Night Rider

Things are getting pretty dark before work on the training rides at the moment which is making for some interesting experiences. here are a couple of interesting things that happen in the dark when riding, mainly day time but Day Rider sounds no where near as good as Night Rider.

• I have done my hill reps on Mt Eden for a while now....they aren't really helping the climbing that much but then again I don't think doing hill reps up Alpe D'Huez would help me that much. Anyway there are no lights on the climb and no cars are allowed up before 7am, so its pitch black except for my tiny little blinking white light. This is of help only to the walkers/runners/dogs and cattle that also use the road. They give me no visibility of whats coming up, all I get is a shadow approaching and have to try and navigate my way around them. I did almost bin it last week when I wasn't prepared for a little dog who thought my shadow looked like something worth chasing. So far I haven't come unstuck which is useful....they have been a few frightened walkers as I slowly grind past them....maybe a need one of those goofy head lamps those dirty mountain bikers use.
• I think some cyclists don't eat carrots as often as they should. This morning Meechy past me going in the other direction no more than 7 meters away, and despite me screaming "meechy" at the top of my voice he was none the wiser. He must have been in the box or something.
• Night riding meets Night Racing each Wednesday on the way to the mast up in the waitaks. Its usually single file at the bottom and see how long you can hang on for. Usually you only have the sound other riders breath and gear changes to indicate how well someone is going. In the darkness you get the added sensory aid of seeing the rider behinds light either slipping off the wheel or making it back on as the climb changes gradient. Lat Wed was classic as I must have seen the light behind drift off and get back 6 or 7 times before it disappeared for good.

These fun times will end this weekend when Day light saving ends and it gets lighter in the mornings.

Shameless promotion of Subway

As I start typing this entry, I am not really sure where this is going to end up or why even I m blogging this topic, but there have been a couple of interesting Subway run ins lately and surprise surprise, none of these have had anything to do with cycling.

I was watching tele last night and they was bugger all on, so we ended up watching some show about drunk guys getting up to no good and the cops cracking down on them, I think it was British which should be no surprise. Anway there was an fight at a Subway restaurant where 2 lads were kicking it off with the staff and fighting with the other customers. When the dust had settled and everyone had calmed down the guys ended up explaining that it started because the restaurant had stored the salami in with the salads. No most people know about food safety but to get in a scrap over it was priceless.

Interesting subway interaction number 2. It was lunchtime today and felt like a sub so went online to place my order, placing it online saved me 20minutes in the queue. Anyway on the site you could navigate to any of the international subway sites...here are some store observations.

• New Zealand has 203 Subway restaurants
• Iraq has 20
• Zambia has 4 stores
• There are 4 in Afghanistan, I'm guess there might have been 20 like in Iraq before bombs started dropping
• Lebanon has 2, no interesting Lebanese fact except that Hazim El Mazri is from Lebanon and he has scored more points than anyone else in the NRL.
• there are 2 in Aruba...........where on earth is that???? Google says its a small island of the coast of Venezuela

Anyway there is a bit of useless subway info....hopefully that might be enough of a plug to get a ride next year.

Oh and I might have spent the time saved by ordering online by surfing the web

A change of seasons

The last few days have started to get colder which means its a shift of mentality from Summer cycling to Winter cycling. It needs a serious mind change if not only for the weather. In summer, most rides are in shorts and a top and if it rains you get grumpy. In winter, its a case of letting minimal skin face the elements and being happy if you get home dry and you don't have to wash the bike every day.

So tonight the cycling cupboard gets a clean out. Gone are all the summer undershirts, the sparkly white socks, the track mitts, the dark coloured sunnies....

To the top draws now come the long sleeve thermals, all the leg warmers, the booties, the 3 different rain capes, the jackets, the clear lenses.....

The focus racing wise also moves from fast paced crits and fun rides to grovelly short races on dead roads with crap conditions and grumpy riders moaning about the grovelly races which the same people seem to dominate.

so here goes....bring it on

for some reason the spell checker can find the word grovelly, maybe I need an entire post dedicated to grovelling

a week in review

so here goes the last 7 days....

Friday.... felt like a bag of arse, coming down with a cold so blagged work for the arvo

Sat...still felt like arse but opened it up in the tailwind on the waterfront and figured I was up for Sundays race

Sun....Raced Heels on Wheels but probably shouldn't have. Rode up Razorback rd on the way up and definitely shouldn't have, that's one of the harder climbs in Auckland. No more whinging guys that live out south about lack of quality training roads

Mon....Felt sorry for myself and kept the bike in the garage

Tues....Did a recovery ride that should have been done on Monday and felt invincible...yeah right
Wed....Torture loop which threatened to shower us all day but didn't. bumped into Will who had retired....I give him 3 weeks before he's back racing. Got a bee sting and almost binned it.

Thursday....Cyco crit day and the bee sting has caused my left quad to look like a track sprinters. I do very little in the crit, hit it at the bell and showed everyone all my form

that's my week in review, just a normal week on the bike, might have clocked up 450km for the week which isn't too bad all things considered. Next week will be more

All quiet on this front

Not a whole bunch is really happening at the moment. Raced the Rev last weekend and managed to survive all the crashes and get through the race with my health despite the pissing rain for the first 2.5 hours. The rain seemed to have an effect on peoples cornering skills and I haven't seen so many people eat it in a NZ race for a long time. I felt good during the race and carried out the plan I had but just couldn't get over French Pass with the leaders. I had good position going into it before a down hill corner which felt like 900degrees where the two guys in front of me stacked it....so I started climbing last wheel which was never going to be pretty.

Raced the Cyco crit on Thursday night and that was ok, spent a lap and a bit lone wolf, then tried a late move but nothing was sticking so will try it all again in a couple of days.

It was a pretty quiet weekend which wasn't all that bad as club racing starts at the end of March so it was a good chance to set the plan for the upcoming club season.

Next race for me after the crit on Thursday will be the Heels and Wheels race on Sunday....grabbed second there last year so will have to try and go one better this time round.