Permanent Job needed

Well, what a crap two days it's been. Be prepared for a little "venting" today.

Had a talk to my new boss yesterday afternoon and she tells me that my role (as promised by my Director) would now not be advertised as an ongoing position, but as a two year contract instead. This is in direct contrast to that promised over a year ago. So I feel I have been screwed over in a big way after being far too trusting of my employer.

So even if I decided to apply for the same role I've been doing for 3 years now (and very successfully), it's only for another 2 years and then what? They're so shortsighted here it's ridiculous. It also means, since it's not permanent, that I can't get that new "stealth" Emonda that I've been set on for the last month (promised my wife I'd only buy it when I got a permanent job). 

So today I am really pissed off. At work "sulking". I even declined to go to a last team meeting with my old boss cause I didn't want to talk to her. Been "used" in a big way to get this project up and running successfully, and despite the application needing loads of support it's not going to happen. If I hadn't been around to talk the pilot sites into signing up we wouldn't have this application or be the leaders using it Australia wide. So yeah, majorly unhappy with life today.

In order to find a permanent job I might even have to find something in Sydney or Melbourne to shuttle back and forth to. There's nothing much up here in Brisbane at all,  no matter what it is. To make matters worse, I couldn't go riding today either as it's been raining constantly since about 2am this morning. Hasn't let up. 

View out my window at work looking northwards.

The family and I are off to the south coast tonight to see my in-laws and their kids (flying up from Melbourne) for the weekend. Tweed Heads is a gorgeous spot, but having two little ones couped up in a 3 bedroom unit could be a recipe for disaster. Gonna take the TCR and do some riding in the hills if I can, just to get anger/stress of finding another job out of my system. Riding to exhaustion is good for that!

So since I have only 2 months to the end of my contract (should I not get my job back), it's time I faced reality and gave this Everesting gig away for the time being to concentrate on what I'm going to do next in life. I can't juggle both job hunting, stress of life and riding at present.

Check back every now and again and I'll fill you in on what's happening and hopefully the resumption of my everesting journey.

Thanks for reading and visiting.

DNF and Dehydrated

The family andent down to the Tweed Coast (on the border between Queensland and New South Wales) for the weekend, staying with my father in law (he has ducted aircon). We ended up spending almost the entire time indoors due to the stifling heat and humidity. It was extreme.

I made the mistake of thinking I could get a long ride in on Saturday morning. Decided to head out through Murwillumbah, leaving an hour later than planned, then out into the countryside for an "easy" 140k or so. The pic below shows the path I took into the volcanic crater of the Mt Warning "Super Volcano" of prehistoric times.
 I w

I couldn't have been more wrong. The heat and humidity were extreme and I went through 5 litres of fluids, including 4 waterbottles of sports drink, 1 large chocolate milk, and 1 can of coke, and still ended up massively dehydrated. Coming out of Murwillumbah (30k from the unit) on the way back, despite my legs feeling fine I was starting to shiver and get a bit dizzy. My heart rate was way too high (according to the Garmin anyway). 

The heat was intense coming off the highway so decided to call it a day and ring for "road side assist" to come get me while I sat under a tree beside the Tweed River and waited. God it was hot! Took me all day yesterday (Sunday) to recover and get rehydrated again. Was shattered from the effort. Loved every minute looking back on it...

Garmin says too long in the red zone.

Mt Warning in the distance leaving Murwillumbah

Waiting beside the Tweed River - beautiful and cool in the shade.

Either way it was a learning experience. I've always had trouble working out my drinking/nutrition on the bike while Im racing. Lessons learned and ever onwards!

Broken bikes and lack of miles

Well, what a start to the year it’s been. I work in IT and the application I support has been experiencing nothing but issues since the new year ticked over. Consequently I’ve been working crazy hours trying to keep things afloat and keep the associated staff happy. 

My contract here finishes soon and if that wasn’t stressful enough, they’re going to advertise my role with the view of making it a permanent one. I would think I’d be the logical candidate, however nothing in a university is a “given”, and so this is a particularly stressful month. 

I got the Niner Air 9 carbon back for the local bike shop I use, all in a “near as new” condition. She needed a whole new drivetrain - chain, cassette, cranks, bottom bracket etc, plus a good service, ew cabling and anything else required. The result is an almost brand new bike, quiet and fast. It’s been a great week in that regard! 

In the meantime I’ve been using my “ old faithful”, a Giant Anthem X2. The bike is several years old, needs a new rear shock, but other that it goes, stops and handles extremely well. Plus the added squish on the rear certainly makes you lazy when it comes to getting out of the saddle over the humps and bumps. Just barge right through! 

The Anthem out on the trail

I also decided to go to the gym a few nights back with my daughter to work on my core strength, as I think this should be a major part of my training. No use having the legs if I don't have the core/back to maintain form and function I figure!

I had lined up a 150k ride tomorrow (Saturday), however my wife has other ideas now and has determined that we will spend the weekend at her dad’s place down at Tweed Heads. A gorgeous place, with pristinely great beaches (http://destinationtweed.com.au/)

While this isn’t such a bad thing it will interrupt my training and of course this led to a disagreement about priorities. So…. I’m now going to do a 100k time trial out around Sandgate/Redcliffe, or 100k’s as fast as I can maintain to sufficiently exhaust myself, and to get some decent miles under my legs. I don’t mind compromise usually, but I’m not doing anywhere near enough miles at present and my Everesting attempt will, as is usual given the limited support I get, have to be done on a “beer budget” rather than a champagne one (as we Aussies says). This means it will be likely a massively exhausting and painful exercise, done on little training, and on my own. Physically and psychologically very difficult. Nonetheless, on I go to the land of Sufferlandria. 

Have a good weekend and stay upright.

The Xmas Break and Back to Work

How was everyone's Xmas and New Year's? A safe time for everyone I hope.

Mine was pretty low key I must admit. I've also been so ridiculously sick the past few weeks. First with really bad asthma which should have seen me in hospital but I couldn't have been bothered :-) and then from all the coughing I have a bruised lungs and ribs which are really painful. When riding I've had to stay seated on the bike cause as soon as I get out of the saddle it gets incredibly painful. Getting better but very slowly which is incredibly annoying. of course this is yet another set back but not one I see as insurmountable just yet.

The past few days I've got some good rides in however. Clear Mountain is one of my firm favourites. Out and back involves 1000 metres of elevation gain and the views from the top are superb.

This is the view from Clear Mtn looking southwest. It was a gorgeous mornings ride, although I got soaking wet on the way. I ended up doing two rides out to Clear Mtn, one just to the top, the other back down the western side, then back up to the top again. This involves 4 x 17% longish pinches that are very tough. In comparison, the eastern side in almost 20% in two places, which, when the road is wet makes the ride almost impossible due to slipping tyres.

yesterday I took my "Old faithful" out for a spin since the weather wasn't conducive to road biking.