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

Dear Brain, shut up!

The following is "borrowed" from Daniel Gilbert's blog

One of the ironies of human psychology is that desperately wanting something can make attaining that thing all the more difficult. When stakes go up, performance often goes down. In one study, subjects practiced sinking a putt and got better as they went along — better, that is, until the experimenter offered them a cash reward for their next shot, at which point their performance took a nosedive.

This is because we pay close attention to what we’re doing when what we’re doing matters, and though close attention is helpful when our task is novel or complex, it is positively destructive when our task is simple and well practiced. Golfers in another study were told either to take their time and think about their stroke or to step up and swing as quickly as possible. Although novice golfers did better when they took their time, expert golfers did worse.

The lesson from the laboratory is clear: thinking about tasks that don’t require thought isn’t just pointless, it’s debilitating. It may be wise to watch our fingers when we’re doing surgery or shaving the family dog, but not when we’re driving or typing, because once our brains learn to do something automatically they don’t appreciate interference. The moment we start thinking about when to step on the clutch or hit the alt key, our once-seamless performance becomes slow, clumsy or impossible.

It pretty much sums up my crit at the Wagga Classic at the weekend*. I had cruised the whole 30 minutes of the crit. Perhaps I was in a grade too easy, perhaps I had underestimated my form, whatever the reason I had been largely in control of the race. That is until the last lap and a half.

All of a sudden I started thinking.

Thinking about not pushing through gaps that were there, because maybe that would put me on the inside when we got to the corner and we all know "inside suicide".

Thinking about timing of when I pushed for position in the bunch and hesitating when there was a blatant opportunity.

And worst of all, thinking about winning the race.

Apparently this sudden "brain activity" was apparent on the sideline. No longer was I one of the stronger more dominant riders in the bunch. I was some nufty who was suddenly disorientated and bewildered by the surroundings.

I managed to pull myself together a little bit and did hold up a bike that had a rear wheel sliding and skipping more than once. I think I was 7th over the line.

But, the disappointment and "what if" still lingers...

Image Credit

*We are not talking about the road race because, well, I just went out for a training ride to get ready for Sunday- OK?!

My very own pilot fish!

According to Wikipedia, there are several etymologies for pilot fish.

Pilot fish swimming with an oceanic whitetip shark

One story suggests that sea-faring people believed that pilot fish, which would appear around the bow of their ships when they were close to land, were leading (or piloting) them back to port.

An alternative etymology is that pilot fish were once, erroneously, thought to be piloting sharks to food, or even (as legends have it) piloting ships, whales and swimmers to safety.

Both of these are pretty good analogies for the lead out man (or woman) for the sprinter in a bike race. And the Coolamon Handicap saw me in a position to have my own pilot fish.

After a shocking appearance at the Rutherglen Classic 2 weeks before, chief Riverina handicapper, Barry O'Hagan, obviously had taken pity on me and stuck me in the limit bunch. I wasn't sure if I should be insulted by this, but I was happy enough to take it as a gift- that doesn't happen very often in bike races! Actually he had put all the women in limit, so it kind of made sense.

The first 40kms of the race were pretty uneventful. I was mindful of the fact that I really was in the wrong bunch and tried to encourage the others in the bunch without blowing them apart. Although I don't think they saw it like that- oops!

At the 40km mark we were caught by all the back markers, except scratch. This made for a rather large surging mass of riders on a fast, largely downhill stretch of the course. It was the rush of being in that bunch that reminded me why I love racing my bike.

At what I thought was about 10km to go fellow club member, Jeremy Rhind, turned to me and said "I want to lead you out". I couldn't believe it. Offers like that don't come along too often. And after the offer was repeated, I was glad to accept it!

From there I was well expertly escorted to the finish line. Jez made sure I was on his wheel at all times, which took a bit of co-ordination as we were both still swapping off to ensure we held a good spot in the bunch. And Jeremy spent an awful lot of time in the wind for which I am very grateful.

I wish I could say that this worked out perfectly, like you see at the end of a Tour stage, but that was not the case today. I knew the finish was uphill, but I had blocked out the steepness of it!

A group of 4 that obviously knew the course jumped early and attacked over a little roller at the base of the main climb and got enough of a gap to hold it to the line. Having missed that, I went not far up the climb, but found it was just a little too steep for the gear I was on and faded badly over the last 100m. By my count I ended up 10th over the line, and first female which was the primary goal.

The irony of the situation was that Jeremy had enough to come back over me on the line and take 9th! oops!

Big ups to Jeremy the pilot fish. It was nice to be supported and delivered to the finish line so capably!

Cyclists like coffee

According to The Oatmeal "...it is like making out with Pegasus".

And with weather forecasts like the one for this week, a lot of coffee is going to be needed!

If you want to know why coffee is so magical, head back over to The Oatmeal and find out
(click on the image!)

Thanks to the good people at The Oatmeal for the content of this blog.

In other news, my knee is well recovered, there has been some changes to my training program and that is coming along well, and my kitchen is complete- you can check that out at http://doolamaticdrs.wordpress.com

Stay safe on the roads, watch out for black ice and avoid the chilblains!

Embracing the headwind

Since my little altercation with the single track at Stromlo ruled me out of the Canberra Tour*, I have been out smashing some kms to get some form to take to Rutherglen. While I was out on Saturday I found myself up against a block headwind- so common in autumn and spring around Canberra. As I was bemoaning how hard this ride was and how slowly I was going, I thought of something I read on the "All Men are Liars" blog.

I have plagerised the most pertinent part of Sam's post here:

In a team meeting,... [the coach] tells his group of fringe players a story he'd heard in church about the Devil having a closing down sale because he's moving to another spot. A potential customer comes in to see what the Devil's got on offer and asks him what is his best seller. "Discouragement," says the Devil, "because as soon as people get discouraged it makes all of my weapons work."

In the context of my ride, I was about 15km in to 90km and the discouragement of the wind was making me want to turn around, go home and curl up in bed. Deep down I know that these kms are essential to a strong year on the bike, but mustering up the motivation to keep going was hard work. And then the epiphany occurred.

Embrace the headwind. If anything is going to bring me back to fitness it will be hard rides, like this one in the wind. Funnily enough, after this the ride got easier! (No I hadn't turned around to have a tailwind!!)

Mental toughness is often the only thing that differentiates athletes on race days. And, this toughness only comes out if you don't let the devil in!

In other news, my knee is looking really good and is standing up to training well.



*If you want to know what happened at the Canberra Tour, head on over to MiffyG or Ride Happy

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!

Patience and patients- there is a reason the two are homonyms

I am aware that it has been a long time between drinks here at Team Becstar. Sorry about that.

I had hoped to have been able to tell you about a cracking ride at the Oceania ITT (17 March) but it was not to be. Leading up to the race I'd had all sorts of dramas with my back and was having trouble training properly. There were many visits to the physio and managed to get it settled and actually hadn't missed too much training at all. I had been pretty happy with my preparation before that and was pretty confident that this was not a major set back. This time I was a patient patient and things looked good.

Unfortunately on race day things just didn't go the way I had visualised them. I felt good on the bike, I had a perfect warm up etc but something just wasn't quite right. My cadence was good, but the power just didn't seem to be matching up with it. At the end of the day all I can say is that the intention was good, it just doesn't work for me and we need to approach things a little differently.

Post Oceanias the original plan had been to have a short break, but I thought throwing myself back into training would be better for me mentally. Impatient patient I was to soon find out. I had been training well and things were looking good for a good lead up to the Canberra Tour. Until the club race where I cracked. All the energy that I had thrown at training post-Oceanias coupled with juggling work finally ran out. I had to DNF on a local course that I am really quite fond of but just lacked the mental stamina for.

That was the week before the Mont 24 hour. I took the opportunity to freshen up mentally in the early part of the week, finding some patience! And was also not hating my bike too much. Then it all went pair shaped again.

The Thursday before the 24 hour we thought it would be a good idea to test our lights and all that jazz before. Mick from Onya in Belco had sorted me out with an excellent set of Nitelights and I was keen to see how they performed on the dirt. It was all going so well and then it was all going so wrong.

Flying along one of the single tracks on Mt Stromlo I suddenly found myself crashing onto my left side. At the time it didn't hurt that much. Looking down at my leg it seemed to be a bit of a cut to my left knee and some grazing, and there wasn't too much blood. I got back on my bike and caught up to Matt.

"How did you find that?" he asked. "Pretty good and I don't think there is too much blood" He had no idea that I had crashed and was as surprised as I was as the section was fast and flowing but certainly not technical. He took a look at my knee and declared that it really was quite bad and that we should call it a night.

To get to the point, the cut actually needed 3 stitches and a course of antibiotics to go with it. And to make it worse- no pedalling until the stitches were removed. Not only that, but there were no other exercise options- stitches must stay dry. And to not put any extra strain on them I had to try and keep my leg straight.

The stitches stayed in for 7 days but when they were removed I was told at least another week of no pedalling as it wasn't healed enough.

Whilst it has been very difficult doing relatively nothing for 2 weeks, the sensible side of me knows this has probably been a blessing in disguise if I am to achieve anything on the bike this year. Why is it that it takes being a patient to recognise the importance of being patient?

The changing job description of the local bike shop

I have been thinking a lot about this issue in the last few days. It was partly prompted by the fuss Gerry Harvey has been making about offshore shopping, partly prompted by Wade’s post on getting sponsorship, partly by Lisa’s mum’s commentary on what constitutes a cyclist, but the real trigger was the story relayed to me about an abusive visitor to a LBS. (I say visitor as I am not convinced he can be referred to as a customer.)

First up, the disclaimer- Yes I am sponsored by a LBS- OnyaBike Belco & Civic. They have provided invaluable support to me over the years and ask little in return. I will always try my best to do the right thing by them- I plug them on here as often as I can (you can see their logo to the left- click it, it will take you to their webpage), I train in the kit almost exclusively and when I can I race in it- if I can’t race in it I will pull a jersey or vest on for podium visits, and I send anyone who will listen to them for all their bike needs. However, I am under no obligation to write this post for them and in fact it applies to all LBS, I will do my best to be objective.

I am not going to go into a lot of detail about the merits or oversights of Gerry Harvey’s carry on about off-shore purchasing. The big thing that he has been harping on about is the GST exemption for purchases up to $1000. The situation is a lot more complicated than that. For the LBS one of the key issues is the distributor and the demands that they make on the stockists in Australia, which doesn’t seem to apply overseas. For example if my LBS wants to stock a particular bike computer the distributor demands that they sell them for no less than a certain price, buy a certain number of units up front, and in each 12 month period they are required to sell a certain $ amount of stock! This same computer is available online for far less than the required Australian price and is usually accompanied by free postage. It doesn’t take an accountant to realise that it doesn’t make a lot of business sense for the LBS to stock this computer. The price difference is considerably more than just the GST and the free or heavily discounted postage is often thanks to government incentives in the country where the web company is based.

As cyclists we know that this is an expensive hobby, recreation or sport, depending on your goals. Consequently we are all on the lookout for ways to make things more affordable; the plethora of online bike stores is fantastic for that. But there is a catch. Most people know what they need for their bike, but they may not have the tools to do it, or more commonly the ability to do it themselves. I am lucky in that respect, for things I don’t know how to do myself, I have an engineer with a fascination with bikes. But if you don’t have your own trunk monkey you will probably need your LBS. (I don’t really think of the engineer, or bike mechanics, as a monkey, I just wanted to use this clip!!)

The dilemma then arises- you didn’t by the components from the shop but you want them to do the work. Most LBS recognise that on a lot of things they cannot compete with what is available online and will accept the work. However, as the customer you cannot expect them to make you a priority nor can you expect them to do it for free. Make your appointment and pay for the work- you would have to do that with your car or anything else, bikes are not that different!

Loyalty is like karma, the more you show of it, the more you will get out of it. If you get good service from the LBS, go back. If you keep going back the staff will get to know you and before you know it you will probably get discounts and other added bonuses.

Of course it is not just the customer that needs to be considerate here, the LBS is finding themselves in unchartered waters. Increasingly they are finding that their priority is not just in moving stock but in providing good service, useful and accurate advice and mechanical expertise. Some stores are doing this better than others and it will take a little while for people to adapt.

There is no right or wrong in all of this. The situation with distributors and importation adds an extra dimension to the changing landscape, along with the rapidly increasing popularity of cycling in the community. Both sides need to be mindful of what is happening here if the LBS is to continue to thrive. Here are my top 5 tips/observations from the whole debate:

1. If you didn’t buy the component etc from the LBS, be prepared to wait your turn in the service diary and be prepared to pay for the work that the LBS does for you.
2. If the job is only small and the labour cost won’t be much, think about buying something else while you are in the store, especially if you are not a regular- everyone needs tubes, puncture repair kits etc.
3. Show some loyalty to your LBS. You will reap the rewards in time.
4. Put a bit of thought into what you are buying online and why. Ask yourself, will I need to get someone else to install it? If yes, call the LBS and compare.
5. If the LBS aren’t supported, your kids will have to work at a supermarket swiping or stacking instead getting a cool job tinkering with bikes.

What I have put down here is my opinion and assessment of the situation and I appreciate that others will have differing views. Feel free to comment and debate amongst yourselves!

Tortoise vs Hare

The good people from the Vikings Cycling Club have a 3 race series for summer, known as the Hilltop Finishes. As the name suggests, the race finishes on a hill top. I missed the first one, which finished at the Tracking Station, but was told that the race up Corin would be good for me, even if just for training.

The 830 start was perfect for this time of year, although after the torrential downpour the night before, the humidity was pushing 97%!

Women’s A grade was combined with Men’s C grade and we rolled away about 90 seconds behind the A/B grade men. For the first 20 km we stayed together quite nicely, although I realised after that we had actually dropped the other girl who was racing. With a bit of wind around and the impending very long climb, there was little incentive to try for a break away.

The hares in the bunch (ie the dudes) started playing silly buggers and attacking each other about 1km in to the 14km drag to the rec centre. Knowing there was an awful long way to the top, I chose not to partake in this. I was also busy getting my ice cold bidon from expert soigny, Matt.

Patience was going to be key to getting to the top, as far as I was concerned. I found myself a tempo that I could maintain all the way to the top and set about my tortoise approach to climbing. My pace was faster than training pace and attacking over the crest of each of the rollers ensured that slowly but surely I was able to pick off the boys in front of me! At times it was even a bit stealth like!

End of the day, patience was a virtue and I even surprised myself being able to attack from the KOM mark from Canberra Tours gone-by. I missed 5th by 10 seconds- perhaps I was a little too patient! I was the first woman home and in the end I wasn't as far down as I might have been at this time last year! I like progress!!

And if you know me, you will know that I am not known for my hill climbing. After this, however, I reckon there might actually be an inner climber and they might be ready to come out and play!

Just for fun, here is the speed and altitude profile from the race.
That is a lot of climbing at the end!

The straw that (almost) broke the camel

National Individual Time Trial


This is an image of rhinovirus (about 9 billion of these could fit on the head of a pin!). It is one of the viruses responsible for the common cold.

It is amazing how rapidly months of training can come unravelled from something so small.

The signs were there on race day- elevated resting HR, a couple of things not quite right in my warm up etc- and I ignored them all, attributing them to pre-race anxiety and excitement. Afterall, the indications from the days before were that I was in for a cracker.

As I set out on my 27km journey it didn’t take long to realise something really wasn’t right and it was going to be a long day. It took all the mental strength I had to make my legs turn and make the most of what had been dealt to me. I had done the work and I wasn’t going to leave anything on the course. It was going to be tough, I had no power and no speed.

Of course that attitude took a bit of a battering as I was caught on the hill by a fast moving Amanda Spratt and an even faster moving Ruth Corset. I dragged myself over the top of the hill, which is also when I started trying to cough up a lung! And set about re-catching my minute marker (I had passed her around the 15km mark) and putting in a decent final 5 km. That final 5km hurt- a lot, but it was respectable and that was all I wanted. I don’t think I have ever been so relieved to be over the finish line, but I was also incredibly devastated that my ride had been so utterly awful.

Trying to hold myself together I warmed down, packed the car and got out of my wet kit. It wasn’t until I was safely in the Tardis that I allowed myself the tears of bitter disappointment before making my way to mum and dad’s.

It wasn’t long before I became aware of the razorblades in my throat. The signs that I had been ignoring earlier were starting to make sense, and I finally understood what the problem had been... I had a cold.

I am still absolutely gutted from what could have been. The organisers had rated me highly enough to start me 11th from the end and I could barely scrape into 30th! For each person who will judge me on this number there is someone who knows this is an uncharacteristic performance, will ask and will sympathise. In hindsight maybe I should have sat this one out, but it is a long way to travel to DNS and I learnt far more about myself and how tough I can be than I would have otherwise.

And at the end of the day, it is just a bike race. (Thanks Lyn!)

Massive thanks to Brian and MaryAnn Simpson for everything leading up to the event and on race day. Mum for expertly driving the follow car on her first attempt- ie thanks for not running me over!! And Matt for my shiny new disc wheel :) (I will tell you about that some other time)