It’s been 3 weeks since my last post and given it’s been packed with training, I’ve had little time or energy to put fingers to keyboard.
The first week involved a 5 day time trialling camp in Geelong with the national team. From Day 1 until Day 5 intensity was the major ingredient of every session. My favourite had to be the ergo session that simulated the 2010 World time trial course. We were required to give our all for a gut busting 23km, wearing an aero helmet and a rectal probe (for the gold standard of core body temperature measurement). Whilst pretty reluctant for this procedure, realising it was in the name of science and was going to provide some valuable info for the Aussie team’s preparation, I gave it a go. It was uncomfortable to begin with and I was very aware of it in warm up as it was constantly being tugged by small movements. However once the testing had begun, there were greater distractions to contend with and the probe was rarely noticed again.
Following this introduction, there were various efforts out on the course. Given the traffic around central Geelong, this was quite tricky at times to map out a smooth uninterrupted run. The course consists of one huge loop that includes the major sights of Geelong. The first half is dominated by 3 nasty climbs that will be sure to deaden the legs for the second (undulating) half of the race. There are some very rough roads as you wind through the Botanic gardens, accompanied by speed bumps and some tight corners. Whilst there are clear indications of speed bump removal, there are currently no plans to resurface the road?!@#
The plan for the last day was an easy 4 hour roll and given the heat, we left early at 7am. We headed out to the Great Ocean Rd, a very beautiful part of the world that I’d love to explore further when the racing days are over and I can do it at a more leisurely pace. I was riding my brand new Pinarello Montello time trial bike which had been built up by the wonderful guys at DeGrandi Cycle and Sport in Geelong.
At the camp, we had worked on achieving a mean aero position. I have elevated the bars slightly compared to the Focus bike and moved the saddle forwards. I am feeling so much happier in this position and am hoping that it translates to some fast time trials. (Just have to train the legs now!) The top tube of my new bike suits me better in length than the Cervelo or the Focus and it means that I can now ride with a more normal head stem length, like a 100mm rather than the ridiculously short and downward sloping stems I’d been using previously.
4 hours on the new bike was a big ask however and my bum took several days to recover! Back in Canberra with 2 new bikes (much to Dave’s delight) means that we now have a grand total of 10 bikes in the garage. He complains that they are breeding and won’t let me go away any more fearing I will come home with yet another. Forget about parking the car in our garage. There are bikes EVERYWHERE, including our fantastic motorbike. Dave has been having some great fun on it, particularly when it comes to turning up the throttle when he motorpaces me. He has plenty of mirrors on it to check my grimaces and will accelerate gleefully when I’m barely hanging on. We plan to put a steel roller on the back for safety purposes. I don’t think it will be that pretty if I slam into his rear wheel when travelling at 80km/hr. In the meantime, the ‘P’ plate is getting plenty of black tyre marks as I use that as a bit of a buffer.
I have also been spending some time on the motorbike and will hopefully attempt to pass my ‘P’ test in February before heading overseas. I love the feeling of riding a motorised bike – not having to pedal is a wonderful thing. I’m gradually gaining my confidence for leaning as I corner and all I need to do now is remember to turn the fuel tank key to ‘on’ so I don’t find myself chugging to a halt on a major road on my way home. 
The sad news since my last post is the death of our gorgeous little dachshund, Fritz. For the last month, he had been living in Wagga with my parents-in-law as Dave and I had been doing so much travelling. He always did have a real ‘oral’ fixation and as a puppy we had a difficult time closing his mouth when he played with us. Not only did he chew things, he tended to ingest them. We thought it only a matter of time that he would require a stomach pumping for ingesting yet another mouthful of woodchips from the garden. Well this time, it seems that he found his way to some lead paint in the garden and well, lead and little 5kg dogs don’t really mix. He came down incredibly sick, with half of his body paralysed from the neural toxicity. He suffered one too many seizures and that was it. Although I’d spent only a year in total of his 2 year life with the little terror, I’d grown pretty fond of him and this last week has been tough as I have all this memories of his crazy antics.
I will miss such cuteness
It’s now a matter of days before 2010. The start of the year is a birthday for me, followed by Nationals, which seem to be occurring earlier with each year. This has meant a strict routine when it comes to festivities over Christmas and the new Year, with the objective of being in top racing form. We managed to get the preparation right for 2009 Nationals and I’m confident things will be similar this time around with a similar build up.
Till next time,
Vicki