Bubbles Big Day out (with friends)

This ride had been planned for some time and was basically to be my toughest ride for the week (after having done a 100 yesterday). Anyway the plan was to start at 0530 from The Gap and ride out through Samford-Dayboro and then on to Mount Mee (yes an appropriate name). The texts started early with various reasons for not riding.

As it was we ended up with 4 riders who braved the heat (according to my watch it was 39 degrees when I finished) and bad roads. Singer (so known due to her legs looking like needles going up and down on a sewing machine smashed everyone up the climb of Mount Mee much to TR's disgust. There was another group of riders at the top who informed Singer that she had bragging rights and from what I'm told she fairly fed it to TR when he finally got to the top. I wouldn't know as I was even further behind.

Once the main part of the climb to Mount Mee is completed there is a road off to the side which is marked as having a 20% gradient. I believe Rhino was the first to ride it but since it has been like a pilgrimage each time initiating the first timers by forcing them to ride it. This time Oxkarter took the challenge and succeeded. Below are the videos of him.












By the time I got home it was just over 100k with some good climbing to boot. A similar ride is planned for friday week but perhaps continuing down in to Woodford on to Landsborough and catching the train home for something different.

Long Sunday Run

As any distance runner will tell you Sunday is the traditional day for the longest run of the week. For me building up to marathons the longest Sunday run was up to a maximum of 34 k. To me as a slower runner this equates to around 3 hours of running. This would usually be at the end of a fairly big week of training for me (of between 50-70k running).

Today I ran the first 5k with my wife who has decided she will do an Olympic Distance Tri (1.5/40/10) later this year and needs to get more running k's in her legs. It was quite an overcast rainy morning but there were still quite a few runners out.

After I had run the first 5k with Belinda I went on to run another 15k and really enjoyed it. Sunday I typically run along the Brisbane River, however, when I have been interstate/overseas I have also managed to run in some amazing places like the Victorian Countryside, Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao although finding somewhere to run was at times challenging.

I have found the Sunday run very interesting in terms of how your mind can really dictate how fast I run and how for 10 minutes I may feel bad but 10 minutes later I am feeling good and ready to push. It really sets up the ability to run the marathon.

Back by popular demand

I had originally started this blog as a way of posting up my thoughts, experiences and enjoyment from preparing for a marathon. Anyway I've dropped the ball somewhat and not posted for quite some time. In that time I have managed to run 2 marathons (Brisbane and Gold Coast) and finish some other races including Geoquest (48 hour adventure race) among others.

The year was great as I learnt a lot about myself and what my body is capable of and how my mind is the limiting factor more than my body. I've learnt that with structure and commitment it is possible to actually enjoy running long distances. I've also learnt that I enjoy the experience of really pushing myself hard during shorter running speed sessions. The few days before I am usually dreading the session but after I finish I am absolutely buzzing the whole day with how great I feel. Strange I know.

Anyway I will try to post some more during the next few days. I am off to the Tour Down Under in January and have entered to ride a stage the morning before the pros do so now I'm knocking up some big road rides in preparation. This so far has involved a long ride to Dayboro and return where at the Dayboro bakery they serve a bacon and eggs breakfast wrapped in pasrty....


Current event planning looks to have quite a few tri's, TRE-X (off road triathlon), 50k run and perhaps 2 marathons for next year. Will post up more as I work out what I am doing.