Public Holiday Monday GITT

What is a GITT I hear you ask. A GITT is a Guerrilla Individual Time Trial. If anyone asks, it is just a timed training ride. There is no road approval. There are no marshalls. It is just you, your bike and your stop watch. What differentiates it from a normal training ride is that there is a group of you all trying to smash each other like it was a proper race!!

So that is how I spent my public holiday Monday. There were 4 of us, all keen to set a mark for a time trial along Lake George. The start was down the hill from the lookout- although I did suggest that a 200m start ramp would be kind of fun!- and the finish was 20km down the road, just before Collector. About 2km from the Pie Shop- very important to remember!

Lake George- earlier in the year.

With the amount of wind around (btw, it has been an incredibly windy winter so far), I decided to race in the raw, ie with training wheels etc, not me naked- it is winter remember :p

Simon set of first as this is was brilliant idea. He claimed he was only going to be putting in about 85% (I think most guys say this when they are racing a girl, although most wait until after the race to make such claims so maybe Simon was telling the truth ;) ). I gave him about 45 seconds and headed off. Steve came after me on his maiden ride on his newly acquired TT rig, which was decked out in full carbon bling- disc and tri-spoke. Then Oliver, who was the rawest of all on his roadie.

The problem with "racing" like this is that there is no way of controlling cars on the course. I had two cars in the brake down lane to dodge, actually it was 3 if you count the car that the policeman had pulled over! It is difficult to maintain momentum when you are trying to look behind at a highway with cars travelling at 110ph to see if there was gap to slip into! Not to worry, I don't think it really cost me too much time and I know that we all had to get around the policeman.

For the first half we had a cracking tail wind and I was cruising along at about 50kph without too much trouble. As we got further along the lake, the wind started to move around to be more crosswind and then head-cross for the last bit. I was having trouble holding my bike upright at times and I remember thinking it must have been incredibly difficult for Steve with his disc.

If you are unfamiliar with Lake George, it is pancake flat. Apparently there is 38m of climbing in total! You can see it all here. And it is absolutely perfect for cracking times, including girls beating boys!

Story of the day, I won by 2 seconds! With a time of 26'46 for the ~20km course. My computer told me that was close to an average of 46kph! I reckon I might have even gone a bit faster if my legs hadn't been screaming from 3 pretty heavy training days before hand!

The Daily Pie in Collector was tops! The coffee went down a treat and the cakes and pies were pretty good too!

After the pause, back on the bikes to roll back to the lookout to the cars in full TTT formation. It wasn't until we got to the top that I realised I actually had a slow leak in my rear tyre. I wonder if that had been there from the start...

Happy TTers at the Daily Pie in Collector! (Photo thanks to Simon.)

You can also read Simon's write up here

That didn't seem too bad

After 17 days away from my bike and with pretty limited exercise to compensate I made the most of the glorious autumn weather and managed a sneaky 40 km. Am pleased to report that I didn't rip the wound open as the doctors feared would happen if I rode to early and even better the ride itself did not seem to kill me!

The most important lesson from today however was to never underestimate the value of chamois cream!!!

Despite the positiveness of today's roll I am pretty sure it was sensible decision to not enter the Canberra Tour which is on this coming weekend.

In the meantime, this little break has been the perfect time for the kitchen renovation that the Engineer and I have been undertaking. I don't think I would have been able to survive the renos if I had been in full training- my only cooking appliances are a rice cooker, a small electric skillet and a microwave. I think I am actually craving some pasta! You can see pics of that project over at: http://doolamaticdrs.wordpress.com/

This what my wound is currently looking like (post ride and shower), it has been covered with opsite since the stitches came out. (Read more about wound care over at Cycling Tips- everything in Wade's post is consistent with what I learnt from the AIS nurses and my mum)

And to help you be rid of the image of my gummy knee, this is what you are missing out on if you are not cycling in Canberra in autumn- it was just like this this morning!

The wheels on the bike go round and round...

The last few weeks have been all about clocking up the kilometres. Most of these have been solo, "secret training" kilometres. Consequently, many things have been observed.

• Goulburn, home of the Big Merino, is not far enough away and the kilometres need to be rounded up. :|
  

• Yass is a perfect distance away. However, it is all uphill on the way home, starting with the hill in the way out. :)

• People who do not know how to ride in a bunch should NOT suck my wheel! Further more, I HATE WHEELSUCKING SUPER COMMUTERS!! :v
  

• I have a very good relationship with my mp3 player, but some tunes are better for the road than others. :) From the current playlist:

• Anthrax- good
• Presets- good
• Peaches- good
• Mr Bungle- not so good (I love all things Mike Paton, but Mr Bungle is a little too erratic for good pedalling tempo, although for this purpose it is better than Fantomas).
  

• I dislike people tossing their rubbish out the window of their car. We are all familiar with the "bogan droppings" (broken glass bottles in the bike lane), but is it necessary to toss a cigarette butt out the window, particularly when I am there? And, did you know that it was clean up Australia when you committed aforementioned crime? :@

• The number of people with complete disregard for red lights, both bikes and cars, is unbelievable! Just STOP! xo
  

• The guys and girls at OnyaBike Belco are fantastically awesome. I am incredibly grateful for all their support! :D

• At the end of the day I love riding my bike! :D