Another Crack

Dreaming of Everesting (yet again)

It's never far from my mind. Every street I go up, every mountain I drive I find myself constantly thinking about elevation profiles, gradients, length etc. That elusive grey jersey.

I know there's been thousands before me, and it's no longer a new concept, but spread to all parts of the globe. Many have done it multiple times, and to them it's a walk in the park, or something to do on a day off. Much respect there.

But for me it'll be a first. Something I've waited three years to do. Something that can enthuse me, motivate me, and unmotivate me all in the space of a few minutes. For me, the task seems gargantuan and I wonder how to fit in all in with working stupid hours, going back to Brisbane every second weekend to see my family and doing running program to lose weight and complete another marathon this year. It's been 13 years. I've run a lot of half marathons etc in the meantime, but it's about time I see if I can do the full distance again.

To fit all this in, with a prospect of the project I'm working on (possibly) running out of funding soon, I have to once again go at Everesting while I'm down here on my own, with no family responsibility and plenty of time to do "stuff".

I've been convinced by a well meaning friend to have a go at Everesting this weekend. Mind you, I don't consider I've done near enough cycling, with some "Donna's" thrown in, and a few rides around Healesville of late.

I'm attempting Don Road out at Healesville this weekend. It's 5.5k's and 370m of "up", for a total of 24 laps required. The first two kilometres are reasonably steep, with the rest of the climb tailing off after that.

Another friend, Rod Aitken smashed out this Everesting in about 12 hours last year. No chance I'll even get anywhere near that. I think, if all goes OK, I'll be out there closer to 20 something hours.

Hopefully, I'll get a few sherpa's out to ride some laps with me. For me, it's always been about the mental side of things. My mind gives up far too quickly, no doubt due to thoughts about taking time away from my family etc which always produces a load of guilt. This time at least, my family are several thousand k's away, in another state (or two).

Before Saturday comes though I need to get supplies, another set of lights, some new brake pads. And the list goes on.

I'm not prepared, not fit enough, but what the hell, I'll give it a shake anyway. Time is running out and it's coming down to "now or never". providing I have extra lights, battery packs for my garmin, and enough nutrition, I'm willing to just keep going until I get there.

Bring on Saturday, and lets see what happens.

Moving Home and Holidays Abroad

Well, this is the third week of being back in Brisbane. I scored a permanent job, with more money, in a similar role. So life in that sphere is great. The best thing though is being back home with my family. Back to playing Dad and husband, without leaving for days at a time to work away in Toowoomba. I missed my family far too much and missed out on far too much as well.
 

Toowoomba was a great place to work. The people were awesome, the work was challenging and interesting, the climbs were ridiculous, scenery was fantastic, but financially it just wasn't sustainable.
 

Now that I'm back in Brisbane I can leave the car behind and commute to work each day (or most days) by bike. I had a "set route" that I used to follow, but doing the latest (December) Strava Climbing Challenge led me to a better path into the city, involving +300m on the way in and +400m on the way home. So in reality, that's 700-750m climbing in 40k's per day.
 

Commuting has been a game changer. Going from averaging under 50k a week while I was in Toowoomba to now averaging over 200k a week has been both awesome and a shock to the system! I'm hoping this will do me good when it comes to having yet another go at Everesting in the future. Miles in the legs as they say....
 

So, one more day of work then I'm off overseas for my first trip abroad. I have been to New Zealand, but that doesn't count really (in my books anyway).
 

Where am I off to I hear you "virtually" say? Well, Munich, Innsbruck, Berlin, Budapest, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Nurenburg etc. Spending  a few days (including Xmas and Boxing Day) in Innsbruck, Austria. First white Xmas at the age of 51. Going from 30 degrees to minus figures. How cool!! (pun intended).
 

Not sure how I'll go posting anything while we're over there but stranger things have happened at sea as they say.
 

Have a wonderful and safe Xmas with your families, enjoy the weather and the open roads (or trails), and I'll be back in 2016 for another Everesting crack.

Time to Summit #2 (attempt)

E-Day Approaches.

Well, finally, my hand has been forced and my Everesting will happen Monday/Tuesday next week. I got a job offer back home in Brisbane earlier in the week, which I've accepted, meaning I have no choice really but to do it - a case of now or never.

The Hill

It's been a long 6 months since my first failed attempt, and I've seen many friends do multiple Everests in that time. I don't want to fail this time around. I know I need far more miles in my legs, better endurance, better "lots of things", but that will have to wait. I've just got to put my head down and just keep going and going. The lure of "Up" is just to strong to wait any longer.

I bought a new 12-30T cassette for the bike on Wednesday and I'll trial this tomorrow when I return home to Brissie. I need some lower gearing for the climb ahead. It's bloody steep and pretty unforgiving. There are thankfully plenty of places to stop and get my breath back on the way up.

Since I'm now in "get everything done before I leave" mode I'll only have Monday and Tuesday to make this happen. My Everesting will start about 5pm on Monday afternoon, and (hopefully) be completed sometime in the following afternoon. Riding through the night will be an experience, but the road should at least be quiet during that period allowing me to use all the road and avoid the steep camber coming up the climb. I just hope that rabid mongrel dog (that tried to eat me a few weeks back) is chained up. That's one dog that needs to be put down (and I'm a dog lover...).

A few weeks back I did an all day ride on a local climb (Clear Mtn) to test myself a little (and maybe Everest) and see how it'd go. It turned out pretty disastrous as that climb involved two very steep (+20%) climbs that after the 8th repeat proved just too tiring to ride up without putting a foot down. My endurance, despite not putting in many miles these days was pretty good, I felt fine - I just didn't have the horsepower to get over the climbs. So after 3150m I decided this wasn't the ideal place and my original "hill" was to be "the one". Besides that, it was well over 30 degrees Celsius on the day and stupidly humid. Yep, so I "caved" and decided to lick my wounds and gear up for the final push on November 2nd. A "make or break" scenario really. 

I've even decided not to book any accommodation Monday night to ensure I have nowhere to go other than that "hill". This way I can't back down and wimp out. There will be no contingency plan.

Beginning in November will also allow me to get the Strava Challenge done for the month, something that hasn't occurred for awhile.

I'm looking forward to being back in Brisbane though. It means I can go back to commuting by bike everyday, and also get my old morning mountain bike rides in too. Win-win all round really.

Bring on Monday afternoon.

Almost Time - Counting Down

This Everesting business has taken up so much of my thoughts from the last failed attempt in June. I don't think an hour has gone past that it hasn't crossed my mind. Yes, I want it that badly. I've layed awake at night thinking of the past attempt and why I should've just kept going back then and ignored the world.

It's proving to myself I can do this.

The second thought was that I'm not going to succumb to pressure this time, nor guilt (from being away from a family sitting at home waiting for me to come back) nor the elements. Having no support crew will be the toughest part once again....

A third thought it that "is this possible on so very few kilometres per week?". No longer do I have the luxury of multiple rides of varying distances every week, nor do I get the extra long rides in on the weekends, preferring to spend that precious time with my kids and wife. I know how hard the climb is (350m in 4k's with 1k of that being flatland), where the worst parts are (everywhere!), and where I can spin and get my breathing under control.

And a final thought. The road is dangerous and very narrow, full of hairpins and blind corners, not to mention a dog that wants to rip my legs off every time it sees me. How will this pan out in the middle of the night, and then how will I go when the traffic starts coming up the road in the morning?

When things get hard and harder

I might actually bring up my Niner hardtail up to start off during the night as this will be safer in the dark on the very rough descent, climbs pretty well, isn't too heavy, and I can smash down the descent easily and in much greater control. I'll save the roadie for later when the sun comes up, and won't then have to worry about taking off lights etc.

No time to worry about that stuff now! Too late for worrying, time for action. I know the hill (it's stupidly steep), I know the length (pretty much 216k's), I know the downhill component (108k's) and I know this is going to hurt like nothing else!

It's going to be a very long day, and I have to remember to just be patient, enjoy the ride, the scenery and to just take my time and conserve my energy (no use smashing out the first couple repeats only to collapse after 5 or so is there?). And finally, don't stop till I reach the required number of laps and elevation! 

I'm going to watch this youtube speech before I start and maybe then record it to play over and over when things get crazy...

Eric Thomas (it’s long but absolutely worth listening to over and over).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGWnqNf6t0

Getting Closer

Interesting times ahead.

I've decided to try and Everest a very tough, but very short climb for my next adventure. Managing a very limited amount of riding these days due to work commitments, and where I work away from home, it's increasingly difficult to think of doing an Everest involving a significant distance. Thus I've decided to "bite the bullet" and try a very tough but more (I think) manageable Everest. The climb itself scales 350m in just over 4k's, and the all up distance will be around 220k's. That's roughly 25 repeats of one very brutal climb! 

The "Everesting Calculator" says it's only 20 repeats and 386m's, but I'd dispute this one. My Garmin yesterday showed only a 350m gain including a full up and down to the start.

This week I brought the Lapierre up. Probably not a good thing as it has a 27t on the rear, not really small enough for a climb involving some extremely tough ramps. In hindsight my TCR which is both lighter, and has a 28t on the rear would have been a better idea.

I'm also going to experiment with my mountain bike, a Giant Anthem on the climb next week. It has both a triple chain ring, and significantly, an extra small gear (I purchased a long time ago). The descent of the climb is quite rough and patchworked, and with traffic it's not a really good place to be.

So, a mountain bike with dual suspension may work out. Guess we'll see how that pans out. It weighs in at 11.7kg's, so while not light by road bike standards, it may actually work out to be a better choice over the day's journey. Like I said, it's all experimentation at present to find the best way to make this dream a reality.

Yesterday afternoon, after work, I did two repeats, meaning I climbed 700m in (just over) 17.5 kilometres. That's a pretty significant elevation gain in my books! Despite the wrong bike, I felt OK doing just those 2 repeats, trying to find the "marginal gains" that will help on the day, the best part of the road, where the hardest parts will be etc.

The lower 1.4k's is just brutal and will be the hardest to get up after the first 5 repeats. It's very tough, with a really steep initial section for the first 100m, before flattening off, and then kicking once more. After that there's another very steep ramp, and once over that, it's just a slow hard slog to the top of the climb. I don't think anyone could call it "fun" :-)

So it's all going to happen soon. Just logistics to work out including days off work etc. I'll do this ride on my own, up here in Toowoomba while everyone is at work. Starting in the middle of the night will give me a good chance of some easier riding without traffic making it's way up the climb, and also involve (I hope) some cool and calm weather. 

I'm actually full of nervous energy, and this ride won't happen for about 2 weeks yet!

Stay tuned. I'm hoping this ride will be the one that's gets me that grey jersey which I've been coverting for months now since my first failed attempt. If anything I'm a stubborn bastard and I hate failing! So this time, with a full day on my own, without interruption, I'm hoping I can do it finally.

Remember - stay upright! Until next time.

The Intervening Weeks

After some time away from this blog, I've come back! That may, or may not be such a good thing depending on your viewpoint, but nonetheless here I am.

Where am I at, fitness-wise?

I haven't given up on the idea of Everesting just yet. I'm stubborn if nothing else. I am planning on how best to go about it once again, especially now that I know just how much it entails, and how important having a support team is. My issue is I'll most likely never have that support, and so I need to plan meticulously around it. Both physically and mentally. My last attempt was going OK until I made the fatal mistake of calling home and heairng the discontent with my activity. Won't do that next time!

One thing with working in Toowoomba is there's no lack of hills. In fact, that's about all there are! There's not a lot of flat ground unless you're willing to venture way southwards, which I haven't done (yet).

Despite not getting a lot of riding in, due to the fact I spend half my life driving back and forth to Toowoomba, those rides I have done have been memorable, usually for the roughness of the roads, and the prevailing howling westerly winds! I've been trying to increase my distances up here of late, both for weight control and as a way of stifling the inevitable fitness loss from lack of exercise.

I've done a couple decent rides, this time away from the horrors of the Great Dividing Range and it's killer hill climbs. They might be fun, but some days you just don't want to face them!

My first longer distance ride, was to a place called "Goombungee" (92k's). The name sounds like a town you'd find in New Zealand, given their passion for having people jump off huge structures, attached to a rubber band of rope into icy water. Unfortunately this was not the case. There was no icy water (just icy wind), and no rubber bands, just lots of incredibly rough roads traversed with rubber tyres instead. After initially trying to find this place a week or two previously, I'd abandoned that ride after getting very lost in the darkness. This time I was determined to find the place.

The night was pitch black dark, and the thoughts of what may be in the forest and beside the road kept me alert and a little anxious. Creepy roads leading to a dimly lit, small country town where the only thing open was the pub. I'd had to get off the road several times for trucks passing through, but it was better to move off the thin strip of bitumen than get run over by 22 wheels moving at high speed. At least, as compensation of sorts, there were no huge climbs, only rolling hills, although these came with their own special brand of slowness - the wide, tyre sucking bitumen kind. They quickly sap you of energy, and it's often easier just to down-shift and stay seated and spin your way to the crest.

Riding at night in the country is a different experience to that of the city. There are no street lights, only the occasional intersection or a lone light in the middle of the darkness denoting a new direction to be followed in the future. The roads are thin, often with unseen potholes and broken pieces of bitumen lying across the road, and thus it's a process of staring at the road and also trying to see what's up ahead while all the while trying to maintain forward momentum. It's a balancing act. Some nights I wish I had a big spotlight attached to the bars instead of small, but reasonable Ay-Ups. I'd also (luckily) bought 2 seat stay mounted lights in case the main light gave out - it did half way back  (my own fault - forgot to charge it properly).

But you gotta embrace the challenges I guess as life throws them at you. I will Everest before the year is out - just when is all up to me and circumstance I suppose. I now have to find the time, no, I'll change that, make the time to do the appropriate training.

Stay right side up. Until next time.

Riding with Pierre

I decided, since you can never have enough bikes, to buy a new "endurance machine" that will alleviate some of the discomfort from riding my Giant TCR long distances. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with the bike itself, I love it, but it does get a little harsh after a few hours riding. Since I turned the big "5-0" last year, and in still wanting to conquer Everest, I needed a bike that would be easier to undertake some serious distances (one of my lessons learned), and that was softer riding.

After researching and evaluating a lot of bikes (ask my wife, she hates bikes and hates seeing endless articles on bikes on my iPad even more!) I settled on a new Lapierre Pulsium 500 with a compact groupset (50-34, 11 x 32).  I was chasing a new Domane, but they're in short supply around the country, and I wasn't sure about the very high head-tube. It looked a little "weird" for me. While they're certainly great bikes, and are selling out everywhere, I decided I liked the look of the Lapierre more - it has a racier (subjective I know) look about it. More integrated? Whatever it is, it just took my fancy and so I headed out and bought one. I hadn't ridden the bike until I brought it along with me to Toowoomba this week. 

First ride impressions.

The more "upright" geometry got me a little at first. After riding a "real racer" for a number of years, it was a weird sensation being a little more upright and not as stretched out. This was compensated for by the very comfortable position in the drops, which I spent a great deal of time in and found probably more comfortable than the TCR (I'll use that as my comparison bike cause that's the bike I know best). Having both stems slammed to a decent degree, the TCR sits 35mm lower (apparently) but it doesn't feel like that. Certainly, I noticed the saddle didn't look as high off the frame and this made me inspect things more.

The frame on the Lapierre is very contorted and flattened everywhere. In comparison, the TCR is one smooth design from head-tube to seat tube. The downtubes are another area of interest. The TCR is clearly more aero (mine is the Composite 2 from 2011 which has a deep and narrower profile) whereas the Lapierre is more "traditional" in that it has a very shallow downtube that's neither here nor there. Nowhere near as boxy as current bikes for sure.

Yet it is these contorted shapes everywhere that work to make the bike look like a real "cobble gobbler", and a nice one at that! The top tube flexes in unison with the rest of the bike to make the ride far smoother. The TCR has absolutely no flex at all.

The Lapierre also has a small elastomer in the top tube to soak up the pounding of the cobbles. This works amazingly well in combination with the slim seat stays, also made to flex.

I took the bike over 50 kilometres of very rough, patchwork roads where every 5 metres there were "patches on patches", lumps, bumps, potholes, dirt "pretend pave", stones and detritis from the myriad styles of trucks that traverse the region. The bike absolutely smashed it out, soaking up everything so well I could have been on a dual suspension mountain bike. I kept thinking the whole time, "I'm glad I'm not on carbon rims and the TCR, my eyeballs would be rattling around by now". It was ridiculously competent and smooth. Nothing seemed to faze it. Everything was handled with utter contempt.

I did note that it didn't "feel" as fast as the TCR. This is probably an illusion, so any comparisons on speed will need to wait till I get home and take it out on a course I regularly ride. Toowoomba is littered with hills and as such the reduced pace may just be because of that very fact.

The latest Ultegra 11 speed drivetrain is also another standout feature. Silky smooth and silent. 

I thought maybe all this smoothness may be to the detriment of climbing and stiffness in the bottom bracket etc. Not so. No flex at all in the BB, not in the Zipp handle bars, or the Zipp stem. Good stuff.

So as far as ride and components go, this bike definitely gets a huge thumbs up.

Bad side? The wheels the bike comes with (Mavic Axiom WTS) are pretty heavy and only suited to maybe those wet and muddy days out. Just too heavy for normal "Joe's" and weight weenies would have a fit!. I've a great pair of Shamals to go on it when I get a shimano hub, so that will both lighten things up in the rear, and also provide a lightweight and decent set of "cobble" rims for the bike. Plus I love the look of the Shamals.

So, some pics...

Note the frame - bends and twists and splits..

Pinarello style forks help smooth the road

The "rear shock"

So all up, I'm very happy with this purchase and I think together, Pierre and I will have a loving future ahead of us!

For those days where speed and hotmix collide, then the TCR will still be the bike of choice, but those days where big distances and/or rough roads will be encountered, this will be THE bike for me.

Stay upright and enjoy the ride.

Starting Over

Back to the training. I've been really annoyed with myself the last two weeks not reaching the goals I set for myself. I learned a lot from the prior (failed) attempt and know now what's required now, both physically and mentally.

I'm working for the University of Southern Queensland now, up in Toowoomba, Queensland. So once again, training will be interrupted by the necessity to constantly travel up here from Brisbane. To counter this though I intend to bring both road and mountain bikes up when I travel so at least I can still put some miles in. The roads are pretty bad, pot holed and rough bitumen, but there is no shortage of hills!

Last night I did a hard ride, down to the bottom of the southern side of the range (Great Dividing Range) and then some k's around the city itself. The weather was absolutely miserable so I was glad I brought my Niner instead of the road bike. The temperature was 6 degrees, cold and rainy with a biting wind blowing the entire time. To compound things, I hadn't brought up any cold weather clothes so my pain was doubled. I was glad to escape into my tiny cabin at a local caravan/motor home park at the end!

Picnic point Toowoomba, in the dark.

Strava profile, though this (partial, from my phone)

So where to from here? Time to get serious again, find the motivation, and start putting in some big miles before having another crack at this monster called Everesting.

Probably the biggest necessity bar none, is having family support on the day. This is where I came apart on my last attempt. So there'll be a few discussions to be had before any new attempt to Everest on your own is just not a feasible activity to undertake.

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.

Thursday - Commute into work via Sandgate

Yesterday I decided to do a nice and easy, low heart rate cruise into work via our bayside, to a little suburb called Sandgate. The road out is nice and wide, traffic was pretty sporadic, and the conditions cool and overcast. Perfect.

I ambled out there at a steady 28-35kph and sat out on the esplanade for a few minutes just soaking up "the serenity", before heading back towards the city via the major arterial routes. Luckily even these weren't too bad and overall it was a perfect morning out.

http://www.strava.com/activities/225955661

The ride home, after 5pm was an absolute "Hell on Earth" ride. We were going out Xmas shopping and I thought I'd hit this quicker route home via a place called Newmarket. The road was packed solid with cars, all going "hell for leather". I ended up on the footpath out of fear of getting killed. It was really terrible. Never again...

The time it took to get home says it all....

http://www.strava.com/activities/226095769

A Wednesday Commute on the Niner

I was supposed to do a big ride on the TCR this morning, but a late night put paid to that. It'll have to be tomorrow now.

So I grabbed the Niner, loaded up with all sorts of paraphernalia  for work (my bag weighed a ton!) and cruised easily into work. Almost there and I decided to go do a bit of exploring on a path I'd seen previously from the train but never knew where it went. So I detoured over that way to have a better look since I couldn't get into the showers at work till after 8am.

Rode in some of the way with a guy on a Rabobank TCR - nice.

So today was just about spending time on the bike and getting a few miles "under the hood". Practiced just "spinning" and keeping my heart rate low.

I'm finding this Everesting gig on my mind continually now. It's a daunting challenge, but the journey is half the fun. Either way come March I'll be far fitter than I've been in years. I just have to ensure over the next few months all of my workouts have a specific purpose and there are no "junk miles" anywhere to be seen.

Ready to get back to training

Finally back into riding! Got out of bed at 4:15am, grabbed a cup of coffee, checked Velonews (http://velonews.com) got dressed, grabbed the Niner and off I went for some dedicated trail time.

I didn’t push the pace as it’s been quite a while since I’ve ridden. I think my heart rate was pretty high really the entire way round, though I felt OK. I took the steep pinches slowly and easy, trying to keep a nice even pace. I’ll maintain this type of riding until I feel my body respond to more miles and efforts. No use trying to smash myself before I’m ready I guess! The trails offer steep pinches and a few decent climbs to get myself used to the effort of riding again. 

Lunchtime (we all have to work right?) rolled around and I decided I’d try doing a bit of running again. It was 31 degrees outside and humid. Not exactly what you’d call perfect weather for a run. Nonetheless off I went. It was much harder than I remember. I used to regularly run half marathon’s at 5:10 pace, which I could sustain for the full 21k’s. Those days seem like an eternity ago. I found myself hitting that pace, but for only 400-500m at a time before walking for a distance.

Strava Files
http://www.strava.com/activities/222949038
http://www.strava.com/activities/222847087

I came to a small park full of water and waterbirds. I decided I’d do some stair reps, and then some push-ups and sit-ups. Sort of a mini HIIT session. By the time I got back to the uni where I work I was drenched in sweat and already late for a meeting. Couldn’t care though as I’d done my first decent hit outs in weeks and despite the tiredness setting in, I felt great.

It’s a long way to the finish line of my own personal “Everest” so for the present, “time is on my side” as the Stones song goes..

Looking forward to tomorrow's ride already.