Fitness returns this week

Unfortunately I had that bad virus that was going round. I had no energy and a fever for about 7 weeks. This week I managed to walk the dog every morning at Royal Park, then go for a short swim before work. On Thursday I even rode my bike to the pool, first time in at least 8 weeks. When you are used to regular exercise and a virus forces you to rest you start to feel like a slug!

My body feels in good shape again, now for the weight loss program to get rid of the unwanted kilos! I will discuss it with my treating physician tomorrow. The medication I have to take fro a chronic health problem inhibits weight loss.  My physician said he wants me to be as disciplined with wieght loss as I am with exercise.

Enjoyable long ride Sunday 24 August 2008

I was supposed to go to the footy with my friend Dan and his sons today but alas I was uninvited. Instead I rode to Southern Cross, took the train out to Ringwood and rode back towards the CBD on the new EastLink Bikepath. I joined the EastLink Bike path on the west side of Ringwood Rd just before the Ringwood Bypass. The signage for bike was confusing, I confirmed that I was indeed traveling in the correct direction when I was able to ask someone cycling towards me.

The path goes into the Mullum Mullum Creek valley, it goes up and down and a challenge for me as I STILL haven’t mastered standing up in the pedals when going up a steep grade. The trees, plants and birdlife are lovely. I wandered along this path for about an hour until it joined the “old” path. I kept riding towards the CBD finally peeling off at Middleborough Rd returning via Box Hill Station. It is hard to estimate the distance traveled as the bike path curved around so much.

I am off to wash to mud off my bike now!

Exercise Diary – 11-22 August 2008

I have been maintaining my swim sessions @ 20 laps, I usually do 4 laps freestyle as a warm up, 8 laps deep water kicking with flippers, 4 laps hand paddles – no legs and 4 laps IM. The butterfly lap is my fitness test!

Last week I swam on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, so far this week swam on Monday and Tuesday. I planned a training ride with other members of the Swinburne BUGS and friends & VU Library Cyclists on Sunday 17 August but everyone was busy. I did not want to go alone, so I have gone back to riding before work. Dawn is around 0650 so on my late shift day I can wait until it is light.

This morning I followed the Upfield train line on the bike path for 20 minutes, then turned around and came home. It felt comfortable being back on the bike. My next ride is scheduled for Friday morning. Same length of time, hopefully a bit further this time. Around the Bay in a Day is 8 weeks away. I should be ready for the 50km leg by then!

http://www.bv.com.au/great-rides/20005/

Swimming & Around the Bay bike ride

I am proud of myself. I have remained true to my goal of increasing 2 laps every time I go to the pool. On Tuesday 29 July I did 16 x 33m at the City Baths. I expect to get to 20 laps on Saturday 2/8. I intend to sit on that and focus on increasing speed for at least a week. It is now Sunday 3/8 and I will do 20 laps when I go for a swim this afternoon. It feels great to be ON TRACK in the fitness department!

The annual round the Bay bike ride is on 15 October ie 10 weeks. I ride with the Swinburne Library BUGS. we have planned out first training ride for Sunday 14/8, the first weekend after the film festival. I intend to enter the 50km leg of Around the Bay, others in our team, who did the 50km in 2007, will be doing the 100km leg.

Dawn on a foggy Sunday……

………this is one of those days when deep inner strength is required. Training means just that, even doing it in poor weather conditions. It is foggy and looks cold out there. I will rug up in my kicks extensions and old skiing neck warmer. I did a big loop, rode south to Footscray Rd, west to Whitehall St, east along the river to the Kensington Cattle Bridge, north along Kensington Rd and Macauley Rd to home. The fog was actually a fine misty made me wet and I forgot to take my lights.

The round trip took 1.5 hours and I had to get off the big on the Kensington Rd hill @ Altona St, better luck tomorrow! The 30km event on the new section of EasternLink is in 2 weeks, will I be ready?

Short ride after dinner

I was not able to go for a ride this morning, instead I went out after dinner. Heading south from my place to Footscray Rd, west along Footscray Rd to Whitehall St, I turned around and came home. On the way out I used the bike path on south side of Footscray St. This is a bit hairy as they are renovating the track. On the home trip I rode in the service lane. No idea of distance, time in saddle = 40 minutes.

For some reason I feel better riding in the dark if it is before dawn than after sunset.

EastLink Ride – Smooth surface, not a smooth ride!

It takes a certain sort of person to be foolish enough to want to participate mass “FUN” events. We were advised by email 4 days before the big day that 22,000 riders were registered. On the actual day about 80,000 riders turned up!

Nenad picked me up around 0700. We were parked and our bikes unpacked in the area suggested by Gary by 0745. It was semi foggy and cold so I suggested we ride to the start to watch the 65km riders take off at 0800. We looked down to the start from the Wellington Rd entrance but the riders were shrouded by fog. We could hear the continuous patter of the starter.

Around 0900 more of our team arrived – Helen, Joan, Tony, Wayne, Gary, Ann and Anne. We all started making our way down the on ramp from Wellington Rd towards Frankston. To get to the 30km starting point we had to follow the freeway in a southerly direction, take the next off ramp, go over the overpass and reenter the freeway so that we were facing a northerly direction. The official start for the 30km riders was 0930. We were faced with BIKE GRIDLOCK, it was hardly possible to ride. Some riders who did not want to go up and over were climbing the wire fence in thE middle of the freeway then attempting to dodge the riders of the 65km leg on their way back from Frankston, traveling at speeds of up to 59 kph!!!!!

We were trapped amongst adult riders with no baggage, adult riders with toddlers in seats on the back of their bikes, adult riders with 2 wheel child transports attached, adult riders supervising under 8’s who were often very wobbly and unpredictable, tandems, recliners, even a giant unicycle! It was chaos. We finally made it through the Starting Arch about 1000. The riding was tough and people did not spread out for about 20 minutes. We then had about 1/2 hour of fun riding before we started to bunch up again, we were about 1km from the U-turn area. I was feeling claustrophopic so I suggested to Nenad we take the nearest exit, which happened to be Canterbury Rd. We headed back along the new Eastern Trail bike path to Jells Park and home. The chicken souvlaki we ate in Richmond was the highlight of the day!

I believe that at future events Bicycle Victoria needs to consider staggering the start more and have adult riders with toddlers in seats on the back of their bikes, adult riders with 2 wheel child transports attached, adult riders supervising under 8’s who were often very wobbly and unpredictable start as a group. It was so frustrating and required a great deal of concentration to make sure the small children around me were safe.

Searching for a new bike

My Grandpa was a fitter & turner, a strong family man and union member. He courted my Grandmother by riding from Kew to Brighton and back, every Sunday to visit her. He retired from full time work just before I was born to nurse his wife at home, in the bed she had bore him two daughters. As well as being an accomplished jam maker, one of my Grandpa’s hobbies was scouring tips for useful junk. My first bike was found on one of these expeditions. Grandpa straightened the frame, sanded it back to the metal and my Dad painted it. One of them painted my name in a fancy script on the frame. It was called a “Fairy Bike”, the wheels were solid rubber, about 15 inch, the paint job was black with white writing.

Like many Aussie kids, I learnt to ride in the backyard with my Dad holding the seat and running next to me, I rode on the footpath. Alas when I grew out of that bike my Mum determined that it was too dangerous for me to ride on the road. When I finished school I bought my first full size bike in the “Trading Post” (paper edition only in 1973!), it was a clapped out “Malvern Star” with no gears. This time I was the one using lots of “elbow grease”, as my Grandpa called it, to sand the frame back to the metal and paint the bike RED. I rode that bike for 12 years before adding a toddlers’ seat. My daughter and I rode it for the next 2 years until she was too heavy for my to carry.

By this time I knew more about bikes. I wanted a “Shogun Custom Sports” bike with a mixti frame. I bought it in 1988, it too was black with white writing, it came with racing handbars which I later replaced with straight. Eventually I added a luggage rack so I could carry 2 paniers. One Fridays we had casual dress day at work, so every Friday I rode from Nth Melbourne to Fishermens Bend, wearing bike nicks, changing into jeans when I arrived.

In February 2003 this bike was retired as I upgraded to a hybrid bike using some of my Redundancy Payout, when my role NOT I was made redundant. Redundancy hurts and a new bike was my sweetener. The hybrid became my primary method of transport from February 2003 – October 2006. I was able to do so because my daughter moved out of home and started uni, I no longer needed a car to pick my daughter up in the wee small hours from her part time job. I was now able to adopt the David Suzuki model and experiment with not owning a car. My Shogun became my daughter’s first commuting bike, she rode it from 2003 – December 2007 when she was given a Red Kroemer as a Christmas present. It was off the road for 6 weeks in 2004 when she had an accident and the fork was broken. It took the persistent John at Unicycles to persist in sourcing a new fork for a 16 year old bike. It has now been handed down to one of her house mates.

My hybrid bike has suspension on the seat and the front fork, adding a significant amount of weight. I fitted it with a luggage rack and cages on the pedals. I never did take it off road, I enjoy road cycling and riding with the Swinburne BUGS on bike paths. The frame never really suited my skeleton so I will take more care when getting measured for a new bike. The time has come to begin searching for a lighter women’s frame.

My hybrid bike cost about $850.00 in 2003, it has been well looked after, regularly serviced. Bikes depreciate rapidly so I have no idea what I will get for it on eBay. Currently I am looking for a women’s frame, straight handbars, I am going to make the move to cleats and I will still need a luggage rack. I am not sure of having any carbon fibre on board. A friend who rides the Hell Ride a few times a week swears by it but I am not up to that standards.

Back on my bike after 3 weeks

A clear sunny day with little wind in Melbourne yesterday. I enjoyed a delightful brunch with a “collection” of librarians at my friend Mary’s house. The four of us looked at the photographs Mary had taken on her recent trip along the Dutnegulla Track. She has a good eye for composition, shooting objects, signs and buildings that lie quirkily within the landscape. After napping off my pink champagne I rode over to the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne, I was meeting another librarian to visit the Vivienne Shark LeWitt exhibition title Comedies & Proverbs. Rosalind and I found the paintings very interesting but our knowledge of painting was not sufficiently deep to understanding the comedy. We will need to read the background document on the musem’s web site http://www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au/default.aspx to gain an inkling of the extremely clever references within these works.

The short ride from Nth Melbourne to Carlton and back was fun.