that we would do 1 reconnossaince lap so everyone knew where it would go, doh! So another lap, also at a very hot pace.
So, there we were on the startline, my only strategy was to sprint hard out from the flag, to get into the singletrack with as many behind me as possible. I think I was about midpack, maybe 5th or 6th, into the singletrack section, but the heat was on. I was running singlespeed of course, and out the back was a fairly prolonged uphill bit on grass. It was the weak part of my lap every time, and it wasnt long before I was near the back of the pack with only 2 behind me.
Most of the race was a bit of an oxygen-indebted blur, and for some reason I thought I would only have to do 4 laps. But I ended up doing 6 laps, at an average of about 11 minutes each, and my consistency was good, as I passed another dude on the last lap as he had hit the wall pretty bad. I only got lapped by the 1st and 2nd place getters, and felt like I did ok, for me.
Sounds like they will do it all again next year, its an event I would definitely do again, and hopefully there will be a few more nutters next time too.
