Phew, 5 hours on your own on a bike is quite a long stretch, I guess this is the part of the training where it really pays to enjoy your own company cos you get to spend a lot of time on your own. Yep I know there are plenty of people who will ride with me but there are a couple of reasons why it is good to go on my own particularly for these uber long rides - I tend to not use my aerobars when riding with others so that is bad - I need to ride on my own on race day - who else really needs to be doing 5-6 hour rides?
I had a good plan tho and knew where I wanted to go so that was good, even better is that it panned out to be pretty much 5 hours exactly, I may have been a minute or two over.
I headed north via Kaiapoi, over the motorway bridge and off to Rangiora then around the Ashley Gorge to Oxford, back to Rangiora into a stinking headwind then home via Kaiapoi. I have done the ride around Ashley Gorge numerous times but have never biked out from home to do it although Geoff sometimes does. It is quite a mission and quite a weird feeling to be such a long way from home on your own on your bike. I got a bit worried when it looked as if it was going to rain, I only had a vest with me so I would have been in a bit of trouble if it had poured down! Lucky it just cooled off a bit and never actually rained.
I've worked out that on these long missions the first hour is the hard part and then it seems to become easier, it took just under an hour to get to Rangiora and then it was just a case of riding around the gorge and getting home, sounds easy when you put it like that eh!
I needed a loo stop and had decided that I couldn't wait till Ashley Gorge or Oxford so had to have a wee (haha) pit stop on the side of the road where there were some big bushes, nice country roads also have very little traffic! I considered trying the peeing on my bike thing but only had electrolyte drink in my bottles, so no water to rinse off with! Will need to try that at least once before race day methinks!
Made a friend out on the road as well which was nice, a guy had passed me and said hi on his way past but he never really got away, he just stayed a few hundred metres in front for ages, then he stopped for a pee (guys have it so much easier!) and then we rode together till we got to Oxford and went separate ways. Turns out he has just turned pro as a triathlete, his name is Aaron Billings for those that need to know. He is heading off to try and win Ironman Malaysia which is the week before IMNZ, so that is pretty cool. He was lovely and friendly and chatted away to me heaps about IM and gave me some good advice which was really nice. Turns out I had met him once before as Geoff has bought something off him on TradeMe. Small world eh. Riding with him for awhile certainly made the ride go quicker for a bit!
Had to do a run off the bike when I got home, only 20mins but man that hurt! Never mind, all good practice for the big day eh!
3 comments:
Well done. I think I'd go slightly mad not to see anyone else. There's one thing to be on your own, but another to feel totally isolated because there's no one else around.
Yeah that 20 minute run I couldn't imagine how that would feel anything other than hard. Well done!
Sadly, the five hour ride will feel like a really short ride when you start doing 6+ outings!! I went back to do a five hour ride a couple of weeks ago and it felt like a quick jaunt!! Ha ha! At least you find the first hour the hardest - I found the last 2-3 really bad. Your approach seems much better. ;-)
Hey Nades! Good work on the long ride yesterday. It sure is a small world, I used to work with Aaron in Invercargill many years ago at Countdown! I went out with his friend for a while. Funny ay! You should see him swimming ay, I used to see him swim in Invers sometimes when i was at the pool, he flies!!
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