Tour Down Under 2017

Before I get into the TDU, I didn't end up doing the long ride with Leadout on the 14th Jan due to cramps and pains. This is something which I am trying to manage in 2017 with medication as nutrition and exercise is not working at all.

So we decided that we would drive up on the 18th Jan instead of flying as we were taking our bikes as well as my cycling caps etc. The drive was good but it is a long day. It's a good thing that the speed limit is 110km/hr for some of the route and there are plenty of overtaking lanes which meant that you were not always stuck behind campervans and trucks going well below the speed limit for too long. I am a pretty careful driver so I would only overtake on the dedicated lanes.

Obligatory Giant Koala Stop to TDU

We arrived at our AirBnb accom around 3:30pm that day. The house was located only 2 blocks from the town centre where The Village was located and a walking distance from all the major locations of the TDU such as Rundle Mall for the carpark crits and to all the bike shops of the CBD.

We picked up a friend from the airport who arrived at 6:15pm and we then headed to the Norwood crits to watch her husband and the rest of the cycling team race B grade crits hosted by the local Norwood Cycling Club.

I went for a small ride on Thursday morning with the BlackSheepCycling group. It was a breakfast ride and it was flat which was a relief for me as I wasn't prepared for the hills. The ride took us through the bikepaths and then ended at Henley Beach. We had a quick break there before Jason, a friend Kathyrn and I rode back along Henley Beach Road into the city. We stopped at Cycle Closet which is a shop in the CBD which only stocked clothing, socks, helmets and some accessories. I was overwhelmed by the clothing/kit/socks but only came out with a Ridge Supply jersey and a gilet from Spin Cycling which was on sale. I am going to reward myself with a new (expensive) kit when I lose 5kg and a new helmet when I lose 10kg. We then took a shower and then ventured into The Village to watch the final 60km of Stage 3.

My friend Dayna and I at The Village

On Friday, we ventured out into the city and checked out Giant Adelaide as well as our second visit to Cycle Closet before we headed into The Village to watch the last 60km of Stage 4. We met up with the BSS boys watching the highlights of the Stage before we headed for dinner. The BSS boys do all their big rides during the day, some over the actual course themselves so they don't know who wins each race, they make sure they don't log onto social media and head into The Village to watch the highlights and find out how each stage pans out.

On the Saturday, we decided that we would drive out to Willunga Hill to watch the race as the riders passed through that point twice. The drive was about 50min away and we found a park for the car as well as out butts about 1.2km from the finish. I have to say, the atmosphere of being on the course is amazing! Although we were not close to the finish line, more like half way up the climb, we didn't need to fight through crowds to see the riders at all. We saw plenty of people we knew ride passed and we cheered for them. I am promising myself that I am going to do the ride from our accom all the way to Willunga next year.

My #instafriend Felicity and I at Willunga Hill - I realized that she was standing
10m from me only after she posted a photo and I saw myself in the background.

After the stage was done, we rushed back to the accom to get ready for the event which I was doing to help a friend raise money for charity. Due to the timing of the event so close after the finish of the stage, the event was cancelled. I did end up selling a cap or two but I didn't stress out too much. I didn't really plan the whole trip around selling my wares. I still donated the caps and musettes to my friend and she can use them to raise money for charity. We then walked over to the Carpark crit to watch the crit race up 6 levels of car parking.

The Canadian and I did a small ride up Norton Summit and around Montacute Rd for a 50km, 600m elevation day. It was hard and I am currently so unfit for hills.

I am already looking forward to TDU2018. This will be a goal for me to train through 2017 so I can join in with the group rides and get out to the stage courses.

On another note, officially joined Lead Out Cycling...I am looking forward to improving as a cyclist. I have also committed myself to lose 10kg by Dec 2017. I am being more mindful of what I consume as I am no longer running and high intensity cardio work.

Lead Out Cycling - Second Session - TT, Hills and Teardrop

I have had a love-hate relationship with Studley Park for years. The location is great as you don't have to travel far to do a few hilly rides. The tear drop loops is where I used to do TT efforts when I was training with Tri Alliance but during that time, we never really learnt how to ride hills, cornering or descents.


Since about April 2016, I have done a few lessons to learn how to ride on the drops, descend properly and cornering at speed.. As I am only cycling, I actually have opportunities to practice those skills after the lessons.


This morning was my 2nd session with Lead Out Cycling (LOC) and the session was held around Studley Park. The session started at 5:45am and the warm up was from the starting point to Yarravale St where we re-group. We then do a TT effort to the Kew end of Yarra Blvd and back down to the Teardrop. Then it is 4 efforts up the incline and then recovery down the corner followed by efforts up again on the climb. We then regrouped again and did the whole thing from the TT and the Teardrop efforts again!


The whole ride was about 24km but I gained plenty of benefits from the session. I now have a benchmark to my level of fitness and strength and hopefully with consistent training, I will improve to become a more confident cyclist.


My next session with LOC will be on Saturday when we go for a long ride. My endurance is not great at the moment so I am a bit hesitant about being able to ride with the group for the entire way. I will report on how the Saturday session goes...

Lead Out Cycling - First session - Power and Sprints

So this morning, I did my first training session with Lead Out Cycling. It was a sprint session held out at Albert Park Lake. I am glad I did a few sprint sessions over the holidays as part of the Festive500 because it gave me a chance to work on my body positioning over the bike when I am down on the drops.

Recently, I have been training to ride down on the drops more than the hoods. I can corner more confidently on the drops and still very hopeless on the hoods. With sprinting, I am gaining the confidence (and subsequently strength) whilst also down on the drops which is great.

The session started at 5:45am at the Carousel parking area around the corner from MSAC. I parked at MSAC that morning knowing that I can head to the toilet when they opened at 5:30am and with a bit of time to get ready to meet the crew there just before 5:45am.

I recognised a few faces based due to friends, friends of friends and through social media. I started at the back as per the coach’s preference for a first timer and I was totally comfortable with that. We first did a lap around the lake and then started our session around the pit straight.

The session was based on two types of sprinting:

1) Hard gear sprinting starting from close to 0km/hr.

2) Sprinting from a moving speed and increasing gear if required.

I really enjoyed the sprint work this morning as it played into my strength of power for a short period of time on the bike. I do need to work better at lower elbows and maybe picking the right gears to sprint with. I found that when I start on a gear too high, I am slow and a bit wobbly.  

Thursday’s session is at Kew Blvd….it will not be a sprinting session so I will play it by ear to how I will go….it might be an issue after the session when I have to travel to work (by car).

It is now 3 hours post session as I write this and my legs are throbbing! I really miss my compression boots for recovery sessions….

2016 Wrap Up

#Festive500 - The Wrap Up Report

For the first time ever, I actually completed the Rapha #Festive500. I had mentioned previously that I had never completed the challenge due to cycling circumstances. For those who are not aware, the Festive 500 is a challenge started by Rapha and Strava to ride 500km within the 8 days of Christmas Eve to New Year’s eve. If you were to ride the same distance everyday, you would need to ride 63km everyday.

When I was a triathlete, it was hard to do this challenge along with the Hell Week commitments and less than ideal weather. Last year, I was climbing more so I was searching for elevation more than distance.

In 2016, I had not committed myself to 3 Peaks or the Alpine Classic so I decided to get all my “fitness” things out of the way as part of this holiday break in order to spend a few days afterwards to relax. This blog entry is a recollection of how I finished the challenge within 7 days.

Day 1 – 66km

Since I have moved to Hampton East, I wanted to know the distances of riding to Port Melbourne as well as to Mordialloc. I started out the day from the house and then headed down to South Road towards Port Melbourne. I turned around at Port Melbourne to head down towards Mordialloc. Because I wore my BlackSheepCycling kit, an older gentleman who wore the same as me decided to tag along just as I crossed South Rd towards Mordi and then we rode together until we turned around and hit the Black Rock roundabout where I turned off to Bluff Road and then headed back home whilst he headed along Balcombe road as he lived around Mentone.

BlackSheepCycling - Peacock Kit

Day 2 – 72km (Christmas Day)

There was a plan on doing the Christmas ride with the old Tri Alliance crew but it numbers were really low as they all finished Hell Week the day before. To get the numbers up, I rode into St Kilda to a Sharon and Pete’s house and then we rode into Elwood to meet up with the Tri Alliance crew. There were only 3 people who joined. We then rode to Black Rock roundabout and then back to Sharon and Pete’s house for coffee/light snack. I stopped there for about 30min for a chat with the old crew before I rode back home.  

BlackSheepCycling - Tilly

Day 3 – 69.2km

As I had done Port Melbourne on the first 2 days, I ventured down to Frankston from the house. The ride down to Frankston was slower due to the slight southerly but I knew that my ride back home would be easier. I turned around at the Frankston BP and back home on the same route (straight out and back).

Lumiere Cycling Kit

Day 4 – 80km (My Bday)

The 27^th December is my birthday. I wanted to do something fun so I did a few laps of Albert Park lake to work on my sprinting cornering skills. I had done a few cycling lessons with Tribal Cycling and haven’t really had a chance to implement the skills as I can’t ride my disc brakes in races. I rode up to Port Melbourne and headed towards the lake for a few laps...I think I did about 8 at the end.

There is a particular corner of the lake which I have always found stressful due to the sharp right hand turn. The first time I rode around that corner I was a bit hesitant but the laps afterwards, I was much more confident as I applied the skills I had learnt about being down on the drops, low elbows, outside leg straight and actually going into the corner fast has many advantages and one of them being that you don’t feel like you are going to fall over. I then rode back home for an 80km day.

Rapha (Canyon/SRAM - Pink) Kit

Day 5 – 62.1km

This was the first really windy day on the bike and also the first really “hot” day over the Christmas holidays. It was so humid that I was already sweating buckets after 5km from home down to Beach Road. The day started out with riding into the headwind towards Port Melbourne and then I did a few laps of Albert Park lake until it started to shower so I decided to then ride home. I noticed that my distance for the day would be too low so I rode towards Black Rock roundabout and then back home along Bluff. Towards Black Rock, it started to rain rather than shower so was drenched by the time I got home from the sweat and the rain.

Jaggad Cycling kit - Galahs

 

Day 6 – 70.5km

This day was forecasted to be a crazy day weather wise and this was the only day at which I started the ride early. I needed to complete my ride before the weather turned and I wanted to get a good chunk of my distance done so that I was able to complete the challenge with one more day.

I was so tired and my legs just didn’t want to do anything. There was an initial plan on riding with the Tribal Cycling girls but I didn’t know how I would go with my heavy legs. As I was about 10min early for the first meeting point, I decided that I would forge ahead towards the 2^nd meeting point rather than wait around. I ended up being early for the 2^nd meeting point and due to the strong winds, I decided to just forge ahead solo and turn around at Kerferd Road rather than the end of Port Melbourne.

This day proved to be the hardest since I did the challenge. I wasn’t sure if I was going to finish the challenge off within one more day or do one big ride with a smaller one the next.

I decided to have a proper massage of my legs to get rid of the fatigue that afternoon.  

Pedal Mafia - Nevada Vibes kit

Day 7 – 80.3km

The weather for this day was glorious. I rode towards Frankston and found my rhythm early. I enjoyed the ride the entire way down to Frankston as well as on the way back. I stopped at Mordialloc for the bathroom and noticed that a lady was having trouble with her flat. She was still there doing the same thing after I had finished so I knew she was in a bit of trouble. I helped her to change the flat using my tools and gas canister and then we rode back towards the city together. I turned off at South Road but then realised that I only had 15km to go to finish off the 500km so I decided to turn off at New Street and turned around along Beach road and back onto South. From the end of St Kilda Street and Nepean Hwy, I had bumped into friends of mine who were also riding for the Festive500. We chatted for a bit before my turn off and they had about 60km more to do for their planned 120km.

Rapha (Canyon/SRAM - Blue)

I pretty much finished on the dot of the 500km when I got home and I didn’t feel fatigued at all.

As I had finished the 500.3/500 on Day 7, I had a good sleep in on Day 8 and didn’t get back on the bike until New Year’s eve when I rode a fill 1.2km to a friend’s house for a BBQ on my trusty mountain bike and in my dress.

Lessons from doing the #Festive500 (for a first timer)

- If you live in Melbourne or tend to over celebrate over the Christmas period, don’t just schedule 63km for 8 days. I purposely aimed for 70-80km each day and luckily I was able to achieve them.

- Schedule in a massage or two every few days as your body will need some form of recovery especially if you are not a consistent cyclist, like me.

- You will feel tired. There were some mornings where I actually tried to negotiate with myself about taking a day off and then ramping up my distances for the remainder of the challenge but I am glad I stuck to my guns and just did it.

- The flatter the ride, the easier it will be to ride 60+km. Last year when I was training for Peaks Challenge, it was not pleasant to ride 60km in the hills and I can’t imagine doing it for 8 days in a row.

- For me personally, the novelty of wearing a different kit and matching cap and socks is what made the challenge easier.

- I made a plan of riding a slightly different direction and taking a slightly different route each day.

- Although it wasn’t intentional, I worked on some of my skills such as cornering, out of the saddle and sprinting on some days.