It's Time to Summit

A shout out to those on the interweb - How was your Easter? I was feeling crap the whole weekend with some sort of flu like symptoms. So no riding, although we did go down the coast for a few days. You can see my photo's on Instagram @jefftillack.

However, this coming Saturday is "E" Day!! (Everesting Day), that is, I will attempt, rather than just 4000m, the full monty! yes, stuff training and endless "what if's", I'm going for broke. There's 8 others doing a "half", starting at 5:30am, but I'm going out there about 4am (depends on the gates being passable to the park) and starting off the endless repeats until I get that damned jersey!!! (see below). I'm guessing it will take probably 20 hours of suffering, but the main problem will be food intake and support - I won't have any support crew! Psychologically I think this will be the hardest part. My family are just not into this at all and so it will just be me, myself and I until the end.

So I'll have to ensure the car is full of food and drinks, and I'll pack an esky of stuff. I just have to work out a regime for eating and drinking. I'll have the bike as light as possible, carrying no tools (it's only 2k up/down) and maybe one bidon of water/drink. The rest will be in the car. I'll also fill an iPod full of music to while away the endless hours going up and down. Can I do it? time will tell suppose. Either way, I'll tell you all Sunday (at some stage) !!!

    This is the ultimate goal for this coming Saturday....

Job Stress Continues

What a few weeks it’s been. On the bright side I completed the Strava Climbing Challenge for the month of January. On the down side, I won’t be doing the February edition as I just don’t have the time at present. Good luck to those that do!

On the jobs front there has been some movement. One, my work supervisor (a great boss) did manage to find the funds to advertise my role this week, so at least there’s some hope there. Two, though my role was advertised, it will change considerably, and the job description looks pretty intimidating to be honest! An added downer is there’s been a lot of interest from both internally and externally so I’m not feeling confident at all now, despite being the only person in the university who knows this particular application inside out. Despite this though I will of course apply and see what happens. I won’t be training someone else though to do this role!

To those interested, I’m also looking to Sydney and Melbourne for roles. Got a couple in Sydney I’m going to call today and see what comes of them. One, a permanent role, the other a contract one with good daily rates.

If anyone doesn’t already know, the Hell’s 500 team are on Instagram and their regular updates provide for some fantastic photo’s and stories. Well worth checking out.

The Tour Down Under was a fabulous race this year, as was the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. I think this one will become an event to watch yearly as the best teams in the world battle out a pretty tough course. It made for great viewing.

I’ve been doing plenty of mountain biking lately and that’s keeping me sane, and occupied. It’s amazing how good cycling is to take your mind off life’s problems. Nothing better than those endorphins kicking in at the end of a tough ride making you feel things aren’t so bad after all.

As for Everesting, the dream is still alive - but just on the backburner for now until life settles down. It'll all happen, just not sure when!

First world problems eh?!

Stay stay, and keep your wheels right side down.

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.

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.

Exploring Samsonvale 16/11/2013

I went out with the intention of just cruising around the place, and having a look at some climbs etc. The roads were a little rough with patchy and unkept bitumen. On the whole though it was a great morning to be out riding and just enjoying the experience without any real destination in mind.