Where did Saturday go?

With both Phil and Alex away I have the house to myself with only the cats to talk to.....not that I'm complaining, as with my people orientated job, its nice to have a bit of solitude occasionally. But I'm not quite sure where Saturday morning went. A bit of pottering around the house cleaning up, an hour on the ergo, a bit of computer time and a bit of shopping (whoops! Anzac Day and so no supermarkets open) and suddenly it was 1200.

My afternoon was to be spent doing my duty with one of my 2 cycling clubs at their road race on killer Killara road. I had requested to be on lead or follow car duty since I was racing the omnium the next day and didn't wanted to have to stand for the 2 hours the race took place. This particular circuit is best known for the number of DNF's it inspires; A and B grades do 4 laps of the out and back circuit, the rest do 2 and the last time I was working where I was at one of the road junctions I got the feeling the race had finished and no-one had told me what with the field whittling down so dramatically.

Anyhow I got my wish and was in the lead car, something I'd not done before. I'm not sure how far ahead I was s'posed to be but I made sure that for most of the race they had at least a glimpse of me and apart from the nervy 1st lap, when I didn't know exactly where the turn arounds were, it was drama free. I don't think I've ever used my rear and side view mirrors as much..EVER! and was worried that I might end up with a wry neck..but I'm fine.

However, I almost ran out of petrol. Big memo to self..don't believe what the gauge says. When I started the needle indicated just under 1/2 a tank full. The read out said I had 240 km worth left and with a 64km race and about 12 km each way to get there I thought I was ok. Silly me. The warning light went on at "60kms worth of petrol left" just before the end of the race and by the time I'd finished and got to a petrol pump it was down to 20km. Running out of petrol is just downright careless and embarrassing.

Today is the omnium and the weather is cold so I'm packing heaps of clothes and heaps of food. I know its cold 'cos the honey doesn't want to come out of the squeeze pack, the cat food wont come out of the tin and putting the HRM on is painful. I hope its not like this in Sydney where my mate Jays Austin is doing his World Hour Record attempt. He got close the last time but set out too fast and faded, this time with Alex Simmons as a coach and experience of the event, he'll get it for sure. I think he, like Michael Burke later this year is doing it within the program of a larger event. There's so much you can control and there's much you can't and the weather is firmly in the latter category and can be the difference between success and failure. The problem about aborting an hour attempt is that it is involves so much "getting your mind set right" that once you're on the tram tracks to it, veering away is downright difficult. For totally different reasons, both Jays and I had that problem in 2007.

So its time to pack up the car with 2 bikes loads of wheels heaps of food and clothing, trainers, pumps etc etc and experience an omnium. There are 13 women racing and my group is WMAS 3+, so we know where I'll be! I've got Monday off to recover.