Wow! One Thousand Hits!

I failed in my challenge,not even getting to the starting line. There were however extenuating circumstances. The day promises to be perfect with no wind.

I said if i didn't make the starting line I would just scrap this blog,but too much effort has been put into it and to my surprise I have had almost one thousand hits. I had started it to motivate myself and challenge myself.

Now I have found that I have become a source of information about cyclists of my past and that information doesn't seem to be anywhere else on the Internet. So I have decided to try to add to that and keep writing on my progress in the club races and the Rotorua 100k flyer which I just hope I will be able to do, and improve on my time of three years ago. Lets face it,its a lot easier than 160 ks. round Taupo. Pic. of me doing the 100k flyer in April 2008. Not another cyclist in sight, yet there were others behind me.

Never too old to learn.

I raced last Tuesday evening. I learned quite a lot about myself.
1)I have come to terms about not having many riders behind me, and I've learned where my position is so that I will be able to see what difference different kinds of training will make on my performance relative to the others,if any.
2) It takes me a lot longer to warm up than it used to and of course much longer than it does for younger riders.
3)I can only earn two points if I finish the race and one if I record a DNF so what is the use of trying to beat others if in the end I still only get two points. I might as well just tag along and just beat a couple of fatties.
4) If I start slowly I can finish much more strongly than if a start too fast. That's not a new discovery though.This of course means I musn't try to stay with bunch at the beginning of the race.
5) My hill reps. have made me very strong,relatively, but because I was short of some long distance training I faded after about an hour into the race and dropped five places and five minutes.

November.

I managed to drag myself to the club time trial championships. I was the only one in my class 81-85. Or I was in a class of my own.The results showed that I won.Actually I was quite pleased that I was able to ride at all,seeing that I am doing so little training. I averaged just over 25kph. over the 15 ks.

Summer seems to have come at last so maybe it will encourage me to go out more ofter and do some longer rides. I need them badly.Elaine is back home again after two spells in hospital in the last two weeks and also two weeks spent with my daughter.

The lady that was supposed to help Elaine during the Taupo Challenge has tragically died and the accommodation she booked and paid a deposit on has been cancelled by her trustees.So it seems I wasn't supposed to do the race.