Sometimes you have good days and sometimes you have bad days. Good day; a sleep in followed by hills and lunch with my boss. By the time you return home he tells you not to worry about work =) Bad day; venturing to the local water hole to find that it’s been closed for over a year due to fires and floods but you haven’t had a social outing since then! With Australia Day to celebrate and not much longer in town, Matt Jensen (pictured) came to stay for the weekend and I was on a mission to find him some form. Good day; riding to the view of Thompson’s dam and hurting him on the way home. Bad day; getting excited about a hard day out after a 20minute drive before realising that Matt Jensen forgot his shoes! Good day; riding with the old men who treat you to juice, hot chocolate, muffins, toast, fruit and wedges for free! Bad day; VO2Max testing in Melbourne and slow moving traffic on the way home. Good day; everytime that I see little Leila and am able to consume a smartie cookie!
What does testing consist of you ask? It’s 12:30pm, 23deg, 45% humidity. You have a large mask strapped so tight to your head that you immediately have a headache, but don’t mind this, when alternate pain kicks in you won’t be thinking about it. A nosepiece compress’ your nostrils and a snorkel like guard is inserted in your mouth. By this time you can’t talk, laugh or swallow, it even takes a while to master breathing. Blood extracts from the ear lobe measure your lactate, a HR monitor observes your HR and the ergo reads your power output. You’re to concentrate on one thing through the test; your cadence, but you can’t help but concentrate on the lactate building in your legs as well. You ride to exhaustion and tell yourself 5 minutes later that you could have lasted longer, but your legs disagree. Drowning the thoughts of the test were the results of my skinfolds taken on arrival, now reading 80! For the regular readers here is something to ponder... Do I talk about food more than is socially acceptable??
To add to the 6hrs of driving I’ve managed in the last 4 years I drove through to Frankston. I legally passed 16 cars but who’s counting right... Things to avoid in future? Our garden bed, the neighbour’s rubbish bins, and parking in general. Good day; my brother’s BBQ with friends I hadn’t seen in 3 years who now have children! Bad day; saying farewell to Pippa as she leaves for the year with 7 pairs of shoes and a toe separator. Pancakes at a cafe called the next morning, and if I left any maple syrup for Kurt, Annie and Matt Jensen, then I didn’t mean to! It was our luck while walking the beach on this fabulous afternoon that a sandcastle exhibition was taking place (pictured). Well at least that’s what we figured it would have looked like had we actually stopped. Then came wind and recognisable rain at Sandown. The inspiration to get myself a fluoro pink band came from Max and Maurine Reed who had come to watch me flog Jensen! To save him embarrassment I opted for B grade =P I must lastly apologise to those who viewed my photo in last night’s report courtesy of Mal Sawford. The threats “I’ll sue you if that goes on the website” clearly didn’t influence him...
What does testing consist of you ask? It’s 12:30pm, 23deg, 45% humidity. You have a large mask strapped so tight to your head that you immediately have a headache, but don’t mind this, when alternate pain kicks in you won’t be thinking about it. A nosepiece compress’ your nostrils and a snorkel like guard is inserted in your mouth. By this time you can’t talk, laugh or swallow, it even takes a while to master breathing. Blood extracts from the ear lobe measure your lactate, a HR monitor observes your HR and the ergo reads your power output. You’re to concentrate on one thing through the test; your cadence, but you can’t help but concentrate on the lactate building in your legs as well. You ride to exhaustion and tell yourself 5 minutes later that you could have lasted longer, but your legs disagree. Drowning the thoughts of the test were the results of my skinfolds taken on arrival, now reading 80! For the regular readers here is something to ponder... Do I talk about food more than is socially acceptable??
To add to the 6hrs of driving I’ve managed in the last 4 years I drove through to Frankston. I legally passed 16 cars but who’s counting right... Things to avoid in future? Our garden bed, the neighbour’s rubbish bins, and parking in general. Good day; my brother’s BBQ with friends I hadn’t seen in 3 years who now have children! Bad day; saying farewell to Pippa as she leaves for the year with 7 pairs of shoes and a toe separator. Pancakes at a cafe called the next morning, and if I left any maple syrup for Kurt, Annie and Matt Jensen, then I didn’t mean to! It was our luck while walking the beach on this fabulous afternoon that a sandcastle exhibition was taking place (pictured). Well at least that’s what we figured it would have looked like had we actually stopped. Then came wind and recognisable rain at Sandown. The inspiration to get myself a fluoro pink band came from Max and Maurine Reed who had come to watch me flog Jensen! To save him embarrassment I opted for B grade =P I must lastly apologise to those who viewed my photo in last night’s report courtesy of Mal Sawford. The threats “I’ll sue you if that goes on the website” clearly didn’t influence him...