Riding, riding and more riding

I've covered a fair bit of ground since I last updated this blog a month ago. I've done just over 600km with around 6000m of climbing, which makes it the most intense period of riding that I've ever done. I've done a bunch a nice longish rides. I rode down to Encounter Bay to see Barrie and Ruth and have been up to Norton Summit and Mt Lofty a few times. I'm slowly starting to show some improvement - my average time is creeping up a bit and I've done my best times on a few climbs (Old Willunga Hill, Mt Lofty specifically)

It's Tour Down Under week and it's a great time to be on a bike. I've encountered a bunch of pro teams in my travels over the past week or so. I went up to Norton Summit last Tuesday night after work and while I stopped and filled my water bottle, the whole BMC team (led by Phillip Gilbert resplendent in his world champs rainbow jersey) came up the road then disappeared down the Old NS Road. Then last Saturday I came across 10 different teams out training around West Lakes and Semaphore. It was great fun to be riding around in amongst all that.

It was a pretty big ride on Saturday - 105km, which is the longest ride I've done. I went up to Mt Lofty, then across the ranges and descended down Montacute Road, which has been partially resurface ahead of tomorrow's TDU stage where they go up Corkscrew Road and down Montacute Road to the finish line. That's going to be a seriously hairy decsent. Unfortunately they've only resurfaced the worst bits so it's has a bit of a patchwork look. Still, the new bits are beautifully smooth and overall it's better than it was.

Anyway, from Monacute I worked my way across the city, down Grange Road and across to Semaphore. By the time a reached Semaphore and stopped for a toasty I'd clocked up 78km. I was surprised at how good I felt - I'm normally starting to feel pretty well spent by then. As I bogged into my toasty, I started to wonder if Karolle had laced my orange juice with EPO that morning! I decided it was a combination of things - paying a bit more attention to carb loading over the 24 hours before the ride, taking a higher potency magnesium powder ('Ultra Muscleze Energy') which seemed to help with my cramp issues, mild weather (27ish) and getting my bike fit sorted.

Heading up Cross Road in the first part of the ride, I kept getting the feeling that, if I raised my seat a bit more, I'd probably sit a bit lighter on my bum. When I first started riding my seat was quite low (only slightly higher than the handlebars) because of my lower back issues left over from my disc injury 12 years ago. As my back has been getting stronger, I feel like I've been able to cope with having the seat higher so I've been incrementally raising it over the past year. Anyway, I stopped just before the Tollgate and raised it by 15-20mm, which is a fairly significant increase. After doing the 40 kilometres or so through the hills it was pretty obvious that I'd got it right because my bum wasn't nearly as sore as I normally would be.

Anyway I felt remarkably good at the end of the ride. I even had enough left in my legs to boogie the night away with Karolle at Peta-Ann's 80's theme birthday party on Saturday night. Mind you, my legs have been pretty sore for the last few days.

The Bupa challenge ride is coming up on Friday. I've decided to do the Kersbrook start (92km), mainly because it fits in better logistically. I can drive to Kerbrook, do the ride, hang out in Tanunda with Troy and Allison (Troy's doing the 46km), watch the pros come through, then ride back down to Kersbrook (35km). That's the theory anyway. I can't wait. The weather forecast is good - 25 degrees with south-westerly winds, which will be a tailwind for the majority of the ride.

I'm also doing the Ride for a Reason cancer fundraising thing. It seemed timely with my sister-in-law Sandra riding the cancer rollercoaster for most of the past year and with my neice Belinda passing away 14 months ago. I'm doing the Bupa ride for my own sense of acheivement but I'm also riding to honour them both. Here's the signs they've put up on Norton Summit Road recently that put it all into perspective.

Today is also the second anniversary of giving up smoking. I'm pretty damn happy about that. My, how life has changed.

TDU training ride

With the TDU ride just 5 weeks away, I've decided that I need to start doing some longer training rides. Given that I'm not sure about which distance I'll be doing, I thought I'd do a ride today that roughly equates to the shorter Kersbrook start distance (92km). It ended up being a bit shorter at 83km but had 880m of climbing which, according to bikemap.net, is about 150m more than the Bupa Challenge.

I went up to Mt Lofty (yet again) and this time I kept going around the 'Scenic Route' to the Norton Summit turn off. I'd forgetten how nice this part of the road is - here's some pics:

From there I did the Norton Summit descent for the first time, which was great fun. Then it was across to Greenhill Road and basically 30km of spinning on the flat down to Glenelg, Henley Beach and back home. Overall, it was a cracking ride with hardly any stops. I tried to maintain a slightly higher pace than I normally do and ended up averaging 22.4km/h, which is slow of course, but pretty good for me.

Mt Osmond

I continued my quest for new and interesting climbs on Monday night after work. The most noteworthy part of my journey from the CBD up towards Mt Lofty was some dipshit in a car yelling out 'wanker' to me as I was getting towards the top of Glen Osmond Road.

I don't really take much notice of that stuff - he was just a dickhead passenger in a dickhead car showing off in front of his dickhead mates. Interestingly though, it's the second time it's happened recently. The last time was a couple of weeks ago on Main Road at Coromandel Valley. On both occasions I was minding my own business in my little 50cm patch along the edge of the road and the offending twats were nowhere near me (on the other side of the road at Coro and one lane over Glen Osmond Road).

There does seem to be a bit of a feeling around the place that there's an increasing amount of agro from drivers towards cyclists. The issue is certainly talked about quite lot on the Adelaide Cyclists forums, which is the main voice in town for the cycling community. This may or may not be the case - it might be like the apparent belief in the wider community (perpetuated by Today Tonight/Current Affair etc.) that there's more violent crime than there was 30 years ago when clearly the statistics don't bear that out. Anyway, like I said before, the yelling abuse thing doesn't particularly bother me. I just go 'yeah, yeah ....whatever' to myself and continue on my merry way. I'm far more concerned about drivers who do stupid things that can endanger my life. On that subject, I think I'll give Glen Osmond Road a miss in the future. It's not because of the heckler, but there's no bike lane and I really don't feel particularly safe, especially when trucks and buses go by.

Back to the ride... I reached the bollards at Crafers in a reasonable time (for me). I still get overtaken by so many cyclists when I'm doing a climb - it's a good thing I'm not easily deflated. If I did take it to heart I'd be in a permanent state of depression about my lack of progress. I'll keep plodding along up these hills and hopefully, I'll eventually see some improvement. I'm sure I'd progress quicker if I did some more structured training but I really just want to go out for a nice ride in the hills on a sunny day.

Spooky tree and a view of Adelaide from Mt Osmond Road

Back to the ride ...again... I decided not to go all the way to Mt Lofty this time because thought I might detour up Mt Osmond Road on the way back down. I haven't been up there since the 80's when I used to play golf there. I remember the road was pretty steep in parts so I thought I'd give it a bash. As it turns out it was probably steeper than I remembered - the first ascent that overlooks the freeway is particularly severe. Once you veer right at the top of that bit it does settle down a little and becomes more undulating. I followed it around the edge of the golf course then descended back down and eventually ended up on Portrush Road. The road going down looked nice and smooth - I might try going up that way next time.

Oh yes, I have another 'note to self' ..... when you stop at a traffic island thing for a red light at a level crossing and the 'ding, ding, ding' for the oncoming train starts, always take note of where you are in relation to the boom gates. I was at Emerson crossing on Monday night and clearly wasn't paying enough attention to what was happening and I suddenly sensed a large, heavy, very hard and unstoppably automated object descending over my left shoulder. I ducked forward and out the way just in the nick of time but it gave me the fright of my life. Needless to say, it was also slightly embarrassing - I'm quite sure drivers behind me were guffawing at my predicament.

Anyway, despite all that it was a really nice 45km twilight ride and another climb ticked off the list.

Another new hill

In the spirit of trying new climbs, I did a new ride down south this morning. From home I headed up the Veloway into a pretty stiff southerly, then turned onto along Panalatinga Road and up Cox Hill Road. The main part of  the climb is 3.2km at an average gradient of 4.8%, which makes it a reasonable little climb (for me at least).

Cox Hill Road looking bak to the coast.

From Cox Hill Road it was a lefty onto Piggott Range Road. I really enjoyed this part of the ride - it's a great road for bikes. The surface is really smooth and there's a metre wide, crack free edge to ride in. The views are nice too, with the coast off to the left and the valley across to the right.

From there I turned onto Grants Gulley Road then onto Main Road which descended down towards the Blacks Road intersection and onto Coromandel Valley. The descent was a ripper, again, with some great views down the coast.

View from the Main Road descent on the way to Coromandel Valley.

Coromandel Valley through to Blackwood was just awful. The road is rough, narrow, busy and I didn't feel particularly safe. It's a road I'll avoid in the future. Reaching Blackwood I deliberated  briefly between Shepherds Hill or Belair Road for the descent. I went for the latter and I'm glad I did. I got to the bottom in 4:25 minutes at a touch under 50km/h which, needless to say, was great fun. The ride was 50km with 800m of vertcal ascent, which still took me 2.5 hours.

With only six weeks to go until the TDU ride I need to start some more serious training and ramping up the distances. I'm keen to get some 90-100km rides under my belt over the next few weeks. I'm still intending to do the 126km TDU ride but I'm a bit concerned that it might be too much for me (and my dodgey back). The other concern is that I might be too slow and get caught by the pro tour riders who are evidently due to finish the race in Tanunda at just after 2pm. This gives me 7.5 hours, which should be enough time, allowing for plenty of breaks. However, I'm stll not 100% convinced so my backup plan is to do the 92km ride from Kersbrook. I think I'll just see how my fitness goes and what the weather forecast is and decide which distance to do a week or so out from the ride.

Just like last week, only different

Another Saturday morning, another Norton Summit and Corkscrew ride. After my terribly slow initial attempt at both climbs last week, I needed to go back and do it again. I certainly improved this week - I took four minutes off the Norton Summit climb and seven minutes off the Corkscrew Road. So, my mediocrity has been restored and I've assumed my rightful place at around 10% from the bottom of the Strava leader board for the relevant segments. I still had to stop on the Corkscrew climb, but only once this time and only for a 2 minute breather before the last few switchbacks.

Since I was in the mood for difficult climbs today, I though I'd have another bash at the the top of Morphett Road. I got up there, just, but it seriously hurt. I didn't think I'll do it again in hurry - the last 100 metres at the top must be 20% +. It's just too damn steep for me and it takes everything I've got to get up there.

The other acheivement for the week was a particularly nifty descent from Mt Lofty on Tuesday night. I had nice enough ride up there after work, but it was into a head wind most of the way, so my time wasn't fantastic. However, the descent with a tailwind was magnificent. I did the 8.5km from the bollards at Crafers to the Tollgate in 10:39, smashing my best time by about 35 seconds. Yippee!

Norton Summit and Corkscrew Road

The Norton Summit Road is a ride I've been wanting to do for a while now. Along with the Mt Lofty climb, it would probably be Adelaide's most popular climb. Since I was up that way, I thought I might have a bash at the somewhat legendary Corkscrew Road. It ended up being a short but pretty demanding ride. It was only 45km's (I started from the top of Greenhill Road) but it was a total of 920 metres of ascending, making it probably the most intense ride I've ever done.

The view back down the valley from along the top of Norton Summit Road

Looking back to the city from just before Norton Summit.

I can see why Norton Summit is such a popular ride. It has plenty varying gradients, some magnificent scenery and not a huge amount of traffic (not on a Saturday morning anyway). It felt like it was a similar intensity as the climb from the Tollgate to Mt Lofty but quite a bit shorter. A little way past the township of Norton Summit I came to a fork in the road - with the choice of a downhill road (which was the short way to my destination) or the uphill road (Woods Hill Road) which took the long way around through to Ashton. I was clearly in a self-flagellating frame of mind because I chose the latter. It was pretty damn steep but I made it through to Ashton eventually, then trundled off towards Montacute Road and my destiny.....

The Corkscrew Road turn-off looked unassuming enough, but it only took a minute or two and quick look over the Armco railing for the full horror of the situation to be revealed. The statistics are alarming enough (a 2.4km climb at a 9.2% average gradient) but when you see a view like this with the road snaking it's way through the valley directly below, it was clear that this was going to be a climb like no other that I'd ever attempted.

Now that's just plain silly....

As I cautiously rolled down the hill, the thought of climbing back up this thing made me laugh out loud and I resigned myself to the fact that I'd probably have to walk some sections of it. I stopped a few times on the way down and took some photos then finally reached the valley floor. It's pretty down there with the babbling creek along the side of the road. I almost made it through to Gorge Road before I decided I'd better turn around and face the music.

By now, it was getting pretty warm (around 33 degrees) and, as I passed over the bridge and the climb began, I was not feeling overly confident. My fears were confirmed when the gradient started to bite and I ran out of gas about 50 metres before the first switchback and had to stop and rest for a few minutes. Surprisingly through, the rest of it went okay. I thought those steep ramps on each of the switchbacks would kill me off but managed to get my bum out of the saddle and push through them. I did end up stopping again about 150m passed the last switchback. The worst was over by this stage and I probably could have kept going but I kept looking at my heart rate which had been over 180bpm for quite a while and I decided it would probably be wise to stop and let it settle for a few minutes. Sometimes I think I shouldn't bother wearing the heart rate monitor because I get a bit paranoid about it.

Just before the first switchback - that's the road straight ahead at the top of the hill

Yikes!

Anyway, as I was stopped there, I could hear another rider coming up from behind. He was clearly at maximum effort and his moans and groans were echoing through the valley. As he powered past me I thought to myself "and I'm worried about having a heart attack!". I concluded he was probably doing the Strava Corkscrew TDU Challenge thing which is a month-long competition on Strava to see who can lodge the fastest time up the Corkscrew Road segment. As I got to the top of the hill he was slumped over his bike looking utterly shattered. I asked if he was okay and he nodded so I assumed that was a 'yes'. Anyway, he went seriously fast up that hill and I suspect he's one of the serious cyclists at the top of the leader board who do the climb in the 8 - 9 minute bracket. Anyway, when I got to the top I did briefly flirted with the idea of doing it again, but sanity prevailed and I decided I'd leave it for another day.

For most of the the climbs I've done I'm usually between 5 and 15% from the bottom on the Strava leader board. It's more like 1 or 2% from the bottom after my first attempt at the Corkscrew, so I'm pretty keen to have a few more goes at it to see if I can do a little better. Still, I at least managed to get up the thing on two wheels and not two legs which was more than I was expecting.

Anyway, after Corkscrew it was a pleasant coast down Montacute Road, particularly towards the bottom where the road becomes smoother. A bit of a climb up Stradbroke Road and a meandre back across to the top of Greenhill Road and I was done for the day.

Deep one perfect morning

Saturday was a perfect day to be riding a bike, 26 degrees and hardly a breath of wind. I dawdled around the house for a while and eventually headed off to Mt Lofty just after 9am. I thought I might possibly go further than that but I'd see how my legs felt when I reached the summit.

For once I remembered to put the heart rate monitor on. I've been increasingly conscious of my heart rate being pretty high when putting in the maximum effort, so I thought I'd try and keep it around 160 - 170bpm when doing a climb. Using the standard old maximum heart rate calculation of 220bpm minus your age, this is probably near my maximimum and evidently I shouldn't be exceeding 90% of my maximum heart rate. However, that calculation is general at best and I actually feel quite okay sustaining that heart rate for the majority of the hour or so that it takes me to do the Mt Lofty climb. On this occasion my average for the climb was 174bpm with a maximum of 185bpm. My average for the whole ride was 160bpm. I'm still not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Anyway it was a great ride up there and busy with cyclists as is usual on a Saturday morning. I was still about 5 minutes off my best time for the climb but feel like my legs are gradually returning. After the shattering experience of Amy's Ride last week, I think I just need to ride more regularly. I reckon an hour or so on the trainer every night will do me the world of good.

After a break at the summit I felt okay and decided to keep riding. I contemplated heading north through Norton Summit but ended up doing a loop through Summertown, Balhannah, Verdun, Bridgewater and back to Crafers. It was more or less the loop from the Mt Lofty Challenge ride last March so I knew that there was a fair few hills too negotiate, but I felt up to it. Here's some pics:

Just before Summertown and pretty as a picture ....
who wouldn't want to ride a bike in the hills on a day like this???

Germantown Hill - hard work but thankfully short.

The loop was around 32km or so and was just magnificent on Saturday - plenty of challenging climbs, lots of downhill runs and pefect weather. Those nasty hills before and after Bridgewater haven't gotten any easier since March but I managed to get up each of them without stopping (apart from the quick photo opportunity on Germantown Hill), which is more than I could do last week. I arrived back in Crafers with my legs fairly well spent, but thankfully not cramping like last week. Maybe the magnesium is working, maybe it was just because it was a little cooler. Anyway, from Crafers it was 25km of mostly rolling down the big hill.

It ended up being a pretty big ride, my second biggest in fact. It was 84km with just under 1400m of climbing which was basically the same as the Mt Lofty challenge ride. My time of 4:25 was pretty much the same as that ride as well, which I guess means that my fitness level is about the same as it was back in March. All thing considered, I'm reasonably happy with that.

Needless to say my average of 18.8km/h for the ride is very slow. I'm particularly slow going up hills and I'm frequently overtaken by faster cyclists, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'm happy just to grind up those hills and get there eventually. Mind you, I'm pretty keen on getting a bit faster and I'm sure I will if I keep at it, but at the end of the day I'm just really happy to be able to go the distance.