Monday, February 15, 2010

Overcoming

"You have overcome, because greater is the one who is in you, than he who is in the world"
1 John 4:4

Dude, seriously. What is wrong with bike shop assistants? I'll come back to that question.

For several months now, I have severely neglected my beloved Gigi. I dont want to have to worry about these so called "important" things like cleaning the bike chain, checking the tyres, changing cables, tuning the brakes (do you even tune brakes?). I just want to ride and hope that the bike fairies will deal with the maintenance.

But alas, no such luck.

To my horror, I discovered rust on Gigi....it was at this point that I decided I had better get my act together and start to look after her.

Unfortunately, there was one monster obstacle in my way, that being...........the absolute retardedness (yes that's a word) of my local bike shop. I cop less abuse in a Parramatta jersay at a Bulldogs game.

However, refusing to be overcome by their poor display of human interaction and customer service, I bit the bullet and finally took Gigi in for her first health check.

Yes, I took Oliver in for back up.

Yes, they thought he was my husband.......yes that was weird.

So right now I am bikeless, and the poorer for it. I miss my Gigi.....


Saturday, January 2, 2010

a slight obstacle

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
2 Corinthians 12:8-9

I don't even know where to start. My favourite songbird once said, "let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start". Funny, I have never referred to Julie Andrews as my favorite songbird before. Shutup Sandy.

Sorry, just having an argument with myself.

Okay, so, cycling.

Seriously, a fair bit has happened.

A friend invited me to ride with them in the beautiful Royal National Park (to be referred to as RNP in the future). It was an incredible experience and also a bit of a culture shock for Gigi and I to ride in rainforest like surrounds. That pleasure was extremely short lived however, as I tried to maintain a brave face whilst cycling down the hills we were going to have to climb back up shortly after. My companion is also an exceptionally experienced cyclist, Gigi and I were understandbly overawed, but still determined. My heart was well and truly in my throat when we completed our descent and started to turn around to make our way back up.

This ride was challenging for me on several fronts: 1) I was intimidated by my company; 2) I'm not used to riding on the road with cars (ha!); and 3) Gigi is a big boned lass and quite heavy to lug up hills.

Nevertheless, I hid my shaking legs and erratic heartbeat from Cervelo and co., put Gigi in the granniest of granny gears (someone said that in a forum I was reading and I've been aching to use it. I think it means in the lowest gear), and headed up the easiest section of the RNP.

I think you can get an idea of how my progress was going by the comment that was screamed out of an overtaking car, "pedal faster!". Ok fine, I may have been going 8.5km/hour, but still, you talk tough when you're in your motorised vehicle.

The important part is............I made it up! It wasn't pretty, in fact, it looked downright painful. Especially when my knowledgable guide declared that the current section we were riding was the last hill.....only to discover that it wasn't. All that aside, thank you for being incredibly patient with me, and for encouraging me when I looked like I was going to pass out. Lovely.

But pretty much since that point, my cycling hit a bit of a wall and quite a few setbacks.

A blood test revealed a Vitamin D deficiency which was causing muscle fatigue and weakness, so had to start supplements for that. Then it turns out the cortisone i'm on is a catabolic steroid, which means instead of building up muscles, it has the opposite effect and so whenever I exercise I get muscle wastage, instead of increased muscle strength and endurance.

That last one threw me a bit. Everytime I exercise, i'm hurting my body instead of helping it.

And that's where I was at this morning. I had managed 50kms up until that point, except I found myself getting weaker in rides, slower, more dizziness, it just wasn't right. I was constantly out of breath and only just having enough energy to make it back to my car.

So I thought maybe i'll try a new strategy. If when I cycle, I don't increase my energy levels or endurance, then maybe utlising what I already have more efficiently, will allow me to push past the 50km mark without operating within the catabolic state that is hurting me.

I figured the way to do that is to improve the intake of oxygen in my system, and to minimise my energy expenditure as much as possible. I had to choose between speed and distance. My energy levels don't have enough for both, so I either ride short distances and increase my speed, or long distances, and go slower.

Distance wins everytime.

It was a very clinical ride, I had to concentrate the whole time. With my breathing, I forced myself to breathe in through my nose and out of my mouth (something I had not been doing), and with my gears, I just sat in the lowest gear I could depending on whether it was flat or hilly.

And for some reason it worked.

My quads weren't sore going up hills, I didn't get tired, my breathing wasn't laboured. By the end of the 50km I felt like I could have gone another 20. I did lose some speed, however I would rather it be by choice, than due to exhaustion.

I also intentionally tried this on a morning ride as I have considerably less energy during morning rides.

Who knows. Maybe this is how everyone is meant to ride and just took me over 3 months to figure it out?

Or maybe i'm just a cycling genius and I have discovered the holy grail of cycling techniques.

Maybe it's bed time. Definately bed time.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

new love, young love.

Seven times the righteous fall, but seven times he rises up again
Proverbs 24:16


The m7 cycleway and I are getting to know each other. We had our first date about a week ago. It was nice. the cycleway was a gentlemen. He let me know when there were corners up ahead, warned me when the road would get steep, and even offered me some water and a toilet break along the way.

But like most men, there's always complications. By complications, I mean hills. The sneaky bastard would always tell me when I would be going downhill, but conveniently "forgot" to mention that around the next corner was another ascent that would make Lance Armstrong's one testicle shrink in on itself.

But regardless of this, I was completely smitten with my new love. And so is Gigi.

Until today.

Today was an enigma. An anomaly. A weather infused torture chamber than nearly saw my demise. I apologise to the drivers on the m7 who had to witness the last 10kms of my ride. It wasnt pretty. But it got done.

Just quietly, I think mission Tour de France 2010 had a bit of setback today. Time will tell if I can get the campaign back on track. Gigi and I need to go and take a long hard look at ourselves.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Trouble on the double!



Friends always show their love. What are relatives for if not to share trouble?
Proverbs 17:17


23 November 2009. Learn it. Love it. Got it?

After sleeping through what can only be described as a firey furness, I was admittedly more than thrilled to wake up to overcast skies and a crisp breeze. Perfect weather for a ride. But today wasn't going to be an ordinary ride. Oh no. I had company. Special company. Constable company.

After liasing via text message the night before, it was agreed between Sophie (sorry Stacey was it?) and I that we would rendevous at my place at 11am and head towards our sacred destination of Bicentennial Park.

Much to my delight, when 11am arrived, I greeted my impressively dressed friend. Leggings with black shorts on top to ensure extra padding around the rumpal region, as instructed. After a few giggles, and a bathroom visit, we were off. Or so we thought.

Surely, it would have been nice to smoothly exit my house, deep within the Hills District, to head out to Homebush Bay. However, always ready to complicate things, Sophie and I spent about 5 minutes trying to work out how to get to the bike park in Homebush Bay (this is despite the fact that I have been there already). Sophie's sanity finally prevailed when she reminded me that we had been to Olympic Park nearly every week for a month to watch the football. It took a further 5 minutes to get into the car as we discussed a potentially serious petrol situation, and also debated who would follow who to our destination. I stand firm by my belief that it was the wrong decision to have elect me to lead.

After taking the scenic route around Sydney Olympic Park, back out onto Parramatta Road, then back in to Sydney Olympic Park for a second scenic route, we finally (ahem) found our way to the bike park.

Determined to impress my oldest friend with my cycling prowess and skill, I attempted quite possibly, the most abysmal extraction of GiGi out of my boot. After muttering an embarrassed, "I honestly can do this, I put it in and out everyday", Sophie subtly and gracefully suggested that a rogue pedal was the cause of obstruction, thus enabling an allbeit, unsightly, but successful exit of Gigi out of my boot.

With nervous anticipation, Sophie and I headed towards the bike hire shop. As usual, a further argument ensued over who was going to pay for Sophie's trusty steed. After employing a manouvre that only women of ethnic blood possess, I somehow managed to make Sophie's $20 note disappear back into her wallet, while swiping my keycard into the EftPos machine.

Biked and helmeted, it was decided it would be a good idea to give Sophie a quick instructional lesson on how her newly acquired hybrid worked. There are two unfortunate variables in this moment. 1 - I was the teacher; 2 - Sophie was the student. Now, this is not to criticise my abilities as a teacher, nor does it discredit Sophie's ability to absorb and appropriate information. It does however clearly demonstrate, that for some unusual reason, most likely scientific, when Sophie and I are put together, odd things tend to happen.

This was not helped by the fact that apart from pedaling, I have no idea about any feature on a bike. However, I did not feel it necessary to highlight this fact to Sophie.

The following conversation ensued:

Me: ok let me show you how to use the gears

Sophie: copy that

Me: ok so you see these circles with teeth, there's three, that's your crankset and each crankset has 8 gears in it and you have three cranksets, so that means thats there's 8 gears in each of the cranksets and you move from gear to crankset to gear lower for going up hills and higher to go down hills.

Sophie: ok so where's my cranksie.......

*silence*

At this point I thought it was best that Sophie just remain in one gear and just made sure she knew how to use her brakes. We took a practice ride around the children's play area. A few wobbles and balance adjustments later, Sophie was raring through the bike tracks of Bicentennial Park. Apart from her long flowing hair and the fact she doesnt have testicles, you would have been forgiven for thinking she was Lance Armstrong.

I learnt early on in the peice however, that Sophie has two weaknesses. One is called people, two is called poles. However not to be deterred, her fighting spirit prevailed, and by the end of our 15km marathon effort, she was weaving in and out of her dreaded obstacles without a care in the world.

Interestingly, we found ourselves at one point, at Ikea in Rhodes. Neither of us are sure of how we got there, in fact I am convinced we may have entered into a time space continuum which transports people from bike tracks to Ikea. Very clever ploy there Mr Ikea, very clever.

Our ride was complete, we headed back to the bike shop, returned Sophie's new friend and ambled back to our cars with smiles on our faces, and bruises on our bums.

To my friend, it was an absolute joy to ride with you.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Just what the doctor ordered

A cheerful heart is good medicine for the soul
Proverbs 17:22

I just waved goodbye to my Sophie, who in true Hunter fashion, was regailing my husband and brother on the various ways to avoid getting arrested for drink driving.

Now, why you say Sandy, would you blog about this event, when on surface level it appears to have nothing to do with your cycling adventures? My response to that is, up your nose with a rubber hose I can write about whatever I want. Come child, shhhh.

You see, this Monday marks a sacred event. A day predestined in the history of the world, where the Ancients stop and peer down from the heavens, to witness a monumental moment that will span but a breath in the life of eternal time, but the impact of which, will shake the foundations of what is known to be true and right.

Sophie and I, will be going for a ride. Together. Two friends. Two bikes. One dream.

Eat your heart out Armstrong.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

An uprising (of sorts)

And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Jonah 2:10

If you replace me with the fish, and pepsi max and lebanese yoghurt for Jonah, then you have an idea of how successful my ride was today.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Exercising wisdom, not just legs

A simple man believes anything,
but a prudent man gives thought to his steps.
Proverbs 14:15

So I discovered today that I have been very simple and not very prudent with my cycling.

Here's what I learnt during my 24km ride:

1. Cycling shorts are a jolly good sight better then demin cut offs;

2. One does need water whilst riding (frothing at the mouth is an indication of dehydration not rabies, ha who knew); and

3. It apparantly helps to eat prior to exercising (thus eliminating the black out effect experienced on previous rides).

On a side note, I did stop to help a fellow cyclist who appeared to be having some difficulties with his bike chain. The conversation resembled something like this:

Me: Are you alright?
Him: The chain came off, I got it back on but it doesnt seem to be catching
Me: Catching what?
Him: the pedals
Me: the chain isnt meant to be on the pedals
Him: *silence*

clearly I lost him with my advanced knowledge of bike anatomy. My comment obviously helped because he lapped me several times shortly afterwards.

I mentioned 24km, another personal best. Definately on track for Tour de France 2010.