Friday 28 December 2012

28.12.12 Morning Ride

8 days to go

There was no post yesterday as nothing much happened apart from me having a relaxing day and then ging on a date with my wife to go and have a nice steak dinner followed by a broadway show (Mary Poppins).  We got home reasonably late and I was shattered but knew that I had to get to bed as a morning ride was in order.

The alarm had not gone off but Lachlan was stirring, the cord on the blinds was smacking against the wall and and a fly was flying around the rooms, all the things that could possibly annoy you and make you want to get up...so I did.  I got dressed and headed out.  The weather was overcast and not looking too bad.  At the last minute I grabbed a Glad Sandwich bag to put my phone in, just in case there was a bit of rain...something I would be thankful later on.

I decided that I would do a shortish ride, around the 50km mark followed by a light jog to warm down.  The start of the ride felt good.  It was nice to be back on the bike again however I was conscious of the fact that this possibly could be another ride riddled with flat tyres as had happened in previous weeks and was hoping that it would not be the case.  The ride was relatively flat to a little town called Clevedon.  I knew it was around 15km from the house to Clevedon, another 10km inland to a place called Whitford followed by another 10km ride back home.  Due to that being a short ride I decided to go past Clevedon by 10km and then turn around so that I could extend the ride by another 20km.  I made it to Clevedon and was feeling good and continued on for another 10km.  I hit a little township and turned around and no sooner had I done so, the weather turned.  It was pouring down, so much so that I had to tilt my head as the rain was hedging straight for my face.  At first I was thinking that this weather sucked but then I realised that it wasn't cold, it wasn't that windy and it was only water so why was I worried.  According to the weather report, these will be the race conditions on the 5th so might as well get used to them.

I was heading into Clevedon and saw the inland road turnoff to Whitford.  I took the road and realised that at least the next 5km was going to be straight up.  As I was pushing up the hills the road that was well used by Dairy Farmers and wet was not allowing my rear tyre to grip as I was coming out of the saddle.  It was happening to the point that I had to slow down my cadence I fear of the rear wheel slipping out and me coming off the bike.  I soon came over the crest of the hill however I remembered the conditions going up so was careful coming back down the other side.  I made it to Whitford and then continued the undulating road back to the house.  I made it home with a ride of 59 km under the belt.  I dropped off the bike and put on the Vibram's and headed out for a jog around the block.  My legs felt good and the 1.5km loop ended fairly quickly.  I probably won't be doing another ride until the race.  The focus will be on the swimming and the running over the next week, particularly an ocean swim tomorrow if the weather is nice.  Below is the link to today's ride and run.
Clevedon Ride

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