Alpine Classic 2010 - 130km ride

(This is going to be long. You might want to get comfy...)

Some time early in 2010, I set myself the goal to complete the 130km ride at the Alpine Classic, an event held in Bright Victoria in late January.

I spend a lot of time on the bike ahead of Yeppoon in August last year but then the kms in the bank declined in the second half of the year. But the kms that I did ride were hilly. My training culminated with a ride from home up the mountains all the way to Woodford and later a 5hr ride in the Team PIS heartland before heading to the triathlon training camp over the New Years period.

It wasn't until I attended the camp in Mt Beauty & Bright that I first got a glimpse of what I was in for. I actually made the decision whilst at camp to swap down to the 70km (which, in its own right, is far from easy given that it climbs Mt Buffalo). But somewhere between leaving camp & last Thursday night, I made the decision to go for it; to stick with the 130km. I have no idea why. The prospect of putting a 28 cluster on my bike - the road bike equivalent of a granny gear - helped. But I think it was just my pigheaded determination to start at the very least. Even on race morning I wasn't convinced that -

(a) I would make the distance knowing the size of the 'hills' involved and/or

(b) do so within cut-off.

But I decided to dig into bag of tricks & pull out every jedi mind trick that 2p taught me in the lead up to 6 Foot Track several years ago. They worked back then; I figured although they may be a bit rusty, surely they would work again ;-)

I have covered Friday & Saturday in my previous post.

Sunday morning rolled around the alarm went off at the decadent hour of 6am. Gotta love an event that starts at 7.20am and you are literally only 2mins ride from the start. I actually woke 10mins before the alarm with a flood of nerves. Went through the usual rituals - fighting with contact lenses, covering square centimetre of bare skin with enough sunscreen to sink the Bismark etc. Was so anxious to get to the start that I almost left my biddons behind.

Rode to the start which took maybe 90sec and queued up. Lots of serious stick insects (read: serious boring & unfriendly cyclists) but also lots of other shapes & sizes, including the bikes! There was one guy waiting adjacent to us on a folding bike!. Not sure whether he was brave or crazy. A bit of both I suspect!

At 7.20am we rolled out & along the main road through Bright heading towards Tawonga Gap, the first big climb of the day. This road is beautiful; lined by massive green leafy trees -

Those who started behind us quickly overtook us but I wasn't too concerned as I knew that would happen. I was drafting off my domestique along the flat sections but he occasionally went MIA. As a peleton would pass us, he would drop me - albeit briefly - and stay with the peleton. He tells me that he got sucked into the vortex created by how fast the peleton was travelling & was pulled along by them outside of his control. I call it testosterone ;-)

Turned off the main road after 15mins. At this point the road stays (reasonably) flat for a couple of kms, before becoming a false flat & finally a freaking big hill. I was travelling reasonably well up the hill. I was being passed but, much to my surprise, some of the people passing me sounded like they were working much harder than I. I also passed a few people including some (all but one were men!) who had pulled up by the side of the road trying to recover. This gave me a boost of confidence because I knew I was in much better condition at the time. I was going slowly but at least I was still going :-)

After 1:17 of riding, we made it to the top of the gap -
I was surprised by this stage; I had assumed (read: guessed) it would take us 1:30 to get to the top. Ahead of schedule already!

Stopped briefly to try to fill up the biddons (there were no taps) so we were quickly onto our bikes for the fun part - the decent. The drop from the top of Tawonga down into Mt Beauty is steeper than the side we had just ridden up, making for a fun & fast decent -


Mt Beauty marked 30kms into the ride & we stopped briefly at the checkpoint to enjoy a delicious fruit bun (yum!), fill the biddons etc & we set off to ride up Falls Creek.

There isn't much to say about the next 30kms of riding other than to say it was, for the most part, uphill. There are a couple of reprieves, in the form of short descents, along the way, but for the most part it just went up, up, up. We were, however, very lucky that there some cloud cover otherwise it would have made for a much more difficult (hot) time. Further up the mountain we got, the more people I seemed to pass. Me thinks a lot of people (read: men) had set out far too fast & were paying for it. But not me ;-)

Arrived at the summit (60km mark) 4hr 14min into the ride & enjoyed most the spoils of the check point - muffins, bananas, watermelon, creamed rice with milo (yummo!), hot chocolate etc. There were lots of people sitting around enjoying their food & cappuccinos seemingly unconcerned by the cutoff. But I wanted to make the cut-off so whilst we took out time to eat, we got out there quickly (R quickly dropped me) & I enjoyed the descent of close to 28kms with a few small uphills sections to make sure the legs were still awake by myself.

R met me back in Mt Beauty & we set out for the last big climb of the day - the climb back up the steep side of Tawonga. While only 8km in length it was a very difficult 8km as it was, by now, midday, very hot & sunny as the early cloud cover in the morning had dissipated. By this stage, I was determined that I was going to finish this damn ride even if I had to walk. As it turns out, I didn't :-)

I let R climb at his own pace as I settled into my usual (very) slow but steady pace. It is the probably the steepest part of the whole day so it was difficult to stay positive. There were other struggling far more than me; I passed several men who had stopped by the side of the road whilst another ahead of me who let out what can only be described as a yell of frustration as he rode around one corner and saw the tight & steep hairpin bend that lay ahead.

There was a water stop about 3kim up the hill which I stopped at. I didn't need any water. I just wanted to stop for a moment. But I was also rewarded with a hose down by the volunteers :-)

On, on, on, up, up, up. There were kms marking signs on the road telling us how far it was to go. The last km was, by far, the longest km in my life. But I was almost surprised when I came around the last corner & could see the cars parked at the lookout ahead :-)

R was waiting for me with a cold bottle of water. I took two sips & poured the rest over my head & down my back. By now, there was 54mins to go until the cut-off & under 20kms to ride, a large portion of which was downhill - easy!

My descending has improved greatly in recent weeks. I am still a bit of a nana but slowly improving. My body temp must have dropped 5 degrees in the space of a minute as I descended after the water I had poured over my head. I enjoyed the descent; my legs felt good to push the flatter sections & my cornering is improving.

I had the road by myself back to the t-intersection where my domestique was waiting for me & then drafted off him the whole way back to town.

And finally, across the finish line in a total ride time (including breaks) of 7hr 23mins.

After crossing the line to the sound of the crowd clapping, R & I had a quick cuddle, grabbed some food - more fruit buns, green cordial (my favourite), we bought a coke & headed straight to the river (which the finish line sat adjacent to).


R in front of the river on the Saturday afternoon

I stripped off my shoes & socks, took off Garmin Elektra, emptied the pockets in the back of the jersey & walked fully clothed into the (cold) river with can of Coke in hand. Absolute sheer bliss.

I had a fantastic time in Bright & we have already agreed to head back next year. I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants a challenge on a bike in a beautiful setting in an area known for good food, wine, hospitality & spectacular views!

The stats:
Est. ride time (excluding breaks) 6hrs 34mins
Av. 18k/h
Fastest speed downhill 58k/h!
Total elevation gain: 2,626m (the equivalent of riding from Penrith to Katoomba 2.5 times!)
Calories burnt: 5000 :-)

T'was the night before the Alpine..

Bernie, I have some good articles on the use of vibration training if you are interested.

Mon: no run this morning due to other plans. But I made it to swim squad for the first time in about a month and, much to my surprise, it didn't hurt quite as much as I had anticipated given my lack of swimming training. 2.75k plus some underwater training which put us all into a hypoxic state, making it far too hard to do & count laps at the same time

Tue: another 20mins walk/shuffle which proved that last Saturday's run wasn't a fluke. Still hard, hard work - HR is still too far high - but showing signs of progress.

Wed: first pilates session of the year with the new pilates/physio ("Geoff") who has replaced Carly. A tough session despite the work I have done over the Xmas / New Years period.

After work I headed up the mountains to watch one of the Dirty Tri races being held at Lawson. M & S have done a great job; it is a relaxed fun setting & a well organised event. I am hoping to 'borrow' R's mountain bike one day & get up there to do the race for myself.

Thu: back to my happy place - the gym - for an easy strength session as I didn't want to trash myself ahead of this weekend. I've said it before, I will say it again; I lurve training in the gym. Might have to do a bit more than 1 session a week over the coming months...

Fri: headed out just after 7am for another (good) 25mins walk/shuffle. I've had a couple of great, albeit short, runs this week. However I am noticing that some of the biomechanical 'issues' I have previously experienced still exist unfortunately. I am stronger in many ways but still have some issues to resolve.

By 9am, the car was packed & it was off on the 8 hour road trip to beautiful Bright, Victoria with R. Such a beautiful part of the world. Our lovely hotel is right on the river which is basically the local swimming pool. A weir has been built so it has created, in effect a (partial) dam which is patrolled in summer by lifeguards. Throw in a couple of water slides & it is a very popular place in summer - not to mention only about 3mins walk from the front door of our apartment! We also need to walk past it to get from the finish line of the ride on Sunday back to our apartment so I suspect a full clothed 'dunking' may be in order... ;-)

Sat: I headed out for an easy 30mins bike ride (including 3 x 30sec efforts to test out the legs) out & back from Bright to roll the legs over as I hadn't been on the bike since last Sunday. Bright is beginning to feel like home after spending some time in the area a few weeks ago. 12.09km

The rest of the day was rather lazy. After morning tea at one of the (great) local cafes, we headed over to race HQ to register & check out the expo. It was far too hot to spend very long outside so we quickly headed for the car & went on a road trip to Mt Hotham to show R the 'hill' I climbed on the bike at tri club a few weeks ago. It was nice to have a chance to enjoy the view from the comfort of the passenger seat of the car. On the way back to town, we had lunch at another great cafe in beautiful Harriotville before heading back to Bright to hide from the heat in the comfort of our air-conditioned apartment for the rest of the afternoon before enjoying dinner at a picnic table overlooking the river.

Now I am finalising this post on Monday night - so the Alpine Classic was, of course, yesterday - but I think the Alpine Classic ride deserves its own complete post. So stay tuned!

MTD:
Swim: 4.25km
Bike: 235.18km

1.... (*she says taking a deep breathe*)

Ewen, I should be in more of a panic than Ruth - I am running a grand total of 1km (just) at the moment :-O

Thanks also to the gorgeous Barb who this week christened me a "stylish blogger". I'm not quite sure whether I am stylish or my blog is. My blog hasn't had a change in colour since it was created almost 5 years ago & the photo in the header is about 4 years old. So she must have been referring to the great cycling jersey I was rocking today ;-) To be honest, I don't think it is but hey, I'll take it either way ;-)

Mon: 25min walk/shuffle for the first time in over a week. Yes, I too find it hard to believe that I am supposed to be doing a Half Ironman race in 16 weeks :-$ No swim squad tonight due to a farewell baked dinner for my brother who is returning to Canada on Tuesday (*sob*)

Tue: rest + (much needed) massage

Wed: 45mins strength session at the gym this morning. I am, at heart, a gym junkie. I could live with never doing a day of 'cardio' again in my life. But I could never go without being in a gym :-) Session was primarily glute & core related.

On arrival I was very excited to discover both a TRX & a Freemotion vibration platform. Mention vibration in the context of a gym and most people probably think back to the terrible adds on tv from the 80s showing women in leotards with rubber belts around the waist having their excess weight miraculously 'wobbled' away. But it is a growing area of the industry and several studies have shown remarkable results. There have been several studies which have shown an improvement in Vo2 max after doing strength exercises on a vibration platform. Yes, that's right - strength exercises leading to a Vo2 improvement! I've heard about them a lot; PTA Global (who I have done my advanced PT study through) are big fans so I was very excited to try it.

I had been warned that they can shred you with surprising ease so I tested out squats on them for 30sec only on 30 Hzt. Wow - I think I could feel my brain bouncing around in my skull. But judging by the way my legs were feeling afterwards, it's effective ;-) Wish I could afford to get one to use at home and on my clients :-(( Can. Not. Wait. to get back in the gym to play with it again!

Thu: up early again for a 54min session on the windtrainer in the garage. Very flat legs. I had absolutely nothing. Let's hope I find where I left my legs before next weekend... :-O 20.4km. 54mins.

Fri: a truly crap nights sleep. I have set myself a tight time frame for a BHAG of mine and it is drawing near. So I got into bed and my brain seemed to take off. It was almost midnight before I drifted off. But not before I changed the time the alarm had been set. I had planned to run before going swimming but I skipped the run. As it was, I really struggled to get out of bed to get down to the Regatta Centre at 6am for an open water swim. But (thankfully) R had run down there and given:

(a) I had his swimming gear and

(b) he would have had to run home if I stayed in bed,

so I figured I should maintain domestic tranquility by not abandoning him ;-)

But I am sooo glad I did. Swam 1.5km very comfortable and surprisingly in a relatively straight line! Every morning swim I have done down at the Regatta Centre this summer has been in overcast conditions. But this morning, the effort involved in getting out of bed was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise through high cloud. I love swimming towards the sun watching the sunrise reflect off the water & the sky change colour seemingly every time I lifted my head to sight. Ah bliss !

Sat: I had planned to do my long ride but woke at 7am tired & to wet roads which was more than enough to send me to the safe confines of the garage for my bike session. But first another 25mins walk/shuffle. It was finally one of those runs that gives me hope. More running, less walking than previous walk/shuffles. Finally a sign of progress - yippee!

After facial & lots of hours of work, I finally dragged my butt away from my desk to a windtrainer session in the garage. It was probably the closest I have ever been to vomiting during/after a session, whether from the effort, drinking 3/4 of a biddon within the first 30mins of the session or the heat & humidity. Ick. So so hot. 19.5km 46:40

Sun: I wanted to spend much of the day working on my BHAG so decided to join the PTC girls for a ride at 6am to make sure that I got my long ride done early. The girls were riding long so R & I went with them for the first 50-odd minutes up the M4 & then along the Northern Road before we turned around & headed back to the car via Chain O' Ponds.

Let's just say it felt much harder than 2 hours on the bike should feel right now. Whether it is due to:

- very little recovery after last nights session,

- the fact that while I can ride uphill (slowly) for 3 hours, I have zero speed in my legs at the moment or

- I haven't fully recovered from tri camp,

I don't know. Trying not to read too much into it. But you know me... ;-) Finished with banana bread & coffee with R at the Coffee Club before driving home. 53.9km. 2:05. 25.8k/h

So one week to go until the Alpine Classic. After tri camp, I had contemplated swapping down to the 70km ride (which, incidentally is much harder than it sounds given it goes up Mt Buffalo) and riding Falls Creek as a 'warm-up' on the Saturday...

I have ordered the equivalent of a granny gear for my bike in the hope that it can get me over Tawonga Gap twice. I doubt that I will make the cut-off if I stick with the 130km ride but that doesn't bother me as I will still have a huge training ride in my legs - and one I wasn't sure that I was capable of 6+months ago.

Decisions, decisions...

MTD:
Swim: 1.5km!
Bike: 223.09km

2... (Game on!)

Well after last week's blog post which resembled War & Peace, this one will be (very) short.

It has been a big week of rest (and even more excess) after tri camp last week. Caught up on lots of sleep and family time whilst hanging out with my family at Port Stephens for a couple of days. I have felt (very) flat all week. I'm not fighting off a cold but I haven't felt 100% either..

So in absolute contrast to last week, this week I have only done a couple of short (10-15min) recovery & regen sessions and on Wednesday a coffee ride from our apartment at Soldiers Point around the coastal (ie, scenic) road to Nelson Bay before returning via the main road & finishing with a leisurely detour via the cafe. Lovely morning for the ride. Legs felt good on the flat but had little, if anything, going uphill. 30.1km. 83mins.

I was due to race today (Sunday) at the Panther's club race. But given the Alpine Classic is only 2 weeks away, getting rid of my sore throat and going into the next 2 weeks fully recovered is the main priority.

Of course it is also 16 weeks today until the Port Mac Half Ironman - sorry 70.3 - but I'm trying not to think about that right now....

MTD:
Bike: 129.29km

3.. (aka impersonating a mountain goat)

Executive summary

This is going to be HUGE blog post. So to avoid boring you all, here is the executive summary-

- 7 days at a triathlon camp in Bright, Victoria with TA
- 4 rides, 3 swims + 1 run
- 3 mountains (Falls Creek, Buffalo & Hotham), 286km on the bike and over 4,880m elevation gain - my biggest week on the bike ever (I'm adopting the 85% rule rather than the 10% rule)

The extended version

I should have posted this on a daily basis but I didn't. So if anyone is tempted to even scan read what follows, make sure you have a comfy chair & your hydration and nutrition organised...

Now as I mentioned in my last post, I spent last week in (the appropriately named) Mt Beauty, Victoria at a triathlon camp being run by TA's coach . It has been lots of hard work but lots of fun as well. Now I have written each of these entries on the day & haven't changed them since so that I have an accurate account of camp. Hold on tight - it was a long, and bumpy, ride...

Mon: spent Boxing Day with the Mango clan in Canberra eating and drinking far too much. R & I left home about 8am on Monday morning in order to meet TA at Yass at 9am for the drive down to Mt Beauty, Victoria for camp. The drive from Wodonga into Mt Beauty was very daunting as the 'hills' around Falls Creek & Mt Bogong grew bigger & bigger the closer we got to Mt B. The prospect of having to ride up some of those hills this week left me with a knot in my stomach; TA & I joked about looking at the cows rather than looking at the size of the 'hills' in an effort to distract ourselves.

We arrived in Mt Beauty, our home away from home, just after 2pm and, after a very crazed period of unpacking the car, getting changed & pumping up tyres, we were on our bikes by 2.55pm and riding to the Mt B pool to meet everyone else for our first ride of camp; an 'easy' ride on a relatively 'flat route' to wake the legs up after the long ride. I think Dan, the coach, would be the first to admit that the ride wasn't as flat as he recalled. Throw in a nasty headwind on the return journey and it provided to be challenging. At times on the outward journey, I looked down & saw 34k/h on the speedo which should have been the first indication that things weren't quite right.

Once we turned around after 40mins, the reason for our speed on the outbound journey became evident - a nasty cross headwind slowed our progress so much so that the return journey took us 60mins! Stats: 1:56. 42.21km. Av. 21.7k/h.

Feeling very daunted and quite frankly, out of my depth at the moment. Looking at the mountains rise high above Mt Beauty & looking at the course profiles for the potential rides over the coming days, I have the feeling that perhaps I have bitten off more than I can chew for the Alpine Classic ride next month. But trying very hard to stay positive & not to psych myself out mentally...

Tue: Feeling calmer this morning & more confident mentally.

After a sleep-in, it was off to the local pool here in Mt Beauty for a swim session. After a warm up, we were first videoed swimming both from above & underwater which will be analysed during the course of the week by the coaches. Then I did a stroke correction session whilst TA did a swim fitness set. Approx. 2km in total

After lunch (steak sandwiches) it was back to our lodge for a couple of hours of R&R before a run at 4pm. The rest of the group had an organised run technique session followed by laps of the lake here in Mt B. However I decided not to join in in case I upset my hip. So I did a 30mins walk/shuffle from our apartment. So. Very. Hot. Our apartment is lovely and cool so I don't think any of us realised just how hot it was outside. 30mins was more than enough for me; I felt sorry for the others who were out in the hot sun for 90mins.

A chat during dinner left me feeling reasonably comfortable with our ride up Falls Creek tomorrow. It sounds fairly similar, albeit m-u-c-h longer, to the climb up from Berowa Waters. Mind you, the climb up Berowa is 4km long. Tomorrow the ride is 30km :-O At least I will be fully carb loaded after not one but two servings of bread & butter pudding at dinner :-O

Weird atmosphere in the house tonight. It feels like tomorrow is race day. Everyone, myself included, is running around organising their gear as though tomorrow is the more important race of the season. I guess everyone is a bit nervous about the first big ride of camp.

Wed: bad bad bad nights sleep. Tossed & turned so many times, wanting always to check the time but being unable to do so (I am sleeping on the top bunk for the first time in possibly decades!) By 5am I was out of bed & getting ready to leave by 6am for our ride up Falls Creek. A cool morning with a beautiful clear sky but thankfully not too cold. By 6am, we rolled out of our apartment & rode down to the Mt B pool to meet the rest of the group who are staying at another lodge on the other side of town. The climb started almost immediately. TA & I started, and stayed, at the back the whole way keeping our usual steady pace.

We knew it was 30kms from Mt B to Falls Creek so I kept looking for the kilometre markers. The first 5kms were uphill. From about the 7km to the 12kms mark, there were some downhills which were difficult to deal with mentally. It was not just the idea of losing all the altitude we had worked hard to ride up. But the idea of having to climb back up those hills on the return journey on tired legs was hard to think about. The rest of the climb was up, up, up with a few short downhill or flat sections to give our legs, and minds, a break.

There isn't much to say about this ride other than TA & I stayed together & kept climbing, climbing, climbing. The higher we got, the slower we got and the colder it got.

TA decided to stop once we reached the gates to Falls Creek as she was suffering from back pain while I pushed on for the last 3-4 kms to the chalets. A wise decision for her to make; the last 3-4kms were probably the toughest. I was often out of my seat which rarely happens. The gradient increased slightly & despite the cool conditions, I was working so hard I had to roll down my arm warmers for the final push. Arrived 2:32 after leaving Mt B - yes, we basically rode uphill for 2 & 1/2 hours!

Cold weather at the top meant my stop was only brief. Checking the weather observations now, it appears that the temp was only 8.7 degrees. Not the best place to stop for a rest. So I quickly put on several layers of clothing for the (cold) descent & had a vegemite sandwich - the BEST mid-ride food on the planet - and then set off back down the hill. When I first started downhill, my bike felt like it was slipping on the road. I first thought that maybe it was the road surface or perhaps something was on my wheel. But I soon realised that it was probably the wind. It turns out the wind speed was about 35k/h and gusts of up to 46k/h at the time I was at Falls Creek. Thankfully I dropped down into a much more protected area out of the wind quickly. But by this stage, I had already got cold; too cold. My fingers were numb; at one stage I actually couldn't feel my brakes nor my gear levers. Stopped at the gates where I had left TA & we set off down the mountains again. She quickly dropped me; that woman goes downhill like she is (to use a line from Pretty Woman) "on rails".

The weather warmed up quickly as I dropped in altitude so I stopped to peel off a few layers, finally arriving back in town 1hr 5mins after leaving the top. Felt tired but pleased with my effort. Stats: 4:01. 65.22km. Av. 16.2k/h. AvHR 139



A quick stretch & shower & it was off to the other lodge for lunch (homemade hamburgers) before returning to our lodge for a few hours of R&R.

No rest for the wicked as they say so at 4.30pm we headed off to the oval for a core & stretch session; the stretching was particularly needed by my poor tired legs :-(

Thu: slept like the proverbial log last night; perhaps my best sleep in weeks!

Up early again. Feeling more confident but somewhat flat this morning. I had a lot emotionally invested in climbing Falls Creek as it is part of the course for the Alpine Classic ride. I *had* to get to the summit of Falls Creek yesterday; I figured that if I couldn't summit it during this camp I would have no chance of summiting during the Alpine Classic. But today's climb, I am taking the view that it doesn't really matter whether I make it or not. I don't really have anything invested in this one so I can't say that I am feeling particularly enthusiastic about it.

This time we left Mt B at 6am for the drive across Tawonga Gap to Bright for our next ride; to the summit of Mt Buffalo. It was about 6.40am by the time we left the cars for the 35mins reasonably flat ride to the base of Buffalo. From there, it was up, up, up. Unlike Falls Creek which has a few brief flats or short downhill sections to break up the climbing, Buffalo doesn't. It just literally goes up. Looking at the elevation profile (see below), the first brief downhill section came after 2 hours of non-stop climbing.

I rode with TA for about the first 1.5hrs before she stopped due to back pain & I continued on for the rest of the ride on my own. I ended up passing 2 people, and catching another 2 at the top, all of whom were stronger on Falls Creek than I was which was quietly pleasing. I felt stronger as the ride went on though I don't know to what extent it was a physical thing or it was the mental boost that came from catching & passing people. Either way, this ride left me feeling confident about my climbing; I have a lot of work to do to pick up the pace but I know I can at least get up the hills (albeit slowly). I certainly felt great by the time I reached the summit after 3:05 of climbing. Brief stop at the summit to fill water bottles, have a chat to the others & put on a few layers of clothes & it was time to set off for the descent. Unlike Falls Creek it was warm and windy at the top of Buffalo. While I descend like a nana - ie, slowly - I am getting a lot of practice this week.

Despite the difficulty of this ride - and it was much tougher than Falls Creek - it turned out (much to my surprise) to be a great, and very beautiful, ride. It started off in the typical bushland setting, then quickly became beautiful lush green rainforest, before changing back to bushland before the classic high alpine vegetation of low grass, large rocks piled up in inexplicable ways, large blue lakes & trees twisted and deformed by the wind. Did I mention I really enjoyed this ride? Stats: 4:40. 80.35km. Av 17.2k/h. AvHR 138



The view from one of the lookouts that I stopped at briefly on the way back down the hill -


After lunch (sausage & steak sandwiches) and a bit of R&R, it was into the car for the hour drive to Lake Buffalo for an open water swim. While most donned their wetsuits, the water was (surprisingly) beautifully warm so I went without. Swam about 1km purely to try out some of the things Dan had mentioned in our previous swim session as well as flush the cr*p out of my legs after the climb up Buffalo in the morning.

Fri: finally a much deserved sleep-in! We didn't need to be at the pool for our swim session until 8.50am - yippee! Another stroke correction session for me. Plenty of water up my nose to demonstrate that I have plenty to work on. Only about 1.5km in total.

Enjoyed a relaxing afternoon off, resting, catching up on the news, eating, stretching & psyching myself up for tomorrow's big ride up Mt Hotham. At dinner lots of the experienced, and strongest, riders were talking about how tough Hotham was which left me nervous & wanting to escape in an attempt to keep myself in a good head space.

Sat: another bad bad bad nights sleep feeling very nervous about the ride up Mt Hotham. Awake before the alarm at 4.45am to get ready to the drive to Bright. Left the cars at about 6.30am for the 20km ride to Harriotville which is a gorgeous town at the base of Hotham. The road is basically a false flat for 20km so the ride felt much harder than it appeared. On arrival at Harriotville, we stopped for a toilet break and refilled the water bottles in anticipation of a very hot and hard ride up the mountain.

Within the first 3mins of leaving Harriotville, the road kicked up steeply and continued that way for basically 10kms. This section included a hairpin bend with its own name - "The Meg". You know a corner is bad when it has it's own name! You basically come around a tight left hand hairpin with a sharp rise and then the road continues to climb relatively steeply for about another 100-200m. Everyone had talked about how bad it was. But thankfully once we got to the corner, Dan was standing on the opposite side of the road & told us that there was no oncoming traffic so that we could use the whole road to get around the corner - thankfully. I'm not sure I would have made it up the hairpin itself had I needed to take the inside line due to traffic.

After about 10kms of solid climbing, the road started to plateau out. Still climbing but more a false flat as the road followed the side of the mountain with gorgeous views out towards a mountain I know now to be Hotham (so glad I didn't realise that at the time).

Speaking to people the night before, they had said the two most difficult parts of the climb were "The Meg" but also the 8km from the Rangers Hut to the summit. Some of the strongest women in the group who had previously attended the camp had never made it beyond the Rangers Hut to the village of Hotham. For that reason, the night before I had set myself the goal of riding to the Rangers Hut and saving the push to the summit until camp next year. But I arrived at the Rangers Hut feeling pretty good and with two other girls who were pushing onto the summit so I decided to go with them... :-O

Not sure what I am say about the next 8kms other than they were the most physically demanding thing I have ever done. Much harder than any climbing or mountaineering I have previously done because when you get tired doing those things you can stop, take time to recover before moving again. Much harder to do when riding a bike up a steep slope when stopping is likely to involve toppling over sideways & losing skin off your knee.

The last 8kms were basically (steep) rolling hills - see the elevation graph below - along the side of, or in some cases along the ridge line, on Mt Hotham with very strong crosswinds which were . Somewhere along here TA, who had previously turned around due to illness, drove past me in the car. It was a wonderful surprise and a nice boost to have her there. But I felt rude; I didn't acknowledge her or her encouragement enough because I was working so hard. I just had to keep my head down, focus on turning the pedals over & not look up. During this section, I also set a new record for me - slowest recorded pace whilst going uphill. I looked down at one point & saw 5.4k/h. It would have been faster to walk - which I often contemplated doing.

Finally, we got to the top & got to enjoy the roll down into Mt Hotham while trying to get the o2 back into my body arriving to find most of the group standing around cheering us in as we arrived. TA was also waiting for me and my sweaty hug (sorry TA!). We all decided to head to the cafe for a celebratory coffee. The crosswinds (around 50k/h with gusts around 70k/h!) and some gravel on the road in key downhill spots made most of us uncomfortable with the idea of riding down from the summit of Hotham. So I piled into the car with TA and she drove back down to the Rangers Hut. Dan arrived & he offered to drive TA's car back to Bright so she could ride back too. That was the last I saw of her for about half an hour; she dropped me (again) on the decent! TA was waiting in Harriotville and we enjoyed the ride back to Bright together. Stats: 99.19km. 5:25:25. Av. 18.3k/h. Av.HR 145



And no, I didn't jump off a cliff. The straight drop in elevation is the drive from the summit back down to the Rangers Hut.

In all a hot & difficult day. I still find myself completely surprised that I managed to make it to the summit. But I did :-)

Back at the car, it was by now about 2pm and 37 degrees in Bright. Feeling hot & tired, a can of cake and hot chips with chicken salt went down almost without touching the sides. Then it was time to drive back to Mt B for a long shower, stretching and a lazy afternoon enjoying a few local wines and cheese before our final dinner with the group

Sun: rest (if you can call travelling from Victoria up to Port Stephens by car, restful) & already looking forward to camp at the end of this year!

Dec:
Swim: 9.45km
Bike: 500.6km

So for the 2010 totals -
Swim: 185.75km
Bike: 4,148.7km

In comparison, 2009 stats are -
Swim: 94.7km (!)
Bike: 1,553.1km

Of course, 2010 has been an amazing year. New races, new friends, new achievements & new goals as well as my first wedding anniversary :-)) May 2011 bring many more of each :-)