Brads in the blender (Note: collective not possessive)

By the end of this mornings 6am-er Sunday ride the Brads had had enough of this...


El Mantes' term (Brad No.1), "that really put me in the blender" was well used this morning through the 130+ ks of The Slide Ride. Foggy (Brad No.2) was struggling to get up the last couple of climbs with the group due to cramping and general knackerdness.

That raised discussions about what a group of Brads would be called and The Duke and I decided it should infact be a blender of Brads. Today that seemed quite appropriate. El Mantes' jaw dropped when he saw the route for today but he showed true 6am-er grit to get out there and give it a go anyway. This was despite having an industrial accident at work last week that saw him fracturing his jaw. He hasn't been able to eat all week so was lacking a bit of energy... something very much required on The Slide Ride.

Both Brads reckon they had pretty good excuses. El Mantes with his jaw and Foggy out 'til mid-night last night at a roaring 40th birthday party. Nice efforts to get out guys considering you knew it was going to be a pretty hard one.

Twelve of us headed off this morning for the ride out through Yarra Glen, Toolangi, King Lake to home. We welcomed Gus, a mate of Angles, to the group and christened him to the 6am-ers with a blinder. Nice turn-out. Great company!

Some bloke turned up who looked a bit like Smithy... who used to ride with us. He turned around and went back home half way up Jumping Creek Road so it musn't have been him.
(Nice to see you mate).

It was also great to pick up Geordie who came from the opposite direction just near the top of King Lake and joined us for coffee.

Our arrival at Smith's saw a spike in coffee machine demand but I'm pretty sure they're still happy to see us. The Extractor made a guest appearance and went to pains to show us he was still thinking about us. A few remarked that Extractor's bike was the cleanest they'd ever seen. That can only be explained by the fact that it's still relatively brand new.


We said goodbye to The Claw, Fabio and Gus (maybe someone else?) at Kangaroo Ground then the rest of us ripped up the road to Warrandyte then finally decided to take it nice and easy to home. Everyone's legs were screaming with pain up the last couple of climbs although none of us like to admit it!

• Hard undulating - Jumping Creek Road and KG-W'dyte Rd
  
• Flat fast rolling turns - Churnside Park through to Yarra Glen
• Long continuous climb - Mt. Slide
• Great descent - King Lake
• Magnificant coffee - Smith's Gully
• Smashfest - Kang Ground to Warrandyte
• Cramps, screaming legs, satisfaction - all the way home
• Great company - 6am-ers

This ride has everything. I had an absolute ball !

130+ hard road ride.

Still fat. 102.5kg

Motor pacing - " Intense frustration! "

From 0600hrs this morning. We tried a bit of this (although there wasn't a lot of smiling!)...


Then copped a bit of this...


The Duke and I managed about 45 minutes of high speed behind Rocket's wagon before we were arrested and handcuffed on the side of the Nepean Highway. Well not really, but we were certainly told in no uncertain terms not to continue. The cops were really good actually and it was pretty much impossible to argue with them.

We will have to reconsider our motor-pacing options for next time. It looks like we'll just have to head out of town a bit in cars and smash it down a quiet country road. Very good high speed training though. It's a bit of a buzz flying along behind the Rocket at 55-60kph. The surges in speed now and then (and depending on incline) were a perfect simulation of when the hammer goes down in the Warny. Bring it on.

So - about 50 k on the road bike including 45 min of high intensity. Not enough thanks to Her Majesty's men but not a bad hit-out leading up to an absolutel 6am-er smash-fest tomorrow morning.

Relaxing morning

I dropped the kids off at school today which I love. Watched the band rehearse for a little while then hit the trails on the On-One for a three hour session of dirt. Amongst other trails I fit in three laps of Hans's... a clockwise and two anti. That trail is just fantastic.

Ended up pretty muddy - but not as muddy as this!...


Still had a smile on my face by the time I got to work though... relaxed for a change.

I got some of Tim Arch's photos sent through today. He does a great job, although on this day he had plenty to work with.


Two and a half hours of solid motor-pacing tomorrow morning sitting behind rocket with Duke, Boris and Brave. Should be fun. Hard... but fun. Bring on the Warny.

SS MTB - 3 hrs

big Big BIG News!

Jack got two goals from the back line at soccer tonight. What a superstar! When he makes his first million I'm gunna get him to buy me one of these from Cycleworks...

Hurt Box

I'm glad I dragged myself out of bed in the moist conditions yesterday for the Hurt Box. Six of us pulled turns most of the way and picked up The Duke at about Black Rock on the way back. I could understand the low numbers turning out as the apparent conditions overnight did not encourage you getting out of bed to ride your bike early morning.

It was all pretty good though and plenty of wind made for plenty of money in the bank.

All the better for having got in 70k yesterday because today was a disaster. I've been forcing myself to ensure I fit cycling in around my job but some days - like today - make it completely impossible.

Bring on tomorrow for a North Road smash fest. Time for me to get back to this bunch and mix it up with the boys on the front for some high level intervals.

Calisthenics second prize... go girls!!

It was a weekend for road ks this week. My brother-in-law Brad and I were calisthenically frustrated today. From 9am to 1:30pm we were required to undergo the torture that is calisthenics. Both of us agree that if the concert went for a total of 15 minutes and only included our daughters, we would actually love it. But the fact that about 4 hours of my Sunday is taken up being absolutely bored shitless by other peoples daughters is enough to drive me absolutlely bonkas.

We needed to blow it all out so by 2.30 this arvo we were on the road. Park, Warrandyte and Jumping Creek Roads got us out to Lilydale then up through Yarra Glen, Christmas Hills, Kangaroo Ground, Warrandyte and home. Fantastic Sunday arvo blast through the hills and a good solid session.

Importantly, our girls came second in the district in the subbies division. Very proud!

90ks or so on a beautiful Sunday afternoon after some calisthenics torture! Backing up for me after 130ks to KL yesterday means I've had a pretty good weekend. Bring on the Warny.

King Lake or McKewan (depends which way you look at it today)

I met Adam and Zeth at Shopping Town today for a spin out to King Lake. We rolled out via Mt. Pleasant Road and stopped to vote on the way through St. Andrews. Novel! The old fella processing the absentees had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Lucky my seat requires a massive swing to change coz I'm sure my vote won't count anyway as it ended up in the wrong bucket!

A pretty solid effort up the climb for all of us and a fantastice coffee and muffin at Smiths on the way back. A great day, a great ride and some great company.

130ish ks and 4 hours of beautiful riding. Thanks Zeth and Ad.