The weekend (23/8) was shaping up as jam packed. The week had been pretty wet and cold and the Saturday morning ride was nice weather and a sharp ride to boot. There were no real ‘rabbits’ to chase but we put in a decent ride with around 8 of us. Dee was unwell for the Friday and whole weekend really and still not out of the woods. We had social commitment to be places on Saturday evening and Sunday that we simply couldn’t meet as Dee’s throat turned septic and she was in some considerable pain. A bit of a dud weekend for her.

I’d like to congratulate Paul ‘Macca’ Mackay on his first placing in the 5km Pancake run and , of course, Raf Baugh on a fine win over Roberto Busi in the 15km (saw another Baugh in the top 5 results there too)

The cyclosportif at Yanchep Two Rocks was very tough, evidenced by the average times of the A distance which mostly hovered around 30kph. I think our B distance team got past around 15 or 16 other teams but we had some bike shoe and other wardrobe malfunctions early on.

It was a tough day out there with a cold southerly wind, variable road surface and a rollercoaster journey. I have to say that Tony Poli put in an extraordinary effort with what appeared to be a very sore shoulder injury. It prevents you from climbing and Nick did an excellent job in helping Tony up the many rolling hills. It shows some resilience to battle on when you’re hurting but even with the help, it was a very gutsy effort. It shows some mettle to resist an overwhelming temptation to pull out and just battle on and Tony certainly did this.

Sherman’s first ride too and he had a chance to show off his Look 586 purchased from Churchills (Rick Churchill’s own bike). He had some cramping issues early on but also battled through this and went on to finish strongly.

Jenny Sammons is getting back some form after 100kms of hill reps on the Saturday at Brookton Hwy. A strong way to back up from such a training effort and I’m sure her time trials at Champion Lakes will reflect this lift in training effort. Dave Koopu and Steve Fox put in a sterling effort too with arguably their best ride. Dave seems well on track for his IMWA training and Steve’s helmet didn’t want to come along for the ride, attempting on many occasions to dislodge itself from Steve’s head.

About 2kms from the finish, we had a puncture. Now I realise this will be greeted with some well-justfied suspicion but I managed to change Sherman’s puncture in about 4minutes flat, using my hands for most of the work. I may have to change the image on my weblog.

I yelled out encouragement to all the WAT teams and Cyclebuzz teams. I was looking out for Mike Aviet in his Malaga cycles team but there were lots of them.

This week (30/8) is the lead up to the City to Surf. We have around 27 employees here at ATO signed up. I’ll have another couple of Deepwater Pt runs with Sarah , as Raf would say, to ’sharpen up’ her effort on Sunday. Jason sent us some images of his Tour De France trip and I’m sure he’s anxious to rejoin the cyclosportif efforts.

We are trying to encourage as many of you as possible to join us on the Saturday morning ride at 7am (across from Brooklands Plaza in Vale Shopping Centre carpark.

Well, it seems more and more like a change of season now with a mostly fine weekend. Ok, so a week of cloudy weather awaits but we need the rain. On Saturday, we had perhaps our highest average speed on record. To most of you, an average of 34.2kph seems, on the face of it, fairly mundane. However our previous best was around 33.4kph and we sped around the 65kms like cyclists possessed.

This time we had some ‘rabbits’ alongs Mts Bay Road and Richard Kelly showed some great purpose in the back half to hold out any challengers. I did my usual TT effort on the way back. For some reason I always let a gap go over Canning Bridge on the return. This is a sin I pay dearly for with no mercy shown from the front of the pack. I had to TT back along the Esplanade Mt Pleasant with help from Jason.

We had a great sprint again at the end of Shelley and ,after being told by Robbie Webb that I may have a crack in my rearstay, I stopped to check it out thoroughly to make sure this wasn’t the case. Was I had here? Is this a standing joke?? We had Brendan McSweeney with a welcome return to some form along for the ride.

I was just spiflicated at the end of this ride but it was keen. We spotted the Cyclebuzz folk, Troy Coulthard and just lots of large packs of cyclists on Saturday.

Sunday was the City to Surf. Dee and I parked at the Narrows to avoid the crowds and walked over to the Belltower to meet a nervous young Sarah. I reminded her that a lot of the Under 12s would be a year older than her so this year was just a practice run for next year. We started in B group but probably should have started in C. It was a pretty well organised start and the Malcolm Street hill came out to meet us. We kept a decent clip up to the top and a great drumming band greeted us halfway down to Thomas St. We turned right and noticed a lot of people taking a 10metre shortcut at cnr Thomas left into Hay…..so we did too. Some Kenyans came bounding past us. How they can maintain 20kph over a half and full marathon distance is beyond me (mind you, I just saw the 5000m IAAF Diamond league womens event and they just kept coming through at well under 3min/km pace. Amazing.

Sarah did have a nagging cough that wasn’t letting her take deep breaths. This caused her a bit of distress when we’d got to Perry Lakes so we walked a couple of times. Its no fun being unwell when you’ve trained so hard for an event. And let me tell you, she trained very honestly for this 12km run.

She fought on bravely and found some fuel in the tank for a quick finish and ended up with a time of 1hr 11mins which placed her 8th in her age group. I think this was just a great result and almost a dress rehearsal for next year as this was her first time over the 12km distance and the hills are pretty challenging. We introduced Sarah to a Berry/banana carboshot at around halfway. I was very proud of her effort. I think there may be some issue with first place U12 girl posting a 50min time. This seems extraordinarily fast and was a good 11mins quicker than 2nd place. So I would greet that first place result with some suspicion.

I had my first run with my 19yo son Matt in around 8 years I’d reckon. We went out for a 6km run (well, just a canter for him) at a decent 4min30sec/km pace. He was clearly running well within himself which encouraged me. A postscript to this is that he’s just done a 5km run in 20mins. Getting quicker every day now. He’s keen to recapture his running form and I may get him to join Front Runners eventually.

Well done to Paul Covich on placing 3rd in the Panther MTB and bad luck to Paul Prottey on crashing out (yet still managing a strong finish)

I am thinking strongly of reviving the spin sessions in years gone by where we hire the spin room at Pure Fitness. I don’t want to make it sound elitist but this time around I would run it as a smashfest. Basically, its basic warmup and warmdown with stretching but the in between bit would really test your resolve. That’s the sort of session I want to make it this time around. I figure that I’d still only need to charge around $7 a session based on a minimum 10 people. We’d get you to pay for 10 sessions up front to get you to commit to them.

Please let me know if you’re interested. I expect that this type of session won’t suit everyone but I see it as a challenge of your physical limits once a week.

We should again have two teams on board for Cyclosportif Waroona and hopefully nearly a full strength A distance team this time.

On the fixie bike yesterday morning with new Conti tyres. Please God, no punctures while I’m on this baby!! Brought the time trial wheels out to play today with Sparkles, my road bike.

Regards

CHRISTO

I thought I’d share with you a story a mate wrote about his recent Audax 200km achievement ride. Another infernal training update.

I’ve just picked up a Pro-lite time trial frame………so I’m on my way. The challenge now is to build a lightweight time trial bike.

Enjoy this reading!!!

AUDAX 200 CHALLENGE RIDE

HI , I entered the 200km audax ride on Saturday and managed to complete it within time etc.

Headed out from Bullsbrook with a bunch of about a dozen with others in front and behind. Stopped for toilet at 35 km (curse the cold mornings!) and everyone kept going so I rode the last 15km to first checkpoint (past Bindoon) alone. Stopped for a quick break of 10 minutes or so, then rode most of next 30 kms with a few guys until I left them behind on the downhill run to Toodyay. The first 30 was rolling hills which were not to high or steep and meant you got a bit of a rest every so often

3 and half hours at 28.3 km/hr for that 102 kms, not bad for me and still feeling pretty good. Well as least not exhausted. I was conscience of the total distance to complete so I didn’t push myself up the hills to fast and was happy to roll down some hills rather than peddling madly to go flat out.

Had about a  hour for lunch, went to toilet again only to come out  and find everyone else had disappeared. I resisted temptation to try and catch them as there was still a long way to go and there was some long gentle climbs ahead. Was glad when I saw the goldfields pipeline as I then knew how far to go to Bakers Hill.

 Rode that 30km to Baker Hill by myself, passing a couple on the way. There I meet up with a guy called John who waited while I grabbed a cold drink. We rode pretty hard(probably a bit too hard)  to Chidlow, the 160 km checkpoint, had a coffee and then rode on together through Mt Helena , Stoneville onto the Toodyay road, encountering a couple of  long gentle uphills. Started to get tried up them but was glad when we reached the last climb on Toodyay road . Flew down Toodyay Road, stopped at the bottom to put reflective vest on as it was cloudy and getting dull and the last 20 km was along Gt. Northern Highway. We took off taking turns at front at about 32+km/hour which soon dropped to 28, then 26 the finally about 25km/hours  until the finish. The two redskins I  ate coming down the hill didn’t really replenish my energy levels.

211 km done with ~1300m of up hill! (213 according to Audax!!!) before that the longest ride I had ever done was about 120 km

Rode second half at 28.0 km/hr average, 3hrs 50 riding time. So about 7and a half riding hours in all.

Was very happy that I managed to ride 2^nd half  about same pace as first. It was great to ride it with John, we  seemed pretty well matched although he got up the hills a bit quicker than me towards the end.

Burnt near 6000 calories in total according to my computer. ( a count afterwards showed that I ate about 3,500 from breakfast time to end of ride, didn’t count the two well earned beers and dinner afterwards!!!)

We started at 8:15 and Finished at 5:25; so  a little over 9 hours total time (average 23 km/hour with stops). Under Audax rules the time limit was 13 hours 20 minutes!

So apart from a sore back, stiff shoulders and left wrist I felt pretty  tried but not too sore that I won’t have another go. My preparation was lacking with travel and working away in the weeks leading up to the weekend. Might have to do some exercises to toughen my back up. The rough road surfaces are hard on the wrists! It was a joy to ride to work this morning on the smooth bike path.

SEE THE BOMBERS…… CRASH DOWN

A pretty quiet weekend for me on the training front. I had my younger brother in town on a business trip. After he told me about his purchase of a VW R36 and an Volvo XC90 I couldn’t quite bring myself to share my triumphant $600 Pickles purchase of my Daewoo Eurowagon!!!

I had brekky with him at the Rydges in Perth CBD Sat AM so I missed out on the morning group ride. Caught up with them though at Kelly’s at around 10am and one of our group has bought himself a Time RXR with Campag Super Record and Bora Plus 2 wheels. Schmick doesn’t even begin to explain this road bike. It’s worth a free coffee if you can guess who!!!

I had a moment on Thursday (not sure if I bored you all with it). On my way in to work , I had a coffee at the CNR café under the Piazza big screen. I spotted a young bloke sleeping rough on the grass so I gave the café owners $10 and asked them to give him a coffee and a big slice of banana cake……and it made me feel good. It’s probably a little showy to now re-tell this story to you guys but sometimes you just have to trust these people will pay forward such gestures.

On Sunday, I took my TT set up for a 2hr30min spin up to WAMC and saw the Perth Half Marathon finish. One of our contact list had a major hamstring injury and couldn’t finish (heck, I’ve been there in the IMWA….it ain’t fun to DNF)

I watched the first 50 runners come through including a dominant Tina Major in the womens group. I think Steve Courtney and Ray Lampard were running with Tina. Get this, Ray Lampard promptly turned around and I know he ran all the way down to the Narrows Bridge. Not sure where he finished but he just runs so strong.

I also spotted John Pendse who was just putting in Perth Half mara as a practice run for the C2S marathon (I think he posted around 1hr 25 or thereabouts)

WAMC used a slightly different course. I urged on as many people as I could but I didn’t want to get in their way as a cyclist. Still, it was a great to watch (and not have to do). I cycled home pretty strongly into a decent SSE headwind.

IOh, and my footy team won. As is customary, my Uncle Frank Sheehan (who works as chaplain at ChristChurch Grammar School) would like to comment on the Carlton vs Essendon match!!

Over to you Frank!! (interestingly no noise from the Freo or WCE corners after the weekend.

CHRISTO

For some months now, my little 11yo niece Sarah has been getting up twice a week to do running training with me. Nothing too remarkable about that but she would get up at 5am, have a healthy breakfast (usually porridge) and bring along her unbridled enthusiasm to have a run with me around Deepwater Point while her dad walked and jogged around by himself. Fun for the whole family!!?? And I’ve probably bored you to death about these little training runs and the fact that Sarah would regale me with all the social events of her week  during the whole time we would run the lap. Some laps we would do in 40mins, others we’d do in 38mins. I think our best so far is around 37mins. Sarah knows that once she gets to 34mins, she’s ready to be competitive with anyone her age. Not too far off really!!

Anyway, as most of you know, this is being done to prepare both Sarah and I for the 12km City to Surf run. But I have to say, it ain’t easy doing a 6.66km run when its near freezing (and occasionally raining). It certainly tests your resolve and determination. And young Sarah has oodles of it. She finally got some warm gloves to train in and we will now think about a pair of Skins or similar.

Yesterday, Dee and I had the day off work to go and watch Sarah in her school cross country run at Yidarra Primary School. The run was held at Piney Lakes across the road.  Now she certainly wasn’t backing herself. In fact, there were several other girls Sarah thought had a chance of winning but it never occurred to her that she might be a chance of a decent run. And the beauty of this is that Sarah did not confide any information about her running training. That might have been a little lairy and showy and just not her style at all.

The start gun went off and Sarah was dutifully near the back of the field, unperturbed by the adrenalin that saw around 6 to 7 girls surge way ahead of her. And then…well…it was just a watershed moment none of us will forget. The Year 5 girls disappeared into the back end of the course and we waited at around the halfway point to seem them emerge. Blow me down, it was Sarah running second (and with a huge smile on her face). I told anyone who would listen that she was placed second, all the while just so excited for her at the merest hint of success.

Her dad was visibly shocked as he was filming the race and said to me ‘ I think she’s going to take it’. In the next few hundred metres she shadowed the first place runner before slowly overtaking her. With around 200 metres to go, the unheralded Sarah shocked her classmates, teachers and parents and pulled off a long, measured sprint to take home first place.

Noone, not even us supporters nor Sarah herself, thought she would win. She placed fourth last year and was just hoping to be among the top 8 to qualify for the interschools cross country. At every single training session around Deepwater Point, Sarah would put in a 400m sprint that really did test me for speed. Noone told her to do this, just a zest for life and a real driven desire. This proved a very useful training ritual as she put it into practice near the end of the race when a lot of these girls knew they had Sarah’s measure in a sprint.

It really rekindled memories for me of the 8 years I spent doing cross country coaching for the Melville Athletic juniors in cross country. We would take up to 50 kids traipsing around the Murdoch Uni property through soft sand and hills.

Sarah didn’t panic. We had no strategic talks with her before the race and placed no expectations on her. The huge smile on her face at that halfway point told us all we needed to know. She was revelling in her fitness and , no doubt, the possibility that she may actually win.

What a huge buzz. I just thought I’d share. It is just the school cross country. And the journey ain’t over as I take her on a searching 10km run this coming weekend around the Narrows and Causeway. But the way it happened was fantastic. She had a couple of lot of relatives there who shed a few tears at her dominant, gutsy little win.

Vicarious!!! Not really. The drive, the enthusiasm, the decision to get out of a warm bed when its freezing and/or raining outside. Its all Sarah let me tell you.

I’m really looking forward to running with her in the 12km City to Surf. We will try to break the one hour barrier however Sarah knows just how tough this will be. And, again, if it happens, no one will have seen it coming!!

This year’s Painathlon was blessed with fantastic weather. My role in it was that of Support Car and, with Rob Perry in my car as the event doctor, it was our job to follow competitors around the stages to make sure they didn’t need medical or mechanical assistance. We had plenty of spare tubes, tyres, some electrolyte and first aid kit.

The nerves at the City Beach carpark were palpable as individuals and team entrants sized up the task ahead of them. People arrived from around 6am - it was dark and cold.

With a 7am start looming, last minute adjustments were being made to bikes and backpacks. Competitors also got to leave some water bottles with organisers who would take them up to ‘The Truth’.

The event started on time with lead runners seemingly ‘dancing’ aross the soft sand making the effort look ridiculously easy. Thankfully there were plenty of others to show exactly how hard soft sand running was as they completed their 3 Groyne laps.

It’s odd but getting the bike up that small little hill was the first test for competitors who were stuck in too big a gear. As we followed them along Oceanic Drive, the painathletes made steady progress to Reabold Hill with a searching 700m run up to the top of Reabold Bolt and again for good measure. We had a lot of North Coast Running Group coming past wondering what the heck was going on.

The ride to Synergy Parklands in May Drive at Kings Park was a little more eventful with lead competitors losing their way and some mechanical issues rearing their heads (a puncture and loose pedal crank from memory).

The run up the long grassy Heartbreak Hill up to DNA Tower is probably the easiest stage (if there is such a thing). We managed to call in a replacement punch card for a competitor who was mortified to find out her original card had fallen off at some point. The cycle up May Drive toward Mount Street is a deceptively hard climb that , again, catches out people trying to grind too big a gear. Already, the need to tie shoelaces at each stage was costing time to those who hadn’t thought to buy elastic laces for their running shoes.

I’d noticed some nice deep dish wheels (Zipp 808s) but I was also aware that there were only really 2 or 3 good cycle legs to take advantage of their aerodynamics. We had Jono Hague sidle up next to us at the Belltower as we skipped Mount Pain and looked for a crank tool to fix one of the Cervelo bikes. I dropped Dr Rob off at the Causeway bike rack area and flagged down a group of cyclists at Albany Hwy Vic Park in search of the crank tool. My sincere thanks to Dave Kitson who kindly lent me his Topeak multi tool and I was off to the Causeway to tighten a crank and then take Rob and I off to ‘The Truth’ , around 37kms away in Brigadoon.

At last year’s event, as part of a bike rack crew, I had stopped off at a servo in Great Eastern Highway for a coffee, only to see the lead Painathlete cycle past, threatening to beat our arrival at the Truth. No such danger this year as we arrived near the corner of Camargue and Campersic Rd to help the bike rack crew set up. Lots of snacks and, of course, the competitors own drink bottles had been successfully transported here.

Mike Carroll arrived fresh-faced but had faced a pretty stiff headwind on the way out as had all competitors. You forget how long and hard that 37kms is, especially if you’re doing it by yourself. I drove up to urge on the first dozen or so competitors as they tackled the brutish hills of The Truth. I had some electrolyte on hand at the very top of Boullonais Drive, the turnaround point. That last hill is incredibly steep and it seems a bit unfair that you have to again run down it and up another huge hill before the left hand turn at the roundabout on Campersic Drive.

The views over to the Avon River are spectacular but I’m sure none of the competitors even knew they existed. After taking few photos and videos, Rob and I made our way to the Zig Zag. The last hill up Ridge Hill Rd from the roundabout is a punishing way to finish this 35km leg off (actually it finished off a few legs, truth be told). We had a moment when we thought an alien was going to explode out of Marek’s calf muscle and another who simply couldn’t unclip out of his pedals and we ‘caught’ him just in time to avoid the dreaded sideways flop.

Steve Doyle and crew did a sterling job at both the base and top of Zig Zag as other cyclists and motorists were made aware of the approaching painathletes. It’s a fairly busy traffic spot so volunteers did well to keep everyone safe. The chocolate eclairs were a godsend as well.

On to the Quadcruncher and the final little dig at Hardinge reminded people that this was essentially a hilly event in the cycling discipline as well as running. Rob and I decided to traverse up the Quadcruncher and to the end of the Valley run. A lot of competitors were pretty well spent at this point but pleased to punch off the stage, knowing that the cycle to Canning Bridge was quick and that the end was near (literally). We noticed this was the stage at which race leader Mike Carroll was overtaken by Josh Randall - a rivetting battle between those two.

We waited for the last competitor to punch their card at the end of Quadcruncher and made our way precariously back up the Valley Run then down the Quadcruncher. There’s just no easy way to do this challenge. The track has gullies and soft edges and little rocks everywhere. Whatever you do, just don’t look up at the rest of the hill that awaits you. Very depressing. I challenged most competitors to pull out a 40kph cycle to Canning Bridge and I think the tailwind ensured this was pretty close to the mark.

We didn’t see the Painultimate 6.66km run between Canning Bridge and Mt Henry Bridge but the body starts to let you know its had enough at this point. The quick cycle from Canning Bridge to Mount Street is not the end of the pain. You are challenged to cycle up Mount Street (very hard as a standalone effort) then knock off 10 ascents of Jacobs Ladder.

It really has developed into an iconic event and, with 70 competitors, is attracting increasing interest every year. This was the fourth year of running Painathlon. Sadly for the females, there were no solo female Painathletes but I’m sure this is temporary and we will see them reappear next year.

The day is made by the volunteers I reckon and there’s a lot of people that help to make this a very successful event. I’m pretty sure there were no significant injuries. There may have been a private stumble or fall on Quadcruncher or coming down Zig Zag. No real bike issues (not any we were made aware of and we were itching to help change a tube or tyres. I did hear of one competitor with a tubular tyre issues however if you’re packing ’singles’ you really need to have your own spare tyre.

I was most impressed with the sheer determination and strength of spirit of all the Painathlon competitors. Nutrition and hydration were crucial and most competitors looked after themselves in this regard.

Koops (Dave Koopu) had a light-hearted attempt at showing how the event could be ’shortcutted’ however most of his bold and cunning plans were exposed. He has photo and video evidence of his ‘creative’ use of the course and stage punches. His masterful diagonal run from the start of the Truth was spectacularly successful as he traversed a bridle trail to beat around 5 others to the control punch. I trust his blatant attempts at cheating at various stages of Painathlon were not taken seriously by other competitors. This was really meant to be a training run for Dave as part of his IMWA 2010 campaign.

Well done to all involved on another highly successful Painathlon, especially to Jono Hague and his Notre Dame ‘cronies’.

Now all that’s left is the pain….and the duck walking….and the pain…….followed by some granny walking. And, to finish off, as a tribute to the Painathles, a quote from Dr Smith from “Lost in Space”. No, its not the one about pain. Don’t try to second guess me here. I think Dr Smith described the painathletes best as ‘bumbling, bobble-headed boobys’

But, seriously, as a tribute to you all who entered the Painathlon, let’s revive the famous ‘Man in the Arena’ quote again from Roosevelt.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat

There were certainly lots of people spent at the end of what was a very worthy cause. Viva La Painathlon!!

CHRISTO

Tucking into a big bowl of porridge, contemplating whether I go to the footy on Sat Night (WCE vs Carlton).

Just beautiful training weather. Unless you’re an Avon competitor (or a farmer) , its been pretty good winter training weather of late. Friday was the usual cycle to Deepwater Pt at 5.10am and meet with Sarah and Tanya for the 6.6km run. Young Sarah absolutely ‘popping’ with excitement over a house move closer to her school. She asked me what her run time was. Now, we had stopped around 5 or 6 times so it was never going to be a PB. We are going to ramp up these runs now to push a little harder. The aim is to post a 1hr time for the 12kms so it ain’t going to be easy.

Saturday morning, I was determined to show some!! We had around 8 riders but we had Richard, Guy, Nick, Craig, Robbie and Adrian Yurisich all with good fitness. Along Riverside Drive and we had a similar size group pushing us a long a bit. I managed a long turn for around 2/3 of Mts Bay Rd to UWA. A couple of the other group swept by…..then Richard swept by them for good measure.

On the way back Mts Bay Rd, I again thought I’d push the pace along. Feeling very good and I actually pressed the second half a bit quicker just to keep the effort high. We had our usual roll through (thought we passed Jude….giveaway long red locks) on Shelley foreshore. The final sprint was a late one from Richard. I managed to jump with him but he held a 5m gap and I had to concede that I couldn’t bridge it. I don’t often give the effort away but it was much too strong a finish. Coffee at Kelly’s Café afterwards where Adrian Yurisich’s wife Virginia and son Joseph sidled by with their bikes.

Adrian showing the benefit of some hard cycling and just plain old toughening up. A real credit to him and he’s on the rise.

I had said to a few of the guys that I wanted a Sunday hills ride but I slept through the usual 7am start. At 10am I rolled out along Ranford then right at Roe Hwy for a decent effort at the Welshpool Rd hill. I thought I was up it fairly well but a little way off the 19 to 20kph effort that I may have had if other ‘mountain goats’ had been along for the ride. I found out there was some racing at Pickering Brook but I turned left at Canning Rd and cycle a way toward Kalamunda before turning around to head back.

Your forget how hard that little hill is at the Canning Rd end of Welshpool Rd. As I pondered whether or not to try to break my 88kph record downhill, I remembered that I’d glued on my own tyres (yes I was on the tubulars). That bit of uncertainty kept the descent sensible with the brake pads getting a bit of a cook.

I was well-satisfied with the effort and turned left from Welshpool to Roe Hwy. After about a kilometre, I saw two figures zoom past me and the words ‘Jump on, Christo!’. It was Troy Coulthard with the pistons pumping hard and a guy called Jason hanging on for dear life. I made the effort to latch on and my leisurely ride home vanished.

So no running this weekend. Dee knocked off a 15km run and has now worn the new shoes in a bit. It’s a big thumbs up for these Saucony’s so that’s one piece of the C2S marathon jigsaw in place.

I’ll do a few reps of the Mount St hill over these next few days to get my climbing legs sorted out and woken up. My front Conti Comp has a flat now. I’m thinking I’ll buy a Conti Sprinter to replace it. It will just be the Mavic Ksyrium’s for Pinjarra though. Well done to ‘Koops’ on his 108km training effort on Sunday. All part of the long road to IMWA 2010. I had a chat to Clarky about this the other day. He told me that a time of around 10ms 15min would be enough in the 50 to 54yo age group to get a spot to Hawaii. I then worked out that I had to get a 5hr bike for the 180kms, around 70 to 75min swim and a marathon of under 4hrs….and I have 4years left to build up to this as a 46yo currently. But I reckon I’ll only have on real tilt at Kona so a 4year lead-in is definitely do-able.

Some of you may be following the Tour De France. Hard to know it Contador is running a little scared of Schleck. I was hoping for a Dennis Menchov smashing of the field but Sanchez put paid to that. Something about me gets irritated by the fans running so close alongside cyclists during hard hill climbs.

Good luck to all of you doing the 4hr MTB Enduro this Sunday. I know Clarky, Brendan and perhaps Tim are doing it. I know Todd and Clarky did some C grade racing with Peel not long ago. 3 weeks till the Perth Half Mara. The Run for Gold is on this Sunday for those of you looking for a 5 or 10km run. Congrats to Raf Baugh on a 31m12s third place effort in the State 10km road champs. I remember young Ethan Heywood from my son’s cross country days. He’s a year or two younger than Matt but he’s finished second in these 10km champs to ultimate winner, Roberto Busi.

Postscript - Tues 20 July 2010

I had a hard ride in this morning and flicked past several people. I saw some South Perth Rouleur riders just north of Canning Bridge. I did 3 ascents of Mount St for good measure and wondered how the hell I had managed 10 of these in a row during the peak of my IMWA training. Insane! Well done to Rod McGrath, a workmate who did his first Brookton Hwy hill climb. A hard effort. Good prep for Pinjarra.

We have two teams now in Cyclosportif Pinjarra confirmed. One for A distance, One for B distance. Dee knocking off another big run today on her way to her first marathon. Go the blonde!

It’s amazing the difference a dropped chain makes. Can’t wait for Tourmalet! I want Menchov to blast everyone away.

Reservoir

CHRISTO

Not this Sunday but next is the Pinjarra Cyclosportif. We have at least 10 of you confirmed so far for the 45km distance (which will basically be from Pinjarra up to Dwellingup and return). I’m still not sure about the A team (A distance 75kms). If we do need to expand to two teams for the 45kms distance we will call one of them Team Delta Force and the other Team Mega Force. We will again use Team Ultra Force in the event we get an A distance team.

As the cutoff for registering is this Tuesday 6pm, I would be most grateful if you could let me know if you’re on board. I’m happy to organise but I need to know who’s in. I’ve again included some of you who have yet to do a cyclosportif or who may not have overtly indicated whether you’d like to. Please don’t be intimidated by the event. The 45kms is achievable and satisfying although there is a long hill involved. The 75kms will be a good, hard challenge and this may sit well with your exercise program.

Most of you who’ve done the A distance before know there’s quite a few challenging ‘roller’s on the way out from Dwellingup along Del park Rd. To those of you contemplating the B distance, I can tell you that when we start the first 10kms flat but there may be some crosswind. The next 10kms are incline and then a few flatter kms to get to Dwellingup. We turn around then it’s a fast descent. The final 10kms are usually with a tailwind and I’m sure the stronger riders will lead the train for a very satisfying finish.

I will notify Jennifer Le Quesne from Cyclosportif of our team(s) tomorrow 16/7/10 cob so I need to know by then if you’re on board.

Most of you have visited my www.christoonline.com weblog and noticed the ’stercus accidit’ motto. Well, it certainly does happen (for those of you that know your Latin) and I’ve had no less than 3 punctures in the last 2 days on my fixie. The first two were due to a gaping hole in the side of the Kenda tyre that came with the bike. So that tyre’s in the bin replaced with a new one. Last night, as I headed south past Canning Bridge, I went over a large rock absolutely flush and it immediately deflated my rear tube. In my haste, I put a new tube in, was ready to go, decided to put a little more air in the tube…….and sheared the valve off the tube. So, hopped on the train, got daughter to pick me up from Murdoch station.

I’m going to get a new tyre for the rear and use tyre liners. I wish there was a quicker way. Not keen to use my $30 can of Pitstop to repair a $2.50 tube. I have decided, though, that the 10 x 60mm tubes I bought for $25 from Torpedo7 were rubbish. Back to Continentals, Michelin or even IRCs.

I’m going to do the Deepwater Pt run tomorrow morning with my 11yo niece at 5.50am. Dee has ‘run in’ her Saucony ProGrid Echelons and had a tough 25km run on Tuesday as part of training for her first marathon. She’s finding it hard to keep her heart rate at a controllable level. It sits on around 150 to 160 when it should ideally be a little under 150bpm. 6 weeks to go till the City to Surf now.

Again, assuming we have Nick Cunnington on board (and we usually do) he has a large white van that we will use as our meeting point for Pinjarra Cyclosportif. Don’t forget the marshalling point is the Racecourse this year, not opposite the Premier Hotel as it has been in past years.

You can tell the cyclist in our family. My son has an XR6 worth $12000, my daughter has just bought a Honda City for $25000 and my wife inherits my daughter’s Hyundai Accent worth around $5000. Me…..I have my $600 Daewoo ‘Pickles auction’ special. Yes, its easy to spot the cyclist in our family. My cheapest bike, the Giant Bowery, was a $950 bike. I’m even thinking of putting my $300 personalised ‘Christo’ number plates on it……but that would be overcapitalising, n’est ce pas??

Finally, visit the www.painathlon.com website for an update. You have till 23 July to register.

Aside from a shower or two tomorrow, a week of nice exercise weather coming up. Enjoy

CHRISTO

To all of you potential starters for the Pinjarra Cyclosportif. The good news is that distance for the B team is only 45kms and for the A team a mere 75kms. The bad news is that there’s a hill about 10kms long between Pinjarra and Dwellingup. Some of you will also be familiar with the rolling hills from Dwellingup as the A distance heads a further 15kms out along Del Park Rd before the turnaround/ u-turn.

Jason John is over in France at le Tour (flew out yesterday) so he won’t be on board. But for the A distance, we need you stronger riders to put your hands up for this one (especially if you have any mountain goat qualities!!)

For the B distance, there are two main things to remember - practice going up a long hill. Something like the start of Albany Highway at Armadale or Brookton Highway or even Welshpool Rd up to Canning Rd would be excellent practice. You have around 2.5 weeks to get this practice in. The other thing to remember is that you can hit pretty fast speeds coming down from Dwellingup. Now, for a lot of you, 60kph would be fast enough but I vividly recall hitting 88kph coming down this hill last time. So, in anticipation of a fast descent, practice your downhills as well (down the 3 hills I mentioned earlier is ideal)

Going downhill safely means you hold a steady line, you’re aware of other bikes around you. Some of you can adopt a special ’stance’ on the bike to be more streamlined coming down (eg head down, bum up, elbows tucked in). Don’t forget that the hill from Dwellingup back to Pinjarra eventually ends and theres still 10kms of time-trialling to finish you off.

Now that I’ve glamourised this ride, I expect lots of you to be starters. If any of you have a spare road bike for someone around 6ft tall, could you tell me? I expect we will have Team Ultra Force, Team Mega Force and Team Delta Force this time around. Remember our only allegiance is to our team (and I guess to our jersey sponsors). We obviously support all bikeshops close by such as BFSR, Cyclebuzz and AvantiPlus.

One year, I well remember us flying down on the return leg from Dwellingup , only to have the Hotham Valley steam train hold us up in crossing the road. We hit the anchors as all the train passengers were happily waving at us.

Getting to the venue is as simple as heading south on Kwinana Fwy, which becomes Forrest Hwy. Left turn on to Pinjarra Rd. Racecourse on the left when it hits SouthWest Highway.

Well done to our two teams at Swan Valley. Our A team posting 5th fastest in an awesome display. Our B team had all new riders to cyclosportif. It took a lap of sorting out our roll through and we knocked off the other 3 laps like seasoned professionals and quite strong in our finish and for the duration of the 64km ride really.

To give the rest of you a guide, the A team finished at just under 40kph average. The B team finished at around 29kph average. I think we will get enough takers for the B distance to form two teams. I imagine one will hit an average similar to 29kph and the other may be a bit quicker. You have just over a week to ponder your involvement and let me know. I’ll make sure the teams are a good fit, so to speak. I think offering a speed range in between a 29kph average and 40kph average will suit most of you. There will always be stronger riders in every team but rest assured we ride together and finish together, as a team.

I can understand some of you being a little tentative about this but it’s a great team activity and a real test of your mettle.

Don’t forget, the website link is http://www.bwa.org.au/cyclo-sportif/190/. Take time out to have a look at the elevation maps and details of the lunch, etc.

As you know, you’re all most welcome to jump aboard our Saturday morning rides at 7am outside Bikeforce Southern River. We usually return just after 9am and coffee at Kelly’s in Campbell Rd. I daresay Sunday hills rides will also emerge in these next two weeks. Just show up on the Saturday rides - we’re a friendly bunch.

On a separate note, still running with my 11yo niece around Deepwater Pt every Tues and Fri morning. Join us if you want….gotta get there for 5.50am though. Also, Thursdays from 5.30pm doing Jacob’s ladder…just don’t do 80mins in a row hard otherwise, like me, you may experience excruciating soreness in calf muscles and quadriceps. Only just recovering from last Thursday. Buying Dee some Mizuno Pro Grid Echelon shoes from The Running Centre in Hay St West Perth

Reservoir

CHRISTO

The last month has been incredibly busy. After having sworn off all endurance events for a period of 4 years, I find myself inextricably drawn to such things. In cycling terms, there is always the cyclosportif and the Saturday morning group rides.

My running training is definitely in hiatus but I’m going to have a crack at the Perth Half marathon on 8 August 2010.

I’ll be helping out at Painathlon 2010 as a support vehicle. We had a great team ride in cyclosportif yesterday with a full team of mainly new riders in the 64km B distance. No accidents or mishaps. It was a sensible, safe and fun ride that I’m sure our team enjoyed and will want to do again.

Dee’s well on her way in her Perth City to Surf marathon preparation and has a big 28km run to do tomorrow. I spotted Rod Mejias finishing off a 42km training run for his tilt at the same event.

I’ve put my name down for the Individual Time Trial at Champion Lakes this Sunday although recapturing some of the 40kph form may take some time.

My niece is still running with me every Tues and Fri around Deepwater Pt at 6am as part of her 12km City to Surf preparation. I’ll be running this event with her then have some time to cheer my wife home with her marathon.

I keep reminding Matt of his feat at just 11yo when he did the City to Surf in 51mins to win the Under 12 age group two years in a row. To think he ran 4min20sec/km pace at that age just does my head in.

Jacob’s ladder open now so the stair zombies are back in full force.

Jason John is off to see the Tour de France with a group of around 30 in a bus. It should be a great experience for him and he’s been putting in some serious training for it.

I’ve been riding the fixed wheel Giant Bowery into work lately. Plenty of layers to ward off the cold mornings. Lots of idiots commuting on Fwy path without lights in the dark. Just mindless!

Reservoir

CHRISTO

Cyclosportif is team riding over a  course that varies between around 80kms and up to 110kms. At Lancelin we had a team of 5 riders and it was a windy day with plenty of undulation. A couple of our riders were clearly fitter and full credit to them.

At York, we, again, had 5 riders (you can have a minimum 4 riders up to a maximum of 9 riders. We were ninth last team to set off as teams are now handicapped from slowest starting first. With only 5 team riders, it means we can’t share the load of doing ‘turns’ at the front of  our team. We did share the load however and kept a tight echelon formation into the first 30kms with a cross/head wind over our right shoulders.

It’s a little hairy taking up a good portion of the lane but its relatively easy to pick traffic approaching from behind. The series of rolling hills were challenging and plenty of team riders split up a little here. A few  punctures sighted and a couple of ‘yaks’!!

Our next event is Swan Valley which, although flat, is usually a windy and wet event.

Adios amoebas. More regular posts I promise

CHRISTO

Today was the big day at Busselton. What a blast! We arrived at Peppermint Park and I got the use of my son’s XR6. I had a go at gluing on some tubular tyres on my Gravity Zero wheels. There was quite a big group of us doing the event this time around. Brendan, Liz, Fiona, Ashleigh and Paddy were all amped for a big effort and me , of course.

Brendan put a big 4hr 50min effort in but got pinged for a 5min penalty. Still, a great first up effort. I managed a meagre 3.5min improvement from last year but my swim and run just weren’t up to scratch.

Still, we’ve had a ball. A big BBQ at our digs tonight. Over $40000 worth of bike gear between 3 bikes.

I’ve made this a bit of a watershed on doing long distance endurance events. I won’t be contesting any events until I turn 50 (which is in 4 years time)

I can’t remember carbo loading as much as I did on Friday night. Loads of pasta. I had 96FM play a whole lot of inspirational songs for Busso Half Ironman competitors last Sunday on the classic cafe.

I am the proud owner of a new Giant Bowery ‘fixed wheel’ single speed bike. I sourced a Soma 14tooth from Cycle Bespoke so I have a good mix of gear with a 47 tooth front ring.

We have the Derby and the Carlton/Collingwood match to look forward to this weekend.

Well done to Kate Bevilaqua in the womens’ Busselton Half Ironman on a second place. Luke McKenzie smashed the men’s but apparently had some dramas in the final transition.

Congrats to all the Cyclebuzz folk (heaps of them), the Stadium Tri club competitors and the North Coast Tri Club.

Well done also to Brynt McSwain, Matt Illingworth, Loretta Wesley (we to’ed and fro’ed a bit on the bike leg) and all the WA competitors. We have quite a few mates now entered for IMWA including big Dave Koopu. I still get called Marshmallow Man after pulling out of the IMWA team run last year.

A bit of a newsflash in that IMOZ is full in record time!!!

Adios amoebas!!

CHRISTO

Anyone, I promise more regular blogs.