monototo

rode into town on Thursday morning in ~33mins, felt pretty buggered for such an average time.  This made more sense when I rode home just after lunch time.  I came from the south-west side of the city, and ended up going past the wine centre (where I reset the odometer) and then up payneham rd and lower north-east road till it ends.  Slightly more direct route but the hills at the end are much worse and there are traffic lights.  Anyway, I rode fairly well, but the tail wind probably had a lot more to do with my time of 29min 37sec.  I can't do that time on the way into town!  

This morning I did a 31min 15sec, average of 33.7, over 17.56kms with a max of 61kmh-1.  my ODO  stands at 4508km.  At about 8kms in I wasn't concentrating on the path while going into a corner and I nearly veered off the track into a large gum.

I broke 65kmh-1 the other morning at about the 7km mark on this map:

tinyurl.com/a5djn

this is my daily commute, you can zoom closer after about the 3km mark

Got going sometime just after 8am.  Didn't try too hard, and the strong tail wind took me down to Edwards-town with the average just dropping off at the end, from 40hmh-1 to 38kmh-1.

I was hoping to use the velodrome there, but the oval in the centre was being used by rug-rats playing footy.  Even though they were only ~9 years old one of the coaches was going blue in the face screaming at them.

Went to Bernie Jones to look at new wheels.  I want something lighter but mainly I just want something that will fit in better in competition.  From there I tried to head down south but I couldn't find the expressway because I don't know those streets very well.  Admitidly I didn't try hard though, I was happy to try and go through the suburbs down to Norlunga where I found the track.  I rode this till it disappeared in Mclaren Vale.  Stopped for lunch.

I soon discovered those roads that far south were a little too daunting for me alone, and I didn't know where they went, so I turned around and headed back the way I came.  It'd been a nice tail wind the whole way there, but on the way back it was simply a bitch.  on leaving, my average was +32kmh-1, but by the time I got home it'd dropped to 26.  This was also partly due to some tendinitis in my left knee, plus I didn't want to destroy my muscles because I want to go and train with the uni triathlon guys tomorrow morning.  When I got home I was having trouble breathing, as I was cooling down in the kitchen my chess became really tight.  I'll go see a doctor sometime this week.

here are the stats:
Average:26kmh-1
Distance:143.10km
Time: 5:29:36
ODO: 3992
Max: 59

Even though the average was pretty poor I'm still more than happy with this effort.  I think, prior to today the greatest I'd ridden in a day was 80kms, so yeah, I was pretty stoked.

p.s.  looks like you were right kent.  I'm looking forward to the individual event at unigames (30-40kms).  I'm keen to have a crack at the 150-180km group road race if it is held after the individual event.

it's started.  Last Tuesday it was raining constantly on the way into uni but i continued undeterred.  I made it in in 39 minutes which has to be my slowest yet.  But it was due to all of the wooden bridges which I had to corner on (they felt like ice) and the general slipperiness of the track.  Oh and I took a slightly safer but longer path.

That afternoon I bettered this time on the way back up the hill, 38mins.  However all of my gear was soaked and my waterlogged shoes weighed about four times as much as usual.  Since then the weather has been better.  Friday's ride was pretty good, 31:40 on the way into town with a fairly heavy backpack.

This morning however I think I obtained a personal best, 31minutes and 1 second to traverse the 17.54km with an average speed of 33.9kmh-1 and a max of 63kmh-1.  I'm so close to my goal of under half an hour, I think I could do it now if I didn't have a backpack and I cleaned up my bike.  My ODO is 3635.  I was looking at going to unigames but the road race there is 180kms so the concept is out of the question until I can demonstrate to myself that I can crack at least 150 by myself without stopping.  Anyway, I'm planning to have a crack at this on Saturday morning, I'll let you know how it goes.

Update: on the way home (back up the hill) I did Tm:38:41, Max:43, ave 27.4, Dis:17.73 which is pretty standard for the moment.  But i'm totally buggered now.  Oh well, showers are coming in over the next few afternoons so I might take a few 1/2 days off and I'll be right for Saturday.

Broke a spoke a while back, rear wheel, inside spoke on the non drive side.  Is impossible to get the replacement spoke in without removing the sprocket.

So I haven't been riding as much as usual.  Friday i had to ride because critical mass criticalmass.org.au/ were meeting.  Took me 45-minutes on my sisters monstrosity of a mountain bike.

On the way home I caught up to another cyclist.  I said something about bike power as I passed him but he caught me at the next lights.  The next set of red lights I stopped for but he went through.  I chased him but he ran the next set as well.  A few kilometres further up the hill, after quite some effort, I caught up to him.  Turns out he's a lecturer at my uni.  We chatted for a bit but soon enough he had to turn off.  A few more kilometres and I was home.  Although it was considerably slower than usual, it was a nice ride.