Weight is holding constant at 88.3kg this morning. I was sure it was going to go back on, given that I’m shuffling around like an old man, and am enduring an enforced layoff from exercise. I guess the fact that it’s literally a pain to get up off the couch for a bit of food is cancelling out the lack of exercise ;-)

Had an eventful day yesterday. Myself, Niall and Kev headed down to Kangaroo Valley for another downhill run on the bikes. Tom stayed at home as he hurt his back playing squash with Billy. We had a much more streamlined operation than the last time, and planned to do the run twice. First one was great fun and uneventful, apart from me hitting a top speed of 68.7kmh on the tarmac run back to the car. Kev also made it to the top of the long hill without putting a foot down. None of the rest of us have managed it yet.

After a bit of food we got the car shuffle underway and were all ready at the top of the second run around 2pm. Niall led the way and got a puncture almost immediately. Luckily we had tubes this time, so we just swapped a new one in and kept going. Kev made it over the big hill without stopping again, and I took over the lead for the second half. Toward the end of the run there were a few jumps in a row. First was good, the second was much better, but I landed the thrid one all wrong and I came off the bike at around 30kmh.

I bounced and rolled a bit and once I stopped I couldn’t breathe at all for about 10secs. I faded out a bit and heard the two guys telling me to stay down. I remember thinking to myself “oh yeah, I’ve crashed my bike”, so there must have been a period before that when I had no idea what was going on. Kev said that I was shaking, and was ghost white, then green for a bit. I was going to stay where I was for a bit and get my breath back, as I was seriously winded, but I was lying in amongst a load of bull ants, so I had to move. The colour returned to my cheeks a minute or two later, and after a while I was able to get back on the bike and take the rest of the ride very easy. Kev and Niall did a great job making sure I was OK and taking my bike apart for the ride back to Sydney.

I took this morning off work to get my ribs checked as they were really sore. I had an x-ray and all is ok, so I’ll just have to put up wiht the pain for a couple of days until it heals up a little. I’ll also have to cut back on the extreme mountain biking for a bit ;-)

B: 35km – R: 3.2km – W: 2 sessions – Row: 1km

Regular readers (that’s probably just me ;-) will notice that there’s very little exercise being done this week, so let me explain. I’m working in Canberra this week, and since the office is a 10min walk from my hotel, there’s little opportunity to get a big cycle in. Secondly, I’m following a fairly simple training principle: give your body time to adapt. The principle is: do 3 weeks of training, then ease back for a week to let your body consolidate the gains made in those 3 weeks. That’s the best way to avoid injuries & overtraining.

Another injury-free tip is to increase your distance OR your speed by 10% per week, but not your distance AND your speed. So far I haven’t been sticking to this very well:

Jan 12-18: 32km

Jan 19-25: 60km

Jan 16- Feb 1: 85km

R: 3.2km – W: 2 sessions – Row: 1km

Has anyone noticed how crazy Americans have become? I’m not talking about Idiot Bush, but rather the attitudes of the America populace as a whole.

I’ve always found it very revealing that Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about having sex with an intern. So far, Dumb Ass has lied about WMDs in order to start a war which has resulted in the deaths of 500+ of his own countrymen, and there’s no sign of impeachment hearings at all. That’s just crazy if you ask me.

And now we have the furore over Janet Jackson’s breast making an appearance in the SuperBowl. Quite a few ads have women bouncing around in next to nothing (5 Cougars thanks!), yet a couple of seconds of real breast causes consternation.

Finally, just when you’d think everything had calmed down again, we get this: NBC asks ER to remove a scene where an 80 year old woman’s breast appears for two seconds.

It’s laughable.

I’ve decided to swap resolutions #4 and #1. After all, I don’t really care what weight I am, as long as I lose the gut ;-)

I’ve never set down fitness resolutions for this year, so here they are:

1. Get back to my normal weight of approx. 80kg
2. Complete a sprint distance triathlon (or longer)
3. Complete a 2km+ ocean swim
4. Get my body fat under 14%

I’m aiming at No.1 first, for the simple reason that it will make all the others easier. In fact, I expect that meeting #1 will also take care of #4. As for #2, a sprint triathlon is a 750m swim, a 20km bike and a 5km run, but I’d really prefer to Have accomplished an Olympic distance one (1.5/40/10km) but I don’t think there is one in the second half of the year. I’ll have to work a lot on running for that though.

So, there you have it. It’s officially ‘on paper’ so I can look back on it next year and castigate or congratulate myself accordingly.

Had a long day yesterday! 6 hours and about 30km of off-road cycling. Myself, Tom, Kev and Niall headed up to the Blue Mountains to have a go at The Oaks Trail. Left Bondi just before 9am, drove to Glenbrook, parked the cars and hopped onto the 10.02 train to Woodford.

After a bit of faffing, we hit the trail. It started off with short downhills followed by short uphills for a few kilometres. The new shocks were working perfectly and it was a lot easier to go fast and maintain control. Tom was the first casualty of the day, going over the handlebars on one downhill. Kevin had already fallen off his bike, but that happens so often it’s no longer regarded as exceptional. A third of the way through the trail we found the helipad area. There was a couple of bits of tree trunks lying about, which provided the perfect opportunity for everyone to practice their bunny-hops.

Shortly afterwards we hit the main downhill section and we took off. I nailed a maximum speed of 53kmh down one section, an indication of how well the shocks were working. Myself and Kevin stopped half way down to wait for Niall and Tom. When they still hadn’t arrrived 15mins later we figured something must be wrong, so we started cycling back up the hill. Rounded the previous corner to see the lads watching someone fix Niall’s puncture. We’d seen the guy having a rest and a drink as we flew past. Niall had gotten a puncture somewhere up the trail and since the repair kits were with myself and Kev, he’d stopped to ask this guy if he had a patch. The poor man volunteered to fix the puncture, only to find that there turned out to be four punctures in the tube! Got all that sorted out, then took off again. At the end of the downhill run, we hopped the National Park gate and headed off on the singletrack part of the trail. We’d covered about 1km when Niall got another two punctures, in the same tyre, so we stopped to fix that. We decided that in future we’d all bring two tubes so we wouldn’t have to deal with punctures again!

The rest of the singletrack changed between nice wooded sections through the trees to more technical, rocky downhill sections and a couple of kms later we ended up in a car park. We weren’t sure where to go from there, so we followed the tar road, splashed through the creek and stopped. We were faced with a very steep hill, which we were hoping to avoid having to climb, but a couple of passing bikers told us that the hill was the way out. Just what we needed to finish the day: a bloody long, steep hill. Thankfully it wasn’t as long as we thought it was going to be, and 6 hours after we’d started the trail, we reached the top, with lots of needed drinking water available from the fountain.

A quick cycle back to the cars, a change of clothes and we headed into Glenbrook for a perve at all the cool bike gear in Cycle Fantasy. There was a lovely Ellsworth frame for $3250!! A couple of Coopers later and we were on the road back to Sydney.

All in all it was a bloody long day, and everyone was exhausted. We’d cycled around 35km, 30 of which was the trail itself, and it had turned out to be a fair bit hillier that we’d expected. We’d also learned to have a couple of tubes with us in future!

B: 80km

Weighed in at 88.0kg this morning. That’s one kilo lost in two weeks which is a fairly respectable rate.

Went to Woolys yesterday to get my new shocks. Thought I wouldn’t have them in time to do the Oaks Trail today, but the guys said they’d see what they could do. Went for some breakfast with Jacqui, and as we were walking back to the car, I got a call to say my bike was ready. Picked it up only to see that they’d thrown in a free pump, replaced a broken brake for free, and dropped about $40 off the total price! Now that’s service for you.

Have decided not to get a new bike, but will get a new shock put on my existing bike. I’ve had the Rock Shox Duke SC Air recommented to me, so I’ve gone with that and I’ve also asked them to put clip-in pedals on the vike too. I’ll drop the bike in tomorrow and hopefully it will be ready on Sunday. There’s a vague plan to do the Oak Trail on Sunday, so if the bike is ready in time it will be a perfect opportunity to try out the fork.

B: 45km

Now that the cycle computer is working, it tracks the distance for me. I reset it last night, and it’s now showing 15.9km. Up until now I’d thought that I was cycling 12km a day, whereas it turns out that I’m actually cycling closer to 16km. I’ll call it a nice round 15km.

Body Fat today is 18.6%, down 0.6% from last week. Though I still have a bit of a gut, I’m no longer considered medically overweight. I’m now ‘Healthy’.

B: 30km

Weighed in at 88.3kg this morning.

Dropped the bike in to Clarence St. Cyclery for a service this morning. I described the issues I had with my shocks at the weekend and asked what were the minimum shocks they would recommend as replacements. He suggested the Rock Shox Duke SL for $590! Screw that, I’m not putting $600 forks on an $800 bike! I’ll have to do a bit of research into a new bike.

Picked up the bike in the afternoon and it felt great. Gears changed smoothly, and the computer worked properly. Tried it out on the way home:

Distance: 11.1km

Avg. Speed: 19.8kmh (including sitting at traffic lights)

Top Speed: 55.2kmh (down Old South Head Rd.)

B: 13km

Went mountain biking in Kangaroo Valley today and had a blast. We left Bondi at 9am and met up again in Bowral for a coffee. Kev was the only one who’d been on the trail before, and there was a fair bit of faffing as we tried to find it, since he wasn’t too sure exactly where it was. We drove down past Fitzroy Falls, through the switchbacks, then myself and Tom got some gourmet chutney & jams while we were waiting for Kev to show up. He had been ahead of us, but had stopped in the information office without telling us.

Left Kev’s car at the bottom of the run, then drove back up to the top. Set off into the damp, misty forest, along a fire trail. That petered out after a few kilometres and it was into the forest proper. Up hill and down dale, swooping in amongst the trees. The trail wasn’t too narrow, though there were a few places where you got whipped by bushes as we went past. There were also a couple of fallen trees blocking the way in a few places. My front wheel was bouncing all over the place, since my front shocks are pretty crap, but it was still great fun.

Tom and Kev sounded like they were having great fun behind me doing the odd jump, whereas I couldn’t risk it as I wasn’t at all confident of being able to keep control of my front wheel upon landing. Swapped bikes with Tom for the last 10% and it was a whole different ball game. A real front shock which actually worked properly! The front was as solid as a rock and I could jump to my hearts content. I have to either buy myself a new fork which works, or else buy a new bike. I think I’ll have to make do with a fork for the moment. Had a quick look when I got home and a basic Rock Shox should set me back about $200. Will have to talk to the guys in the shop and see whether it will fit my bike.

So, had a nice bit of nosh and then hit the road back to Sydney. Kev planned to stop en route for a power nap. Overall, the day was fantastic. I can’t wait to get a real fork and let rip properly on the trail. I’m hooked!

This Week:

Bike: 50km road, 1.5hrs offroad.

Turns out Kevin didn’t pick up the bike on Thursday night, so we wnet back to Woolly’s last night to collect it. Rode home with himself and Tom. Went up the hill in the 2nd gear on the middle chain ring, which is one lower (?) than normal. I’ve no idea how many teeth are on each ring, and which way is higher and lower ;-) Will have to figure that out.

B: 48km

We had a bit of a vicarious shop last night. Myself, Tom and Niall met up with Kevin, to give a bit of a hand as he bought his new MTB. He decided to go with the Giant XTC2. Myself and Niall left the two lads having a coffee as they waited for the bike to be built up. That’s everyone with a bike now, so it looks like the trip down to Kangaroo Valley for my first bit of downhill MTBing is on.

Niall came and did the Alpe de Vaucluse, just to see what it was like. I swear it’s getting easier by the day. I didn’t envy him having to turn around and go back up Old South Head Rd., but he’s been cycling in and out of work for two years, so he should be well able for it at this stage.

B: 39km

The plan for this evening was to meet up with Niall, Kev & Tom for a ride around Centennial Park. Just as I was leaving the office, one of those afternoon thunderstorms kicked off, so the plan got abandoned. The storm eased quite quickly after that, so I decided to cycle home anyway, stopping off in Woolys to pick up a mudguard.

B: 24km

Back on the bike yesterday for the trip home. It took around 32mins, as I decided to go through Bondi Junction in order to avoid the uphill bit on Edgecliff Road. Won’t bother doing it in future as you end up farting around through the pedestrian section and that bit where they’re doing all the building.

Timed the Alpe De Vaucluse: 4.5mins of leg burn and gasping for breath, made even worse yesterday as I’d left the water bottle at work, it was bloody hot, and the wind was in my face. Just what the doctor ordered for the end of the cycle home.

The new bike gear worked flawlessly too. Nice, comfortable padded arse, pockets on the jersey took all the stuff I needed to bring home, so now backpack.

Still, did the fat test last night and I’m down to 19.2% so the plan is working. Only another 0.2% and I move from the ‘Overweight’ category to the ‘Healthy’ category. Nice.

B: 14km

No cycling today as I left my bike in work over the weekend & because we’re going out to Jacqui’s sister’s for dinner tonight.

Weight: 89.0kg

Just got back from Woolys where I picked up the remaining bike gear I needed. Got some proper cycling shorts, as my arse was killing me from cycling in non-padded shorts, some gloves, mainly in case I fall off for any reason, and finally, a bike jersey with pockets on the rear.

The plan now is to take my laptop & some clothes into the office in a backpack on Monday, then leave them in the filing cabinet for the week. Then I only need to carry phone, wallet, keys & iPod dduring the week, which can all fit in the pockets in the jersey. Then on Friday I can pack everything into the backpack for the trip home.

The only down side is that I’ll have to hold the gut in a little with the ol’ Lycra top on ;-)