Weekend stuff

Saturday morning I was up early and despite rain showing on the weather radar I decided to ride anyway. I went down to Mt Eliza village and back again which is a 55km round trip with two monster hills at the half way point. I imagined I was in the TdF (but drug free) and pushed hard up the hills - despite how steep they were. It felt great to have pushed myself much harder than I usually do.

After getting home Wobblette #2 and I quickly went to collect some picnic stuff which I converted into picnic sandwiches and we all piled into the car for the quick trip to the Dandenongs and a rainforest walk
followed by yummy hot chocolates. A very successful family outing.

This morning I enjoyed a delicious sleep-in and then set off at about 9am for a ride down to Station Pier (45k round trip) into a stiff headwind. Fortunately for me a pack of 8 os so cyclists went by early in my ride so I tagged onto their group for most of the trip to Station Pier. A quick late and a custard doughnut at Cafe Racer which was packed and buzzing and I cruised home assisted by the tail wind. The rest of the day has been spent making breakfast for the family, fixing (dog) chewed outdoor lighting cables, washing naughty dog, a quick trip to the hardware store to fill the gas bottle and assembling a secret code door opener for W2. I managed a blissful half hour snoozing on the bed too!

Edit: Susie, can you e-mail me your blog addy please?

Wednesday Envy

I have spent today feeling envy. I'm not sure why, but this morning I woke really feeling like I wanted to go for a run. I took one quick peak at the box of brand new Adrenalines that have been waiting in the wardrobe for a month now and reminded myself that it is only 28 days since my last run and I have another 79 days before I can start to train again - fucking great!! How am I ever going to cope? I envy my friends and fellow bloggers that are running - even when they write about having a bad run I envy them. Maybe I should put one of those countdown things at the top of my blog to remind me that one day I will be able to run again...

Just to remind me of my inability to run I back out of the drive this morning and nearly bowl over a local runner who was out enjoying the morning mist and not anticipating a car to come screaming out of a quiet driveway at my usual break-neck speed.

I get to work and chat to one of the ladies at the coffee machine who turns out to be training for the Melbourne Marathon this year - I express some interest and she proceeds to download for 20mins on how great her training is going..... fucking great! The most involved I will be this year will be handing out green or blue icy poles around the 35km mark.

In the meantime I will keep putting in the hard rides on my bike so I can finish the 210km Round the bay in a day ride on 15 October. After that I will start back running again.

The Tooth Fairy did indeed visit the other night and left a $2 coin which was proudly taken to "show and tell" along with the sparkly fairy dust that found. Maybe TF couldn't find anything smaller - I dunno, I'm just guessing!

News Flash!

Not to be outdone by Wobblette#1's birthday celebrations, Wobblette #2 today surprised herself by pulling out (on her own) her first tooth! The adjusted smile is shown here (it was the bottom, front one departed. The top one is soon to follow). Wobblette #2's unbridled joy and happiness at this accomplishment reminds me that parenting (most of the time) is oh so good!

Edit to ask "Susie" if you could leave your blog addy please - it's not showing on your profile.

I'm spent...

The weekend - phew, I'm totally exhausted!! 6am Saturday (4 degrees C/39 degrees F)-I was out for a 55k ride down beach Rd to Frankston and back. It was so cold that I head to get off in Frankston and rub my toes for 10mins until a bit of feeling came back. When I got home I spent another 15 mins rubbing feeling back into my blue toes, had a quick shower and off to a 9:00am appointment with the tax agent to reconcile my tax matters for the past financial year - (yeah me, the expected tax refund nearly wipes out the unexpected tax bill I received in March from a financial return a couple of years ago). A 10:30am tour of Wobblette #1's new school followed. It looks like a fantastic school and I hope we can get #2 there also in a couple of years. At 12:30 and we went to Nana and Pop's for a quick lunch and farewell as they are heading North for a few weeks into warmer climes.

After racing home it was a quick house clean and ballon inflating to prepare the house for the sleep-over birthday party for Wobblette #1 (now 11). Four additional kids in the house I have have concluded, results in chaos and I gave up pretty quickly (about 7:30pm) trying to maintain any semblance of control, and instead headed upstairs with Wobblette#2 leaving the party to the ever patient Mrs W.

My morning the revellers were in need of something substantial to eat so a pancake breakfast was prepared by the very tired
master chef. Shortly after breakfast it was time for birthday cake and then stuffed and exhausted, (and on big sugar highs) the revellers departed. Wobblette #2 was then treated to a secret lunch with dad at Cafe Racer where inside the world's best brownies and custard filled doughnuts were shared and washed down with a hot chocolate and a latte.

It's now late afternoon and I'm desperately looking for somewhere quiet in the house for a little "nana nap"! Or maybe I just need a stiff drink? Edit to add I opted for the drink!!!

Happy Days!

The rain continued to fall and fall, but thankfully it did clear a little on Sunday morning - enough for me so slip out on some damp roads for a ride anyway.

I rode down to Mt Eliza this time (total round trip of about 65+kms) and managed to conquer Oliver's Hill the hard way. Yeah me! I did it by riding in a group of about 10 riders of the Bayside Tri Cluband saying to myself on the way up "I was not going to be beaten by either of the pony tails in the pack. Even though I was beaten by them both, they did distract me long enough for me to get me up the hill without stopping.

After the hill they all sped away while I caught my breath and decided to meander into Mt Eliza village. After catching my breath and now oozing with confidence, I turned for home and was quickly picked up again by the Bayside Tri club pack so I tagged on again for the trip back to Black Rock where we all stopped for a coffee. I found out their training rides and runs times and I'm sure to get out with them again.

Just to clarify my previous post, running is my game, not cycling! Cycling, while more social, is a distant second. Sadly though, my shins are not co-operating and the run early last week went for about 500m before the strong boney pain came back. If I stop running now and allow enough time for a full recovery, it will allow me enough time to to get back into it Late Sept/Early Oct) and then rebuild my base enough for another tilt at the Canberra Marathon in April'07. The bike will see me thorough a few months happily (even though I admire/envy all of the runners I pass) and I can still fantasise about running can't I?

Rain, rain go away...

The forecast for the weekend is rain. Not just a bit of rain but a whole weekend of the stuff! Yes, I know we are in drought conditions, and we desperately need a few big dumps of the stuff to add to the dwindling reservoirs but I had plans to be "happily" tackling Oliver's Hill once again today and tomorrow. Given my abysmal riding skills I don't ride in the rain yet, even though I just luurve to run in it!

Here is the current weather radar picture. Arrowed is about where I live (ie - f'n wet). It's now 4pm on Saturday and the rain hasn't stopped all day. It's not fair! It can rain all it likes during the week or at night but I NEED my exercise time or the Levis I have just bought over ebay (yes, I am an ebay addict) which are somewhat ambitiously one size smaller than my current hole ridden ones are never going to fit!

I took the kids to Cafe Racer for lunch and hot chocolates today and they thought that was just the best. Danny, who runs the show down there has a great flair for creating a great cafe atmosphere and employs the most friendly energetic staff anywhere. The place just has the right "buzz" about it that sits really well with me!

On the running front I have nothing to report except that I have decided to not run for a few months - my stoopid shin is still complaining and I'm sick of it, so it's time to give it all a big rest. I will start again in late September or early October and hopefully be back to my normal, slow self by Christmas. While I am not running I am still fantasizing about it... I'm thinking of ponytails with strong thighs.... *slap*! Did I say that?

The bike should keep me aerobically fit (particularly now I have good night lights) so long as I can used to getting up early in the morning to get a ride in before work. The Tour de France is telecast live here in the middle of the night (generally finishing around 1:30 -2:00am) so I have been going to bed, setting the alarm and tuning in for the last hour before going back to sleep. Needless to say I'm sleeping on the couch while doing this so I don't disturb Mrs W's sleep.

Speaking of Mrs W, she is out with some girlfriends tonight so I am about to start preparing dinner for the wobblettes - marinated chicken stips in tacos (one of their favourites). It's also a great dish to get them involved in the preparation.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Later, Wm

PS Lastly: Does anyone know how to change a recording into a ringtone for a mobile phone?

Weekend update

No running this weekend as I'm afraid my shin is giving me a little curry still. Maybe Tuesday PM I will go for a wee run and see how things are going.

On Saturday I went for a 60k ride down to Frankston and back. I was supposed to meet a mate but was running late and he and his group had taken off by as I was 8 minutes late. I set off on the planned course anyway and rode on my own the entire way down and managed to get in a good average speed of about 28kmph. Anyway, that speed equates to a fairly hard ride for me and I forgot about my intention to cycle to the top of Oliver's Hill (in the background) before turning around! I got there but I was well and truly done by the top. Man that is one tough hill to ride up! Easy ride home on my own still and then a lazy BBQ at home for some friends we hadn't caught up with for a while.

This morning was a 30k recovery ride to Cafe Racer for an espresso coffee and a custard doughnut.

I cooked our favourite baked parmesan chicken dinner tonight and am thinking an early night might be in order. I hope everyone else had good ones too. Toddles...

Thursday update

It's amazing how quickly days can slip by when you are on holidays. Seems like I just started my hols and no sooner am I counting down the last few days until I start work again. I'm left wondering how I will ever get the things done that I originally had on my list.

Last entry I went for a five 6k run after a big ride. I followed that up with a 5k TT at the Gunn Runners Tuesday evening run. It was great to get down for a run with that bunch as I have been wanting to for a couple of years but work always seem to intervene. On holidays it seemed like I had no valid excuse - just as well. I had a great time, caught up with Sharon who I hadn't seen in ages and pushed my tired old legs harder than they had in a long time! I have no idea how slow I was but I know I gave 100% and I felt as spent as I have after .....anything! Pity my dear old L shin has decided to remind me that running two days in a row is a definite No No at this point - not without ice and a massage (both of which have been neglected recently).

On the bike front I went and got a lesson on Wednesday PM - just riding basics really, braking, stopping, cornering, balance, where to look etc. All intended to make me a safer rider and one that can avoid accidents rather than creating or being involved in them!

Golf tomorrow followed by finishing off the car detailing. Have a great weekend everyone!

Special hugs to Ms B - you are in my thoughts mate!

Monday musings

The weekend got off to a great start with a really hard 50k ride into a strong headwind for the first 25k (just one fall to report - no damage except to my already dented ego). Another fall followed - this time I fell into a big heap when I developed a headache from hell - one that left me in a darkened bedroom for 3 hrs curled into a ball. I get these maybe once a year only thankfully. This one I'm sure had a lot to do with me not slowing down earlier in the week when I developed a head cold. Sheez, when I am on a couple of weeks holiday the last thing I want to do is lay around in bed during the middle of the day (unless of course...).

Sunday was rainy for a change so no riding and even though I wanted to run I just couldn't summon the enthusiasm to do it. With the last day of school holidays though the kids were up for any activity so we decided on mini-golf. It was a greeat way to spend a few hours with the kids.

It's lemon season down here and everyone seems to be giving us lemons from their trees so with an ever expanding pile of lemons the Wobblettes and I decided to attempt to make a lemon meringue pie. Result - looked great, the lemon stuff mostly didn't set and the pastry wasn't cooked underneath at all. What's with this blind baking caper anyway? Maybe I should just get blind drunk before baking? Not sure the kids would find that so amusing though!

I had a 50k ride today to Patterson Lakes where I managed to get myself utterly lost and ended up near Frankston. I got myself home finally, de-numbed my toes and then slipped the runners on for a gentle 6k run (my legs were a bit knocked up after the ride so I allowed myself a short walk break at 4.5k). That's two (yes count them: 1,2) x 6k runs in 5 days (without my orthotics) in my old shoes and my shins feel fine!! Woohoo! Yay shins!!! . Rest day tomorrow - maybe some painting.

BTW - Happy 4th of July all you Statesiders! You get a long weekend don't y'all? I hope its fun!