Just do it

So surgery it is, but hopefully the result will be a thumb that works.
Luckily for me it turns out to be day surgery and not a general - so with a bit of quick flight rescheduling, and begging family favours to get someone to nurse poor Gareth, the update is I am still headed for Kona. I am fairly sure I can get there sometime before the race starts. At the moment I am cramming in work, family and race organisation... .my office looks like this...

Friday will be mad. It will be close to midnight by the time I get in. Not ideal I know.
But you know what? I am going to do it anyway.

Thoughts are turning inward now to focus on the race. Push the stress and noise aside and j u s t d o i t. For me ipods help with staying focused on myself, especially personalised funky ones like this...
I did the work, now it is time to ride. I think I have learned to settle and ride my own race this year. If I forget my race plan, I can always refer to my socks...
Forrest here we come.

limbo

What to say.
I live in the Gap - we got smashed with an incredibly powerful microburst in the supercell storm last sunday. Didn't get power back until bedtime on Tuesday. Damaged roof, smashed windows, amazing amount of debris to clean up, insurance companies to keep you on hold, all food in fridge and freezer gone. Cleaned up as best we could, and now living in a giant tent (tarps on the roof) but still a hell of a lot better off than some around these parts.

Ok, crisis over - time to focus on Kona. Great brekkie ride with the boys on sunday morning, followed by the next crisis.

Husband G stacks his bike badly jumping down a staircase and calls me to tell me a) to pick him up and b) he doesn't quite know where he is. Result = concussion, and badly busted thumb. Now waiting to hear from the ortho hand specialist for an appointment to discuss surgery.

And Kona..... anyone's guess.......

Nationals anyone?

ride revisited.

So this weekends long ride was another solid trip up nebo, down to lake manchester via creek road, and back up to nebo via light line road. I have to say I felt much, much better on this ride compared to the last. Thankfully. With a 24 hour solo ride just around the corner I am not sure what I would have thought if I found myself with less than no legs again.

Was great company with this lot - Mick (hard man), Sean (my bro) and TR (faithful training buddy). Mick is mental, and insanely strong. Despite never once riding off the front, he left no doubt as to his position in the ride pecking order casually pulling the longest one handed mono I have ever seen on a pinch on light line whilst eating peanut butter and nutella rice cakes, and talking to me. I couldn't speak as my lungs were hanging out.

It really is beautiful down the bottom near the lake with plenty of water in the creeks at the moment. Almost makes up for the 11km climb out. Almost!

This week will consist of a skills ride on the MTB, a couple or road rides, LOAD week in the gym at Race Elements, and then another smashfest of either lake manchester, or maybe GT followed by the 'Super V' ride through northbrook gorge for the weekend. Race Day is on my mind, and it is time for the last hard kms.
That is all!

long time no blog

Sorry guys, been having one of those busy periods where the demands of life prevent any meaningful time to blog. So what's been doing?

Well - firstly there was the lake manchester epic ride. A bunch of us thought it would be a good ride, but come ride day there was only two of us.... huh? Where'd everybody go? It was nearly only one, as I suffered a nasty bout of gastro and spend the Friday puking! Saturday was a recovery, and come Sunday morning the scales told me I was rehydrated so I made the call to go and at least try.... we were off.

I quickly discovered that although I managed to replace the lost fluid, I certainly hadn't replaced the lost glycogen. Despite many feed stops I hit the wall early and stayed hanging on by finger nails for the majority of this ride.

What I can say is that the track at the bottom of Creek Road and in and around Lake Manchester is beautiful, and under water!!! Here's a shot of TR contemplating riding it.


We opted for the side track.....
At the bottom we found a likely looking sign (light line link break) and headed off that way. Also known as the WRONG WAY. I have since learned that this track is also known as cricket balls. It is a very, very steep track littered with baby head rocks and for me was utterly unrideable. Nothing a couple of kms of hike-a-bike wouldn't fix. Ugh! DON'T DO IT!


Reaching the top of light line link break the view looked like this... brooooooken!

Hardened up enough to ride lightline pretty much uninterrupted, and was glad to see the cafe. Mentioned maybe calling my husband to come get me, before a hard look for my riding buddy convinced me to ride home. Heading out for this ride again this weekend -and hoping I feel not so empty!!!!

Can't wait.