Asides
Jul 08 - Oct 08
29 Oct 08 • Making Mountains out of Molehills
As a school rider I raced in the school team time trial competition on Tamaki Drive every second Sunday for six winters in a row. After these time trials our coach would usually make us participate in a Sunday ride for about 60km. This would make for quite a long day in the saddle for a young girl. After one such ride I remember riding a different way home from Tamaki Drive to accompany a team mate part of the way. �This alternate route was the really hilly way home for me as a 14 year old on my old steel clunker.
�I was so tired and hungry on this particular day that the hills involved to get home via this route seemed endless and hard.�Until about 3 months ago I always avoided this route home. That makes 12 years of avoiding a particular route home due to my perception as a hungry, tired 14 year old of the hills involved.
Three months ago, encouraged by my coach Amy to always try different roads and different loops I rode this route home. �I had made mountains out of what are seemingly molehills and the route saves about 8 minutes off a 30 minute journey.
Perception is a funny thing really.
21 Oct 08 • '42 Traverse' on a single speed
Known as the best mountain bike ride in New Zealand, the 42 Traverse winds its way from Kapoors Rd to Owhango in the Central North Island. It is called the 42nd traverse after the part of the Tongariro Forest that used to be known as section 42 and is approximately 42 km long. Mum and I spent the weekend at The Park, a hotel and backpacker lodge managed by my brother Jason. �I was always planning on taking the single speed away with a vague idea of riding it. When I was completing my research on local trail �in the area on the Friday�I emailed my mates Gaz and DB to see if the 42 was rideable on a single speed - just, they said, but the ride was not to be done alone. It was pure chance then to bump into someone on the Saturday night who was also keen to ride the 42 the next day.
We set off around 9.40am on an epic journey with a nice smooth descent to warm up. The track is mostly 4WD and old logging trails. It is wide in most places but for us was pretty rutted and wet. �The ride involves several river crossings (where normal people are up to their knees, I was up to my elbows) and several climbs. �The single speed only cracked me once - up the longest climb - where I had to get off, neck two squeezies and half a peanut slab. �Riding a single speed is like a strength endurance and aerobic workout all at once. �To make it up some of the steep parts I really had to stamp on it! �It was a little too cloudy for any excellent views but was nevertheless picturesque, with many parts of the ride through forestry and past waterfalls. �It is real back country though with no cell phone coverage and no one for miles. �Luckily I was with someone who knew the ride well.�An awesome day out and I am hoping some kind of training for K2?!
14 Oct 08 • Fun redefined
On 1 November I am going to ride K2. �200km and 2400metres of climbing. Of any ride in New Zealand this is the most unsuited to my skill set (riding around and around a velodrome at high speed).
Most people don't understand why you would enter in something that causes you to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. �I think of doing something so totally outside my comfort zone as fun though. �Most people wouldn't define this as fun. Most people think I have a screw loose. Luckily I am doing it with two others who are equally as loopy and scared as I am. �200km is a long way and anything could happen. There will be no hunger implosions on this ride though, and just think how good a cold beer will taste afterwards.
13 Oct 08 • You would think I would have learnt by now...
On Saturday I raced my last road race of the season.�It was going swimmingly until about kilometre 72 (of 78) where my body imploded from lack of food and wouldn't turn the pedals anymore.
How many races does it take to learn that eating can be the make or break of a race. I had only eaten one squeezie and my body did not have enough fuel to go on. The implications were felt the next day as I sauntered out with DB's retro ride. Normally not something that would stretch me at all I was getting left behind up twilight and felt very lame.
DB convinced me that hunger implosions take longer to recover from. I was down to do 4 hours and completed that slowly but surely. This morning I felt like I had been steam rollered. Maybe this will teach me, after all Franklin did define insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
16 Sep 08 • Tourist in your own town
Being a 26 year old young professional (as well as bike rider) thoughts of the grand OE are always at the forefront of my mind and money is being tucked away to enable me to travel next year, be it with or without my bike. �I have day dreams about all the places and sights I want to see and cultures I want to immerse myself in.
So it has been interesting in the last month to be a tourist in my own town and my own country.
I drove out to Piha with some English visitors about a month ago. �I'm ashamed to admit this was probably only my third ever visit to Piha and my first as an adult. �It is simply stunning out there. �This past weekend we drove north and saw some beautiful New Zealand coast line including Tawharanui National Park and Pakiri. �One can quite easily forget from one's office in the concrete jungle that these places exist and are right on your doorstep if you care to look. �So before my grand OE I might try harder to remind myself of what an amazing country I may be leaving behind.
01 Sep 08 • Critical Mass
On Friday night I attended my first ever Critical Mass bike ride around Auckland City. �The basic idea of critical mass (from my view) is to ride a loop of the city, cause some chaos and point out to the motor vehicle public that bicycles have a place on the road and that they should be patient and observant of cyclists. I arrived at the Albert Park meeting point as the only lycra clad participant and most definitely the only attendee with any sign of carbon fibre. �A general commuting and cyclo courier group assembled, all dressed in normal street clothes (bar me) and off we set with one rider carrying �a "Put the fun between your legs sign" strapped firmly to her back.
The group rode more sedately than I expected, stopping for all lights and not taking up the whole road. �Amazingly the motor vehicle public did not hurl even half the abuse I would receive on an average commute home. In fact the shambles of the whole thing made most drivers think it was a protest of some sort and with the "oil" topic becoming ever popular this perceived protest even received some applause! �I firmly believe however if we had all been lycra clad and on carbon fibre machines that we would all have been run over.
28 Aug 08 • Roller Racing
To a non-cyclist the concept of racing on bikes indoors on large cylindrical rolling things must seem very strange, but in reality makes for a delightfully audience-friendly spectacle which has amused many for the last four Wednesdays this month in Auckland.
Full credit must go to DB and Solo who put the event on and created an entertaining night out for the cycling, bike loving, fixie hipster and cycling courier fraternity. Needless to say my "red mist" of competitiveness was unleashed when Rosy and I were matched up against each other twice last week, with Rosy unfortunately the victor in the semifinal. I would argue however that at least my bike was cooler.
7 Aug 08 • Reflection
Recently at my gym they had to switch the men's and women's changing rooms around as they were doing renovations, so for a while the women were using the men's ...
One of the notable things about the women's changing rooms are the mirrors that greet you as you walk down the stairs into the changing room. There is a mirror at every turn to remind you to run/row/cycle/punch/kick/squat harder to lose that unnecessary roll of fat or to aspire further to obtain Posh Spice's waistline. �Well, well, well there are no such mirrors that greet you as you enter the men's changing rooms. �What a timely reminder of a woman's place in the health and fitness industry. �No woman it would seem could be at the gym for any reason other than to lose weight. �Funnily enough for 97% of women this is true and the mirrors are there to serve a purpose.
30 Jul 08 • Science of Happiness Part 2
Monday's session was about happiness and health.
The first question posed was if you are not mentally ill are you mentally healthy? �Of course the answer here is no and whilst someone can have no mental illness they can certainly be mentally unhealthy. �This is probably analogous to physical health. While someone can have no physical illness, be it diabetes, cancer or heart disease they can be unhealthy by being unfit or overweight or have a bad diet.
This graph
shows you on the x curve the contingent of mental health which is where someone can be flourishing or languishing. �I think �a lot of people feel like they are languishing, or marinating as someone else put it. Whereby they are not totally unhappy but nothing is really great either. Interestingly in relation to athletic performance is that it is widely acknowledged that mental factors (how happy or cheerful you are)
directly influences physical function. �So a coach may do all they can for an athlete but if their personal life gets in the way they won't perform optimally. � I think that's why my coach works for me so well. She acknowledges and even programmes for your life outside cycling because she knows the adverse affects of the mental over the physical.
25 Jul 08 • Public Transport
Britomart really did try to make public transport sexy
Isn't it funny how when you go overseas to travel public transport is an inevitable and not begrudgingly taken way to get around. Yet in your own country getting the bus or the train really is a drag.
Whether that's wholly indicative of it's unreliability and infrequency, or if image consciousness is involved I'm not sure. �I've caught two buses and one train this week. �Two out of my three experiences were on time and painless. The third left me wondering why I hadn't just caught a taxi, or ridden home notwithstanding the four beers I had consumed.
24 Jul 08 • Frustration Part 2
The puncturing gods hate me!
Further to my post below I visited DB last night to get a new race tyre glued onto my front wheel. He also examined the elusive fixie wheel and we drew the conclusion that both tubes had been duds
on Friday, so it had been a comedy of errors that led to two punctures and no breakfast!
Anyway I arrived home last night and put my wheels away in the garage and noticed to my horror that my rear training wheel had a puncture! Unbelievable, Yes I checked - no glass in the garage! But had no tube of course as this had gone in the fixie wheel. So I rode this morning on my rear race wheel and yes took my spare tubular. As I powered my way along Tamaki river, singing along to my Walkman (another whole tale to be told there) I suddenly heard a large BANG! And my rear race wheel punctured! Now this is seriously bad karma. I spent a good 15 minutes trying to ease a tubular on! That is not for the faint hearted. Anyone driving past must of thought I was very strange. Crouched over the wheel in an embrace with it trying to wrestle the tyre around the rim. What a mission. Steam coming out of my ears with frustration etc. Rode to work. Late. Frazzled!
All the punctures have been on different wheels too so it is not even me being useless and not removing glass! That must be my dosage of punctures for at least a year, I hope!
22 Jul 08 • Frustration
This week was definitely the most frustrating week I have had in a while. On my ride home on Thursday I got a puncture just before I got home. I was however so close to home I decided to ride the slow leak as it was just under a kilometre to go. Breakfast ride on Friday morning I rode the new fixie
which has logistics involved whereby I need to carry a 15 m spanner to get the rear wheel off if I puncture. Being somewhat casual when it comes to things like this I of course was not carrying a spanner and predictably got a puncture in my rear wheel. Luckily my cycling mechanic guardian angel DB was there to save the day. Unfortunately having attempted to fix it with two different tubes the thing would not pump up. So Mum's taxi to the rescue it was. Disappointing though as Amy was presented with her coach of the year certificates at breakfast which I missed out on.
Thinking the week couldn't get worse I decided on Sunday it would be sensible to go and ride the course for this weekend's Auckland 1000 at Karaka. After a 40 minute drive we arrived to a murky looking Karaka. Mum decided to come with me and go for a walk while I rode. Now being lazy I had just put my race wheel on the front having not changed Thursday's puncture. I had ridden for about 25 minutes when things started to get a little bouncy on the front and yes another puncture! Having no spare tubular I had to call Mum who was 25 minutes away from the car. I waited 35 minutes under a tree in the rain and howling wind wondering why I am participating in this sport! I believe the puncture was caused by some road works at Karaka which may mean the course is moved to Ramarama. On the way back up the motorway Mum rang the race manager who informs us that the decision had already been made to change the course to Ramarama. So a totally wasted day! Three punctures in one week is surely enough of a quota for a while. The lesson learnt is to always carry the appropriate kit though!
22 Jul 08 • The Science of Happiness
Amy and her partner Amanda and I have enrolled in this short course run at the university.
Amy has done a lot of reading around the topic and I thought she would be interested in the subject matter. The leading psychologist in the area is Martin Sigelman who is the author of Authentic Happiness. The course started last night with the focus of the first class being on how you define happiness. We observed that at least 40-50% of people are enrolled in the course because they are unhappy. You could tell this by the way they described happiness. Observing this I feel lucky that I enrolled as a genuinely happy person. I kind of wanted to find out how I got here having been an unhappier person in previous times. I also believe that a person's state of mind has a direct correlation with weight loss, health and undeniably sporting performance. An unhappy athlete is an under performing athlete. The question we were left with was "Is happiness something we should seek or is it the natural occurrence of other things in life?" The thing I was most intrigued about was that there is a word in Spanish called "fiero" which has no equivalent in English, it is the elation and ecstasy of winning a sporting event. Something I have discussed before - that winning is like a drug.
8 Jul 08 • Worst day on a bike ever
I have a strict policy of not riding in the rain. This has been ingrained over years of avoiding rain and even cold wind. However, training through my first winter in 8 years however I have realised that if you want to ride in Auckland you have to learn to ride in the rain or cabin fever will prevail and your bike will remain hung in the garage.
So on Saturday, probably the worst day Auckland has seen in years, I decided to break my no rain rules and ride to the race in Ramarama. Having avoided the winter and the rain for years I am rather ill equipped to deal with temperatures of 5 degrees and near sleet. When DB and I left Otahu there were patches of white sky and even some blue ones! I was unrealistically hopeful that it was clearing.
We had only reached Manukau when the first rain storm hit us and everything was saturated. By the time we reached Ramarama we had ridden through about four similar rain storms and minus any wool on my feet, wind proof gloves or a proper rain jacket I was mightily cold.
My C grade 50km race was started by 40 or so people all in varying states of dress. The blue sky I had seen previously now reigned over Ramarama and the race was ridden in a howling southerly but with no rain. But wet socks will cause numb feet and numb feet I had. I fought my demons the first time up the main climb and it was only at about kilometre 37 that I realised I had ridden nearly 60kms with no food and a hunger knock came over me. I crawled my hungry, frozen self to the finish and came across the line feeling somewhat delirious.
Stopping for any prolonged period was going to be a bad idea so back on the bike I got and started the ride home. It had only been about 400 metres before the hail and southerly hit us. At this point my internal organs started to feel like they were shutting down and my hands and feet did not feel attached to my body. It was the hunger that was hitting me as well and the 34x23 was in use for a long time up the Great South Road. DB thankfully made the executive decision to get the train from Papakura where more hail came down while we waited for the train.
I promised myself I would never feel that cold on a bike again. So on Sunday I went to Kathmandu and bought Goretex gloves and woollen socks. This morning's 5 degrees did not feel so bad with the right equipment but I still think I will go back to not riding in the rain because as I already knew, it sucks.
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