Liz Randall's Cycling Blog - a life behind bars

"With ordinary talents and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable"



Sunday 8 November 2009

Saturday's epic ride..or how fatigue and logic don't live together

5pm Friday and with my colleagues ensuring I knew where I was s'posed to be going (strategy) I set off for the gym. Not only did I "set off for the gym", I also got there, went in and stayed for about 45 minutes. A-mazing! 10 mins sitting on
one of those awful gym bikes followed by a drift round various machines ending up with the incline leg press. Talk about feeling virtuous.


The order from she who must be obeyed for this weekend was 2 x 2-3 hr rides with the second one being a bit easier. So the plan for Saturday was home to Beach Road and around to town, then catch the train home. Sunday was to be the 1 in 20 loop plus a bit extra if necessary but as it turned out I'd more than done enough on Saturday

House renovations have left me totally bewildered as to where things are...clearly in a "safe" place..if only I knew which safe place! So my exit on Saturday was delayed by the search for this that and the other, but especially the sunscreen since it was wall to wall blue sky and with an expected top in the mid 30's.


I eventually left sans screen but with the intention of grabbing a sample daub from somewhere or other. When I got to Black Rock I realised that I didn't have too much cash on me either..enough for the obligatory coffee and munchie but not for the train trip home (for some reason my card wont work in quite a few machines..car parks, train tickets etcetc), so having got the sunscreen the next quest was a bank..preferably "my" bank since I didn't really want to pay extra for using any old bank's ATM.

It was at this point, riding into a block head wind down Beach Road that fatigue took over ...I mean really, why on earth did I keep on looking for "my" bank? $2 isn't all that much extra to pay. So...MUCH later..probably Richmond/Hawthorn area I finally spied an ATM I could use. Cashed up my next task was to find food/drink and then a train...HA! food/drink no prob, but a train?

Found one eventually..somewhere past Box Hill and in the mean time had an interesting moment or 2 being monstered by a blue ute driver who clearly didn't want to share the road and being far too close to a fender bender just behind and to my right. With a ride time of 3 hours 45 mins I finally got home to sink into oblivion in front of the TV. Needless to say Sunday's ride was just the 1 in 20 loop!

Hooning down the Mt Dandy Tourist Road from Olinda I had cause to muse over the "new" road rules that forbid cars to cross a single solid white line..at the top the road is pretty narrow and has the aforementioned single solid white line...does this mean I'm now going to be monstered into the gutter by drivers intent on following the letter of the law?

Thankfully today is a rest day and tomorrow is "put a marker in the sand" day. I have to do a 20 minute hill effort..ie the 1 in 20 done at a concentrated pace. I know where 20 minutes at cruising pace takes me to, so it'll be interesting to see where on the hill 20 minutes takes me to tomorrow.

Hmm memo to self....pacing needs to be steady.

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