Chasing the fog

Each day I commute to work I keep a close eye on the weather. These past few mornings have been cold but dry with no wind, it’s been a joy riding in those conditions. Last night around 4:30pm I looked out of the window to see a huge bank of fog come rolling in from the south. It was a surreal sight with the sun going down and the fog rolling in.

Weird afternoon fog rolling in across Melbourne CBD (i-Phone)

What this meant was the temperature had dropped a long with the visibility. It made for an interesting ride home as I seemed to be chasing the fog eastward for most of the ride. Fortunately I have lots of reflective gear, three rear lights and good front lights, but it is still a little eerie riding through the fog along the bike paths. I got up this morning and found my front wheel had gone flat overnight, I must have picked up a slow puncture on the trip home. I was thankful that I didn’t have to deal with it last night!

Commuting free week

Last week I didn’t do any commuting on the bike, however I did get up early each morning and rode for about 45 minutes on the trainer before going to work. I had the weekend off from riding and caught up with friends which led to eating and drink too much of all the wrong things! All I can say was it was all worth it! sometimes you just need to take some time out to enjoy yourself once in a while otherwise all this training gets a bit boring! This morning was my first commute for at least a week so I rode in from the 28km mark. It was great to see a hot air balloon floating overhead about to land in the park on the Koonung trail between Doncaster and Bulleen Rds. The balloon was so low you could see the people in the basket taking pictures. It was a quick ride this morning and I was averaging 30km/hr for the first 15km which felt pretty good. Once I got closer to the city the pace slowed down a little as I got into the hills around the Yarra blvd, then there were more pedestrians on the path and traffic started to build up on the roads. The winter solstice is past so now I’m looking forward again to the time when I don’t have to stress if I have charged up the battery on my light long enough for the ride home!

Cycle Trainer

I dusted off an old magnetic cycle trainer and set up my bike on it. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get on and ride for a while on the days I can’t commute to work because of meetings and whatever.  Even if it’s only for a quick 30-40 mins before I head off to work, or in the evenings, a least I’m doing something and getting my back-side used to sitting on the skinny little seat for longer periods of time!

Running out of Steam

Last week I began to get really fatigued, having ridden to work from 40km’s out a couple of times took its toll! I rode in to work one morning and by lunch time I had no energy, so I decided to leave the bike at work (in the secured bike parking facility) and took the train home. My support crew came to the rescue once again and picked me up from the train station and took me back to my car. I think it was a case of too much too soon, that and the fact that I probably wasn't drinking enough water. It’s a bit of a trap on the cold mornings, I get lulled into thinking that I don’t need to drink as much when it's cold, but despite being cold I’m still sweating a lot so I need to replace the fluids. So now that I’m re-hydrated and the bike has been resting at work, I hope to be able to ride it home again! fingers crossed!

40km commute

I increased the distance of my commute yesterday to 40km . I had to leave  about half hour earlier than  usual, it was still dark and there was thick fog but almost no traffic. It felt good to be back on my commuter bike and I made good time. I started to struggle at about the 30km mark on the way home,  I felt my hamstring getting a bit tight and stopped for a few minutes to stretch out a bit. By the time I got home I was exhausted but felt good for having done the ride, I went to bed early and slept like a log!  I’ll attempt to do the 80km return at least twice per week and see how I go!  I figure that to complete the 250km ride around the bay  it will take about 10-11hrs on the bike, so I’ll have to get used to sitting on the bike for longer periods of time. ( I just hope my butt survives!)

Bike repairs

I took a day of work to work on fixing the bikes so I would have no excuses not to ride. I cleared the bench at the back of the garage, and set up a make shift bike repair stand by putting the car towbar bike rack in the bench vice. I clamped the bike ( it has an aluminium top tube) so I could work on the bike without it falling over, I then laid out the tools , cranked up the radio and set to work.  On my commuter bike I replaced the broken front derailleur, fitted new pedals, replaced the bearing cones on the back wheel, adjusted the breaks, cleaned and lubed everything that moved, and fitted some race-blade mud guards (what an adventure that was!). The hybrid got a little less love and attention but  I managed to replace the broken spokes trued the wheel (well almost)and gave it a bit of a service. I’m now ready to hit the road! ( unless of course I can find some other excuse not to ride!)

Straying off the healthy path

This week has been a struggle to get on the bike, I  used the broken a spoke on the Hybrid as a lame excuse not to ride for a couple of days, the fact that the weather in Melbourne got colder and wetter made my decision to procrastinate easier!.  On top of that I fell of the diet wagon a few times, with celebrating my birthday during the week , going out for dinner, lunch and breakfasts , then  going to a black tie ball (with lots of good food and wine) sticking to healthy habits was definitely a challenge. I did manage to go to the gym a couple of times and get on a spin bike. On a positive note I have finally received the parts to my commuter bike. Hopefully next week will see me back on the road and on track to make it to the starting line for Around the Bay in a Day!

Return of the Cannondale Kid

Now that I have been riding more regularly I am beginning to see the same riders each morning. This morning I saw the return of the Cannondale Kid. So named because not only does he ride a very nice full carbon

Cannondale Road

bike but he is living advertisement for Cannondale. From his socks to his Helmet. He is always colour coordinated with his bike, (black and white). This morning he overtook me at Doncaster and I caught up with him at Bulleen rd, I don’t think he liked the idea of me catching up to him on my old hybrid so when the lights changed he took off as if he was in a sprint, cut the corner and jumped up the 8inch gutter on the road and back on to the bike path never to be seen again! Perhaps he was late for a Cannondale convention or something!

Broken Spokes and Bike Porn

I broke a spoke on my rear wheel on this mornings commute, I didn’t have a spare and I was still 20km from work so I just twisted it around another spoke and hoped for the best. Fortunately since the wheel has a high spoke count it stayed relatively true. So this afternoon I dropped into the closest of the city bike shops to pick up a spoke, this was not your regular chain store bike shop this store catered to the more elite cyclist, it was full of the more high end machines. It was like an exclusive designer house selling porn for cyclists! some bikes were worth more than my car! So I showed real restraint and ignored all the shiny machines and the latest bike bling and walked out with my $3 spokes. Maybe one day. . .