Going Crazy on the Hills!

Total Rides: 26

Total Distance: 1,629 km

Total Ascent: 20,790 m

Well, I’m now well and truly back in the saddle again after a bit of time off for the Victoria Country Tour and some bad weather. On the one hand time off the bike is great, it gives the body a rest and even allows for a few lie-ins … however on the other hand there’s the guilt; you’re convinced everyone else is out training the house down, that you’re slipping behind and that you’ll be the one ‘dragging the anchor’ when it comes to Tour. Cycling paranoia!

The weather now is perfect for training; sunny, not too hot, low humidity and not much rain. So no excuses, with 5 weekends left before we leave for Adelaide it’s time to get serious. I’ve been doing a lot of hill training in readiness for the last three days of Tour and things are definitely improving in that area – however I’m now a bit anxious that I haven’t done enough long rides to prepare for doing the 10 consecutive long rides that is Tour. The obvious way to put this right is to start doing long training rides with plenty of climbing … so that was my challenge yesterday – 100km plus with over 1,500m vertical climbing. I wasn’t sure how realistic that was as I would be riding solo, however it was time to push myself and give it a go. For the first 70 odd km’s things were going very well; great weather, stunning scenery and empty roads meant that I was enjoying myself and feeling good on the bike. Then within the space of only a couple of km’s the body decided I hadn’t been feeding it enough and went on a go slow – never a good sensation, but especially when you’re a fair way from any food! Basically when you’re riding you have to eat and drink even when you don’t feel like it, once you actually feel hungry or thirsty it’s generally too late to catch up. Fortunately most of the road to the nearest food was downhill, so after a very gentle stretch of riding it was time to refuel – carb’s and sugar time! Hot chips, Coke and pretty much anything you wouldn’t normally eat are the order of the day at times like this. It’s a indication of how many calories we burn during the rides that despite the regular carb and sugar fixes the weight still drops off – apparently I now weigh under 80kg’s for the first time in a very long time!

Overall a great day – 125km’s ridden with 1,800m vertical climbing. Mission accomplished. Looking at the Tour route the sobering reality is that on day 9 we’ll ride 111km with over 2,500m of climbing, followed by another 185km into Canberra the following day. Great. No time for rest – there are going to be a lot of long hilly rides over the next few weeks!