Thursday, July 18, 2013

The price is your pride

First and foremost Happy Birthday Asa! Happy belated birthday Josiah and Juniper.

Our view.
So its been a few weeks since the last post and I feel a bit beaten up.  For the last several weeks, I haven't been running or swimming as my back had been seizing up and reducing me to walking or nearly drowning. 

My Motobecane above Rotorua.
Instead I've been hitting the bike.  My mountain bike friends from Thames and I went to Rotorua for a weekend of riding.  We logged 9hrs of riding and lots of meters of climbing.  Saturday was 5 hours and over 1000 m of climbing.  The guys wanted to do a little drinking so we went to a liquor store.  I purchased Ginger Beer and M&M's and I got carded.  I couldn't believe it.  I haven't been carded for pop in years.  We ended up at a buffet not too far from our hotel and I put down a couple plates and my friends were shocked.  Little did they know that I wasn't even showing them remotely what I am capable of.  The next morning was a race that we just sort of crashed as the trails were still open.  I heard the funniest thing that morning.  A young woman comes flying down the open trail to the beginning of the woods and slams on her brakes and exclaimed "I don't do trees!"  "Nobody told me we would be riding in trees."After a quick conversation over the next 10 minutes, we find out that she is a track cyclist.  I told her to think of it like her track bike and not to use her brakes.
The cost is only $10. The price is your pride.

We waited another 10 minutes for John, one of the guys we ride with in Thames, to pass the point we were waiting at.  We rode with his bunch for a good little stretch and then harassed a few other racers we know.  It was at one of these stops that we heard about a woman that crashed and she believed she broke her arm.  A call was made to the race coordinators to get help up at the beginning of the track.  We made her a sling and passed her some pain pills.  I did do most of my WFR checklist from memory before doing any treatment.  My diagnosis was a fracture.  If I had my first aid kit I could have done more, but the swath of cloth made a nice sling. 
Gnarly wooden throne at the beginning of Be Rude Not To
We continued on and road up Hill Rd for a 2nd time in the weekend.  This is a difficult climb on tired legs and I was forced to ride in my granny gear.  We then had to wait for 2 of the guys who decided to take the shuttle up the road and then ride down to meet us.  It is now an on-going joke about offering a ride to the top of any hill.  I said I would offer a ride to the top for $10, but my prices go up exponentially.  I'll be getting another bike in a couple weeks!

Our Wed night rides have been taking us up to the beginning of the Pinnacles track (40km round trip), but this past week we did Tararu Creek Road (15 miles round trip).  It is a long steady climb that was made all the more painful as my legs were tired because I did a 13km run the night before.  My first run in weeks and I felt good.  My legs are sore days later.  This past weekend, I took my TT bike out for an easy session.  I wanted to see what it felt like as I haven't ridden it in about 2 years.  Having been here over a year and it being winter before I got here my TT bike hasn't been getting the love.  I was able to do 25 miles averaging 19.9 mph without pushing hard.  Not a bad place to start from.  I expect that I'll be back up to 24-26 mph average once my training peaks. 

I've been baking a bit lately.  I had the craving for French Silk Pie so I made 2 pies this past weekend.  I made a flaky pie crust, whipped up the chocolate filling, and whipped topping.  I took them to work and they disappeared very quickly.  Then after running on Tuesday night, I felt like Peanut Butter cookies.  I found a quick 5 ingredient gluten free recipe that takes under 20 minutes from cracking the egg to smearing nutella on the cookie and gnoshing on it. 

This weekend we are planning on heading up North of Auckland to ride at Woodhill.  Its about 40 minutes from Central Auckland.  After that we plan on working on our trails as we are almost done with another track.  Then we have 2 more marked that need to be started.  Its extremely gratifying to build a trail and a short while later be bombing down the flow that you marked out. 

On a sad note, our friend Faye is moving back to the UK.  I've known her most of the time that I have been here.  She was the assistant manager/manager at Macpac while I was there.  She was a riding and running companion.  I introduced her and Elaine to the joys of Santo Churros in the Mount.  She was offered a job with Marmont Europe last week and will be moving back in a couple weeks.  I think I'll surprise her with some baking for her going away party that will be held in Tauranga.