Wedding photos

I have just uploaded some wedding photos to the blog (even though I try to keep it cycling), but hey we are both cyclists and if you look you can see my bike tan (under the fake tan) on my arms.

We got married at a small private beach near Manly just north of Sydney and I highly recommend being in a memorable place, being on a boat after the wedding and going under the Harbour Bridge and by the Sydney Opera House was just too surreal. No pics of that as the photographer didnt come on the boat with us.

There were just four of us and the celebrant

 at the beach:-

Oh and Little Dovey (the Teddy Bear) at the

front, he even wore a little tux jacket.

I was quite emotional (nothing new there) and this was during the vows.

Then we signed the certificates and had a couple of

posed photos

We had some nice pics taken on the beach

But the photo at the bottom of the wharf would be my favorite as it was getting later in the day and it is just a great pic. It was just before we got on the water taxi and taken on our harbour "cruise"

The photographer sent us a disc with about 300 photos on it and I made a DVD of the pics using a program I have, adding some music and some movement to the images and it makes me cry......and we had to choose 40 pics for an album. I think she did a great job of capturing the whole emotion of the day and lets face it that is what makes anything in life......big days like weddings, it is about the emotion and the occaision and we got some lovely photos too of us posed smiling, but the wedding ones are my favorites.

BIKE RIDING - OK, I have had a couple of weeks not motivated to ride the bike sine getting home, have had some stress and some study to do and today got back "on the horse" and am about to start training for a big time trial in January....So I will keep this up to date of my whole progress on the bike as I will have to do some testing with my HR Monitor to see where I am at. I know after todays ride, I need to get stronger and fitter.........I have a chem exam on Monday and then I have got time to train HARD!

Stratford to Dargo

This is a story about a race that our club ran and I volunteered, I didnt even race, I did race the crit the next day and will give you more info in a sec. The race was an open event, listed with Cyclesport Victoria and a KOM event so it was a challenge. At the moment, the "Baw Baw classic" holds the title of the toughest climb in the Southern Hemisphere in an open event and our event is just as hard. For the record, the race was called the Stratford to Dargo, but continued 14km past Dargo up a nasty climb and a total distance was 104km and tough.

One rider that rode the race had his garmin file here. The top of the big hill is the end of the race, apparantly he had his garmin on for the drive home in the car so thank you to Gerard Donnelly who finished 2nd in Masters 4+ and rode himself into the ground, he has an excellent race write up too

Gerards race info:-

Garmin File:-  http://connect.garmin.com/player/18252489
Race write up:- http://tfmceltic.webs.com/

This is a pic of Gerard receiving 2nd prize in his age group.

I drove lead car for Masters 4+, forgetting I was going to be in the car for 4 hours, I failed to obey rule number one and that was to have plenty of food and WATER for me! let alone anyone else.

There were 81 entries over 3 grades and 2 masters categories. The ride was NASTY and I hadnt even seen the last 14km, I had ridden the rest and I knew that the last 14 was really bad as my husband (lol still sounds funny) had walked part of it in a race as he only had a 25 on the back and a 27 or 28 is almost a necessity to get through it. Basically 45 riders had DNF next to their name. Some began to ride the steep section beyond Dargo and turned back but thanks to temperatures of 28-32 degrees C, some were just too dehydrated to consider going forward.

SO......In the race I was leading (in my air conditioned car), there was a break at the 5km mark and he stayed away until the 25km mark, either he obviously didnt know about the big hills but once he began riding the undulations realised that this ride was not going to be a picnic. The bunch mainly stayed together, a rider Roland Elsdon tried a break for about 5-8km on some steep descents, but was caught and then a group of two - Donnelly and a rider named David Sturt broke away together at around the 80km mark. These two riders were going hard together until David had enough and pulled out leaving Gerard to keep on going alone.

There was a chasing bunch and Gerard still had the toughest part of the ride ahead. We had passed a couple of stragglers along the way from B and C grade which had started as one bunch only 10 minutes ahead of these guys. The last 10.5km has an average gradient of 8.3%, but given that probably 5-6km of that has a gradient of around 3% in spurts along the way, there are several pinches of up to 13-14% in the climb.

The winner ([pictured here - Rowan Dever) rode 3:37 in A grade which is amazing and the last rider to finish was 5:02. and that was a MMAS7 rider who does ride well at the Tour of Bright - Robert Pagey. He was also the rider I identified at the start as the lone breakaway who nobody chased and who finally realised that this was a long haul race! Of 26 mens Masters 4+ only 12 finished.

PS that is Hubby on the right!

Gerard looked to have the race won, but unfortunately was being tracked by hill climber extroadinaire Ken Ford who past Gerard  while Gerard was having a mechanical and cramps and all of the ugly stuff that happens at the end of tough hot bike races, when you are dehydrated and perhaps a little insane for continuing! Ken Ford was the winner in 3:55, with Gerard 2nd in 3:58.

This is Ken Ford crossing the finish line - First in his age group. Masters 4+

Watching it all unfold from the comfort of my car (while I was dreaming about food and water), was interesting and I could not believe how fast these guys descend. I had to put the pedal to the metal a couple of times. Driving a lead car fast around corners to avoid having cyclists meeting the tow bar is FUN!. It certainly reinforced the fact that mental toughness is such a big part of racing bikes. Just to continue on every rider would have had huge amounts of toughness and it was amazing to watch. As riders crossed the line, people were ready to catch them as they cramped up and you could feel their pain and suffering. Lots of water was given out. The St John ambulance volunteers did an amazing job on minimum resources. It was an amazing thing to be part of.

Course profile can be found here, although 8.3% does not seem to give the course justice.

tp://www.cyclingprofiles.com.au/HTM/CSV2009/CSV_StratfordDargo.htm

Oh and the crit, there were three grades, I raced B grade and got smashed, I rode it to the end. In hindsight A grade would have been better as it was a fast smoother ride, I was racing against about 4 18 year olds who just kept attacking. For the record I was in the bunch for 14 minutes of a 50 minute crit. We only had about 7 or 8 starters so I got to ride a lot on my own. It was still fun although very hot. The other girl that raced usually races well and she got dropped as well......overall happy that I had learned some mental toughness.

Most photos here credited to Charmion Phillips from Aeon Photo or ME!

Married!!!!.

OK, the crit story will have to wait along with the pursuit story at World Masters in Sydney last week....the big story (and I have no pics to show yet....well only a couple but no connection from camera to PC on holidays)...is that Shane and I got married on a secluded beach near Manly last Friday (oh 2 days ago)...It was a great day, perfect weather, the celebrant was fantastic and the guests (all 2 of them) had a great time and didnt even know we were getting married until 24 hours before hand.

It had been in the pipeline for 6 months and was a secret because we didnt want to make a big fuss, second time around for both of us. I had a dress and Shane had a suit and we had two witnesses and it was just quiet and lovely then we had a water taxi ride around Sydney Harbor for an hour before all dining in Manly to top off a fantastic day..........Booking the wedding reception was fun...Can I please book a table for four?......

Whilst a wedding with all of our friends would have been an option, having done the full wedding, I knew I didn't want to do it again like that and so did Shane so we agreed to do it this way......Photos to come....we did have a photographer and she was fantastic too............so that is exciting news...!!!

Canberra - Part Two

The Race schedule worked in our favor, we raced the ITT on Thurs, then had a day off on Friday where we went for a ride from where we were staying back to Mt Stromlo (along the flat), to where the first day of raod racing was taking place. The change in temperature was amazing. We raced the ITT at nearly 30C, and now it was freezing. Stopped at "The Lodge" home of the Prime Minister for a photo stop and I am sure I was on CCTV somewhere.  The road races were on Saturday and we were both very nervous as the course profile was not for us as there were some nasty climbs

From this profile my race was 61km. We rode to the 10km mark and then back to the start, around the crit circuit for a lap and then the second lap was this whole profile. The profile doesnt show you that at the botttom of the nasty descent there is a SHARP LEFT HAND TURN, THEN ONTO SOME (IN OUR CASE...WET) CONCRETE, TURN RIGHT OVER A BRIDGE WITH NO SIDES, AND THEN TURN LEFT AND NASTY CLIMB! You can see that the two lefts and the right turn were all executed in about 800m of racing. My top speed for the day was 73kph. The road race was wet as it rained pretty much the whole time, which made the fast descents even more fun!

In my road race, two age groups were combined which is not good as the result can be distorted as two age groups get away help each other (that is just how it goes and if I was away with someone, I would do it too). We had 16 starters and were together until the turnaround at 10km, where three got away on a nasty hill. I ended up in a bunch of about 7 chasing. I was being referred to as the hill climber as I seemed to be doing strong turns on the uphills (I have to write that as I have never been thought of as a Hill Climber before), truth is that the true hill climbers were the ones we were chasing. We caught one girl at about 20km mark and so about 8 of us chasing 2. On the next hill climb (after the bridge and stuff), we dropped two and so 6 chasing, then on the final climb we dropped two more so 4 chasing two. The race at this point was two away (One masters 3 and one masters 4 girl), they had about 2 minutes on my chasing bunch of four (3 masters3 girls and 1 masters 4) I am a masters 3 so do the maths I am in the top 4 in my category. I attacked a couple of times on the hills but at about 5km to go (after racing 55km) I just ran out of legs and was dropped. I finished 6th over the line and 4th in my age group.

At the top of the final big climb I was feeling ecstatic that here was I still "boxing on" with the main group, as hills have never been my strong point so I was feeling like the training is paying off. I played my cards the best I could, but in hindsight should have perhaps let thm dictate the race to me and sat on IN THE LAST 10KM. Not being a sprinter, I was trying to get away or at least drop one rider. During the race I had spent a lot of time sitting in the bunch as I knew that to get up the hills I had to CONSERVE BIG TIME! Whilst disappointed to get dropped so close after such a great effort, I had showed real improvement. I must admit the other mistake I made was to sit at the back of the bunch on the fast descents as I was a bit scared (Thanks to a broken collarbone and two broken ribs in April.....which were attained in a fast descent). If I had raced faster on the downhills, which until April I have loved to do, I could have perhaps opened up that gap that I was desperately searching for at the end (who knows....and hindsight is 20/20...but during the race we think about so many things).

Shane had double the scare factor as his race included a rider Simon Claringbold, who is from the Canberra and so knows the climb VERY WELL, Shane said they were absolutely flying down the hills, and his top speed was more like 85kph and he said he watched two riders ahead of him, fail to negotiate the SHARP BEND and they had to go straight and he is not sure if they managed to get back onto the bunch or not. Shanes race was two laps of the whole circuit and with the crit laps included it was around 84km, compared to my 61km. Shane ended up 9th. Two riders came in, then a group of four and Shane was 3rd in his group sprint, but wasnt sprinting too hard as they were effectively sprinting for 7th place!

Aust Road Champs - Part One

Well I survived a tough week at uni - chem pracs and just busy we had a lot of pracs and some of them took a few hours with all of the processes we had to go through but it was interesting......but to the cycling

Shane and I got to Canberra on Tues night and rode the TT circuit on the Wed, the course was very undulating starting with a nasty climb from the starting line. So we knew we were in for a tough day on the bike.

On Thursday it was ITT day and I was off at 9:48am. The interesting part was the bike check, my bike only just made it as the front of the seat has to be 5cm behind the crank/bottom bracket and I only just got in. The end of the ITT bars must be no further than 75cm from the end of the seat too. Next year is going to be worse as there is a 3 to 1 rule which will make some bikes illegal, it has to do with the width of the tubes in the frame, and some handlebars that are too flat will be illegal too, the word is that some of the Cervelo P3's may not pass. Then there are wheels - next year any wheel that has not been signed off the UCI list will not be allowed. End of story. So already nervous and relieved that my bike was ok...and my helmet - as the helmet has to have the Australian standards sticker so it can be used (That means don't buy helmets from overseas as they wont have the sticker...even if they are the same helmet...Go Figure?)

Warmed up on the windtrainer and my legs just didn't feel peak, but they felt ok, I got to the start and was in big chain ring (my first mistake for the day)....Disc wheel in, fast helmet, new skinsuit on and set. My first two kms was terrible, my HR was too high, my legs were screaming and I took too long to get into my small chain ring (will I, wont I etc etc.....) anyway it was a headwind and I changed to small chain ring and stayed there for most of the ride. My minute rider was getting closer, but the hills were hurting and HR still too high (settle settle)...at the turnaround, suddenly slight tailwind, I caught my minute girl and kept motoring, I stopped pedalling a couple of times at the top of hills as I was stuffed....crossed the line feeling like I could not have gone any quicker but thinking I might have stuffed up.

Then Shane rode his at 12:15....My presentation still hadn't happened as they said they had trouble with the timing equipment. Shane wasn't happy with his either, the hills were worse than on our little test of the course the previous day, but that is expected. Then they called the medallists for my ride and I had won silver - woo hoo....14 seconds behind the gold medallist. When we collected our medals the gold medallist had gone, so only had silver and bronze on the podium.

Happy with winning the silver medal as these events can go either way and with a course like that I was not convinced I was going to win anything.....

I found out later that the gold medallist was a world champion from the para world championships, she has a leg injury in her lower leg and only just three weeks ago won a world championship so hats off to her she was awesome.

Full results here

Part two will be the road race and then there is the crit to come but overall I was happy with a medal

Cramming the training in

I am off to Wagga Wagga on FRiday (for the americans...it is not the city so nice they named it twice...it IS JUST WAGGA WAGGA)....I have uni for four days. It is my first uni day on Saturday and the AFL Grand Fnial is on Saturday and my boyfriend is a massive CATS supporter and they are playing, this leads to two problems,

1. Can Shane find a pub in New South Wales that will televise the Victorian Grand Final, and
2. If the Cats win, will I be able to study on Sat night with Shane dancing around and running high from the excitement of the day.....(yes I do hope the Cats win!).

Then on the Tues we head to Canberra (not a city so nice they named it twice) for Australian Titles, Time Trial on Thurs, Road Race on Sat, and Crit on Monday. I think my form is ok, but we will see when the courses are revealed, you can actually do a recon of the course thanks to the magic of youtube but we will go and check the course out on Wednesday.


Then home for a week and a half and then off to Sydney for World Track Titles where we will be racing the pursuits. I have had two track sessions in twelve months so no big expectations there....but will enjoy it all the same. I practised starts at Warragul Cycling Club last night with a proper starting gate....make sure your pedal is in the correct position, sit, focus up the track, 5..4..3..2..1...GO!!!! and you are off and belting along, arms straight but not too straight, dont throw the bike around, energy to the legs, then finally sit and arms on the pursuit bars and you have 8 laps...seems easy.....4 to go...getting harder....2 to go...who put this friggin big mountain on the track...legs won't spin anymore....BELL GOES final lap.....pain, mountains, are you sure this was only 2km...and you clock your time...I am hoping for a PB this year...but what size gear to ride? I trained on a concrete track last night on an 86...have ridden a 92ish before...should I go bigger...not sure??? too hard.....

The other exciting news is I have new bike clothing with ambulance victoria written all over it and have regsitered that as my sponsor so I can wear it for all of the titles and look like someone fast and important (which will of course make me ride faster and more impressively...absolutely)...If anyone has suggestions on gear to ride I would be interested.....But of course the best way is to train on the wooden track on the gear I am going to ride at the Champs......might only get one training session in like that (or two)....but will give it a go then....

Will post a pic of bike gear soon..too wet and miserable today to get outside in it as I want it to look nice in Canberra.....

My Apologies to anyone who reads this stuff

The title just about covers it at the moment. To cut a long story short, I havent been working for the last couple of months...now that is a long story and I am in a bit of a...dispute with work and will leave it at that until it looks like getting resolved. I have been on full pay blah blah but basically caught in a pile of red tape and loopholes at the moment.

This has meant that I guess I am a full time athlete and blogger to a degree and studying too....it has been good but stressful and after a meeting with work yesterday, I am quite stressed, I got dropped on this mornings 90km ride...it was the A list (tongue in cheek...but basically the riders who are stronger do this ride...and I tag along and try to stay on the bunch)......I got dropped 2km from the banana hill (where we stop to eat our bananas about 50km into the ride), and at the end I struggled when the pace went up to 50kph........

I havent commented on many blogs this week as I have been feeling a bit flat and with National Masters Titles only a couple of weeks away I am happy with my training, but wish that my work situation was a bit more resolved.

Great to read everyones stories, actually I have read bits from time to time, just been a bit quiet on the comments and getting up on my soapbox and delivering my opinion (wanted or not)....Just thought I would share another non cycling post today. Tommorrow we head to our local track to practice pursuit starts which will be fun as I have not been on a track bike for about 10 months......so tommorrow will be concentrate and remember that you CANT STOP PEDALLING!!!!. Track Bikes will buck if you try to stop pedalling.....

Got lots of good things coming up, Road Titles, Track (pursuit for me) titles and just some fun rides...My training has been going great, I have done heaps of cadence training and it seems to be helping my general fitness......I have missed being up with the blogging community and this week should be better and I will be checking in until Friday when we go away to Nationals .

Just reread this and I sound a bit sad, I think everything will be fine....just practising my jumping through hoops....Might take the Boofhead mutt for a walk now which always brings me back to the simpler things in life and puts a big smile on my face...