Well, the ride every two days hasn’t panned out. It can be surprising how much time families can take, and unfortunately John Claxton’s advice doesn’t seem to work that well as I usually do the morning shift with the youngest and then by mid morning it is common for all the other stuff to be more pressing.
We had a week at Phillip Island where I managed three short rides around the Oswin Roberts Reserve and on to Rhyll. Took the mtb as I remembered the island being small and a lot of the roads narrow with a ton of Christmas holiday traffic. In other words trying to get road miles in you’d end up being a mouse in a wheel doing some small loop again and again, with cars brushing too close past. I found a small patch of bush in the reserve with walking tracks in it and became a mouse in a wheel in there. Rode the fence line where it had been slashed, slow and just rough (rough like the pine forest in the BMC classic) to be uncomfortable. Wasn’t a lot, but with the track to Rhyll I could manage 90 minutes or so before I was stir crazy.
Then of course we had some really hot days, did a ride out to Mt Pleasant Rd for some climbing but was too late in the morning on a 39° day, by the time I got out there I knew I was in trouble so just dropped the gears and rode to survive. Eventually stopped at a servo to dunk my head, get a bidon full of cold water to pour over myself regularly, and then finished the ride home. Was ok, but if it had been much further I reckon I would have been getting into some serious trouble. I’ve entered the Otway so need hours into the legs, though after this weeks hot one if it is over 30 on the day I don’t think I’ll bother starting.
A brief series of dirt crits have started nearby, so I hope to ride them for the next three weeks.
0 Responses to “Recently”