One of my best friends is...

a bucket.


Another week and just for something different, more training!! There was also a race on Wednesday night, but I already told you about that. For various reasons this week I ended up on the ergo 3 times this week, that is OK, after the time spent together with my broken wrist, the ergo and I are pretty good mates. This week however, we had to introduce someone new to the relationship, enter bucket. I won't go into too much detail, but the sessions this week have all been hard, hard, hard and when the going gets tough, well, things get a bit anaerobic and a bit lactic and a bit messy. So, a bucket is now one of my mates when I am on the ergo, along with my mp3 player.

But, enough of that. It has been a good week of training and it will be much the same for the next few weeks, but there is a fair bit of racing coming up. Most of the events are in the calendar to the right, but here's a preview:
Nov 1-2: Wagga Wagga Golden Wheel Track Carnival
Nov 9: Tour de Femme
Nov 13-16: Oceania Track Championships, Adelaide.

And now for something completely different.

This is a peanut butter and choc-chip biscuit- possibly one of the tastiest post-ride treats. Here's how you make them:

1. Heat oven to 200C
2. Combine 1 cup of brown sugar, 200g crunchy peanut butter, a teaspoon of bicarb soda and a lightly beaten egg.
3. Stir in 250g dark chocolate chips
4. Roll teaspoonful amounts into small balls and place on a baking tray that has been sprayed with a little oil and lined with baking paper
5. Press lightly with fork
6. Cook for 8-10 minutes until golden

7. Cool and enjoy :)

Don't talk to me about the nutritional value (or lack thereof) of these, I said at the start they are a treat!!

Thanks for reading and have a great week :D

Stromlo Ladies Night- Welcome home Vicki Whitelaw!

Women's A grade Criterium
40 minutes + 2 laps
9 ladies on the line, about 9C and blowing a gale!

OK, so first up for the non-cyclists, here is the wikipedia definition which sums it up pretty well:

"A criterium, or crit, is a type of bike race held on a short course (usually less than 5 km), often run on closed-off city centre streets. Race length can be determined by a total time or a number of laps, in which case the number of remaining laps is calculated as the race progresses. Generally the event's duration (commonly one hour) is shorter than that of a traditional road race. However, the average speed and intensity are appreciably higher. The winner is the first rider to cross the finish line without having been "lapped.""

The purpose of Stromlo Ladies Night was to introduce local women to Crit racing on our purpose built track at Stromlo Forest Park. Despite the atrocious weather there were heaps of women out to have a go, which was great to see. This was a great initiative by Vikings Cycling Club, and hopefully we'll see a few more in future.

On to the race report. Being the "premier" grade they saved us until last . Originally we had been scheduled for 40 minutes + 2 laps, but earlier in the week it became apparent that there wasn't going to be the daylight to go that long, so we were down to 30 minutes + 2 laps. At 7pm we rolled down to the start line, only to realise that the the majority of the girls who normally would race A had stayed home, did I mention it was freezing and windy! So with 9 of us on the start line, it was decided that 20 minutes + 2 laps would be more than enough in the conditions- that worked out to 1 lap per person, + the 2 laps at the end!


The race unfolded like this, Vicki attacked, we went with her, Vicki attacked, we went with her... someone else might have attacked, we covered... you get the idea. Then Susie attacked, we covered and Vicki promptly counter-attacked- nice move Vic. So, Vicki took Chloe Hoskings and Bron Ryan with her and I decided to let that one go. Individually, bad move Bec, but Bron is newly recruited to OnyaBikeBelco, so nice team move Bec ;).The rest of the race involved Jessie McLean, Susie and I rolling around together, while Vicki, Chloe and Bron did the work up the road. In the end, Bron did too much on the front, and Chloe rolled them both. Official results:
1. Chloe Hoskings
2. Vicki Whitelaw
3. Bron Ryan
4. Bec Barwick
5. Susie Boer
6. Jessie McLean
7. Myfanwy Galloway
8. Laura Medley
8. Kathleen Miles

Welcome home Vicki and thanks for shaking up our bike race!

The highlight of the night was watching the twins- Jacqui and Alex- in B in only their second crit having no idea what to do (I shouldn't laugh, that was me 12 months ago really) and coming home with a win and third place!

Photos (top to bottom): Contemplating the weather at the start with Laura; Chloe getting the better of Vicki; Jacqui on the way to her first crit win, Alex took third (this photo from Vikings Photo Album).

Smile :)

(I "borrowed" this from the daily webcomic blog Kitten and Snake.)

Made me smile, hope it does the same for you! Have a great day!

Riverina Championships

10km ITT + 42km RR
Wantabadgery (near Wagga Wagga)
Sunny and Hot!


The focus for these 2 races was obviously the ITT with the RR being a bit of a bonus while we were there. The ITT course at Wantabadgery is perfect for me- false flat, being slightly downhill on the way out and then uphill after the turn around. Running fixed, the only concern was the wind, which seemed to be a head wind both ways- not sure what was going on there!

The race itself was pretty straightforward, I was racing in D grade, since there was only 2 women competing it was against the men or nothing and I was 4th away. The main competition for me was actually the U17 boys that were racing. I had a cracker of a start and remember thinking how much fun this was (hmm, did I mention it was hot? :p). I had passed 2 people in front of me within 2km and picked off another one after the turn around. U-bolts on a fixed wheel are a bit of fun and I certainly lost a bit more time than I would have liked at the turn around, but that didn't seem to worry me too much. The SRM output showed that I finished fast up the "hill" and I certainly felt strong despite the wind. Official time for the 10km was 16:09.07min, which gave me first place (and would have had me in the top 8 of the other 3 grades as well!). I had hoped for a 40kph average, but the wind made that a bit ambitious for me today.



Unfortunately I didn't get as long as I would have liked between the ITT and the RR, but that is the fun of double header racing and you take what you get I suppose. There was about 18 started (I think) and the pace initially was pretty sedate, that was OK I needed to ride the ITT out of my legs before the going got going, unfortunately 6km from the start there is one of the steepest, nastiest little pinches I think I have ever encountered in racing, it just kind of went straight up. This is when I realised that my legs really did a bit longer to recover from the ITT, and slowly the bunch got away from me as they approached the top of the pinch, and with a long fast descent on the other side, all I could do was suck it up and chase! So this became my second TT for the day! (of course I could have just turned around and rolled back to the start as I really wasn't going to catch them, but where would the fun be in that!) So chase I did. And I kept chasing slowly picking up other guys who had been spat out, first one and then another 2. A four person paceline is so much more efficient than just me in the wind! As we covered the last 15km our little time trial team had become about 10, a mix of D and C grade. By the final 1km we had spat a few of those out and the final sprint was the 4 of us that had come together after the KOM. After some poor positioning, I really need to learn how to make others come through and take a turn/get off the front!, I ended up 2nd in our little sprint, which worked out to be 7th overall. Not too unhappy about that at all, given the disaster at the start!


All in all it was a good weekend for Onya Bike Belco- my results here, and also at the Scott 24hr Mountain Biking: first in the Male Musketeers (team of 3) and the Mixed Musketeers, fifth Mixed Team of 4. Nice work everyone!

Training, training, training

As the title suggests, that is about all that has been happening on the bike in recent times (and I figure you probably don't need to hear about that, it is not that interesting!). Though I have to say it has been lots of fun for me- seriously! It is a lot of fun being on the bike, and especially fun, and rewarding, to see improvements.

The last couple of weeks has been all about building strength- hill sessions, track sessions and weight sessions- all with the aim of making me stronger and it is such a buzz to see the results (thanks Pothole). I have gotten faster up Stromlo on a bigger gear each week.

Here is the view I get at the end of my SEs on Stromlo. I do like cycling Canberra.

My pursuit efforts on the track have gotten faster on the massive gear I have been pushing around BundaDome, and the power output is approaching the target average of 400W (thanks for the SRM Tammie).



Photos: Canberra's Velodrome- Bundadome, home of brown snakes, speed bumps and grass growing on the surface (!) and with the recent birthday wishes from the locals!

Weights wise, all my strength exercises are using weights exceeding my body weight (thanks Dean). All in all it is looking promising for a good track season-fingers crossed!

A quick update from last post, I have beaten spring! My asthma has settled down and the season didn't get the better of me! Bec 1- Spring 0.

After all of this we figured it was time to go racing. The race this Sunday will be the Riverina Championships at Wantabadgery (near Wagga Wagga)- first up will be a 10km time trial, which I will do on the weapon which has now been converted for track, so I'll be riding fixed!, followed by a 47km scratch race not long after that. Then there is a well earnt recovery week.

In updates off the bike, wedding plans are coming along well- we had meetings with the Minister and the caterers last week and everything appears to be on track there. I had a job interview last Thursday with the Department of Health and fingers crossed they will give me job! And my thesis is progressing, maybe not as fast as it could but surely!

Next up will be a race report and photos from the weekends racing in the spiffy new Onya Bike Belco kit (thanks Mick)!